Become what you hate

Now that I am in the offseason I have had a little bit more time on my hands. It has been a little less hammering on the bike and more drinking of the seasonal fall beers. Less logging miles on the run and eating a lot more pizza. Not so many yards in the pool but more sweets being consumed. You get the picture.
I never posted a proper introduction when I started this blog, so why not start now. I came from a hockey background where running a mile was not even a thought in my mind. I used to hate running long distances. Yes I considered a mile, even 3 a long distance. Hockey specific training is more explosive movements, Olympic lifts and going all out for no more then a minute at a time, with plenty of rest. Running was our warm up and we all dreaded the laps around the track or dryland practice. It was so much easier to just hop on the ice and start skating. If you got lazy you can just glide. Dryland practice was a lot of sprinting 300 meters, bounds and hops, burpees and puking. How can anyone enjoy that??
After hockey was over and the competitive person that I am needed something more then just beer league puck. I signed up for a local 5k and placed in the top 50 overall. From there I was hooked. It was a slow start for me to really grasp the concept of running 3, 6, 10 miles. I couldn't fathom the concept that people actually did this for "fun." I decided after my 5k I would try a half marathon. I was still skeptical of how my body would react to this type of training. Was I doing to much? Was I doing enough? What do you eat during the race? Do you drink? There were a ton of questions that needed to be answered before I started my journey into the endurance world.
The first half marathon that I did was in Lake Placid NY. It was scenic, hilly and a challenging course. I had a great experience with the half marathon and posted my first PR. After the half I signed up for a sprint triathlon in my town, a little local event in Carmel, NY. Again, not having a clue what I was doing I went out and raced hard. I even pinned my bib number to tri top and swam with it on...who does that besides a newb?? Once again I had a positive experience with this race and wound up placing 3rd in my AG. Not really sure what that meant at the time, I accepted the award and went about the day. After the first sprint, I was hooked. I signed up for a sprint each month that summer. Placing well in all of my races(top 3) I knew I was ready for a bigger event. I went with Syracuse 70.3 in 2012 for my first half and the course was extremely challenging. I managed to get through the swim okay and struggled on the bike, followed by a walk/run to end my day.
I have come a long way since my first few steps on the treadmill. My season is packed with races for 2014. The goal for 2014 is to qualify for the Ironman World Championship at the half ironman distance at Syracuse, where it all started for me. I look forward to this challenge and I know with my competitive nature I will grab a spot for Worlds.

Timberman 70.3 RR

Pre Race: I had a hard time falling asleep the night before. A lot of going through my head, am I fully recovered from Placid? Will I flat? What if…??? You get it…

I am trying to develop consistency with my days leading up to a race. I tried to emulate the same things I did in Lake Placid.I managed to get some pancakes at IHOP before heading up. Strawberry banana and chocolate chip...SO GOOD I had a nice salmon dinner with mashed potatoes from UNOs, which was delicious by the way.

As for breakfast, back to that consistency thing, I had 2 eggs, bacon and a bagel from Dunks, coffee and a banana that morning.

4 of the 6 people I was staying with heading to Ellacoya around 5am to get into transition. Pretty normal stuff, body marking and transition set up was a breeze. 

Pancakes at IHOP

Swim: 32:32 Before we actually started my buddy got the announcer to give me a shout out about my mustache...”Bring that mustache to the finish line” was what he said before the horn went off. The swim went well overall, stayed with the lead pack until the first turn buoy and was dropped shortly thereafter. Swimming into the sun was tough, but I have done this course before, I was somewhat ready for that. Final turn into the transition area I picked up the pace, got stripped and went to my bike.

Bike:  2:46:38 I came out of transition ready to roll. I hopped on my bike rode with in my watts for the first 10miles or so. The uphills in the beginning were tough and my heart rate was very high. My HR was high the entire day to begin with. I pushed a little bit harder getting out to flat portion of the course heading to the race track(Loudon) I stuck to my nutrition plan, strayed from my watts and toward the end of the bike I began to feel sick, nauseous almost. 3 Gu/hr +2 salt tabs every 30min and water only on the bike throughout. I couldn’t seem to get my HR down at all not even on the downhills it was still relatively high. I finished the bike happy with a PR, still feeling fresh to run.

Run: 1:53:54 Bike was racked shoes and race belt on and off I went. I felt great coming out of T2 and hitting 8min miles until mile 9 or 10. I was taking in my nutrition well, GUs water and coke with salt tabs. At some point after the second loop, maybe around mile 7 or 8 I got that sick feeling again and couldn’t stomach anymore GU. I ditched taking the GU and stuck with coke water and salt tabs. At the turn around on my second loop, the spectators were giving out beer shots and sure enough I decided to take one. I figured it couldn’t make me feel any worse then I already was feeling. Once I crossed the finish line I looked up saw Potts and he gave me my medal which was awesome! Shook his hand and he gave me a congrats. It was awesome to see him at the finish line handing out medals to the finishers.

Overall: 5:17:11 I was extremely happy with my PR. My fastest half was 5:49 in Syracuse last summer, so to take off 30 minutes was a great accomplishment. The only downside to racing 3 weeks after IMLP was that I was very tired and a fought it all day. At times it felt like I was biking still and my stride on my run as if I was walking. After the finish, there was tons of food and everyone that raced got a free beer, which was all ok in my book. The course is challenging, but the scenery makes up for it. 

Post race beers and mustaches

Garmin Splits:

Timberman Swim

Timberman Bike 

Timberman Run

Thanks for reading!

Ironman Lake Placid RR

Pre race: Woke up around 3:45am and had breakfast. I ate 2 eggs, a bagel and drank a bottle of water. From the bed and breakfast I was staying at the lady drove me and another guy, Skip, to the start. I was a bit nervous, didnt know what to expect. I met up with some friends at the transition area. got my body markings done and went in to put water bottles on my bike and pump my tires.
After a few pictures with my girlfriend it was time to head to the swim start. I nearly forgot to put on my chip, thats how nervous I was.

Swim:1:09:31 I liked the swim start that they had, although not having the mass start for my first ironman was a little disheartening, Ill get over it. It was really smooth and everyone was in the water in less than 20mins. I seeded myself closer to the back of the 1:01-1:10 group.
The gun went off and we began to file in. I stuck to the pacing strategy I was given. With 2,700 athletes it was hard not to bump into anyone or get bumped into. It was tough to get into a rhythm, swimming around people, into people UNDER people...I couldnt even imagine a mass swim start.

T1: 7:30 NO one told me I had to change in the tent. I put my shoes and helmet on where I found my bag, stuffed my wetsuit and cap into the bike bag ran and grabbed my bike. Im completely new at this so I had no clue what was going on. I dragged my bike through T1 and grass was caught in my back wheel and it stopped spinning. I panicked, undid the skewer, pulled the clumps of grass out and went on my way

Bike: 6:35:26 The first loop was a bit wet. When we were in the water, apparently it down poured...Everyone persona I talked to, every article and thread I read told me to take the first loop slow and so I did. First loop I let every person pass me on the uphills, flats, wherever I was riding I was getting passed. I kept my watts below 190 on the uphills and around 160-170 on the flats. I took the big decent down into keene very slowly, being that the road was wet.

The support on the bike course was outstanding, tons of aid stations and even in some areas the spectators were awesome!

As I rolled into town, I grabbed my special needs bag, chugged flat coke, took a few more GUs for the ride and was off on my second loop. I went a bit faster on this loop and took the downhills much faster. The roads dried up and the sun was shining. pretty uneventful second loop, similar to the first loop...

T2: 3:33 This time I didnt change by the transition bags. I grabbed my run bag and trotted into the tent. Off came the helmet, bike shoes...on went my running shoes, fuel belt with 2 bottles of water, cap and shades.

Run: 3:57:09 I ducked out of the tent feeling great. I did my best to keep my HR low, cadence high and pace even for 26mi. I took each mile at a time. Before I knew it I was at the first turn around crushing 8:45min/mi pace(AVG)..I kept motoring along looking forward to the next turn around. My buddy was working at the special needs run bag, so I was looking forward to that as well. At the turn around still hovering around 8:45 or so minute/mi with my avg HR around 155bpm. I was feeling outstanding at this point. My confidence was up and the crowd at the turn around really jacked me up.

Onto the second lap, mostly downhill, my quads began to scream. It was only for a bit then it flattened out and continued on. At around mi 21, I hit the wall. My pace began to slow down into the 9:30mi mark. In my defense these last few miles were all uphill...still no excuses play like a champion. I hammered up the final hill into lake placid and onto mirror drive with the crowds roaring, I couldnt stop now.

Turning onto the oval was amazing. I saw my family and friends and of course Mike Reilly in the booth calling me out, telling everyone who I was, where I was from, what I do and I hear him "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN"

Overall: 11:53:09 I was so pumped after I finished this grueling race. All the sacrifices that went into this race, lack of sleep, countless training hours, watching my caloric intake it was worth EVERY minute of it. I owe a huge thanks to my coach, Jason Gootman from Tri-hard coaching, my parents who came and supported me and my girlfriend Tara for all the sacrifices she made. I had a race day execution plan, that dialed into nutrition, pacing and race strategy. I followed it to a T.

Nutrition:
Swim: Nothing

Bike: 21 GUs. 10 bottles of water

Run: 9 GUs. Flat Coke, 3 10oz bottles of water as well as water from the aid station

IMLP: 700+ bucks, Hotel for 5 nights $650+, Transportation $150+....Hearing Mike Reilly call you an Ironman for the first time...Priceless.

Thanks for reading.

Heres my Garmin:
IMLP Swim
IMLP Bike
IMLP Run

Tri'ng this out

This is my first and hopefully not my last post on here. I am new to this whole blogging thing but am willing to give it a shot. This blog will feature my training with totals of the week, routes I do with plenty of data to look at, race reports. Ill also throw in some fun health articles and things pertaining to my lifestyle: Healthy living, workouts of the day( I'm a personal trainer) and other fun things. Comment on things you would like to see. As this is my first blog post I hope to learn from other bloggers on how to do this, not correctly, just to do it. Some posts will be long, some short depending on time.

I chose to start writing in "my new blog" this week because of some extra time I have on my hands. Its a rest week. After finishing a big build week last week of 13 hours of training, what better way to tell people about it, by blogging it?


Last week was a productive week ending with a great brick workout. I rode through Concord MA with some great rolling hills. Total mileage was 56mi followed by a 5mi run. With great coaching from Jason Gootman at Tri-Hard I have learned a lot since I began my training for Ironman Lake Placid, as well as the amount of mental toughness I have gained. I got that from riding the trainer to many hours inside. As you can tell by my trainer selfie below. Plenty of those on Instagram.

Be sure to check out some data and my race schedule. I am in the process of posting these up within the next couple of hours. Hoping to get the hang of this. I want to keep things interesting and not boring for you.