Been A While

I haven't blogged in some time, mainly because school has restarted and I was quite busy coaching x-country and running with my own 2 kiddies to their various events. My training has really been limited to running. I just haven't had the energy to get up to do the swims at school and biking in Central New York in November is laughable at best. I did have a couple of really sweet rides with a cycling co-worker I have hooked up with. We did one ride where we rode for about 25 miles and in the middle did some hill repeats. Killer workout with some big time redzone heart rate training. We did another ride where we simply chatted comfortable for 10 miles then the next thing you know we had a 22 MPH average on our cyclometers.
Anyways with the holidays coming up I want to stay in some type of running shape to simply keep the pounds off. I think my long term goal for now is to aim for a PR at the 10 mile Mountain Goat Race in late May. Last year I busted the hilly course in 72 minutes. This year I would love to go sub 70. To do that I need to do more distance runs than last year and far more anaerobic threshold runs and speed work. Last year I was simply satisfied to get in 30 to 45 minute runs. This year there has to be a focus. That is the difference between 72 and 69. Off we go.

Sodus done, Season in the books

After the TinMan this year I must admit my focus was sporadic. I always made sure I was running, but the quality of the runs combined with minimal biking and swimming had me a bit nervous for Sodus this year. I knew I should destroy all my times from last year simply based on fitness levels, but my mind has been a little worn out. I got to Sodus early this morning and Lake Ontario looked like the Atlantic Ocean in terms of roughness. Last year it was perfectly placid, but not to be this year. This caused a recurrence of the vomitting experienced at Tupper Lake only this was nerves induced and I had time to recover. Once the race started I told myself to be safe in the swim and to make good spots so that I could minimize my swim lines. It really worked to take that extra second after every 20 or so strokes to find the buoy. My buddies talked of getting sick and struggling with the waves, but I suspect they tried to attack the conditions in the normal way. Today was definately not a normal swim and should not have been approached that way. My swim time even in the conditions was 21:56 which was an improvement from my 26:01 last year. I was really happy with the swim even though I gave probably a full minute back during transition. I got my wet suit off easily and proceeded to put my running shoes on....oh shit I have to bike first. Take off the shoes and try again. The goal for the bike and run were to never get passed. Mission accomplished. The bike went awesome and went fast. I wanted to ride on the big chain after the initial 5 miles were done which are a bit hilly, but instead tried to save the legs for the run. The bike was 39:37 for 13.1 miles which was an improvement from 44:32 last year. Now I got to put my running shoes on and took off for the run. It took a full mile for my legs to decide they were ok with this, but after that it went alright. I ran 21:33 which I wish was faster, but it was an improvement over my 23:40 from last year. In hindsight I probably had another 33 seconds in my legs, but I can't be too disappointed. I have to work transitions alot harder. I always seem to give too much time there. The overall time this year was 1:27:03 compared to 1:36:31 last year. I thought I would be relieved to have the season over with and take a week or two off, but I really am hungry to go harder next year. My buddy Drew did a 1:24 last year and I would love to do that kind of time or better. It was kind of a back of the mind goal this year, but I knew it would require a mammoth swim and solid transitions. I biked faster than I thought I would, but the rugged water and awful transitions did not leave me much chance to chase down the machine that Drew can be. Unfortunately a back injury sidelined him this year, but hopefully he can recover and help me shave even more in the water. I must admit Ironman has been a goal, but these little sprints are fun and allow me to still be a hubby and a father. I really felt training for the Tinman took too much time at this stage of my life. Oh well the season is in the books, and I think I am going to enjoy some bike rides for the remainder of the summer before I have to put it away for the 6 month winter. Early goal for next year is to add weight training to the mix, drop weight from 180 to 175, and make an effort to increase bike training time, improve swim stroke, and add more speed and hills into the running. This winter like last I want to maintain fitness by doing my treadill routines. Thanks for reading. I'll be updating family info, so stay tuned. By the way Ethan is now riding on two wheels. Yippeeeeee

Drive Home Safely Paulie

After a lazy day Thursday, I decided that Friday was time to be serious. I got up and while it was beautiful outside (for the morning at least) I decided to do an hour on the treadmill. Why? Well one Kelly beat me out the door as I didn't want to get out of bed. Two I wanted to keep the pace very moderate and I tend to be better about doing that when on the treadmill. After Kelly returned from work we headed up to Sodus to see the Taylors. It is always great to see them. I wish they lived closer, so we could share time and bourbon together more often. It is what it is though so you have to enjoy their company while they are here. Paul and I decided to bike the Sodus course. We thought we could get the ride in between storms, unfortunately we fell just a bit short. We got wet, but it could have been worse. All in all it was an enjoyable ride, with good conversation and me learning a bit more about how to be aggressive on the bike course next Sunday. I just have to make sure my posture in the water is not the same as my posture I would use while in my aerobars on my bike. Then again if lake Ontario is anything like it was yesterday, there would be 2 5k runs and no swim. Sorry Drew for even thinking it. Today, I have spent doing spring cleaning around the house while watching the Olympics. I don't know what it is about the Olympics, but I get excited to watch sports I would never traditionally watch. Man I can't wait for the mens fencing after watching the American women sweep the medals!!!!! I did get out for a 5 miler today and ran around playing soccer with E for about an hour. I wish I could say I beat him....Maybe tomorrow. Big golf tourney tomorrow, hope the weather cooperates because I want to do some damage with my partnahs. Well I hope the Taylors make it cross country safely as there will be a bottle of bourbon and a special surprise awaiting Paulie when he gets home.

Frustration with tooth fairy

Ethan woke this morning and his first words were the tooth fairy only brought me $3. Apparently in his eyes this recession were in should not be affecting the tooth fairy, but inflation should be. As in I know my dad only got a quarter a tooth, but that was then and this is now. Let's stick to the number 25 but put $$$$$ in front of it. Anyway here is a picture of our toothless, unappreciative wonder. As for training today....work, thunderstorms and a few beers put me on the shelf until tomorrow. I am going to run for an hour tomorrow and if all goes well tear up a bike ride with Paulie tomorrow.

Short day funny clip

I only did a little swimming with Ethan today, whom for the record had a momentous day, and a little run. Let's focus on Ethan though. Today on our swim he was determined to swim laps with me and did so for about 10 minutes. Sad thing is I am not much faster than him...I wish I was kidding. After that I wanted him to work on going under water without plugging his nose and to his credit he did it without a whimper and started to realize he could actually swim with his face in the water. We must have done that for about 20 minutes, then we played a game of can you understand what I am saying under the water. It started out nice by saying things like Mommy, Daddy, Ethan, Tessa then he degenerated and started saying butt, booger, junk etc. While it was a good laugh I also new it was time to go. The big news of the day has to be the fact he lost his first tooth today. He was eating mint chip ice cream and complained one of the chips was too hard to chew. He spit out the chip only to find out it was his tooth. He was so relieved that there was no pain associated with losing the tooth, because when it was first loose he was very nervous. All in all it was a relaxed day given I had to work and had our last x-country session of the summer.

I hope this works but click the link for a funny little Anheuser Busch real Belgian hero treat.
http://webmail.twcny.rr.com/do/mail/message/download?msgId=INBOXDELIM2028&part=2.2.2&l=en-US&v=standard

First solo flight

Last year when I started cycling, I was always amazed hearing people and watching people sustain 20mph for a considerable distance. This year I was able to do that for a 22 mile ride, but it was with 2 other riders, so I didn't have to do all the work. Yesterday I thought I would go on the big chain ring again for my 17 mile ride and see what happened. The route has a nice set of rolling hills in it and some flat. For the first time I held 20.4 mph without the assistance of a draft or any other considerations. When I got home I thought I would try a run, but that pipe dream quickly went out the window as my quads had truly been pressed. I could have run, no doubt about it, but I just didn't want to overdue it yesterday. Today I went out in the heat and humidity of 1:30 in the afternoon and did my 4.72 route, and at mile 3 I felt my quads weakening. I really worked them yesterday and it felt good. I was still able to run a comfortable 33:49 today, but I there was no doubt I biked yesterday.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It seems like it rains every bleeping day here in CNY. Saturday my brother in law, father in law, and I tried to get a round in at Beaver Meadows and after 4 holes of golf the good ole CNY weather chased us from the course. The darkest clouds I had seen in some time and some pretty intense fireworks. After waiting 2 hours to no avail, we came home and I was forced to do a 30 minute treadmill speed play. Not an ideal training session, but I actually didn't mind it. I hadn't been on our treadmill in quite some time so it wasn't as bad as I feared. We were also supposed to grill outside on Saturday so once that was also compromised we took the kids to Quaker Steak. Ethan thought the race car atmosphere was awesome, and Tessa was all giddy about her purple curly Q straw.

Yesterday I had a golf tourney in the AM in which it rained for 30% of it and when I got home Ethan and Tessa put me through a training run while playing tag around the yard. Man they have energy. After dinner I went out for 4 and felt great. We'll see what today brings after I go and do some work at the school, but I hope I keep feeling as well as I have been.