Life of an Age-Grouper

The Xterra Shepaug Trail Race brought me back to my childhood as I found myself smiling and laughing  as I ran through puddles, jumped over down trees, charged and climbed uphills, launched over streams, evaded thorns, danced through mud and occasionally got lost. The Shepaug 25k was easily the most fun I have ever had at a race. Long Island certainly has trails that can be utilized for mountain biking or running and I'm extremely fortunate to have trail access right out my front door but these trails are lacking.  The topography and environment simply don't provide what I want to run on or through and certainly can't prepare you for real trail running. I had an idea of what Connecticut could offer me and as such I signed up for the Xterra Shepaug 25k Trail Race in Bridgewater, Connecticut.   I did my best to prepare for this race but found it difficult since there was limited information on the World Wide Web. It didn't take very long however to figure out wha...

I have stored away my bikes and packed away my swim gear because I have fully committed to finding my ultra! The new sense of adventure has my adrenaline flowing. There were a few must-haves when selecting my first ultra. First, it had to be on the trails.  The excitement, stimulation and changing landscape of trail running has no equal.  I also wanted the race to be off Long Island. Finding a race away from home would leave me out of my comfort zone.  With unfamiliar trails and faces the level of adventure would be through the roof.  As if the distance wouldn't present enough of a challenge I wanted a race that would allow me to redefine "my comfortable" and push me to and possibly beyond my limits. The Traprock 50K in Bloomfield, Connecticut meets all the criteria. Training for Traprock has already started. The first couple of months of training must be managed extremely carefully so that my body has time to adapt and then grow  from a totally new trainin...

A personal goal of mine, as it relates to the 70.3 distance, is to be able to race the distance...currently I pace this distance.  From my perspective there is a significant difference between racing and pacing. I define racing as doing what it takes, legally, to finish ahead of your competition.  If the competition and I are racing to finish on the podium then all I need to do is finish one second faster than 4th place.  When racing;  pace,splits,power,speed are irrelevant  just as long as the cumulative time is better than the competition. Therefore when truly racing there is no need for any fancy technology. The only necessary tool or skill required is race instincts; calculating what needs to be done physically and mentally to better the competition.  Each year I take another step closer to achieving this goal. Hopefully with intelligent, hard work I will be able to race 70.3 miles. Taking a big step back into reality, I continue to pace my races. ...

If you answered, Yes, then you might be missing or forgetting about an important aspect of training. I don't believe that a person can have a bad training session. Every athlete goes into their training session expecting to be 100% successful.  Our goals for that specific session might be predetermined my one's self, a training plan or coach. The success of the session is determined by reaching or surpassing those goals (speed, pace, wattage, heart rate etc.)  However what happens when you can't reach your physical goals? Does it mean that you failed? Does it mean you just wasted your time? Or ruined your training plan? Or dare I even say, lost fitness? Absolutely not.  Athletes often forget about the mental aspect of sport. They forget that mental strength is just as important if not superior to physical strength. When the body isn't firing on all cylinders athletes must remember they can still become a stronger athlete, a more dangerous athlete if they c...