New Speed

Wow, sorry I missed a few posts. Work killed me last week. So the big news is that I PR'd at the Gold Coast Tri and found myself with a newly improved sub-6 min/mile. It's crazy to look back and think that three years ago I was running a 9 minute mile with an extra 40 pounds around my waist. Suddenly, I am my age-group champ in the running leg of my first triathlon. It really put things in perspective. For the first time I'm actually wondering if I have what it takes to become an age group athlete, if I could shave a few minutes off of my bike (a few of which should come by switching to clip ins and aerobars) I would have finished within the top three age group over all. Looks like I'm going to have something riding on the TOBAY race after all!

Last Wednesday was the corporate challenge, a 3.5 miler in Central Park. My time last year was around 21:40 and I was really hoping to break 20 minutes this year. I came close but I finished with a 20:21, or 5:49 per/mile. Again, it feels amazing to be breaking that barrier. 

Sunday I had the Road Runner's Achilles 5 mile in central park and just had no energy. Most likely caused by running 3 races in less than week... duh... Well I just jogged it out and relaxed and had a 37 something. The storms held off from ruining our race but the humidity was still brutal. 

I had a brick yesterday and cruised so I think today I'll just relax and bike. One of these days I'll rest... I promise....

It's Official!

It's now official! The 7-second run score has been removed from the race records and I am now the age-group champ in the run leg!... Now if only I could bring down the biking.....

Future Marathon Hall-Of-Famer

I would just like to introduce my niece Zoey Jane Dennis, who I am proclaiming now will win the 2024 Olympics. Yeah....

Long Island Gold Coast Sprint RR

Wow, what a first race. A great morning over all, really. The night before we had a bit of a storm on the island so I was a little scared to see the result on the course but everything was great! Here's the RR

Morning- My five alarms sprung me from bed at 4:15 Am. I jumped into my tri top and bottom, some sweats and then downstairs for coffee and breakfast. I plugged through my monstrous bowl of oatmeal and two cups of Kona java [to get into the spirit  of the day ;) ], loaded my bike into the car and then went through my race bag two or three times. As I grabbed the directions and my water bottles from the fridge my Dad came downstairs to wish me off. Perhaps it's silly, but his getting up at 5 am just to give me a hug and encourage really meant a lot. He doesn't pretend to understand why I'm doing these things, but he recognizes how important they are to me and his encouragement feels great. He dug out an additional water bottle for me and wished me off.

I was in the car by a few minutes after 5am and after an uneventful drive, arrived at the course by 6. As I unloaded my kip and checked my race bag another 3 times and walked over to the race start. I would have liked to set up my gear a little more relaxed but the gnats where out in force and it was really tough to gather myself. I spent a few moments sitting on my towel just breathing and meditating before grabbing my wetsuit and heading down to the water... or where I thought it water was....

Nothing. The fog wasn't pea-soupy, it was more like cream-of-mushroom soup. I couldn't see more than 4 feet into the water. Regardless I donned by suit and jumped in. Moment of honesty.... I had only worn my wetsuit once before and that was in the changing from of R&A Cycles in brooklyn. The experience was a little enlighting as the suit snugged up to my body and tiny squirts of icy Sound water entered through the rear zipper. I wasn't really comfortable swimming too far out into the fog so after some quick strokes and stretches I returned to transition area only to find the mornings first emergency... 

No water!!! I had left all my water bottles in the car! With 10 minutes until race start I had no time to grab them!! I frantically searched by bag only to find... the small bottle of poland spring my father had handed me going out the door. With a blessing to him under my breath I downed a Gu and only a few sips of water to conserve for later. With my goggles in my hand and my cap tucked into my top I returned to the beach to await my fate.

Thankfully the fog blew off rapidly and they were able to set up the final buoys with only a slight delay to race start, I formed a crowd with my age groupers and did the pre-race chat. With a minute to our start, a fellow AG'r I had met back in the transition area gave me one piece of sage advice "Start the swim slowly. You'll want to shoot out at first but hold back or you'll lose your steam 200 yards out." I nodded, thanked him and put on my cap....

The Swim - 

I started maybe 3 rows behind my AG leaders and fought to maintain my space early on. I felt my old highscool water polo skills kicking back in as I did a few roll dodges to avoid getting kicked in the face and just swam swam swam. Within the first 100 yards I felt my lungs SCREAMING at me that I had started much too quickly. Dooh... so much for that advice. As I started to panic (am I going to drown? I'm in 15 foot deep water, what happens now!??) I poked my head up from the waves and beheld a glorious sight. .... white caps... A quick look around revealed that I had indeed sped too quickly and had joined the wave that had left before my own. The emotion must be akin to how a shark feels when it smells fresh chum. I had this. Suddenly I felt great. I wish I had a picture of that moment, it felt like my whole body was grinning. I swam for my life and learned the importance of looking around while swimming, I found myself entirely out of the pack a few times only to backtrack and rejoin the group. 

Swim - 15:42 for 9th place Age Group. Not too bad, ehh?

The Bike-

I don't yet own clip in pedals so I had to put on my running shoes which cost me a long T1 (12th place) and my bike was on the far side of the bike start so I had to jog it a little ways to the mount up area. This wasn't bad actually as it helped my get my breath and my focus back from the swim. The ride itself was two loops on a pretty flat course, but with 2 very tight turns. On my first attempt I didn't slow enough and blew through the cones... oops. I passed a few people on mountain bikes but for the most part my bike was marked by wrrrr of zipp tires shooting past me. For some reason I was convinced that I had a flat rear tire (turns out I didn't..) so I didn't quite push the course as hard as I felt I had in me but I still finished 12th in my AG. Not terrible considering I've only owned a bike for less than a month. Over all, I left the course feeling like a good amount left in my tank.

Bike - 38:30 for 12th place AG

The Run-

The only thing going through my head at the start of the run was "Finally... mua-hahahahaha". The run is definitely secret weapon and I felt good immediately. It seemed my competitors were in slow motion as I cruised by them. It was a bit hot by this point (remember - no water for me) but I knew that it was only a 5k and that's a distance I have absolutely no fear of. My turnover felt great, I had no sluggishness possibly due to holding back on the bike a bit. It was a two loop course and once I turned for the second lap and knew how to play it, I just let it all out. I was on a total race high and didn't really know what was going on I was just plunging ahead. The final 200 yards or so was a straight away and I just took off like a bat out of hell for this. Time on clock - 1:22:51

Run: 17:52 for 2nd place AG 

Total 1:14:52 for 7th place AG and 98th place over-all

Wow. What a first race. I felt so great afterwards I was just stunned. I knew in my heart that I had rocked the run and that for one of the first times in my racing history I had no regrets, I felt like I had really given it all up. A great great day and to think.. I have 2 more sprints this year!!!

After-Note: My run is under a bit of contention. After checking the results I saw that no-one else in my age group had less than a 18:45, so who to whom did I lose? Well it turns out that some racer was clocked as having a 7 second 5k. Unless s/he's a F-22 Raptor I don't really see how that's possible. So my brain tells me that chip errors aside, I'm #1 AG in the run but my heart tells me, "TOBAY is in a few weeks, you think you're fast? Make it official this time." 

Thanks for reading guys! 

In other news- This race also marks my PR in the mile. My previous record was a 6:04 min/mile in a 5m earlier this year. This race marks my new mile as 5:45 min/mile after swimming and biking. I have a 5k race later this week and I'm hoping to PR on that as well now that I know I have it me to maybe even push it further down.... 

Long Island Gold Coast Tri

My first Tri is on Sunday and I can feel the nervous rush already. It's a sprint distance race and starts in Port Washington, NY. For those who are reading this and aren't already exposed to triathlons, there are 4 basic distances for races: the Ironman - super long distance race - 140.6 miles and broken down into a 2.4 mile swim, 112 bike and a 26.2 run. The Half Ironman a.k.a. 'Tinman' (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run), Olympic Triathlon 1.5 km swim, 40km bike and 10 km run and then finally the Sprint Triathlon at 750 meter swim, 20km bike and 5 km run. 

I picked up my race package yesterday uptown and I seem to have made a mistake in my registration... I'm in the second swim wave (meaning I am logically, in the second fastest group of athletes)... uhm... oops. I fully anticipate getting passed by the 4 and maybe even the 5th swim waves while still in the water. A lot of people have warned me to expect getting kicked, slapped, and grabbed during the water start because it's hard to see where you are going but I'm hoping my polo experience can prepare me for that pretty well. 

I'm going to pack tonight much more fully and I will see what I'm missing. I'll write more soon!

Back on my Feet

Last night I went for the training run with a few members of my company team for the Corporate Challenge. The good news is that I made it about 4 miles before my knee started to cry out and then finished another 2 with only the mildest discomfort. Ahh, progress is sweet.

This year, like last year, the STI Corporate Challenge is being handled by the extremely capable Nicole O'Hagen and she arranged for last night's practice run. There were four runners; Matt, Cassandra, Hermann and YT, and it was great to see how we were all different levels. This event tends to attract a huge variety and it isn't just the Elites coming out of the woodwork. 

The course is the same as last year and surprisingly tough. It starts by the daniel webster statue at W.72nd streetish and heads all the way up and around the park back to the east side of the 72nd street transverse. A lot of hills and turns for just a fun 5k, it truly is an accomplishment for those that finish regardless of timing. Of course it also helps that the course ends at the base of the infamous Central Park Hill so the last leg everyone gets a little help from gravity in order to sprint out the finish.

After the run we headed up as a group to a local bar/restaurant and had dinner and some delicious beers. (for the beer geeks reading this, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this nondescript UWS restaurant carried both Dead Guy and Anchor Steam... very delicious after a run). It's a very interesting experience to unwind with your coworkers and get a little boozy, especially in the construction industry when everyone is so emotionally shielded by layers of exasperation and frustration in the office and field. 

Any who, this is all good news, knee is feeling better, apartment is nearly livable. Life is good. We'll talk soon!!

Oh, and the fundraising efforts have brought me up to $175.00. That only leaves $2325.00 to go! Thanks all of you who have donated!

Injuries, races and life

Ahh, what a couple of weeks. It seems that I am just falling apart lately. Injuries galore. My ITB injury hasn't poked it's head up in a few days so I'm hoping the worst is over. I just have to slowly rebuild my miles up and not be a jack-ass running in old shoes for too long, logging too many miles, etc... Just a road to senseless injury.

This afternoon I have a training run with my company for the NYC Corporate Challenge coming up in 2 weeks. It's a 3.5 mile race for some charity or other. In reality it's just a great way to get out with some coworkers and blow off some steam. I suppose that since I had the best time in the company last year, and my budding reputation as a "running/idiot" I have been volunteered to be STI's figurehead in this run. So this afternoon I'll see what I have to work with and maybe I can turn a few of my co-workers into true champions! HA! Anywho. I still don't have internet in my new apartment so I'm currently racking up the $$ in a Brooklyn internet cafe. I'll write a longer post when it's not so expensive. 

See you on the path friends!