Life of an Age-Grouper

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. ...

Damn, it's been a long time and thousands of miles since our first interview. A ton has happened in your life since we last spoke or should I say since I last interviewed you? Last time we talked you had just left your job as a teacher to start something new....working at a bike shop. Is working at a shop everything it's cracked up to be? Ha. Well, I will focus on the positives here and say that I was able to meet and form great friendships with some really awesome people. It was good to spend a year in the bike industry and get a glimpse into how a shop is run (and realize more about how a shop should be run); in addition, my friend/ co-worker Paul taught me a lot about basic to intermediate bike mechanics and really the importance of understanding how things work, Without that time in the shop I probably wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to be an athlete ambassador for Liv/Giant- an experience that also afforded me the opportunity to meet more awesome pe...

I completed my 10 day stint with antibiotics about a week ago while out in California and I'm excited to say I'm progressing back to normal.  This feeling of normalcy means one thing, back to training and attempting to reach my goals for this season. Timberman is in less than 3 weeks and there is no way Ill be ready to compete.  I probably could finish the race but I have zero interest in finishing a race.  On a positive note, my Dad and I will be competing in the Smith Point Sprint in one week.  My Dad is in great form and we are looking to make a statement.  I'm personally excited for the out-and-back bike course and its potential for speed. I do have plans on racing a 70.3 this season but when and where is depending on how quickly and efficiently I can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. IM Lake Placid was over a  week ago and I stayed up until midnight to watch the last racers cross the finishline. Usually the highlight of the night are those lat...

When establishing a race schedule there is a phrase that comes up very often among triathletes, "A Race". One's A Race is understood as the main focal point of the season. More times than not this race is what the entire season is built around. At one's A race the athlete expects to have their best result as an anticipated and expected response from being in peak fitness. Most pro's build their season around Vegas or Kona. Age groupers will usually establish their A race around a new distance or at an opportunity to establish a new PR. As an age group triathlete living in the Northeast the triathlon season is extremely short. The window to race is just a few months long starting in late May/early June and usually ending around September. This only permits four months of potential racing. How many races can one effectively cram into four months? Personally, I would love to race every weekend but that is just not feasible. Four months of racing means that...