NYC Marathon, take 2.

I registered for the NYC Marathon today. I’m guaranteed a spot from the NYRR 9+1 program. So now the trick is to get to the starting line this year.

Last year I obviously over trained and under recovered in preparation for the race and injured my ankle. I think I was hoping to have a really good marathon to make up for the lack of triathlons last year. Well this year I think my marathon goal won’t be so aggressive. I have a feeling it will be a go out and have fun kind of race. (if marathons can be fun). I guess I'm also assuming my triathlons will go better than last year.

I haven’t run or biked in a week. My sinuses and lungs are still messed up which is frustrating. Very frustrating. I have done my weight lifting and I’ve been in the pool twice.

Oddly enough the swimming has been pretty fantastic in terms of technique. My swim today was 2500. The last set was 2x400. Typically the first 100 goes well then the next 300 is a sufferfest. Today I could have kept going and my balance was as good as it’s been in a long long time. It felt like I was climbing a ladder. The timing was all there. Smoooooth. I can only hope that it sticks around. I’ve been working very hard at staying relaxed and not fighting for speed. Just take what’s there and focus on the form. Efficiency and form, Timberman is a long way off, no need to be fast now.

It would be great to show up for our swim lesson and actually feel like I’m going in better than where I left off last year. That wasn’t going to be the case a month ago. It’s nice to see some progress.

I know we just bought tri bikes, but I’ve been spending quite a bit of time researching fun off road bikes. I’ll definitely be checking out 29ers at some point. Genine may end up with a mountain bike unless the women’s specific frame on a 29er is small enough. We had her stand over a 15.5” trek 29er and it was too big. The guys at the shop were explaining that at her size she may not get much of the advantages of a 29er anyhow. We will have to do a bit more digging around to see what’s out there. She’s been happy with Michelle’s Cannondale the last 2 Tangos, so as long as it’s something along that line. She will be happy.

Speaking of Tango, it's probably a good time to see what people are thinking about doing for this year's Tango. I'm still only looking to be part of a relay. With Timberman on the schedule, I'm not going to do more than 2 events at the Tango.

Falling down

I had a short run scheduled Friday night. I was going to run it on the dreadmill again because I have no interest in taking a fall on the ice and breaking something. I’m not home during daylight hours on weekdays. But first I have to stop at Costco and do some shopping. Naturally almost everything I buy is packaged huge. I go home and unload the car. My final trip to the basement turns into a TRIP. I guess wet boots and my stairs, equaled zero friction. I slid down the stairs on my back. It’s pretty amazing how quickly you get to the basement if you don’t use the stairs properly. It’s a shame I didn’t have my HR monitor on, I think I would have found out what my max HR really is. All I could think was, what did I break? Right triceps are sore. Right glute took a massive hit. Left hand and wrist was hit by an 8 pack of progresso soup. Left elbow tried to catch a stair on the way down. How the back of my head escaped being struck on the way down is surprising to me.

I caught my breath and got up and found nothing was broken. Phew! Genine wasn’t home. Is it odd that what came to mind was the necklace button/pager they give to the elderly when they’ve fallen and can’t get up. Seriously! That was painful and more than a little scary.

Well that nixed the evening run. I figured I’d better wait and see how this is going to feel the next day before doing anything.

Saturday was a long bike. Fortunately the bruise on my glute was higher up than my sit bones so it was not an issue. My right calf and foot always seems to be an issue for me while biking. I spent a bunch of time focusing on what I might be doing differently than my left. It’s possible that I push more toe down on my right so I tried to focus on that. I also decided to order another set of cleats to put onto my older bike shoes. That pair is a bit wider and may be a better fit.

The funniest part about the ride was this. I have the front derailleur set so the chain will rub in the small chain ring on the innermost rear cogs, so the chain doesn’t drop. Well I hit the finish time, gear down for a cool down and… the chain drops. The K-Edge chain catcher did arrive this week. I just haven’t taken the time to try an install it yet. Honestly, I’d prefer not to use this thing but if it works, it’s going to be well worth it.

Sunday: Long swim day. (relative). I can feel where my right triceps took a hit. The short stuff went well. My pacing on descends is improving. I also focused on my exhalations. It’s funny that I seem to breathe well on race day, but when I train I often hold my breath. Reading this article helped me make this a priority today. The last set was an 800 and I was struggling. When I got out of the pool, my muscles were aching, especially up around my neck. I didn’t think too much of it.

I go home and watch part of the Bears/Packers game on TiVo. I get bored and head up to the dreadmill for a 60 minute run. It was an easy run but my breathing wasn’t feeling all that great. I had to really focus on it to keep my HR down.

I get a shower, make some dinner, start watching the Steelers game on the TiVo. It wasn’t too much longer before I realized I was burning a fever. That would explain the muscle ache.

I wake up the next morning and I realize I’ve got the flu. Sweats one minute, chills the next. The muscle ache was pretty bad. It’s times like this when you realize just how awesome being in good health really is. Tuesday was somewhat better but not much. Wednesday was less with the chills, more with the respiratory infection. Muscinex gets added to the mix along with frequent netipot use. Here it is Thursday and we are buried under 12+ inches of heavy snow. My fever kicks in if I don’t netipot often enough to keep the sinus infection in check. Maybe I should just go to the doctor now that the flu is gone and an antibiotic would actually be effective on the respiratory infection. I know the drill tho’. I’d go and they would say has it been a week? If no, then they tell me to come back next week if it’s still a problem and they will prescribe something then. (Or I lie and tell them it’s been over a week).

Obviously I’ve missed a few days of workouts. It may end up being 5 or 6. I think this bothers me less now that I have a training schedule. I know I’ll be able to pick up where I left off and it won’t take that long to get back on track.

If I were in the build part of my schedule, I might not feel this way. If I broke something falling down the stairs, I’d be much further behind so I’m not going to sweat it.

Also, I finally got my IR receiver working with my PC software on my mac. Which means I finally downloaded my Columbia and Mooseman race information from my watch. Pretty un-spectactular. The good news is I’ll be back at both those races again very soon.

Bree Wee Fans

Rev 3 has a phone in tonight at 8PM EST with special guest Bree Wee.
Yoga was canceled tonight so Genine will be home.
Kind of late notice but here is the link.

Helpful Swim Blog

Found this blog last night. At first I thought it's probably just going to say all the things I already know. As I read through the posts, I realized that even if I already "know" what they are saying, seeing this many examples really helped me understand it all better. Especially when it came to seeing how a flaw would typically create a second problem.
Here's the link.

Weight/Weights/Steelers

This morning I had my lowest weigh in since I started (late November). Which is good. I’m still not caught up with the curve on the graph tho’. I knew when I started that I wasn’t likely to get much ahead of the curve. I can definitely say being behind the curve has been a bit frustrating but this week I allowed it to become a motivator. I have had a few really low calorie days this week, as in 1500 calories on days with workouts. I just wasn’t hungry. This was not by plan. Looking at my nutritional balance on those days, the protein/fat/carb balance is nearly the same as it always is. The difference was likely the lack of simple carbs. Instead of having my sweet potato/black bean lunch, I had salad. Also, going into a workout, I’d eat a GU if I felt there was no way I was going to survive the workout without it. Otherwise I’d skip the energy bars/gels.

I’m not convinced that was the difference maker. Sometimes I feel the body fights to hang on to the weight, so you are at a plateau of sorts. Then suddenly it realizes it can’t hang on, it changes how it’s processing everything and you break through.

A purist would say calories in vs. calories out. Which is what it all boils down to. It’s just that we try to understand all the nuances of our diet so that we can properly fuel and fine-tune the machine. (I can’t help but think about Shawn’s nutrition for his first Tango swim. Not sure that was ever documented)

Obviously there are a ton of variables. The biggest hurdle in losing weight in my opinion is the “feel factor”. Nobody likes to feel hungry, or weak because of a diet. Those messages from the body can be pretty intense. I find it odd that I often miss those signals during a swim workout. If it’s a speed workout with short rest, I sometimes find myself feeling pretty jittery once I’m done and out of the pool.

I am 13 weeks into the training schedule and I think I can say I no longer dread the weight lifting workouts. They have become routine. It’s really hard to see my improvements on the bike and run right now. With the weights, the improvement is easy to see, also I can just feel the improvement, which is nice.

There are two exercises that I have to be cautious with. Pull-ups: this is the one where I messed up my bicep last year. So I do multiple sets with very few reps. I still feel a strain on my left forearm near my elbow but my bicep has not been an issue. I’ll admit on nights when I’m feeling strong, I have to fight the urge to do a max set to see how many I can do. After doing 3 or 4 sets of low reps. I then do a few sets of negatives (start at the top and lower slowly).

The other is the bench press. My right wrist doesn’t seem to like pushing a bar. Last night I took 20 pounds off of what I had been doing, just to see if it would make a difference. It didn’t. I’m now considering removing bench press from the list and replacing it with push-ups. My wrist doesn’t seem to have a problem doing push-ups.

I’d like to figure out what I need to change/improve so I wouldn’t have to modify the workout. Unfortunately, the answer could be “I’m old”. So I’ll be happy with the modifications and hope to stay injury free. As Dirty Harry would say “A man’s got to know his limitations”

New York is all fired up about the Jets/Steelers game this weekend. They even had a rally in Times Square for them. Did any of the other teams do this in their cities?

For those who don’t know, I’m originally from western PA. So I’ll be rooting for the Steelers not the Jets. Even tho’ I work in NYC. It has the potential to be a good game here is how I see the matchup.

Looking at both team’s offense and defense, I think the Jets Offense is the weakest link. Unless they get help from their Special Teams and Defense giving them good field position. The Jets offense won’t put many points on the board.

The only concern I have for the Steelers is turnovers. Typically not an issue, but the Jets D will be fired up. (They are talking shutout. Ha!) I feel that with both Defenses being as good as they are, this game could be won with as few as 17-21 points.

I have yet to watch an entire game all season. I’m looking forward to Sunday!

2010 Fundraiser Total

I don't think I ever posted a finish to our fundraiser last year. Partially because I had thought I'd have a pre-marathon fundraiser party. Once I tweaked my ankle that kind of pushed that off the table...
Anyhow, our 2010 total looks like it will be $5,180. Which is great considering what an odd year 2010 turned into. That brings our 3 year total to over $37,000!

I'm hoping to do a better job putting together some events and other fundraiser ideas for 2011. I'd like to see our 2011 total bump back into 5 digits.

If anyone else would like to be involved with our "team" and help raise money for Dr Guinan at the Boston Children's Hospital. Just leave a comment here and we can get connected.
The fundraising site makes it very easy to do. How easy? Check it out here. You just click on "Join our Fundraising Group" and follow the instructions.

Thanks again everyone!

Updates

Ran the New Year's day 5k in Olean NY- 19:13. Warm day for us,... in the 40's . Was hoping to go under 19 again but got one mile in at 6:05 felt great and thought I'd pick it up a little. So I ran harder the next mile to get a 6:13. It seems the increased effort was necessary as I was thinking I was much faster than I really was. Finished 8th of about 180.

Started training for the New Jersey Marathon to be held May 1. Chris, Marty, Brad and Brad's daughter Darbee are all signed up too! Should be fun if I can keep the training up during the heart of the semester.

Planning on signing up for the the indoor tri on Feb 25 or 26th at Chautauqua ( Michelle should try this as there isonly 15 minutes per event and it is a good first time indoor tri)

Signing up for Lake Tupper Tinman on June 25th. This is the year to make it happen. Should be able to improve on my 7:45 from 11 years ago with a 31 pound bike and a body that was worse at swimming than I am now.

January through the 17th-
1/2 mile swim ( I know it is feeble, lame etc,... but I am getting back to it)
60 miles biking ( most of this in the last 8 days)
40 miles running!!

A decent start for me.

Does Derailleur mean frustrating in French?

I got my bike back from the shop the other day. Unfortunately, the front derailleur is still not where it should be. I’m able to shift to the big ring more easily. They definitely improved that setting. I’ve still got a couple problems with the small ring tho’. The biggest is the fact that it will just miss the small ring when moving from the big ring and my chain drops. That is really unacceptable, obviously.
People who know me, know that I do my homework when I run into problems like this. Over the last week, I’ve definitely gained a ton of theoretical knowledge about how to adjust a front derailleur. Well now that it’s been to 2 bike shops and it’s still not right. It’s time to put some of that theory into practice. I adjusted the limit trim for the small chain ring. I adjusted it out away from the frame a bit. This should keep it from passing the small ring and falling off. At first I thought my adjustment worked perfectly. I couldn’t get it to drop. Then as I shifted through the rear cogs when I reached the innermost cogs, the chain started to rub against the front derailleur. That can’t be right. So I slowly adjusted the FD back inwards to the frame until the chain no longer rubs. Which returned the set screw right back to where the shop had it set. Which means the chain is going to miss the small ring up front from time to time. Ugh! My initial thought was with the smaller chain ring up front I should never be using these wimpy inner cogs anyhow, ha ha! Really, I need to look at a few more things or have the shop look at few more things… The angle adjustment is the first thing. This is a braze-on (In this picture note the bracket the FD attaches to rather than a clamp going all the way around the seat post) A Braze-on FD has little or no angle adjustment. I need to figure that out. Perhaps it’s bent? Maybe it’s the 26 of the 12-26 cassette (doubtful). B-Tension? Chain length? (doubtful). I now know enough about FDs that when I get to the shop, I should be able to work with the guys there to get it figured out. This may sound obsessive but I don’t think there is anyone out there that would find this acceptable. A dropped chain not only makes you stop to fix it, it also has the potential of being dangerous.

My bike workout last night was a higher HR tempo ride for 45 minutes. Typically I follow a Spinervals workout’s gear changes. This gives me a ton of variation, as I have to adjust my cadence to hold my HR zone. I didn’t want to deal with the chain drop issue so I found a gear that had me spinning at about 85 rpm (no computer on this bike yet) and just left it there for the entire workout.
I’ve been using the profile design saddle. I’m not in love with it. It’s not bad but I’m probably going to switch saddles soon. I’m on a mission to find the right saddle this year.

I went to the pool Thursday morning, you can see the bottom of the pool again. The people that swam Tuesday said it was chlorine overload. I’m glad I missed that. I had another short workout scheduled. If nothing else, these are good confidence builders, as the effort seems to be so easy.

I ran on the treadmill the other night, a 45 min tempo run. I was surprised to find myself running considerably faster than usual at the given HR zone. Enough so that I initially thought my HR strap must have stopped transmitting. (it was working). This week is a recovery week of sorts. Maybe I’m just not as tired. The other thought that crossed my mind was that my bike workout the day before was on the tri bike, not the road bike. I can’t imagine that was the reason for the better speed. Could it?

All in all, another good week of training. Now that it's 2011, all the races are starting to feel like they are just around the corner. All this snow reminds me that I've got some base training left to do tho'.

Where are the lane lines?

Our pool is always an adventure...

I get to the pool and the lot is nearly empty and nobody is swimming. The sign at the desk says "Very Low Chlorine". I ask if I can swim and the lifeguard says, "in the shallow end, otherwise I couldn't see you if you were at the bottom of the pool".
Seriously, you couldn't see the lane lines in the deep end. ::Sigh:: I had a 30 minute workout, so I figured why not. I complain about too much chlorine, this is better right? I didn't feel like I was breathing chemicals the whole time like last Monday morning...

So what do you think? Was that stupid? Should I have skipped the swim this morning?

Wrong side of the curve. Bike Fit.

I'm still on the wrong side of my weight loss graph. It’s really not surprising I guess. I didn’t have time to make all the foods I like to have available to me during the week. It’s difficult to find time for cooking AND workouts on weekdays. So I end up working with what I’ve got in the fridge and it doesn’t work as well. Also I guess I’m not someone who throws a switch and is back on track. It’s been a week now, hopefully I’ve built up some momentum and my eating will be on track this week. (I’m not that far off the curve, no worries yet).

I also went to the bike shop to get a bike fit. I went to the guy that showed me the 2011 P2C. I was a bit concerned that he would be put off by the fact that I bought used rather than buying, not one but two bikes from him. I decided to call him anyhow because when we were talking about fit, I liked what he had to say about it.

Before I even stand over the bike, he puts me onto a table to measure my flexibility. He finds out that I have none. I think he was a bit surprised at how tight my hamstrings are. From his measurements he then puts me onto the bike and I get my fit. I am nowhere near textbook triathlon aero position and I’m okay with that. I want to be in a position that I can go out and ride 3-6 hours and my back won’t be screaming after the first hour or so. Because once the back starts to ache, I’m sure my power drops, it hurts to push hard when it’s like that.

My aerobar setup might be a bit of a work in progress. I had the ski jump bars before. These are the S bend bars and I have to get comfortable with that position. I’m happy with the fit though. I’m also glad I have months to workout on the new bike before I have to race.

Next the bike went over to the bike tech. They ran a few new cables, replaced and trimmed some cable housing, then adjusted the shifting. Good as new right? Well unfortunately when I got home and put the bike on the trainer, I found the shifting was still not good. I couldn’t even get to the 12 tooth. That was a simple enough adjustment but the front derailleur when pedaling under load did not shift up to the big ring easily. (which was the one thing I mentioned that needed to be fixed) So I started to adjust that as well. I spent wayyyy too much time working on this. I was checking everything. Is the cable the right length? Stretched? Are the ramps and pins on the chain ring good? What Is Up?!?! I was considering just taking it back to the shop and having them re-do it. Instead, I decided to take it to the shop near me that has always done a fantastic job tuning my bikes. (for half the cost of the other shop). Which means I don’t have my bike for a few days. This will upset me only if my problem isn’t resolved when I get my bike back. (I don’t expect that I’ll be disappointed)

Genine’s bike is also built. I spent some time with her yesterday giving her a basic fit. I also gave her my ISM saddle to try out. I’m going to use the profile design on my P2SL and try out an older Fizik saddle on my Trek. I want to find the right saddle this season.

It’s hard not to be a bit jealous of Genine’s bike, it’s Brand New with Dura Ace componenets! I know, I know, the bikes are nearly identical. If I should be jealous of anything I should be jealous of her flexibility. She will likely be in a more aero position than I am once she gets her fitting.

Which brings me to Yoga. I now have the option of a 2^nd yoga class every week. Of course I should do it, the trouble is with the scheduling. That would make 13 workouts a week I need to schedule. That will be easier to do now during the winter than when it’s the summer. How many times will I want to be out on my bike after work rather than in a yoga studio? You could argue I just do yoga on my own. Well I think the answer to that question is this. I am sore the day after I take a yoga class. This never happens when I do my own yoga. I plan on sending a note to the coaches to see what the modifications would be to go to a 9 SBR+ weights workout week instead of 11.

Lastly, Swimming. I’m still slow but kicking is definitely improving. I would credit the weight training for this. I’m also keeping good single goggle breathing form, which is doing good things in terms of keeping my overall balance in the water.

My workouts are much different this year than in previous years. I’m doing more 400’s 600’s and 800’s. I can’t help but think this is helping me find my pacing for longer distances and it’s also changing my mindset about these being “long” sets. I see them on the list and I just get to it. Slowly, but I’m confident that will change. In about a month I’ll see Coach Q for my first lesson of the year. He has always helped me make noticeable improvements. I can’t wait. I love being fast in the water. (relatively speaking of course)

Shipping your Tri Bike?

I took a couple of picture of my how my "new" bike was shipped to me in a standard bike box. I figured it could be useful in the future if I ever need to ship it again.

The parts you would likely need to ask the bike shop for are, the cap on the front wheel hub seen in the 2nd picture. The plastic part on the bottom of the fork. Also beneath the white foam at the stem was a cardboard tube placed over the stem where the bars attach, this kept the fork from moving up and down. The second bike had a large tie wrap in place here, it worked but not nearly as effective.

Crank side: Click to enlarge.


the other side


The other bike arrived with the rear derailleur detached, wrapped tightly in bubble wrap and tie wrapped to the frame close to where it normally resides. I can't say which method is better. Anyone with any experience/damage reports of one method vs the other?

This is a Cervelo P2SL in case anyone is wondering.

Bike Builder / holiday damage report

Both bikes have arrived. Now I have to get them put together. Genine's appears to be new. I can't see a mark on it, not the rims, crank or cassette. I keep thinking there's got to be something I'm missing... Or maybe we got another really nice deal on a bike for her.

I mentioned in the last post the Cervelos have the compact crank but I said the wrong size. It should have said 50/34 for the cranks. I'll have to go back and edit that post. More about the bikes later. I've got to run before I build.

I had said that there were some dangerous weekends ahead back at Xmas. Well I came away from the first weekend in pretty good shape. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for New Year’s weekend. I’m somewhat stunned at the damage that occurred last weekend. I blame the guacamole. Which is my fault, I made it after all. Obviously guacamole really wasn’t the problem, it was just too much of everything. The good news is I’m sort of glad this happened when it did. I’m far enough away from my “deadline” that I didn’t make the goal impossible and I learned a good lesson. If I really want this weight goal to happen, I can’t stray from the plan for 3 days like I did this past weekend. (I also learned that I gain weight quickly, is that useful somehow, somewhere?)

As I got onto the bike trainer the other day, I stopped to consider pressing the odometer reset on my bike computer. That way I could keep track of how many miles I put in for each workout and have monthly and yearly totals. I decided not to do it. My current plan is time based, if I start to look at mileage there is a good chance I start to make that the priority. I suppose I’ll be able to go through my workout journal and determine how many hours I put in but at the moment, that isn’t important to me at all. I’m more interested in what I have to do next, rather than what it is I’ve already done. I think this is because I have a workout schedule. Without the schedule, I’d probably be looking to see what I’d done in the past to try and work out some sort of balance. For example, I missed the majority of my runs the last 7-10 days. Before that would probably mean I try to make up for lost time by running a bunch this week. Now I just make sure I complete the runs that are on my schedule. It’s simply a matter of getting back on schedule

That idea kind of leads me to my weight training. Over the last few years, I’ve tried a few fun strength plans that I never finished. Twenty Pull-ups was one of them, 100 pushups was another. For some people, these plans would be just fine. In hindsight, they were not good for me. They were just pushing me into overuse injuries. My weight training now is much more balanced. I have no goals in mind as to how much I want to improve. Meaning I’m not feeling pressured to bench press say 200 pounds before the season starts. I just add additional weight onto the exercises when it feels that the previous weight has become too easy. There may come a time that this approach is not good enough but at the moment it seems to be right.

The "new" bikes.

About these Cervelo P2 SLs (Aluminum):

As I had mentioned previously, I was at the bike shop a few weeks ago and was considering a 2011 P2C (carbon). I left the shop not very excited about it. I would say there are two factors involved here. The Carbon bike is likely more bike than I need at my ability and it’s hard for me to justify the cost of new carbon when I don’t consider myself a great cyclist.

I had basically put my search on hold for the holidays, until I ran into a post on a triathlon forum. Someone was selling a used P2SL in my size. So I looked into it and it just felt like the right deal. I liked the style of the bike and the price was such that I knew I was unlikely to regret my decision.

Genine has a rule tho’, if I get a bike, she gets a bike. Well I had already been talking to her about a bike that was at a shop down in the Philadelphia area. We just needed to make the trip to check it out. Being X-mas weekend, I had some time to surf the net to see what else was out there. Oddly enough, I found another P2SL from 2008 in Genine’s size that appears to be unused, with full Dura Ace components, AND it was in a color Genine would like. As it turns out, I got that bike even cheaper than my bike!

It really seems like this was just meant to be. Both P2SLs together cost less than what the 2011 P2C would have cost me.

Now we need to schedule a bike fit. I have three places in mind. I’m very tempted to have Genine go to one place and me to another. Unless we walk away from the first fitting really overly impressed.

Everyone I talk to about having finally bought a tri bike brings up the fact that I’m going to really notice a difference when I start my run. I have to say, I’m looking forward to experiencing that.

We will also have some different gear ratios. These Cervelos come with compact cranks. My current double is 53/39. Genine has a triple 52/39/30. I believe both Cervelos will have 50/34. The 50 is probably a better match for both of us. Genine is going to lose her Granny gear tho’. Also I think her new bike is going to show up with an 11-23 cassette, whereas mine is going to be a 12-26. We will likely swap those around. It will take some hill training for me to decide if I also need a 12/26 for the hills of Mooseman or Timberman.

Genine will also be on 650c wheels. It will be interesting to hear her experience there. We will have to keep track of spare tubes and tires as 650c equipment is harder to find/borrow on race day.

It does complicate matters regarding sharing a pending power meter. I suppose for training she could just switch to her road bike and use the wheel. I was going to say for racing if she really felt she wanted to have a power meter on race day we could rent one. I just went to the website and I don’t see power tap options for 650c wheelsets though. I’m getting ahead of myself here. We haven’t bought one yet, I’m sure we will have worked this out before we buy anything.