Anniversary

Well... It must be Monday. Seriously, today was a total clusterflubber, I hardly know where to begin. I suppose this particular manic Monday started off when I woke up an hour late. WTF? Where the heck did my alarm go? I set it last night for 6:00, and lo and behold, 7:30 rolled around and I felt unusually well-rested until I glanced at the clock and the four alarm fire started me out the door (late)! With nary a minute to grab my now routine cup of fresh brew from the Keurig, I made a Indy car style pit-stop at the savior of all things dark roasted to snatch my fix. Ten minutes away from work, I took the first several (and all-important) sips of my Sumatran Reserve before ripping through the work parking lot and sliding the car into a tight little spot made just for me in just under 6 minutes flat. Hoo-rah, a new PR.

Most people are used to me walking in late to meetings - I call it fashionably late - so it was not a big deal to show up at my 8:00 this morning at 8:10, strolling in with that quintessential, triathlete, cocksuredness style (wet hair, scruffy face, deep dark cup coffee in hand). Sorry folks, I suppose we can begin now.

The day continued to roll along the same trajectory when I made my way to the pool for my early afternoon swim. A quick dip for active recovery today never felt so good... Until I got out, was about to take a shower, and realized I'd forgotten my shower bag that has my soap, deodorant, lotion, hair stuff and, oh yeah, COMB!

Breathe deep. Breathe deep. Nothing makes me forget about my Alfalfa hair like a good lunch. Too bad the credit card machine at the caf was down today and I didn't have any cash on hand. Put the giant salad down. Go out the door. Get cash from the ATM (at which 20 people are standing at). Feel stupid because your hair is a complete mess, you stink like chlorine, and your skin's as dry as an alligator's. Get cash (and get charged $2.00 service charge). Go get your now-soggy salad and pay for it. Oh yeah. I never had it so good.

Lucky for me I had another meeting right after lunch which, yup, I was (fashionably) late for. This time, no coffee in hand, but a huge bottle of water which, if anyone ever saw me without, would hardly recognize me. It's pretty rude to eat your lunch in the middle of a meeting, so I decided to wait until it was over... Not really. Actually, I'd forgotten to get a fork at the caf because I was so disgruntled over the credit card machine issue. Turning around the room to look for anything I could stab lettuce with, I found nothing but inquisitive co-workers asking: "What's up with your hair Joe?"

Thankfully, the day ended shortly after my 2:00 lunch. Nothing left to do but relax on my recovery day, have a bowl of cereal, and update my blog. But believe it or not, this is the second time I've written most of this post because of Ehf'in Blogger being on the fritters. Thanks Blogger... How many years providing blog-service and you haven't yet implemented an auto-save feature?

Anyways, yesterday was Sunday and I ran another half-marathon. This time, I had fresher legs and was supposed to do the first half at sub-tempo pace and the second half at up-tempo pace. The result? A sub-1:38 13.1 miler. At the half-way point of the marathon last year, I posted a 1:44. Last Sunday on tired legs I posted a 1:40 and yesterday, a 1:38. Good to the last drop. And yesterday marked my last "long" run before the Tinman, meaning that I'm going into my taper with some serious confidence.

Finally, the picture at the top of this post was taken just about a year ago at a local off-road triathlon. It was the first really hot and humid weekend here in the Northeast, and a real ass-kicker of a race course. Amazing to think that it's been one year since then.

On a final note, it's taken me to 6:02pm to finish (and finalize through blogger) this post tonight. Two minutes ago I heard my alarm clock go off upstairs... Oh right, that should have been set for 6:00 *am*. Well, that explains it.

Keep it easy out there, and thanks for reading.

Walkaways

Monday afternoon I arrived in New York City to the warmth of hot city weather combined with the omnipresent river breeze. Though prescribed as an off-day (and in retrospect, well needed) I couldn't stand to sit around in the greatest city in the world just as everyone was getting out of work and heading out for their workouts. So off I went - out the front door and to the West Side Highway bike path for around about a total of 8 miles out and back. I felt great, partially because I had just come off a long run the day prior, and partially because of all the incredible energy in the city. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, and the path was crowded. It was, for sure, a great day to be out for a jog.

Tuesday morning I got up early to do a couple of hours on the bike while watching the sun come up over the water, and concluded my business day with my weekly key bike workout on the trainer - this week, time trial pieces. Towards the end of my workout, however, I was really starting to feel the strain of my work schedule. It probably would have been wise to cut things short, but I didn't. Wednesday morning, as a result, I woke up feeling like a I'd been run over by a steam train... Twice. I skipped my morning run in favor of two extra cups of coffee (any excuse) and did my best to keep things easy the entire day. In the evening, I simply stretched things out, and stayed in to get some extra sleep.

By the time Thursday arrived, I'd already seen positive improvements. I felt rejuvenated when I woke, but decided to continue playing it safe by trading my speed workout in for a simple base-level run along the water in the early evening. This turned out to be a great choice as well, as by Friday, I was feeling up to snuff - excited to be coming home, and sliding back into my usual routine in no time at all.

So, a good week overall from the workout perspective. I had a little scare with Wednesday's feelings of run-down-dedness, but seemed to rebound without a hitch. New York City was, as it always is, a fantastic time. Every day was a treat, whether sipping coffee by my hotel room window at sunrise, or choosing wines at dusk while feeling that familiar and welcome soreness drain out from my legs apres-run. Of course, time away from home always brings with it a longing to go back, and so I was thrilled to come home this past Friday and hop on my bike to do a quick couple-a-hour ride before settling in for another brilliant weekend. Yes indeed, it was good to be home again.

Thanks for reading.

City Evening

Well folks, sorry for the long delay in posting... It's been over a week since my last "real" post and I have to say, life has felt just a little bit weird without sending out the blog updates periodically.

As it turns out, last week the Clark Kent side of my life had me down in The Big Apple for a little bit of business. Of course, a full week away from the hum-drum Grind of my usual routine is always a welcome treat, but being three weeks away from my first A-race - it was certainly a challenge to keep things going along. For those who just haven't had a good story or two to sit down and enjoy their dark roast with over the past week, I thought I'd back-track a bit and provide a catchup of sorts.

Last weekend was a real pisser in terms of weather. It was cold and rainy pretty much all day Friday and Saturday here in the Northeast, yet the schedule had me on the bike for around about 4 hours of good riding on Saturday, followed by a stab at a half-marathon at near-race pace on Sunday. On any given (normal) weekend in June, this would be a delight, but given the weather I was facing... Well, it wasn't. Saturday turned out to be a marathon on the trainer, as I rode indoors to stay dry - first to the stimulus of Hostel, then to that of Wolf Creek.* Few things put you in the right mood like the feel of a couple of good 'B' horror movies and the sound of rain pouring outside whilst spinning away. It really wasn't all that bad, and I wound up with 3 solid hours on the trainer with several good work pieces.

*Yeah. Liz refuses to watch anything that in any way resembles a horror movie with me. So such quality films are strictly reserved for long (solo) trainer sessions. Fair enough ;-)

Sunday wasn't a wash at all - so to speak. Though it was threatening to pour in the morning, the clouds held their weight and kept things cool and dry throughout the rest of the day. And so with tired legs, I went about a half-marathon at zone 2 pace. Here, I tried out my race-day nutrition, and focused on really "feeling" my pace throughout the run. At the end of the day, I crossed the 13.1 mile mark at around about 1:40, with plenty of gas left in the tank. Perfect. Afterwards, I did another 5k or so with Liz to cool down and to take in the glory of hitting my target pace over the half-mary.

After a thorough bit of stretching and core work, I packed my bags for New York City where I'd be spending the rest of my week. Along with the usual stuff, I also packed up my clunker bike, my trainer, and my myriad of running shoes - determined not to lose training while away from home. Yup - there's nothing like traveling with Joe.

All You Need

Sorry for the hiatus folks - many good tidbits to report on, but very little time to do so... Time, and a lack of anything that remotely resembles a reliable internet connection.

Stay tuned, and keep it easy out there.

Blinded

It's been a great week, that's for certain. Before I even resumed training after my day off Monday, I was thrilled to see an updated results posting from the Saratoga Duathlon indicating that I in fact took 10th overall in the individuals. Breaking into the top ten overall in a short-course race was one of my season goals this year, and I can't describe the pride I feel in seeing it through so early in the season.

With the new week came the first wave of heat and humidity in the Northeast. In fact, this weather pattern started over the weekend, and took it's toll on a number of racers this past Sunday. I generally perform pretty well in the heat, but that's largely on account of disciplined training in the elements. When it's early in the season, however, those first weeks of acclimating can be tough - and that's where I'm at right now.

Tuesday brought a short 1600m swim at the tank simply to cool myself down from the day, and to work on a little bit of technique. In the evening, I had my routine Tuesday night trainer ride on the tri-bike - this week focusing on high cadence intervals. Wednesday brought more heat and a breakthrough day in the pool for me, with a sweet 2500m swim in under an hour as a great format; after a mixed 600m warm-up, I did 1000m straight with every 4th 50 as kick, followed by a 400m pull block and then 16x25m descending intervals and a little bit of a cool-down. Like I said, this was a great workout.

Wednesday night I took an easy hour run in the 88 degree and comparably humid weather to put in a smooth 7 and a half miles or so to work on acclimating. Working out in these conditions brings with it a whole new set of issues to think about, like: hydration, elevated heart rate, sweat rate, cardiac drift, etc., but better to just get out there and do it now so that come race day there are no big surprises. That's my philosophy anyways.

I was a little bit sore this morning, probably on account of lower hydration levels (despite my best effort) during last night's workout. But after hydrating the best I could throughout the day today and keeping as much weight off my legs as possible while at work, I put in another stellar speedwork session tonight in comparable heat and humidity conditions. Another major plus of tonight's workout was that it was speedwork without the track; once a month I do my speedwork as an 8 mile loop on the road at tempo pace with 20 second accelerations every 3 minutes. It's a killer workout, but gettin'r'done makes you feel on top of the world. As it turned out, I managed to turn out the miles tonight with a pace of around about 7:30s, while ramping things to sub-6:10s during my accelerations.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be walking a real tight-rope in trying to put in my final "big volume" workouts, while simultaneously mixing in just the right amount of speedwork and trying to back off a bit on the non-key workouts in an attempt to peak for the Tupper Lake race. So far, this season has gone very well; my motivation has been consistently high and my results to-date have been right on the mark relative to my expectations - so here's to hoping I can continue this fabulous trend!

Thanks for reading, and stay cool out there.