Life of an Age-Grouper

I was finally able to string together a solid week of uninterupted training.  This marks the first week where I felt solidly strong.  I'm not saying I'm in race shape but, I'm slowly getting there.  I had a big swim session on Friday that I crushed and was fired up about. For the first time ever I swam a few hundreds without thinking about my stroke.  This is huge because all that I think about while I swim is my stroke. It was very relaxing just to swim in a mentally relaxed state. One question that did pop up while swimming was in the middle of my main set.  I swam the first half of them with a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 3-4.  I thought I was working too hard and shifted my focus to my form and technique.  Amazingly my RPE went down and my splits decreased.  I was working less and going faster!  So the question I have is how to judge my pace while racing.  Obviously I'm not going to be able to check my watch while in the ...

There have been a few small things bouncing around in my head that I would like to stop thinking about so here's what they are; 1. Triathlete Magazine: Caitlin Snow was on the cover of Triathlete Magazine this month and I was stoked for her (like I actually know her). She receives little to no attention or media coverage so it's only fitting that she finally gets some praise, or so I thought.  The caption to her cover shot reads something along the lines of, top American female finisher at Kona for the past two years.  With that introduction I figured she would have a few pages of shine,  NOPE! She had one page of B.S. interview.  I could have done a better interview than TM.  How can one of the top US females triathletes get such poor recognition and coverage? 2. I gnite Naturals : After blogging about I.N. I reached out to them and shared my blog.  To my surprise they responded.  They asked if they could link my blog on their Twitter feed and ask...

Since getting involved in endurance sports I have had an unspoken rule of no supplements that enhance athletic performance.  I believe that endurance sports should be totally natural and should be a pure test of ones' abilities.  Truthfully I don't even like to drink Redbull before training or racing because I feel that I'm cheating.  I do admit I drink Redbull (often) but usually because it helps me to get the bowels moving race morning and injects a little caffeine to jump start the excitement.  I once (maybe a few times) had 5 Hour Energy and that hit me more than Redbull.  5 Hour Energy provides a long lasting spike of energy that is definitely noticeable.  I caught myself grinding my teeth because of the amount of "energy" it provided.  My 5 Hour experience was not related to training or racing rather trying to stay awake on long car rides.  If you need to drive from Timberman, after being awake all day and cheer...

What drew you to the triathlon? Probably not the normal answer people would say. A lot of people get into the sport because they want to challenge themselves, or to lose weight, or achieve a specific goal. I did it to impress a girl.  I had recently quit smoking and started to go to the gym. I was putting on a little muscle and a lot of weight at the same time. I actually had fallen for this girl that was a marathon runner at the gym. I started running on the treadmill with her and we became close friends. I knew there was no way I could do a marathon but, let me try this triathlon thing.  I could do something small and give it a shot and maybe that would impress her. I ended up doing a triathlon, her and I don’t really talk anymore but at the same time its been a great thing in my life.  I did actually run into her at a park I was running at about three years ago and after seeing her I wrote her a thank you letter. I wrote her letting her know that I changed my entir...

Going into this morning's bike test I was riding the wave of confidence from my run test.  As I approached Hecksher Park I kept checking out the trees to see how bad the wind was going to be.  There is always wind at Hecksher so its important to adapt your riding and mindset accordingly.  As I pulled into field 5 and began to put everything together I was shocked about how little wind there was.  This could be the making of a fast TT time. I started my warm up and started to get passed by multiple cars.  What the hell was up with that? Hecksher is typically dead during the winter months and within a matter of a minute I was passed by at least 5 cars. No sooner then these cars passed me then I saw a road block closing off the outer loop (the loop I was suppose to test on).  I couldn't believe, I just drove all the way to Hecksher and now the park was closed off! I spoke with the park security and apparently there was a 5k race but the entire loop woul...

37 degrees, pitch dark, 2 pairs of tights, multiple top layers, balaclava, headlamp, the track, shitty swim messing with my game . . . . sounds like perfect conditions for a 3 mile run test! Heading to the track I didn't even bother to check Test #1 results because there was no way I was going to come close to that time.  I felt like I hadn't run in forever, that shitty swim from two nights ago was messing with my mental game, needless to say my expectations weren't the highest.  I figured that I should at least have a goal so I picked the number 7:20.  Why did I pick or even think I could average a 7:20 mile? I have no idea. I looked down at my watch when I was about 3/4's of the way done with my first lap and my watch said 5:40.  5:40? What was that suppose to mean? Was it telling me the time? Had I been running for 5 minutes already?  Did I mess up the settings?  Nope. I was running at a 5:40 pace. SHIT.  Not only did I have a horrible swim but ...

Its been on the longer side of a month since my last round of testing.  This past month has been a swim focused block of training that had me in the pool at least 4 days a week.  Immediately following Matt's advice, after the first round of testing, for improving my swim I have crushed almost all of my swim sessions. I have been making some serious headway in the water which has even shocked me at times.  I wonder if I'm turning into a swimmer and just how much faster I can get?  With that being said I had my swim test last night, a 1000yds TT and . . . I have strong, mixed emotions about it. Because of the holidays and the craziness that accompanies it I severely neglected my training.  I was well aware that this would happen since last year I felt terrible about attempting to train with family in town and vowed never to do that again.  Thankfully I learned from my mistake, a vital lesson for time crunched, age-group triathletes.  So, from Dece...

How many years have you been involved in the multi sport world? “I started in August of 2010 so, I guess a year in a half.” What sparked your interest in triathlon? “I was always a runner and got injured so I bought a bike because I couldn’t not do anything.  Then a former math teacher of mine, who was a triathlete, saw I had a bike and knew I would recover eventually from the running injury. He suggested I do a triathlon and did I one.” Everyone has their guilty pleasure when it comes to gear. For some of us it’s shoes, others sunglasses.  What is your guilty pleasure? “This is hard because I definitely have more than one. (laugh) Well, bicycles I guess but, does that count as gear? Definitely bicycles.  For smaller things, sunglasses, and shirts with thumb holes.” Just recently you decided to switch jobs, could you speak about this move? “I use to be a math teacher and taught High School math for 7 years. This past summer I went riding in Montauk a...