Two a day workouts.

Nothing screams "No life" like a two a day workout schedule.

But it's necessary for me as I found out this past weekend, my swimming is abysmal.

So, to that end, I'm going create a training program that will incorporate two workouts a day for at least 3 days a week.

I figure it will go something like this:

Monday - Run/Swim
Tuesday - Bike/Weights
Wednesday - Run
Thursday - Bike(Spin)/ Swim
Friday - Off
Saturday Swim/Bike Long for both
Sunday Long Run

I'm going to fiddle with this, I want to see if I can add another weight training to this, but it's hard with juggling everything else I have going on.

Although the benefit is definitely worth it. If I stick to this, I should drop probably close to 20 pounds over the next seven weeks.

Then, maybe I will consider the swimwear that shall go nameless(Speedo) for my actual race.

Nahhh.....

Either way, I'll post this up when I figure it out.

I officially did my first Triathlon

So, my first Tri, I'm pretty happy that I did it, although it wasn't the same distance of the one I will be doing in Disney in September. This is a sprint, which is usually half of what I'm expected to do in September.

The Port Republic Genesis Sprint Triathlon was held on Saturday 28 2007 starting at 8 AM. The weather was hot and muggy, but the water was warm. I finished in the back of the pack, 203 place out of 254 people, so this was not a Rocky-esque story of training to beat the champ or in this case come in the top twenty. I made some very rookie mistakes, most notably my swimming.

The race start is done in waves, where age groups go in five minute sequences. Since I was in the prime age group of 30-39 (well this year anyway) we started first. At the sound of the horn we strode quickly in and dived when it was deep enough, and off we go. We were supposed to follow a set of buoys to the end and circle around and come back the same way. Well, we did, minus me. Hence rookie mistake number 1.

The group went generally left following the buoys, me, well, I kept my head down and heartily swam to the right. Only when did the guy in the canoe yell "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY" did I poke my head up. Well, nothing like adding about 4 minutes to your time to correct your mistakes. The more embarrassing part was the fact that the waves which didn't start were passing me at a fairly good clip. So, in short, I'm going to double up on my swimming practice to improve my rather tepid pace. And I used to be on the swim team in high school.

Lesson learned: Get your head up out of the water once in a while to see where you're going.

So 19 minutes and 22 seconds later I came out of the water and ran up the beach. I got on my shirt and sneakers, sucked down some Gatorade and off I went. What became evident fairly early on is that I have decent leg power but my seat was a bit lower than it needed to be, which made it harder to go fast. Rookie mistake #2. Make sure you're biking equipment is set up properly. 16 miles and 50 minutes later I was in the second transition to the run.

As a side note, I was using my sneakers on my bike with pedals with foot cages . Many of the more serious racers had separate bike shoes which clipped into the pedals which generate more power with less effort. Optional rookie mistake 2.a: I gotta get me some of these.

The final leg of this was a 4 mile run. Now on most days a 4 mile run is no big deal for me, I can do it. Well, after 1 hour and 15 minutes of constant exercise, what was easy, well not so much anymore. I pushed myself in my normal pace in the beginning and was sucking wind by the first mile. Only when I was starting to see God did I remember that someone told me to start slow and finish strong, so I can finish in the first place. Plus, it was now about 90 degrees and blazing sun. Rookie Mistake #3, don't kill yourself to the point where you can't finish. Dial it down to where you can manage forward progression.

Total time to finish my first Tri 1:49.25. Someone said for a first time that was very good. Well, to be honest, I'm competitive. I am already planning what I want to do in my next one. I can easily achieve 189th place the next time.

It's Sunday and I'm taking it easy. I wanted to swim today but the pool wasn't open. Damn kids today, no sense of responsibility. I'm only assuming they didn't show up because of the torrential downpour that soaked the Tri-State area.

You can find my results here..remember 203rd place, way down on the bottom:
My Tri results

Remember to keep on donating, I'm almost at 1000.00 dollars now only 9k more to go:
My Team in Training Donation Page

Rest Day Today - Sprint Tri tomorrow.

Rest.

I can never get enough of it. I love sleep, but with the growing family and responsiblities I don't have much time for naps these days. I can't even remember the last one I had.

But, for training purposes, I'm going to take today off. Every body needs a break.


Tomorrow I'm planning to (read haven't signed up yet, but can if I want to) do a sprint Triathalon in Port Republic NJ.

A sprint Tri is the shortest one that an athlete can do. Typically it's a half mile swim, followed by a 15-17 mile bike ride and either a 3.1 or 4 mile run. The really good tri athletes can get this done in about an hour and a half. I'm shooting for two, with no expectations to get it done in that amount of time.

The charity Tri that I'm doing in Disney is a one mile swim, followed with a 37 mile bike ride, and a 6 mile run. In the hot Florida sun, I'm just hoping I finish....

Spin Class - Going fast, going nowhere

You know you can't get out on a bike or a run every day, so you have to find a suitable substitute.

For me it's turned into spin class as a substitute for cycling. By the time I get home, and help with the family chores, I'm too beat to go out for a loop or four. So my mid-day training is a 1 hour class at NY Sports Club.

Spin is a great workout to strengthen legs and build some climbing power, it's definitely not mistaken for a easy time.

Tomorrow another Central Park Run, swim at night (hopefully) and the Port Republic Tri on Saturday.

Central Park Run - Now on Map

My friend Joe Lee told me about a great site to map your runs and share the torture with friends. www.mapmyrun.com.

Since my NikePlus has been on the fritz and not accurate, I decided to try this out and get a handle on my running mileage since I need to know if I'm pushing myself towards finishing the NYC Half in a decent time.

Tuesday and Thursdays have been set up as my training runs with Gene. We are now up to a full loop around the park with one to two rest stops.

See the map to the right. The loop is a total of 6.27 miles. I feel good.

I have to learn how to sleep after a swim

Last night I did a training swim. I didn't do too badly, about a mile and half.

But, I made a fatal mistake. I was thirsty and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for an ice coffee. I literally sucked that down within five minutes of leaving the parking lot.

I got home and was absolutely WIRED. By the time I fell asleep it was 1:20 AM.

Lesson learned, get decaf the next time.

Weekend Wrap up - No workout Saturday - Two a day Sunday

As I sat on a VERY crowded 2 platform, I had a chance to reflect on this past weekend's training.

On Saturday I did zilch. Sesame Place was absolutely draining. Myself, Brenda, and Brady got back to the hotel at 3PM and rested up for a dinner at the always elegant Outback Steakhouse. We had our meals in relative ease and got back to the hotel at 7:15. Brenda bathed and dressed Brady and placed him in the wayy to small hotel crib.

This was the point where I would run to the gym to do work on its only treadmill. But, since we had a room and not a separate suite, we both had to "go to bed" so Brady will fall asleep.

Well, guess what? I fell asleep. The plus side is we did get 11 hours of rest.

Sunday started with a four mile slow run on the treadmill. It should appear on my NikePlus monitor. I showered up, met Brenda and Brady for breakfast and then went to Sesame Place for day two.

We left the park after two shows, some more rides, and one little boy yakking up his entire days meals (two many spinning rides). We got home in about one hour. We reunited the boys at my inlaws house and I left to start a bike run.

My bike run goes around the town of Rutherford totallying about 5 miles.

I plan to go around the route four times in the mornings which will equate to a 20 mile ride.

Not a bad workout day.

NYC Half Marathon 2 weeks away Elmo likes it!

The NYC Half Marathon is coming up on August 5th 2007. 13 miles in 75-80 degree weather.

I had to lay off some long runs due to a cranky right hamstring. For the most part it is much better, but now my thoughts of breaking 1:50 is going to "let's just finish and be happy that you can" mentality.

I will be doing a speed workout tomorrow of 10 400's at at 9:00 minute pace. Then afterwards myself, Brenda, and Brady will be off to (drumroll please) Sesame Place! The hotel we will be staying at has a small gym, so my Sunday will be a long run on a treadmill, which is less painful than a cement long run. When we return home, I'll be doing a master swim in the local YMCA.

It never ends...

See you on Monday!

Central Park Run - Too muggy

Met Gene in front of the Apple store at 7:35 this morning. Stretched and started off on the path.

Today was a bit humid, due to the excessive rain that we have had the last couple of days. So by mile 2 Gene requested a walk break, which was fine because I was having a bit of a go with my breathing. There was a young woman with a mixed German Shepard that was very friendly (the dog, not the woman). We petted and scratched (again the dog) and went on our merry way.

Took a picture while on the West Side of the loop. It's turning out to be a nice day.

Work is painful as I write this, I went to bed last night at 12:30 and I'm paying the price at 10:15 AM. Ugh this will be a lonnnnggg day.

Water torture (or how I was hot swimming in a pool)

Have you ever gotten to the point during a cardio workout when you know you hit the top of your body's capacity to produce? Your heart is racing, you muscles are pumped, and you're sweating and overheated?

Well, I was all that. Even the sweat.

The workout that Chuck gave us was intense. So intense that my body was hot from exertion. It's a weird feeling, sweating and overheated while you're in a pool. That lasted for twenty minutes after the workout was over.

I did approximately about the same amount of distance on Sunday, but I was not even tired. It is all about the intensity.

Total distance last night was 1600 meters.

Today is a run in Central Park, mid afternoon.

Training Tri-Fecta!!

My son has been going potty this week. Brenda has been working hard to recognize the signs of "potty time" and putting him on the potty. Then late this week, he pulled my wife's shirt and said "I have to go potty Mommy!" Lo and behold, she took him to the potty and hooray, he did it without any prompting or cajoling.

My son's expression said it all, he had a huge feeling of accomplishment. He did it all by himself!

I'm sure that people over the age of 80 have that same feeling by the way!

Why on earth am I talking about this? Well, today I did three, yes count em', three separate workouts. There is an expression in football training "two a day", which signifies two workouts a day. I did three! Yippeee, I did it all by myself!

Tri training needs to be intense, you're doing three distinctly different things that can absolutely drain every ounce of energy from you. You don't have the luxury of doing the swim one day and the bike and run tomorrow. So for me, doing all three in one day is a huge step.

Now I didn't do them back to back. I saddled up and did a forty mile ride in the morning which approximately was an hour and half. Since I train in South Jersey and stay at my in-laws shore house, I had to help my wife pack her car with clothes and the kids. I kissed them goodbye and went to my parents, who are also in the same area, and promptly jumped into their canal, which in South NJ is called a "lagoon". I swam there for about one hour and racked up a mile or so of long laps. I ate at my mom's (thanks again!) left and drove two hours in beach traffic back to our house.

Then I played with the kids, went to a pizza dinner, helped them to tub and bed. I then went to the running track in Rutherford and pounded out a 7 mile run. Approximate rest time in between was five hours.

All in all, there was some space between each workout. Ideally I want to start shrinking that rest time to something closer to what I would experience in an event. I have in my estimation approximately eight more Tri-fecta workouts before September.

Oh and I'm sunburned to all heck. My back is warmer than 3 mile island on it's anniversary.

Central Park Run today

I plan to do a late lunch CP run today around 2PM or so. Weather should be accomodating, it's not muggy at all.

I drove in today. I'm going to Queens later on (Shout out to the old 'hood!) to do some work for a my friend Mike's plumbing business. Traffice wasn't so bad, so I took a pic (yes, this is fairly lame, but I got inspired by the lack of traffic)

I will be training tomorrow and Sunday with some swims and long rides.

Three weeks to go before the NYC Half Marathon. I'm not ready but what the heck I'll do it anyway.

Central Park Run - 4.5 miles

I've raced in Central Park about a half a dozen times or so. It's a challenge depending on the race as there are several decent inclines and long flats.

My friend Gene and I decided to meet in front of the Apple store on 5th ave and 59th to do a casual run. Gene has a great giving streak in him as he's involved in several charities including Ronald McDonald house. Gene is going to participate in the NY Marathon this year and while assisting a wheel chair bound participant. Essentially he will be pushing the wheelchair 26 miles. I wish him well, that to me is a bit much of a challenge.

He and I decided to start running casually around the park, a six mile loop. It was a cool, crisp morning, definitely better than the weather we have been having which has been hot and muggy.

I have to say Central Park is a much different place in the morning. It truly is a beautiful place to run. I'm going to post some pictures later in the day from the CP loop where Gene and I ran.

Note: My right hamstring is barking like a whipped dog. I may have to curtail my running to shorter distances to keep myself upright. This is going to stink because I'm set to do the NYC Half Marathon sponsored by Nike.

Miles to go before I sleep.

I normally am not a cell phone camera guy, I took this picture in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in South New Jersey as I'm riding 30 miles on one of my training rides.

You never know how tough this sort of training is until you really really get into it. I know that I can ride 30 miles, I can swim a mile (badly), and run 6 miles slowly, but I am definitely not sure I can do this all in one sitting.

This ride was especially tough. It was over 93 degrees, muggy, and the ride was absolutely filled with bugs. I kind of think I'm a camel (not built like one) where I can go without water for a bit of time. I had to the find at least four places that had at minimum a water hose. Now most of my ride looked the road above, so finding the water stops were few and very far in between.

Note to self: Bring a camelback with at least a gallon of water.

Next ride is a 50 mile treck between Washington Township and Mays Landing New Jersey.