Swimming, cycling and running … thats my passion

Its been almost 4 months since I last wrote in my blog, so this post will probably go pretty much unnoticed, but its an important one for me. Most everyone around me is tired of hearing about triathlons by now, so I am pretty safe in thinking that I can talk to myself here and perform my own assessment of how this year went.

One thing I can admit is that triathlon training is different than marathon training, but much better. It is more difficult, but in a good way .. same hours, but less abuse on the body (if you can believe that).

I ended up doing 4 triathlons this year of varying distances, the Got the Nerve sprint (500m S, 16m bike, 5k run), the Wilkes-Barre triathlon (1500m S, 24m bike, 7m run), the Quakerman olympic (1000m S, 39m bike, 10k) and wrapped up the season with the Blueman (500m S, 14m bike and a 5k run). My best races were the last two believe it or not..

So its time for me to assess myself on how I did this year as I prepare the plan for Ironman Rhode Island next year.. yep, 70.3 is in my future and who knows, maybe Kona isn’t too far off (ok, lets not get nuts)..

Anyway, these are the questions as posted from Active.com. I added my answers as I start to prepare for next year (who better to assess me than me, right?):

1. In hindsight, were your season goals clear and attainable?

John: Yes, my goal was to complete a triathlon, distance didn’t matter back then. I probably over-trained for the first triathlon in May, but I didn’t know any better and wished that maybe I did longer distances earlier in the year. By the time I was at a distance I felt challenged on, it was pretty late in the season. I think I need to consider this as I train and plan for next year. I also tried cramming races in at the end of the season because i was still getting that rush instead of planning them better.

2. What were you most proud of this season?

John: There were a couple things. 1) my swim splits for a new swimmer. I had only been swimming for just over 8 months prior to competing and did pretty good 2) managing my life around my training schedule (12-14 hours a week of training) with a more than full time job 3) getting no major injury all season 4) overcoming the minor aches and pains 5) for the first time having my family at the finish line every time, especially my sister

3. What would you like to duplicate next year?

John: I loved the open water swim training because it was just awesome … My commitment and dedication to training regardless of the circumstances, if it was work or vacation or family events, I still got my workout in. Lastly, I developed a challenging race schedule late in the season to push myself (but wish I did it sooner)

4. What frustrated or disappointed you the most this season?

John: This is and easy question because i’m very critical of myself. The biggest frustration was that my bike was constantly not working right and breaking down. Also, my run training was very minimal and I could have done more than I did. I also found that I was much heavier than I should have been throughout the season. I made a mistake by changing running shoe brands and type of shoe without trying them on first (and those Zoots sucked bad). I was also disappointed that I lacked any real strength training over the summer.

5. What do you not want to happen again next year?

John: I think I did too much running around the day before a race (traveling, etc). my first race I didn’t get hardly any sleep the night before and the second race, I got there real late due to just the logistics and the weather and it turned out to be very hectic. It seems that when I didn’t have to travel or stay anywhere prior to a race, I performed better (my second two races). Its kind of selfish, but I think that race weekends are all about me and nobody else, I need to keep them that way and let other people adjust to me. I also don’t want to have a sub-standard bike again this year, it seemed to bother me that I had low-end critical equipment compared to others.

6. What did you learn by going through these experiences?

John: Plan ahead to get to the race location as early as you can, even by a day if necessary. Bring family along to stay with you only if they understand the responsibility that the race is about you and they must abide by your schedule and needs. Remember, you’ve trained 16-20 weeks for these races, and it all comes down to the day before. Second, I won’t ever buy substandard critical gear like a bike and shoes.

7. What decisions did you make that were empowering for you?

John: Always getting my workout in by being flexible. I also think that I challenged myself at the end of the year by just scheduling another race. I made a decision to change my eating style to be all natural, which I wish I had done sooner. I also made the decision to give up most of my Saturdays this summer to train (2+ hour bike plus an open water swim which is an hour drive).

8. What habits seemed to hold you back from achieving your potential?

John: I don’t think that I recovered often enough during training. My habit is to overtrain, its what I do best but it always holds me back. My other habit is to over-eat when I feel like I have trained over the limit (like eating a half gallon of ice cream after a 3 hour workout). I also procrastinated on figuring out how to get my goggles not to fog up when swimming, I still haven’t figured it out, and lastly, I do not know enough about bike repairs, I think this caused me a lot of stress during training rides and races, more than I should feel.

9. What decisions should you make in order to have your best triathlon year ahead?

John: Things I will do… 1) purchase a new quality tri-bike 2) plan for my races to give myself plenty of relax time before the race 3) schedule recovery periods in my training and actually take them as well as not scheduling multiple hard days in a row 4) be more aggressive in my run training plan 5) continue to open water swim whenever and wherever I can because I love it. 6) continue with the all natural diet and watching my carb and sugar intake, this has had a big effect on my already 7) strength train through the summer, at least a little learn about how bikes work so I can make my own adjustments 9) ensure I plan out my race schedule way ahead of time.

Gosh, seems like a lot of work, but if you plan on achieve your goals, you have to set them and then plan for them. If i’m going to get better next year, you have to be critical of yourself and fix what isn’t working, I think this is the start.

Maybe i’ll post again soon because I always did enjoy writing in here, just don’t have the time. Since i’m not training so much anymore as I recover and base train for next year, I should have more time.

I somehow find myself being inspired these days by an 80-year old Ironman triathlete named Lew Hollander. I first saw his profile on last Decembers Ironman triathlon championship in Kona, Hawaii that I had on the DVR (and have since watched several times since). Since I watched it so many times, I just had to do more research on the person who at that age can do something that I can only ever dream of doing (at this point) and he’s done it 16 times after the age of 55 … thats just amazing.

So whats his secret … well, one secret is the title of this post… “Go Anaerobic everyday”. Each training season I find a motto by which I train against, and I think i’ll try this one for the summer. But what exactly does this mean to me? Well, most days I find myself being anaerobic just in the workout i’ve built, however on the days when I don’t have it built in already, i’m going to add it. Even if its only for 15 minutes a day, it is still going anaerobic. I figure that even though the knowledge out there states that it won’t necessarily help my endurance, but I really think it will and actually help my standard aerobic exercises and help get me to the next level.

Another secret that Lew live by is “I never eat anything I can’t identify the parts to” .. like hot dogs or stuff like that. Thats an easy one for me to follow because I rarely eat anything I can’t identify, its mostly fruit and poultry that I eat ..

Here are the other secrets he lives by, take from it what you will, I know I will:
1. USE IT OR LOSE IT.
2. Go hard, live long.
3. Eat well, fruits and vegetables with abundant supplements
4. Set your plans well in advance and have achievable goals.
5. Have a stress free relationship.
6. Keep socially active and interested in life and it’s challenges.
7. There are no fat old people so watch your calorie intake.

Well, enough about him, its funny how you get inspired in weird ways, I hope I can be like him still doing endurance races at age 80.

So this was my first recovery week in the 10 week training prior to the Wilkes-Barre triathlon. I have just under 7 weeks to go and so far so good. In addition to adding a fueling plan to my training, i’ve added something that I call “pain management”, actually my massage therapist Ruth called it that. Pain management refers to getting adjusted, getting massage, taking my supplements so that I can recover (I take my vitamins, magnesium and glucosamine) and as always mix in my ibuprofen. I’ve found that by adding a good session of stretching after my workouts, it keeps the pain away. This is now a daily ritual.

I’ve been happy with my cycling and my swimming so far in this cycle. I managed to get a 1 mile plus open water swim in on Saturday out at Blue Marsh Lake and it felt great. Yep, 38 minutes straight in the open water, which is more than the next triathlon distance I have to swim. The extra swim time is definitely paying off.. i’m up to 4 days a week, including a quick lunchtime swim one day a week, which turns out to be a real cool swim (and a nice way to break up my day at work).

I don’t actually get to post too often anymore, i’m not sure if I even have an audience these days like I used to, but I’m still at it. I just had to stop and share the story of Lew Hollander, I hope his website and attitude towards life inspires you like it has me.

I haven’t been good at writing in my blog in recent weeks, but I couldn’t go without writing a post race report for the Got the Nerve? triathlon.. I guess to sum it up in a few words? I did it!

I headed out to Mt Gretna early in the afternoon on Friday to get my packet and get a feel for the transition area and what the course looked like. Unfortunately it was raining pretty bad, so I didn’t get much of a chance to see the park where the race was without getting soaked, but I did get my first glance at the lake, where i’d be swimming on Saturday. I’m not sure which leg of the race I was more concerned about, the swim or the bike .. I guess both had me worried because I never really competed in those events before. The run didn’t even bother me, I knew I could knock that out easily.

Anyway, I got my packet (and there was no expo) and slowly made my way back to the hotel I was staying in just north of the race in Lebanon. I was worried about leaving my bike on my bike rack overnight at the hotel, even though it was locked, so I decided to bring it into the hotel room with me .. yep, i looked a little funny rolling a bike into a hotel room, but i’d rather be safe than sorry. I noticed later on that other people were doing the same thing.

I didn’t sleep well at all overnight on Friday, my nerves just got me … I didn’t know if I was more excited or nervous about the race, but whatever it was caused me to only get 4-5 hours of sleep. I had spent the last 24 weeks preparing for this race, 8 weeks of base training and 16 weeks of formal triathlon ttraining. It would all come down to two hours on this one day .. and i’ll tell you it was worth it.

I woke up at my normal 5am time on Saturday just before the alarm, hopped in the shower and got myself ready .. then woke the family up to get them ready. My goal was to get to the race area by 6:30am so I could get parking, get marked up and setup my transition area. I had never setup a transition area before, so I didn’t even know where to start. Once I got there, it was pretty easy, I just followed what everyone else was doing for the most part except they had some gear that I didn’t have (which i’ll have to get). The biggest thing that I was unsure about was what to wear on top, just like when I was doing marathons… after I figured that out, it was time to get ready for the race.

After I got my family settled in the spectator area, I headed to the transition area to get my wetsuit on and get ready for the race… at this point it was starting to get warm out, and even with only the legs of the wetsuit on, I was sweating, so I decided to lose the Under Armour shirt I was going to wear under the suit to stay cool.. thankfully I did because it was a long wait once we headed to the beach…

The Swim (500 yards)

The national anthem was sung (it was done beautifully) and it was time to get this thing started. I was in the 6th wave of swimmers to go out, which meant I had about 15 minutes from when the first wave went out to stand there and ponder what I was doing. The final announcements were read and off went the elite swimmers into the water.. each wave of swimmers got a chance to get in the water and get wet for 2-3 minutes before the wave started the race, so i slowly creeped up until it was our turn to get into the water. WOW, it was cold! Some of us were joking about what the water temperature was, and some guys didn’t have wetsuits, I could only imagine how cold they were.

The starter called 30 seconds to start .. and my heart started pounding. I tried to find a spot that was away from the others as best as I could and made sure I pointed myself toward the first buoy. Next thing I knew, we were off .. in the water I went. Did I mention it was COLD? The feeling of that cold water hitting my face was like needles, it was awful, which instantly put me into a panic mode.. It was SO hard to get going with all the people and the rough water being created from the other swimmers. It was nothing like swimming in a pool and nothing like the open water swimming I had practiced in the past. I’m thankful I did what I did though because I don’t think there was a way to train for this.

I tried getting into my swim rhythm, but kept taking water in my mouth and nose from the waves and at one point during the first 2-3 minutes, I was in a panic like I wouldn’t make it. I calmed myself as best as I could and fell back to the rear of the pack to catch my breath and stay away from the choppy water. Once I got myself calmed, i was able to focus a little better. I sighted a few times to see the buoy so I knew where to turn and I was right on target, except for the people I kept running into. I think it was that I was in a good spot by myself, but being a stronger swimmer, I kept passing people because I swam fast, so I always had people in my face. It seems that the strategy for this is a lot like doing running races where you have to break away from the pack and find your own place, its just harder to do when you’re swimming.

Finally I was on my way as I passed the first buoy and turned left towards the second one. I felt myself getting into rhythm and it was getting easier now .. the amount of people around me was less and I could focus now. I remember saying to myself “just swim” .. which helped. The biggest issue from here was that my “no-fog” goggles were fogged up so I couldn’t see really great.. I cut the turn around the last buoy close so I didn’t swim more than I needed to and at this point the number of people swimming around me was much less. I sighted up ahead the final buoy although I had probably 200 yards to go but it was clearly on my path. I put my head down and just swam, only checking where I was going a few times and running over a few people in the way…

The next thing I knew, I saw people standing around me so I put my feet down on to solid ground in the water .. I did it, I was at the beach.. I got out of the water, and was really light headed, wow … not sure if it was the cold water, the long swim or what, but wow. I had to get my bearings but still keep moving up the beach so i wasn’t in the way, which I did. The challenge now was the swim transition, which I had not been able to practice so much, but wasn’t concerned about. It was a long run from the beach to the transition area and it was uphill (and had steps). The cheer of the crowd was amazing and really keeps you going when you need it the most .. nothing like when you’re running marathons.

The bike (16 miles)

After I got my head together and got to my transition area, I ripped off the wetsuit, put on my cycling gear and made my way through the muddy transition area … I saw the “mount bike” sign, and got on and away I went. I forgot to turn my Garmin watch on in the transition area and actually didn’t get it going until about a mile or so into the ride, so the link above to my Garmin site is short by a mile or so, but it shows my progress.

I was worried about the hills in the bike course. In comparing them to the hills I had trained on, I thought I was going to be in trouble. Remembering that my goal was to finish the race, I just took it slow .. after a few minutes I had realized that I never put my saddle bag on my bike after I pulled it off the car rack earlier in the morning. Uh-oh. This meant that if I got a flat or had a mechanical bike issue, my race was over since I had no tubes, co2 or tools to change a flat or adjust the bike if I needed to. Thankfully I didn’t need to.

I had spent some time learning about “drafting” since I thought there were going to be course marshals out monitoring the bike leg.. but there weren’t. I know I was always courteous to other cyclists and most others were back to me, but I can’t say the same for some animals who were out there. Some of these guys were flying double and triple wide past people with no notification that they were even coming, then there were others who were passing on the right side .. it was dangerous, it really was. There were some decent hills, with the worst one being around 7 miles in where I saw people actually walking it with their bikes. I just kept on pushing and pushing and passing people and somehow made it to the top .. Thankfully the hills always seemed to peak and then the downhill was right there so you could recover. One interesting thing I noticed was that I saw people doing the race with mountain bikes, which I had to imagine was killer on the hills.. good for them if they can do it, but wow, thats tough.

Anyway, after about 10 miles of rolling hills, I was pretty beat up but knew I had one more hill to go before I was back at the transition. It turned out to not be as bad as I had thought because it was a slow incline so I could stay in a high gear and just push and push. My legs were burning by the time I got to the top, but once I hit the downhill, I knew I was home free. There was a steep downhill at that point and it felt good just to fly down it, I had nobody near me. We made the final turn on to Mt Gretna road to return to the lake and transition into the run.

I had done it, the bike course didn’t beat me and I had no mechanical problems, awesome.

The run (5k, 3.1miles)

I got to the “unmount bike” sign at the transition point and unclipped my bike pedals and started to make my way up the hill again in the mud to my spot. I had practiced this several times, so I was good at it. I almost left without tying my shoes though, but I did forget to put my running hat on (the one my sister got me). Oh well, it was too late to turn back once I left the transition, but I was on my way. Being a runner, the 5K was nothing, plus it was flat.. I actually ran it faster than I had thought I would. It was totally under tree cover, so the sun didn’t plan a factor in it all (which was probably a good thing).

There was an eerie sense of quiet on the 5K course though, nobody was talking to anyone and everyone was focused, but everyone seemed happy. A few people were in some pain and were walking, but I didn’t see anybody without a smile on their face.

Before I knew it, I was turning back on to the main road for the finish. Although there were no big crowds cheering or anything at the finish, the feeling of crossing that finish line and knowing that I had done it is like nothing else you can feel in the world. I did it. No other words could say it any better, except I did it.

After getting some post-race refreshment and snapping pictures with my family, it was over and I was on my way back home to recover.

This was a journey that I had started last fall when I decided that running marathons was just getting old and my body couldn’t continue to take the pounding of running all the time. I started to swim in October, didn’t really start cycling until December (spin class) and didn’t get ON the bike until early March I’d say I did good. I attribute all the success to just believing in myself and having the courage and confidence to tell myself that I can do it. There were many ups and downs and times when I thought I couldn’t do it (the first minutes of the swim) .. but mind over matter will get you there, as long as you believe.

So whats next? well, 11 weeks until the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon, which is an Olympic distance triathlon meaning 1500m swim, 26 mile bike and 7 mile run and I know I have a lot of work to do to get there. My first triathlon taught me what I needed to know to get through and showed me where my weaknesses are, so now its time to overcome them.. hopefully i’ll write more this summer about the story on how I get there.

Remember, believe in yourself and you can do anything..

I was excited this morning to get ready to head out for my first pre-work bike ride outside (instead of going to spin class). I figured that the weather was okay (a little drizzle), but there was no other reason to NOT get outside. I actually sat in bed deciding whether to hit the gym or the take the bike out, well, the outside bike ride won.

By the end of this story, you’ll see that I should have just gone to the gym .. anyway, I headed out about 5:45am into my normal country settings. It took some time to get comfortable riding with my headlamp and all and dealing with the fear that cars can only barely see me because it was just before sunrise (despite all my lights), but I pedaled on anyway. I was just getting to that point in the ride where it was feeling good, and I had just said to myself .. “wow, what a nice way to free your mind so early in the morning” .. This was about 6 miles into my ride to the country (about 27 minute according to my watch) and I slowly started up a hill (about the midpoint of my ride). Just as I downshifted to get more power to knock out the hill, it happened….

Suddenly my pedals just stopped like it got jammed, and naturally that caused me to panic … forgetting that I was clipped into the pedals, I tried to lift my feet because it was stuck and almost lost my balance and fell over. Thankfully I was able to pull out of the clips and keep my balance, but i wasn’t in a good situation.. I did a quick damage assessment thinking maybe the chain fell off or something, but sure enough, the rear derailleur was almost sideways and the bike chain was kinked against the tire and derailleur so that the pedals couldn’t turn. Somehow it bent out of place and was totally jammed up and I couldn’t even figure it out. I had no idea what to do… here I was, at 6:10 in the morning, on some country road, with a busted bike. Not good.

I had to figure something out, because I had to get home to get my car to the shop and get to work.. I figured that I had to somehow get the chain free because the derailleur was busted and bent, there was no way that it was going to work again .. easier said then done. I pulled out my multi-tool and started doing whatever I could to release the chain from being jammed to no avail. So I finally popped the rear wheel off, which freed the chain, but didn’t release it from the rear derailleur. I thought at this point that even if the derailleur was busted, I could still get the chain on the cartridges and have some power to pedal home. So I hacked at it some more to get it released and suddenly it came free.. but then the chain also broke. Not good.

So here I stand with a totally busted bike, with no way to get home… I figured I was about 4 miles from home, which actually turned out to be 5 miles when I finally measured it. At this point, I pulled off the chain, put the tire back on, made sure the brakes still worked, and went on my way, walking. I probably burned out the cleats on my shoes with all the walking on them (i haven’t checked yet), but I managed to get on the bike and coast down hills wherever I could to make up time, until I realized that “hey, i’m a runner, right?”… The rain was starting to pick up, and it was getting light out, so I was hoping some nice person would come by and offer me a ride, but that never happened.

Anyway, remembering that i’m really a runner, I decided to pull my cycling shoes off and just started to run with my bike at my side, with my shoes in my hand… so if you can picture this for a minute, here I am all geared out to cycle (helmet, gloves, etc), now running uphill, barefoot, in the rain, with my bike on one side and my shoes in my other hand.. it had to be funny to look at. I’m sure I gave many people lots of things to talk about as they drove by me this morning. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that I did some of this going up the main road in the area I live in, so lots of people saw me as they went to work.

Regardless, it only took me an hour to get back to my house after I started running barefoot .. although I wrecked my cycling socks and my feet are killing me from the gravel on the sides of the road. My bike has since gone off to the shop to get repaired, I hope to have it back for Saturday, but no guarantees ..

I guess I don’t know what really happened to the bike, or if I did something wrong, but it had been making some noise since I got it adjusted a few weeks ago .. guess it wasn’t adjusted that good, I should have taken the warning signs and done some more adjustments.

So thats my funny story, in the end I should have just gone to the gym and done the spin class and saved myself the whole ordeal .. but it could have been a lot worse. Its been a challenge getting my workouts in this week for several reasons, and this was yet another challenge to me to test my dedication to my sports, but I made it and proved that I’m tougher than I think.

Its the evening before my first bike race, well, I guess its not really a race, its more of a ride since its not timed and its all for charity. I kind of feel like I did before my first 5K race 6 years ago, and i’m not sure why. I’m good on the bike going solo, but when there are people all around, it may be a different story. Its very possible that I could come in last place tomorrow .. somebody always does. I’ve only done 25 miles on the bike once before (last week), but I figure this is good practice for the triathlon in just 7 short weeks.

I got my bike back from the shop on Wednesday, she’s all prettied up now and ready to go. They adjusted the front derailleur for me so I can actually switch front gears now. Its funny that they came back and told me that the mechanism is wearing out and will need replacement soon, i’ve only had the bike for under a year and it really doesn’t have that many miles on it. Regardless, we’ll have to address that sometime later in the season I guess.

This morning I had a long swim, and man was it long.. I did just about 1.5 miles non-stop which took me almost 50 minutes to complete. It was so long that my right calf muscle started to cramp … that didn’t stop me from pushing out another quarter mile before wrapping it up. All I can say is that I’m tired from it, it really is a full body workout because pretty much everything is sore from my arms to my legs to my core. I have no doubt I can swim the triathlon distance, its just getting in open water that i’m worried about now, but the open water swim workouts that start at the start of May should help that. I found out today that the Wenonah Lake open water swims don’t actually require a sign-up like I thought. I just have to show up… May 5th will be here before I know it, I still have to order my wetsuit.

So the weather for tomorrows 25 mile ride is looking a little chilly, but no worse than I dealt with last week on my ride, plus it will be a little later in the morning and the sun will be out.

I’ve got the car packed and am ready to go … my bike looks pretty good on my new roof rack (note the picture) .. I had people tell me that a roof rack would scratch my car, but I can’t see how. I spent the money on the model that is made for my car, so no worries…

Hopefully another post tomorrow after the bike ride ….