Life of an Age-Grouper

This past weekend was an exciting weekend for me.  I had a friend's wedding to celebrate as well as some very fun training to tackle.  I had a blast at the wedding on Friday night and was eager to get out Saturday on my bike and crush a race specific session. My original plan was to take off from Rocky Point but on my way there I realized I had forgot my Garmin so I turned around to grab it.  After getting over this slight annoyance I got myself together and decided to head out from Stony Brook. I headed out East on 25A from Stony Brook on a beautiful, warm fall day. The warm up was for 30 minutes slightly below race pace.  The exciting part of the session was the 1:30 at race pace then 30 minutes above race pace.  No sooner had I began to lift my effort than shit hit the fan. I had just made it past Rocky Point and was feeling great.  I had past a few cyclists on my way out there which was to be expected since its a very popular road to cycle on. ...

The amount of incredibly bizarre setbacks I have had to endure for the past year and a half had me salivating for this past triathlon season. I wanted more than anything to just race this season and that is exactly what I did. I was able to get in 4 races this year; Harriman Olympic, Rev3 Quassy Half, Vineman 70.3 and Toughman Half. Each race offered their own unique challenges and had their own personality. I could see myself doing these races again in the future however with so many races out there, next season I plan on challenging myself on completely different courses. Besides just signing up for races I had very specific goals ranging from the super short term (daily, weekly) to season long. There is no secret that my passion for triathlon lies at the 70.3 distance and my goal split times were geared toward this distance. One of the only ways that would allow me even deem this season a success was to reach my goal split times. I wanted to complete the swim in 35 minutes, compl...

Toughman Half Westchester NY Sunny, low 80's Toughman was my last scheduled and focal race of the year so needless to say I wanted to put an exclamation point on the end of this season. Race morning I parked my car in the train station, which is a mile away from transition, instead of at the race site in fear of being stuck there until the last finisher crossed the line.  In hind sight I could have parked at the race site since they offered a different exit route. On the shuttle ride over to the race I rehearsed the race in my head and tried to stay focused on me rather than the pole the driver just hit our the fact that I wanted to get to transition quicker than the buses  snail pace.  On the short ride over there something was missing, a feeling, an emotion, that rush of race morning. Then I stepped into transition. Boom.The adrenaline started to flow, my game face was on and I was all business. I took care of the normal transition routine of setting everything ...