Life of an Age-Grouper

The significance of tapering The focal point of a taper period or tapering is to ready the body, mind and spirit for a peak performance on race day.  This period of training fits roughly between your last Build period and race day.  The significance of tapering is to freshen your body, mind and spirit by ridding it of accumulated fatigue.  As fatigue vacates the body one should start to feel rejuvenated, energetic, sharp, snappy and excited to race. If one does not understand the significance of tapering, like most new endurance athletes, then ones athletic performance could be handicapped. Most new athletes or those making endurance sports more than just a hobby have a difficult time benefiting from tapering.  I believe that the major obstacle preventing athletes from benefiting from a taper is the way in which they view their fitness.  More often than not athletes associate their fitness levels with how hard they train or the level of fatigue they hav...

I believe, if I remember correctly, that the first time we met, roughly 5 years ago, was on a group ride on Long Island. We were headed out to Briermere Farms for a 50 mile ride, which happened to be my first group ride as well as my first 50 mile ride. We also embarked on a Timberman 70.3 adventure together as well. Since then we have kept in contact and cheered each other on through social media as we have attempted to tackle the world of triathlon and endurance sports. A lot has happened over the years so I'm glad we can finally catch up. Why don't we start of with something simple,    What lead you off Long Island to New Jersey? Back in 2010 I got a phone call from my friend (now boss) that they had a faculty position open in the Athletic Training Department at Seton Hall University and they wanted me to apply.  Once I got offered the position it was a "no brainer" for me because I had so many friends that lived in NYC and NJ, and I also worked at Seton Ha...

Princeton was my last triathlon of the year and I wanted to go out with a bang.  Besides a month of barely running, I would say that I had my best lead up to a race and was extremely confident in my fitness.  Between Eagleman 70.3  in June and my taper for this race I squeezed every last drop of fitness from my body. The only thing left to do was to execute on race day. Having a later swim start, 7:56, there was no need to get up extremely early.  I set my alarm for 4:40 a.m. and wanted to be out the door by 5:45 a.m.  I had a great night sleep and awoke feeling fresh and rested.  I started taking in calories at 5:00 a.m.  First I had a smoothie (bananas, spinach, kale and blueberries - 200 calories). I then made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with my toothbrush since I forgot to pack a knife. The PB&J was left untouched until 5:30 a.m. (200 calories).  I also had a pint glass of lemon-lime Nuun (zero calories), to top of the electrolyte...