July 16th,26 days left...

I now have an odd appreciation for Mondays, even though mondays you usually associate mostly with starting another long work week. I appreciate Mondays because it's my only rest day & a quick break from my final week of intense training.  So today is all about recovery & resting the body enough to keep on pushing forward...

26 days until Ironman NY & I am really getting to a point in training that is mentally/physically beyond what I have ever experienced.  I have never pushed my body to this extent in my entire life & during long training runs start doubting what it's going to take to run a good marathon after the 112 mile bike.   I have worked up 2 weeks ago from 15 hour per week training to a little over 18 hours a week.  The swim workouts get 30 minutes longer, the run workouts get hours longer and I feel that I have spent more time on my bike the past months than I have driving my jeep, which is true.  A little over 200 miles on the bike per week & now averaging in the low 40's running, with a good 6 miles swimming.  I hope to have enough energy left to get me through this week & get to the starting line aug 11th fully recovered and ready to roll.  The finish line can't come soon enough.

Syracuse 70.3 Race Report

Syracuse 70.3 Race Report:

Saturday I drove up to Syracuse on a mission to get a qualifying spot for the Las Vegas World Championships @ Syracuse 70.3.  It was very important to me to validate all this time and sacrifice I have been putting into training.  This was also my main race of the season.

I drove up solo & was feeling great after a suprise visit from my brother/wife and their new baby, who had been in New Jersey for a couple days.   After I had registered months back, I found out that Ironman was giving out 100 vegas slots instead of 50 for certain Ironman events & Syracuse 70.3 was one of them.  Regardless of how many slots were available I really wanted to try for a top 3 finish in my age group(considering there's usually only 2/3 slots per group).  There's always uncertainty with how you can place as you never know what kind of talent will show up on race day.(usually its very good)

I was meeting 2 members of my Pearl Izumi Triathlon team, Joe McMahon (who coached me and still provides great insite) & Carrie Slavinksi, both well experienced/talented athletes who would arrive later in the day.  After a 4 hour drive I arrived at the race site early to make sure I got in a good 30 min bike ride with a 2 mile race-paced run off the bike & check to see everything was working well.  The swim course was closed to swimmers, but managed to get in a good 20 minute swim half way around the lake where there was no authority.   

Taking lessons from my Florida 70.3 performance in May, in order to qualify for Vegas I knew I needed to really push the effort on the bike, in addition to swimming a couple minutes faster, while assuming I could run sub 1:30.

- I always think out my goals going into the next race, making sure they are realistic/difficult yet attainable.

- I write my goals for the race and break them down by each segment & times a couple days before the event. 

-I can usually get a good idea by looking at previous years results and athletes times that I know or that I have raced against in the past, which are usually accurate if the course hasn't been changed from the year prior.

Swim:

Motivated and tired of putting in very horrible early season swim times I started strong from the sound of the gun.  I lined up center middle and felt great as others in the group weren't as aggressive as I was used to, which gave me some room to distance myself in the first 200-300 yards.  I immediately caught on a draft line of 2 swimmers who seemed to be holding a good pace.  I made a huge effort to stay with them and if I had the chance I would go for the pass.  When drafting you follow the bubbles and hope to stay within a bodies length or closer to the swimmer you are trying to follow.  Meanwhile, you need to make sure they are guiding you properly & watch out & avoid any other triathletes (dead bodies) I like to call them, which are the slower swimmers from swim waves that started before you.  3/4 of the way through the race I was still drafting off the same two guys and pretty happy about the effort.  I had a chance to pass, but smartly deciding to hold off as it may only save me a couple seconds as opposed to sitting back on their feet to save energy before I got out of the water.  As you can see in the picture below I did a double take at my watch to realize I hit a personal best for a half iron swim going sub 30 minutes.  Finally putting in a good swim to what my training was at!

Swim: 29:09      

Bike:

I knew Syracuse would be hilly the first 13-15 miles and I had a clear advantage training in the hills of NY.  From March-June Route 9W provides some challenging hills and is far different than the terrain of a super flat Florida course.  This is where I was confident in my ability as opposed to racing many locals floridians at the Florida 70.3, who were used to a flat course & most likely had more early season outdoor training time.  Still the bike was my weakest of the three segments & after looking at last year's results I was shooting for around a 2:32.
First 2 miles flat, and then begins what felt like a slow-motion first hour of non-stop hills.  I drove the course the day before so I wasn't suprised, but feeling the hills on your bike as opposed to driving them is a whole different ball game.  40 minutes into the bike is where I usually warmup up and feel comfortable, but I started feeling sick and had a lack of energy.  I was mentally trying to convince myself to give up and check out of the race, which doesn't happen to often this soon in a race.  I kept pushing & as mile 30-35 approached the course began to pickup speed with many downhill sections.  I clocked in one downhill at 48 mph, so we were cruisin!  This is also the first race I got to experience a group of cheaters who caught up to me around mile 35.  There was a pack of 4 guys from Panama with one lead man ( of course in my age group) drafting off of eachother, while really being reckless on their bikes cutting people off & blocking the road.  These guys didn't seem to experienced and noticed they would pass me fast then slow down, which meant they really had no idea how to pace & were over working themselves.  I knew that if they were cheating on the bike, they would probably crap out on the run so I wasn't worried to much about them.  They actually helped me out, as I got pretty motivated & found another level to push past them on the bike to finish out the last 20 miles very strong, while keeping my heart rate in the high 140' to mid 150's.  I came off the bike right in front of the eventual 5th place guy, who had a 2 min faster run than me & later found out was a 9:20 Ironman AZ finisher & finished 20th in the World at the 70.3 World Championships last year ag 30-34, quite impressive. He finished 3 minutes ahead of me overall.

Bike Time: 2:30:50

T2:

Was devastating.  Lost a minute finding my bike as I forgot to practice my transition from bike to run before the race.  I literally was running up and down rows to realize I went down the wrong row and was doing limbo to get under to the next.


Run: 1:30:50

A big reason I ran so well in Florida was my nutrition & adding 4 total salt caps to my two bottles.  For some reason, I had underestimated how hot it was going to be In Syracuse(cut my salt cap intake in half to 2 caps) during the bike/run.  The early morning it was cloudy and low 60's, but it was very humid and hot (85 plus) in the last parts of the bike and run. Coming off the bike I didn't feel as good, which could have been related to the lower salt intake, but I took into account the monster hills we had to run up & possibly the hilly bike course wore down my legs.  I was really trying to hold a 6:30 pace, but soon realized that this plan wouldn't happen.  At about mile 2 there was a solid mile of extreme hill with most people walking up.  I kept the legs moving & made sure on the downhill I pushed hard.  The run course was a two looper & I can't really complain other than it being a pretty tough course.   I managed a 1:30 and change at roughly 6:50 per mile. 

Overall:  4:35

I finished with a 4:35 time good for 6th/112 age group and 48/1045 inlcuding the 20-30 pros in the race. Qualifying for the World Championships in Las Vegas.   Very excited to build on this race, looking forward to my first ironman in New york & 70.3 las vegas.

Before/After; 10 Ways to take control of your Health

In 2010 & several years leading up to the start of triathlon I had fallen into some very bad weekend habits.  Even though I considered myself a healthy person, I had realized I was spending too many nights at the bar, especially Fridays/Saturdays.  I had lost control in a sense, staying out until 4 a.m. drinking beers, which turned into hard cocktails & then countless shots.   I was having a great time, but I had abused my body some weekend nights so bad to the point that I couldn't come out of my apartment & off the couch until the next night after 6 or 7 p.m.  Being severly dehydrated my body would be shaking terribly & I would feel helpless at times.  Why was I doing this to myself?  At some point I couldn't take it anymore.  I decided that this cycle had to end & luckily stumbled upon something that would turn this problem around.   

The lifestyle that comes with triathlon was that turning point. 

Saturday/Sunday mornings started to be my most active hours in the week!  I transformed from eating pizza at 4:30 a.m. Saturday to getting up at 6:00 a.m. for a 2-5 hour bike ride or if I had a race cerain weekends.  As a result, my body started changing and I became a lot stronger & a lot healthier.  I would take the health & physical activities I was doing on the weekend and build on that going into each week.  This is where I think a lot of young people have a hard time.  They spend a lot of the workweek trying to diet and eat healthy, but their hard work is completely washed away once the weekend comes..  That late Saturday night holds your hangover until sunday night & your recovery really lasts until Tuesday the next week.  You totally erase any health gains you accomplished during the week by your weekend abuse!  Everything is ok in moderation, but I personally couldn't be at a bar for 4 hours and get by having only 2 drinks.  If you have that self control more power to you.

I have to admit I sometimes miss the days of building up a big tolerance for alcohol, staying out late/sleeping in & eating whatever I felt like, but now I can truly value the feeling of a healthy diet/lifestyle because I have been through both scenarios and see the effects of how the body reacts to both. 

When I talk about eating healthy I am not talking about eating less.  I actual eat a substantial amount more now than I ever did (some attributed to increase in activity), but the foods I take in are much more nutrient rich than before; Avocados, Quinao, Soba Noodles, bulgar wheat, sweet potato, Lean chicken/meats, supergreens, krill oil/astaxanthin, coq10, probiotics, adding kale and other vegetables. 

 I can recommend some ideas if you want to start taking control over your health, feeling & looking better:  If you can take a couple points from this list and improve on them I think you will see some very great results in mood, health & appearance:

 1.  Stop counting calories and concentrate on what is actual in the foods you consume.  From there, you can find out what foods you currently eat that are causing weight gain & possibly hurting your energy levels throughout the week.  Fat is actually not bad, you need it, and foods high in fats such as avocado, coconut oil have huge health benefits for you. Also, a low-zero calorie drink could be even worse off than the sugary version.  The artifical ingredients such as aspartame are killers in themselves that you should stay away from.  Try stevia if you need something natural for sugars.

2. Look at your sugars/carbs intake: The first culprit leading to weight gain is consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates.  If you can cut back on pizzas, pastas, cereals, soft drinks than you automatically will give yourself an advantage.  Find carb alternatives to pastas such as quinao, bulgar wheat, soba noodles, etc.  Cutting diet coke/coke for water is one step that will drop pounds as well. Use whole-grain bread instead of whole wheat bread.  Try a brand called Ezekiel Bread (frozen section), which is organic sprouted whole grain. 

3.  Do some interval training.  Working out is essential, but make sure you fit in some intervals or running/biking that gets your heart rate high for a couple minutes,take a small recovery in between sets and repeat.  This is a very beneficial way to workout as your spending less time, but could easily burn more calories from pushing yourself

4. Always plan ahead your meals: This means a sunday trip to the grocery store, making your lunch for the next day, you save $ too! Maybe get a pound of lean turkey or chicken breast that will last 4-5 days. Add some chopped vine or cherry tomato/Raw spinach,Kale/, 1/2 Avocado spread on multi-grain or (ezekiel) bread, balsamic vinegar/light olive oil.  You got a nutritious lunch for the whole week.


Kale either Juiced, Sauteed,
or eaten raw in sandwich




Supergreens great in BFast Shakes

5. Always eat breakfast.  The first thing you should plan is breakfast.  There's a reason why people say it's the most important meal of the day.  You can't afford to wait until your starving at 12:00 p.m. to go wolf down a chipotle burrito.  Find quick alternatives that are pretty easy to make, ex Greek yogurt, Whole wheat fruit and p &b sandwich, or if you have time a breakfast shake with fruit, milk, p & b.  Adding Coconut oil, supergreens, flax seed, fish oils are a great way to get a boost in the a.m.  Note: Redbull, 5 hr energy, any other energy drink will have the opposite effects on your health, containing enormous amounts of sugar,  supressing your health problems even more.  Everyone should have time to get in a solid breakfast.

6. If you cook dinner make some extra so you can have it the next day for lunch or even the next night for dinner. 

7. Drink a lot of water.  Bring a water bottle to work with you to avoid frequent refills with smaller cups.  Pound a glass of water every morning for hydration.  You always want your body replenishing & cycling foods in/out.  Easily digestable foods/drinks are the most beneficial. 

8.  Have healthy snacks available in between your 3 larger meals.  I find roasted, salted or unsalted almonds are a great snack to have in between meals as they fill you up quickly.  Almonds are packed with vital nutrients including fiber, calcium/magnesium, good mono sat fats, protein & vitamin E.

9.  Try juicing vegetables and fruit. This is the best way to get nutrients fast.  I usually take a couple bunches of kale & mix with apples, carrot, & ginger.  You can make enough to last for 3-4 days. Usually consuming a small cups worth in the a.m.  It looks pretty horrible, but I assure you it tastes great!

10.  After making progress with your diet through self control, make sure you reward yourself from time-to-time.  Sit back and have a couple drinks or some ice cream, but realize that you are not being held hostage by unhealthy foods anymore and you now have more control over what you eat.

Sometimes as people we are quick to avoid what's mysterious to us & stick to what the majority of people do, but unfortunately the majority in Americans these days are unhealthy, & the older they get the slower their metabolism gets & the harder it is to change.  Good advice is to try new things whether it be activities or new food to get a different perspective or appreciation for others. When you do find yourself involved in activites, eating certain foods that are not the norm, the odds are you are moving in the right direction. 
Big thanks to Jesse(brother) who was the first to introduce me to some great supplements and some alternative food options that you don't really see to often on American's dinner tables. 

At first I thought he was crazy/over the top, but I am lucky to finally have had an open mind to try foods/supplements that I knew little about.  I just realize he is smart, in control of his health & loves to spread knowledge to those he cares about so they can live a happier/healthier life.  

Below is a picture of some supplements I take for recovery & overall health:



Krill Oil/Astaxanthin/Probiotics/Ubquinol/Mercola's MultiVitamins