Well then, its Sunday afternoon and I am coming to you live from good ole Penn Yan. I scooted back home yesterday afternoon from Syracuse after the long bike day was completed. Which brings me to the first item on the agenda, what I did on Friday and Saturday.
I think I wrote about how I was going out to dinner with the family on Friday night for me birthday, so basically that's what we did. My sister picked out the restaurant "The Copper Top", which was the same place that we went for her birthday. It was great. I had avacado rolls, huge bowl of pasta, and a big APPLE PIE dessert dish. All their desserts are made fresh to order so it was exceptionally awesome. And on that note I must note that I also had a small ice cream cone (2 scoops of vanilla with chocolate sprinkles in a sugar cone) yeah it's a plain jane no frills order but its my favorite (my mom's to). I also like stuff with peanut butter in it but I really wasn't in the mood for a huge sundae, not enough room in the stomach. Maybe I'll get another ice cream cone tonight! Heck, its a vacation weekend...let's live it up people!
After dinner with the family they all headed back to Penn Yan for the weekend. As this left me homeless in Syracuse I called up Cusetri and invited myself over for the night. He obliged and I showed up around 7pm. From about 7-930 we spent some male bonding time watching his buddy work on his bike. It was like when normal guys chill in the garage, work on the car, drink beer, etc...cept we were working on a vehicle with 2 wheels and no engine, and their was no beer involved as we would be getting up early to ride bikes and well that mix of alcohol and no sleep with a 6 hr ride in front of us..well that just wouldn't be smart. Plus 2 people (myself and Mike's mechanic/bike guru/cyclist friend)haven't had a beer in like 2 years. Myself being the 2 year and Mike's friend being the one who has never had alcohol in his life. Which is kind of funny because if you met him you would think he's either a bit loopy from booze/narcotics, however he has never had either of these enter his body. Funny guy though! Very entertaining and extremely good with bikes. These people are essential in life when you are someone like myself who cannot hit a nail with a hammer into a piece of wood without either breaking my own hand or completely screwing up the project from the get go...I was not gifted any handy man talents from my father, although my grandpa was handy it somehow skipped my dad completely dissappeared from the curbeau bloodline with the birth of myself.
Well, after the bike was put together and in good shape, Cusetri and I headed for the sheets. Cusetri into his bedroom and I into his 4 year olds bedroom (Is he 4? I can't remember the age so I am just making it up right now). Before you make a joke about this I am informing you that I was in his 4yr olds bed because CuseTri's son sleeps with his brother in bunk beds in another room,thus the kid's bedroom becomes the guest bedroom. It's a nice bed, I had a good nights sleep. Shortly after closing my eyes I awoke at 3am to eat "First Breakfast" also known as the pre-long workout or pre-race meal which consists of:
1.Applesauce (The natural kind, chunky style, about a whole jar of it)
2.A Powerbar (Peanutbutter flavor)
3.Banana (Dole - Organic)
4.Protein (Muscle Milk Pre-Made Shake)
After checking twitter and eating first breakfast..i have issues with twitter...it's my crack, very addictive, I headed back to sleep until about 445. When I got up at 445 I headed to the kitchen to start drinking coffee, eat another powerbar, and get myself in order for the morning's festivities. Mr. Cusetri joined me at about 5am. He greeted me while I sat in my usual spot at his counter. We were both in a very good mood as we were going to be biking for 6hrs in exceptionally nice weather (bib shorts and a jersey) something that was totally awesome considering the other days that we have biked together have consisted of cold, rain, darkness, flats, and one crash. This day however brought none of those, which was nice in a things went the way they should kind of way.
As for the ride...we did about 2.15 loops of a course that Mike scouted out. I attempted to sabotage his best laid plans in terms of routing by taking a wrong turn during a tempo section of the bike however he shepherded me back to our chosen course and we carried on. I must say that I really enjoyed the training plan for the workout. Contrary to my free nature no directions needed mentality I do like a plan. If I did not have plans made for me during bike rides I would never make it 6 hours with any sort of consistent power. I would shoot my bullets way to early and enter the hurtlocker about 4 hours to early. With that said our plan for the day was a 60 minute warmup endurance session followed by 5 intervals of 20 minutes at tempo pace (our zone 3 power)for me that's like a little over 200 watts or thereabouts depending on the terrain and such, for Mike its about 500 watts (WHAT AN ANIMAL :)!!!) hahaha..I don't think its quite that high but its definitely a bit higher than mine as he's a little bigger than me and my pipsqueak build. Like I said, I really liked the workout and was pretty much able to hold a good tempo power through each interval including the last 20 minute block in which I briefly entered the hurtlocker..not for very long maybe a minute tops, but their were definitely a couple moments where I was digging. It's been fun to see how over the last 3 weeks I have gone from never going over 4 hours on the bike to being able to hammer a tempo pace at hour 5:20 of a 6 hour ride, that makes me happy.
UPDATED 3:45PM 5/30/2010
How could I forget the DATA! Mike and I had a pretty good training day If I must say so. I'm usually not one to pass out stats but we knocked out over 120 miles in 6 hours...RARRRR! The "CC" (Corona and Curbeau) Peleton was in full effect. I also must add that Mike supplied me with my nutrition for the day, 8 powergels and 2 powerbars. I had packed my nutrition when I left my apartment but somewhere along the way I misplaced this bag...but Mike came to the rescue when he let me go grocery shopping in his Powerbar sponsored pantry, no joke the man has the goods! This reminds me of something that is actually nutrition related to training.
ACTUAL TRAINING DISCUSSION ON NUTRITION not just my mindless rambling.
Since I was not going to be running off the bike and I had run out of Gu's at the 5 hr mark I decided that I was just going to knock out the last tempo and endurance (1hr) on some gatorade and water. I did this on purpose COACH! Even if you wouldn't recommend this I wanted to see if their would be any repercussions for this lack of nutrition so late in the ride. Well the tempo interval (5:00-5:20) went good. I took my last gel at 5:00 so I was fueled up by that. Previously I took my second to last gel at 4:00. It was at the 4hr gel mark that I realized I had only 2 gels left, 1 at the 4hr mark and 1 for the remainder. I had misjudged my intake by 1 gel because I usually eat half a powerbar 30 minutes into the ride, yesterday I did not. Anywho I decided to hold off until the 5hr mark to take the last gel down and then just go on some gatorade and water for the rest with no gel at 5:30. I thought I was going to make it when at 5:30 I still felt alright. However whether it was due to the fact that I was almost done or that my legs finally we fried, I can honestly say that the last 15 minutes were a bit of a struggle. So in conclusion I would have to say that not taking this gel in at 5:30 did indeed have a direct effect on my performance over the last half an hour. I would have never done this if I was running off the bike so I guess by not doing that it was a good learning experience to never think you can get away with skipping a planned nutrition because maybe your sick of the gel or something. Just take the nutrition and get it down (as long as it wants to go down and your not getting sicker because of it...).
We cruised on home, I stretched and began to ice and shower and all that while Mike hit the roads for a 30 minute transition run. I still am not running (going on almost a month off) which stinks but the rest is necessary, I am recovering a lower leg injury and although the biking doesn't really aggravate the injury it still puts stress on it and the additional stress and pain from trying to run is just not needed. I am hopeful and optimistic that I will be able to resume running this Tuesday and race on Saturday, however if its just not in the cards then I will just swim and bike at the Keuka Tri and then cheer on my teammates as they finish the race..so its a win-win situation either way.
I'll end this post with a couple items of note:
1. Big Things are coming
2. The next post will include a cool picture of a former train this athlete and myself. Can you guess who it is?? It's a cool picture because were both wearing kits that Lance wore..on two different teams. For bonus points can you guess which kit I am wearing and which kit my friend is wearing. Your choices are:
a.Postal Service
b.Radioshack
c.Discovery
d.Motorola
e.Astana
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Birthday Boy
It's my birthday today, I am 24 years old today...I can hardly believe it! This morning has to rank right up there with the best birthday morning ever as I took to the roads with my good buddy Josh for a 2 hour ride before he had to go into work. I however am fortunate in the fact that I was able to take yesterday and today off from work. This has afforded me a great 5 day break from work since Monday is a firm wide Holiday in observance of Memorial Day.
As for the rest of the day...I must say that I am have a pretty nice day lined up. The biking is now behind me, i know this is very sad but their are still many things ahead. After a nice breakfast at a local restaurant called the Char Broil (spinach and feta omelet with dry wheat toasts, very tasty) I set up camp at the 12 corners Starbucks (that's where I am at the moment). AS for the rest of the day I am planning on doing some pool running at Midtown Athletic Club at 11 and then packing up the super clean and detailed Subaru Outback (Thanks to Josh and his handyman HECTOR! The wagon is absolutely spotless...inside and out!)and setting off for Syracuse where I am going to meet up with my Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother in Law, and two nephews. We are all going to a really awesome restaurant called the Copper Top. We went their for my sister's birthday as well and I must say that I am very pleased my sister yet again made reservations there for a birthday celebration! The place is sweet, the food is delicious and the portions are huge. Just the way we Americans like it! I would have to say that the Copper Top is like a hometown Cheesecake Factory. It's more of a mom and pops place with better food and the same amount of choices, not saying that I dislike the Cheesecake factory or anything (I love the place)but this down home restaurant is just a little more "homey". Then after dinner I will most likely relax in my brother-in-laws home theater in the basement (looks like something from MTV's Cribs, not kidding..its amazing! I had the chance to ride my indoor trainer in their this winter and it was phenomenal). I will most likely fall asleep soon after entering the home theater and thus missing out on any movie that is playing, oh well...I will need the sleep because at 5AM tomorrow morning I am meeting up with none other than mr. CUSETRI himself as we are departing on a 6hr ride that will include multiple tempo efforts. I am looking forward to this as my body seems to be on the mend and I feel stronger each day, lets hope things continue this way!
I've got more things to write about but I just got word that the Midtown Pool is already open, so I am going to finish the days workouts and keeping rolling along.
Thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday. There are so many media outlets like facebook, twitter, email, etc...that It would be impossible for me to individually thank each and everyone but I just want you all to know that it means a lot to me that you've remembered me on this day.
So thanks everybody! Have a great Friday and enjoy the holiday weekend ahead. I know I will! Family, Friends, Biking, Swimming, Blogging, Eating at cool restaurants...it doesn't get much better!
-TURBO CURBEAU...OUT!
As for the rest of the day...I must say that I am have a pretty nice day lined up. The biking is now behind me, i know this is very sad but their are still many things ahead. After a nice breakfast at a local restaurant called the Char Broil (spinach and feta omelet with dry wheat toasts, very tasty) I set up camp at the 12 corners Starbucks (that's where I am at the moment). AS for the rest of the day I am planning on doing some pool running at Midtown Athletic Club at 11 and then packing up the super clean and detailed Subaru Outback (Thanks to Josh and his handyman HECTOR! The wagon is absolutely spotless...inside and out!)and setting off for Syracuse where I am going to meet up with my Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother in Law, and two nephews. We are all going to a really awesome restaurant called the Copper Top. We went their for my sister's birthday as well and I must say that I am very pleased my sister yet again made reservations there for a birthday celebration! The place is sweet, the food is delicious and the portions are huge. Just the way we Americans like it! I would have to say that the Copper Top is like a hometown Cheesecake Factory. It's more of a mom and pops place with better food and the same amount of choices, not saying that I dislike the Cheesecake factory or anything (I love the place)but this down home restaurant is just a little more "homey". Then after dinner I will most likely relax in my brother-in-laws home theater in the basement (looks like something from MTV's Cribs, not kidding..its amazing! I had the chance to ride my indoor trainer in their this winter and it was phenomenal). I will most likely fall asleep soon after entering the home theater and thus missing out on any movie that is playing, oh well...I will need the sleep because at 5AM tomorrow morning I am meeting up with none other than mr. CUSETRI himself as we are departing on a 6hr ride that will include multiple tempo efforts. I am looking forward to this as my body seems to be on the mend and I feel stronger each day, lets hope things continue this way!
I've got more things to write about but I just got word that the Midtown Pool is already open, so I am going to finish the days workouts and keeping rolling along.
Thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday. There are so many media outlets like facebook, twitter, email, etc...that It would be impossible for me to individually thank each and everyone but I just want you all to know that it means a lot to me that you've remembered me on this day.
So thanks everybody! Have a great Friday and enjoy the holiday weekend ahead. I know I will! Family, Friends, Biking, Swimming, Blogging, Eating at cool restaurants...it doesn't get much better!
-TURBO CURBEAU...OUT!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Another Week in the Books
The heart of the triathlon season is fast approaching and the training that I've been logging in the past couple of weeks is reflective of the events that are on tap for the summer. During the winter my base training hours were usually around 12 hours on average. This would usually extend me quite a bit for a couple reasons.
1. When working a lot of hours sleep is hard to come by and since sleep is absolutely essential for recovery, you simply cannot perform at the same level when you are deprived. I would be getting up at 4:30am after going to bed no earlier than 11pm..it was just a vicious cycle. I'd make up some sleep here and their but it was never consistent and I think I was constantly training at some sort of deficit. If any good can be taken from this I would have to say that it kept me mentally strong. Keeping yourself motivated to get up at 4:00AM on a Saturday morning (when the rest of the world is most likely catching some extra zz's since its the weekend) because I have a 4 hour ride planned (on an indoor trainer) and I have to be back to work at about 8:30 to work another 8 hour day, many times this would be followed by the same thing on Sunday (swap the bike for a long run). It was just kinda brutal but that training in the morning before going back to work is what makes me happy. I always had a choice to skip it and sleep but there's just something inside of me that wanted to get up and get moving. You will never hear me complain about a workout I have to do or how early I have to get up because I CHOOSE to do this stuff, I choose to do it because I love it, I choose to drag my ass up Bopple hill for the second straight week after 3 hours on the bikes and over 400 miles on the legs over the past 8 days. I love it!! Absolutely love it, so if you EVER hear me complaining you have permission to smack me over the head. Except you Cusetri, if you smack me over the head their going to be hell to pay...or at least a sucker punch from me which will then be followed by me running away...im still faster on 2 feet even if you can hand it to me on the bike. But me running away from you is very unlikely at the present moment so you're safe for a while, but give me another week or so and watch out! Speaking of running, Cusetri and I are going to absolutely blister the Keuka run course. It's going to be something like this --> Superhuman Triathlon Finish
Isn't that finish AMAZING!
and my other reason..
2. All this training was new to me. A 3 hour ride on the bike was EPIC. Thus the training hours were less than they are now for that reason alone. For comparison's sake I will say that over the past two weekends I've churned out two 6 hour rides, one 7.5 hour ride, and one 3 hour ride. That's some serious miles in my book. The legs began to feel it yesterday during my 3 hour group ride in Bristol but they held up.
So what about my week?
Well it just kind of flowed together nicely. It was one of the first weeks where the weather was good and I was able to get out of work before 6. This meant that the beginning of some double session training days started. I was totally not ready for this. Getting up early means that I am able to pump out my workouts bright and early but that also means that at 5:30 I am pretty much done for the day. It was a good thing that I was out with some friends during the evening bike rides because I was usually shot at this point (and they can attest, a bit out of it mentally) and they would kindly wait for me to catch up to them at stop signs..I was draggin' some butt! But it was still nice to get out there and stretch the legs, and enjoy the weather...you just can't pass that up. The rest of the week went pretty smoothly, got some good training in, made it to master's swim practice on Friday and so on...
Other than getting some good training in last week I was very pleased to be able to watch some professional cycling that took place in California. The tour of cali was moved to May this year (from Feb in prior years) which made the weather more agreeable for the riders. Personally watching cycling on TV is really cool to me because I now and doing what they do, I watch their tactics, their pedal strokes, all that jazz..I was literally on the edge of my seat last night as Levi tried to crack Michael Rogers on the last climb of the stage. It was the final stage and Levi trailed Rogers in the GC by 25 seconds, he tried his best but Rogers (without any help from his teammates)stuck with Levi and Zabrinksi and maintained his lead. If you can't tell already by the wording that I just used (ie. Levi, GC, pedal stroke, etc..) I have begun to obtain a cyclist's vocabulary, and I actually understand what I am talking about. Anyways, it was really cool to watch the multiple attacks up that last climb, each time a rider would try to make a break the small group of 3 riders would work to reel him in..it was really something! Makes me want to try and hop in a local race one of these days. The Tour of Cali also had a really cool Stage 7 that was held right in downtown LA. It was a time trial that wound through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Somehow the city was able to close off about 10 miles of road for the cyclists to use during the middle of the day, quite an achievement if you ask me. Personally, the coolest part of this day was that the Tour of Cali invited a bunch of Amateur's to take part in the time trial as well as some top professional triathletes (Lieto!, Macca, and Ms. Wellington) Each of these athletes did really well in their own respect, Macca ripped off a 46 min TT, only about 3 minutes off some of the top pro's, Wellington was I think around 50, and Lieto was smoking the course before he flatted about a mile into the second loop..oh well! He was still looking good in his smoking hot Trek Speed Concept.
Tour of Cali Time Trial Results from Competitor.com
Here is a link to the slowtwitch forum that talks about the new speed concept. The forum has a lot of pictures and info about the bike. Take a look, the bike looks super cool. Hey Trek, wanna sponsor me! I'll ride the heck out of the machine for you :) --> Speed Concept Forum
On another note, I must say that I am indeed a bit sad that Lost has come to an end. I have not seen the last episode yet as it was on from 9:00-11:30pm last night. I needed to hit the sack and get my rest so I could make it to master's swim practice at 5:45. Luckily it appears that Hulu has it up on their website already, so I will be able to catch up on it tonight! Sweet! I don't really have much of an idea of how they heck the writes are going to wrap this saga up but it will definitely be interesting to see what they come up with. A lot of people on my tri team have written emails about the last episode since they stayed up and watched it. From the titles of their emails it appears that they enjoyed the final episode. However it goes, it will at least be entertaining.
My mind if kind of blank right now so I am going to wrap up this post right now. If something sparks my imagination I will post an update, you never know what's going to pop into this brain of mine!
Until then....
-Turbo Curbo OUT!
1. When working a lot of hours sleep is hard to come by and since sleep is absolutely essential for recovery, you simply cannot perform at the same level when you are deprived. I would be getting up at 4:30am after going to bed no earlier than 11pm..it was just a vicious cycle. I'd make up some sleep here and their but it was never consistent and I think I was constantly training at some sort of deficit. If any good can be taken from this I would have to say that it kept me mentally strong. Keeping yourself motivated to get up at 4:00AM on a Saturday morning (when the rest of the world is most likely catching some extra zz's since its the weekend) because I have a 4 hour ride planned (on an indoor trainer) and I have to be back to work at about 8:30 to work another 8 hour day, many times this would be followed by the same thing on Sunday (swap the bike for a long run). It was just kinda brutal but that training in the morning before going back to work is what makes me happy. I always had a choice to skip it and sleep but there's just something inside of me that wanted to get up and get moving. You will never hear me complain about a workout I have to do or how early I have to get up because I CHOOSE to do this stuff, I choose to do it because I love it, I choose to drag my ass up Bopple hill for the second straight week after 3 hours on the bikes and over 400 miles on the legs over the past 8 days. I love it!! Absolutely love it, so if you EVER hear me complaining you have permission to smack me over the head. Except you Cusetri, if you smack me over the head their going to be hell to pay...or at least a sucker punch from me which will then be followed by me running away...im still faster on 2 feet even if you can hand it to me on the bike. But me running away from you is very unlikely at the present moment so you're safe for a while, but give me another week or so and watch out! Speaking of running, Cusetri and I are going to absolutely blister the Keuka run course. It's going to be something like this --> Superhuman Triathlon Finish
Isn't that finish AMAZING!
and my other reason..
2. All this training was new to me. A 3 hour ride on the bike was EPIC. Thus the training hours were less than they are now for that reason alone. For comparison's sake I will say that over the past two weekends I've churned out two 6 hour rides, one 7.5 hour ride, and one 3 hour ride. That's some serious miles in my book. The legs began to feel it yesterday during my 3 hour group ride in Bristol but they held up.
So what about my week?
Well it just kind of flowed together nicely. It was one of the first weeks where the weather was good and I was able to get out of work before 6. This meant that the beginning of some double session training days started. I was totally not ready for this. Getting up early means that I am able to pump out my workouts bright and early but that also means that at 5:30 I am pretty much done for the day. It was a good thing that I was out with some friends during the evening bike rides because I was usually shot at this point (and they can attest, a bit out of it mentally) and they would kindly wait for me to catch up to them at stop signs..I was draggin' some butt! But it was still nice to get out there and stretch the legs, and enjoy the weather...you just can't pass that up. The rest of the week went pretty smoothly, got some good training in, made it to master's swim practice on Friday and so on...
Other than getting some good training in last week I was very pleased to be able to watch some professional cycling that took place in California. The tour of cali was moved to May this year (from Feb in prior years) which made the weather more agreeable for the riders. Personally watching cycling on TV is really cool to me because I now and doing what they do, I watch their tactics, their pedal strokes, all that jazz..I was literally on the edge of my seat last night as Levi tried to crack Michael Rogers on the last climb of the stage. It was the final stage and Levi trailed Rogers in the GC by 25 seconds, he tried his best but Rogers (without any help from his teammates)stuck with Levi and Zabrinksi and maintained his lead. If you can't tell already by the wording that I just used (ie. Levi, GC, pedal stroke, etc..) I have begun to obtain a cyclist's vocabulary, and I actually understand what I am talking about. Anyways, it was really cool to watch the multiple attacks up that last climb, each time a rider would try to make a break the small group of 3 riders would work to reel him in..it was really something! Makes me want to try and hop in a local race one of these days. The Tour of Cali also had a really cool Stage 7 that was held right in downtown LA. It was a time trial that wound through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Somehow the city was able to close off about 10 miles of road for the cyclists to use during the middle of the day, quite an achievement if you ask me. Personally, the coolest part of this day was that the Tour of Cali invited a bunch of Amateur's to take part in the time trial as well as some top professional triathletes (Lieto!, Macca, and Ms. Wellington) Each of these athletes did really well in their own respect, Macca ripped off a 46 min TT, only about 3 minutes off some of the top pro's, Wellington was I think around 50, and Lieto was smoking the course before he flatted about a mile into the second loop..oh well! He was still looking good in his smoking hot Trek Speed Concept.
Tour of Cali Time Trial Results from Competitor.com
Here is a link to the slowtwitch forum that talks about the new speed concept. The forum has a lot of pictures and info about the bike. Take a look, the bike looks super cool. Hey Trek, wanna sponsor me! I'll ride the heck out of the machine for you :) --> Speed Concept Forum
On another note, I must say that I am indeed a bit sad that Lost has come to an end. I have not seen the last episode yet as it was on from 9:00-11:30pm last night. I needed to hit the sack and get my rest so I could make it to master's swim practice at 5:45. Luckily it appears that Hulu has it up on their website already, so I will be able to catch up on it tonight! Sweet! I don't really have much of an idea of how they heck the writes are going to wrap this saga up but it will definitely be interesting to see what they come up with. A lot of people on my tri team have written emails about the last episode since they stayed up and watched it. From the titles of their emails it appears that they enjoyed the final episode. However it goes, it will at least be entertaining.
My mind if kind of blank right now so I am going to wrap up this post right now. If something sparks my imagination I will post an update, you never know what's going to pop into this brain of mine!
Until then....
-Turbo Curbo OUT!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
What do College Kids and Triathletes have in common?
They are both at Tim Hortons at 4am on a Saturday morning.
I woke up at 3am today to get my pre-long ride meal (aka) pre race meal of a powerbar, protein shake, banana, and applesauce. After washing that down with some water and a spot of coffee I gathered up my goodies for the day and packed my car. I then headed towards Tim Hortons for a real cup of Joe to get me all amped up for the day. It's going to be a real fun day today, I have 6 hours of endurance based cycling planned today and I will be riding with 2 guys that our on my team. Although I know both guys (don and chris) I haven't had he opportunity to train with them yet so 6 hours of bonding should do us good. It's really great to get to know all my teammates in training situations. It makes for an enjoyable experience and it's going to mean that were all going to be good buddies when we head to our camp in Lake Placid next month, now that's going to be a hell of a time! I've booked. My time off from work and I absolutely can't wait fir 3 full days of complete triathlon immersion. It's not like I'm not already immersed in it but just the fact that it will literally be all that I am doing, with no other responsibilities will be fantastic!
Well then, time go get headed off to Mendon Ponds to find Don's house. Going to be great today.
By the way, if anyone wants to consider sponsoring me and helping me buy a new speed concept just let me know, they release today :). I'll tattoo whatever you want on my body, wherever u want as long as it can be hidden by work clothes. Hahaha....
I woke up at 3am today to get my pre-long ride meal (aka) pre race meal of a powerbar, protein shake, banana, and applesauce. After washing that down with some water and a spot of coffee I gathered up my goodies for the day and packed my car. I then headed towards Tim Hortons for a real cup of Joe to get me all amped up for the day. It's going to be a real fun day today, I have 6 hours of endurance based cycling planned today and I will be riding with 2 guys that our on my team. Although I know both guys (don and chris) I haven't had he opportunity to train with them yet so 6 hours of bonding should do us good. It's really great to get to know all my teammates in training situations. It makes for an enjoyable experience and it's going to mean that were all going to be good buddies when we head to our camp in Lake Placid next month, now that's going to be a hell of a time! I've booked. My time off from work and I absolutely can't wait fir 3 full days of complete triathlon immersion. It's not like I'm not already immersed in it but just the fact that it will literally be all that I am doing, with no other responsibilities will be fantastic!
Well then, time go get headed off to Mendon Ponds to find Don's house. Going to be great today.
By the way, if anyone wants to consider sponsoring me and helping me buy a new speed concept just let me know, they release today :). I'll tattoo whatever you want on my body, wherever u want as long as it can be hidden by work clothes. Hahaha....
Friday, May 21, 2010
Ushering in a New Day
Ahh..can you hear that? I sure can, its the sounds of birds chirping and grass growing. The moon is still up in the sky but the temperature is mild and welcoming. Its comfortable outside in sandals, shorts, and a hoody...very comfortable. I love this type of weather! I have heard that tomorrow is going to be not so nice which bums me out a little since all week it has been so nice but on the day when I am going to be on my bike for 6 plus hours its going to rain cats and dogs. But such is life, its been absolutely magnificent all week and I have been able to enjoy the evenings outside with my friends. Mornings are still my time to work hard but with the work load lessening and the longer daylight hours I am very much enjoying the double sessions I have getting in, even if they are just short recovery based workouts...their all beneficial in their own way!
On tap for today is Masters Swimming, then work, followed by a 45 min spin this evening to keep the legs moving. Then its time to relax and rest up for tomorrows long ride. The long ride is going to be a bit different than the past 2 weeks because their is no tempo power efforts included. This is kind of a nice break. The whole ride is going to be endurance based (my zone 2) this ride will probably be similar to the effort that I will be expending at Lake Placid. Obviously the course will be different, weather will be different, I will be different..there are certainly many variable but overall it will be enjoyable to set out at a nice pace and keep it the whole way. Since Cusetri is on a recovery week he does not have the long bike this weekend. As such I will not be able to ride with my usual buddy. This has left me in a bit of a quandary. I am toying with the possibility of trying to gather various people and meet them along the way but that is tough logistically and tough since it relies on people to be where they say they are going to be. Therefore, it looks like I am going to be going on my own little Vision Quest. (Ever seen the movie? Its a good one...if your a crazy weight sucking wrestler, i.e. Brendan Hamm). I am going to set out on my own journey of spiritual enlightenment..who knows where I will end up. I have not really thought about where I am going to ride to, but thats typical. The most likley case is that I am going to get up early and start heading out of the apartment complex, when I get to the main road I will then make the decision...stuff like this is best left to destiny. I mean I've got 6 hours, I can pretty much get lost, change a flat (or two), recharge my iPhone with the Sun, have lunch at a diner, and still make it home before noon.
One thing I am kind of bummed about is not being able to be at the Mendon Ponds Duathlon. On a personal level I really wanted to race this event. It was my first multi-sport event that I ever did. Being my first event I had a less than stellar performance and I was really looking forward to tearing the course a new one. But as fate would have it my legs aren't ready. I am trying very hard to rehab my Achilles area, its getting there, but not ready for running yet. It's been almost a month since I have really been able to run and its starting to get at me a little bit. I am going to be smart and not attempt to run until its ready because there is so much ahead of me. I mean this is my first real season in the sport, I don't want to go and hurt myself and set up chronic injuries over the next 25 years, that would stink! So I will rest it. Luckily the biking and swimming do not really effect the area. Thus the biking volume has increased and so has the swimming, not a bad thing at all! The run will still be there, I have a long way to go in terms of the running but I have also come a long way since last September. I won't lose what I gained this winter and in that respect I am confident I am going to jump of the bike and hammer the marathon. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here, LP is in July, Keuka Lake is in a about 2 weeks (June 6th). Hopefully if I can get back to full strength within the next week to week and a half I will be able to race this guy and see what I've got. I haven't been able to incorporate speed work into my training yet but that shouldn't matter to much. The rest of June can be devoted to that!
Well I'm in the Office now. It's about 9am and I have already had the pleasure of getting about an hour and a half of training in at the pool this morning. With a little more free time in my schedule these days its an absolute pleasure to be able to get to my Master's swim class. The atmosphere at the practices is so great, everyone's happy, everyone's friendly, everyone is there to swim! Swimming with people around you just makes all the difference in the world. I get to see fellow teammates, I get to see Coach Laurie, I get to see Bruce (a.k.a) Michael Phelps. It's really a good time. So with that behind me I am certainly in good mood, plus the weather out is absolutely phenomenal.
On tap for today is Masters Swimming, then work, followed by a 45 min spin this evening to keep the legs moving. Then its time to relax and rest up for tomorrows long ride. The long ride is going to be a bit different than the past 2 weeks because their is no tempo power efforts included. This is kind of a nice break. The whole ride is going to be endurance based (my zone 2) this ride will probably be similar to the effort that I will be expending at Lake Placid. Obviously the course will be different, weather will be different, I will be different..there are certainly many variable but overall it will be enjoyable to set out at a nice pace and keep it the whole way. Since Cusetri is on a recovery week he does not have the long bike this weekend. As such I will not be able to ride with my usual buddy. This has left me in a bit of a quandary. I am toying with the possibility of trying to gather various people and meet them along the way but that is tough logistically and tough since it relies on people to be where they say they are going to be. Therefore, it looks like I am going to be going on my own little Vision Quest. (Ever seen the movie? Its a good one...if your a crazy weight sucking wrestler, i.e. Brendan Hamm). I am going to set out on my own journey of spiritual enlightenment..who knows where I will end up. I have not really thought about where I am going to ride to, but thats typical. The most likley case is that I am going to get up early and start heading out of the apartment complex, when I get to the main road I will then make the decision...stuff like this is best left to destiny. I mean I've got 6 hours, I can pretty much get lost, change a flat (or two), recharge my iPhone with the Sun, have lunch at a diner, and still make it home before noon.
One thing I am kind of bummed about is not being able to be at the Mendon Ponds Duathlon. On a personal level I really wanted to race this event. It was my first multi-sport event that I ever did. Being my first event I had a less than stellar performance and I was really looking forward to tearing the course a new one. But as fate would have it my legs aren't ready. I am trying very hard to rehab my Achilles area, its getting there, but not ready for running yet. It's been almost a month since I have really been able to run and its starting to get at me a little bit. I am going to be smart and not attempt to run until its ready because there is so much ahead of me. I mean this is my first real season in the sport, I don't want to go and hurt myself and set up chronic injuries over the next 25 years, that would stink! So I will rest it. Luckily the biking and swimming do not really effect the area. Thus the biking volume has increased and so has the swimming, not a bad thing at all! The run will still be there, I have a long way to go in terms of the running but I have also come a long way since last September. I won't lose what I gained this winter and in that respect I am confident I am going to jump of the bike and hammer the marathon. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here, LP is in July, Keuka Lake is in a about 2 weeks (June 6th). Hopefully if I can get back to full strength within the next week to week and a half I will be able to race this guy and see what I've got. I haven't been able to incorporate speed work into my training yet but that shouldn't matter to much. The rest of June can be devoted to that!
Well I'm in the Office now. It's about 9am and I have already had the pleasure of getting about an hour and a half of training in at the pool this morning. With a little more free time in my schedule these days its an absolute pleasure to be able to get to my Master's swim class. The atmosphere at the practices is so great, everyone's happy, everyone's friendly, everyone is there to swim! Swimming with people around you just makes all the difference in the world. I get to see fellow teammates, I get to see Coach Laurie, I get to see Bruce (a.k.a) Michael Phelps. It's really a good time. So with that behind me I am certainly in good mood, plus the weather out is absolutely phenomenal.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Late Night with Turbo
Its late..really late..10:30PM. I am going to be getting up at 5AM so I need to get into my bed very soon or else their will be some serious morning issues I'll have to deal with. But I miss writing my blogs, I've just been busy the last few days with this that and the other. And on top of that the weather has decided to be nice again so that means that all the sudden I'm doing double sessions of training from out of nowhere. The mornings are still the times when I get the real work done..the swims...the high intensity bike intervals...no running yet because of the Achilles thing. I am watching this like a hawk, I haven't run more than 10 minutes since race day down in Galveston which was almost a month ago. Am I worried? Nah, the running will come back and I will have it locked down for Placid. Pace the bike, Pace 20 miles, and rip a smashing 10k to wrap up a beautiful day in the Adirondacks.
One great thing about today was that our Train This Uniform order arrived. Very cool stuff indeed! Probably the coolest piece of gear is the Jacket..the jacket is stellar and its very sad that only 4 ppl got the jacket during the first order..now that everyone has seen the jacket everyone wants one, deep down they know that they only want it because Turbo has it...lol...speaking in third person is truly a wonderful thing, it reminds me of that one episode of Seinfeld. You know the one I am talking about right? No not the one with the big rubber ball of oil (that was a good one though)
One great thing about today was that our Train This Uniform order arrived. Very cool stuff indeed! Probably the coolest piece of gear is the Jacket..the jacket is stellar and its very sad that only 4 ppl got the jacket during the first order..now that everyone has seen the jacket everyone wants one, deep down they know that they only want it because Turbo has it...lol...speaking in third person is truly a wonderful thing, it reminds me of that one episode of Seinfeld. You know the one I am talking about right? No not the one with the big rubber ball of oil (that was a good one though)
Monday, May 17, 2010
A Century a Day Keeps You Regular
This past weekend was a good training weekend. With no time being spent running I took to the bike to put some miles on both the tri bike and road bike. On Saturday I had the chance to ride with CuseTri. See his blog for a couple of pics and more details. And yeah I already took enough heat about my damn white tights...so please hold the comments. It was cold and they were over my bibs so as to keep my bits and pieces nice and not chaffed.
The on Sunday I headed out to the hills of Bristol to meet up with some cycling buddies and do a nice little recovery ride. About 7.5 hours and 100 or so miles later the recovery ride ended. AWESOME! The day began well with a good sized group of us taking off from one of the guys house which is located right next door to the Bristol Mtn. Ski resort. After a couple hours and a few hills we stopped off at the house where a few guys had to duck out due to family responsibilities (Lawrence said he had to take his daughter to dance practice, but I think he was hiding the fact that he instead was the one going to the practice). Another guy named Adam who was riding a bike for the first time in Bristol (and did great!) had to go play golf...at Oak Hill, I felt sooo sorry for him, haha.
So after we left them Crispino, Josh, Mr. Grimm, and myself headed back out. I thought we would you know just be taking it easy...well that quickly changed when we started climbing again. We headed into Chesire (I say these names of places like I know where they are, I do not. I just follow people where they take me, it takes way to much thought to think about where I am going)and then sure enough I remembered the route we were on and it ends with Bopple..freaking Bopple. 19% grade and all...I had to pee and decided to stop before climbing the monster. Good thing I did or else I probably would have had an accident at the one flat section of the hill...you know ride before it gets REALLY steep. So yeah we made it up...were cyclists, we've got legs of steel. Well then..around the 3 hr mark Josh and Crispino peeled off and headed back home. Well I had a decision to make..to call it good with a 3 hr recovery ride that had probably 5-6k ft of climbing, or keep going straight ahead on the road which happened to be West Gannett. If you know the area you know that Gannett is a really nice hill, not to steep but its very long and makes for a good effort. Needless to say I went straight up the hill. I couldn't pass up the chance to keep riding with the other rider in the group, Mr. Grimm. His first name is Erik but he's so many light years ahead of me in respect to umm..biking swimming running, basically any type of athletic event. Seriously, if you look at any of the races around Rochester..he's probably one it at one point or another, and oh by the way he's done Kona not once but twice, for kicks. He did it way back in 1993 and then came back for another round of fun in 2007, talk about an age group difference! We ended up riding for another 3.5-4 hrs. Not exactly sure on the exact times or distances since my garmin died at mile 88 which was before we climbed another hill to get home. I think it was around 102 or thereabouts.
I can't say how cool it was to just ride, ride without data, ride without time limits. It was truly a great opportunity to get to ride with Mr. Grimm, he's done it all and has been places that I would like to get to. You can learn a lot from people like that and I really soaked everything up during the ride. We road on roads i've never heard of and on roads that Erik himself had never been on. Needless to say a check of the map on the Blackberry was necessary.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Ready, Set, Wait
I don't have much time to write at the moment but I just wanted to put something up here to remind ya'll that I am alive and well.
The title of today's post (which I hope to have more time to expand upon) is about how eager I am to tackle my training and races. I want to GO GO GO and train hard..train long...get on the track and do speed workouts. But my body is saying no and that just stinks. It's hard to deal with the fact that you need to rest when you really have the drive to go out and run for 2 hours and bike for 6 hours.
The title of today's post (which I hope to have more time to expand upon) is about how eager I am to tackle my training and races. I want to GO GO GO and train hard..train long...get on the track and do speed workouts. But my body is saying no and that just stinks. It's hard to deal with the fact that you need to rest when you really have the drive to go out and run for 2 hours and bike for 6 hours.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Welcome to the Club
My friend Mike L. from the Windy City told me this on twitter "woah dude. glad you're okay. there's two types of cyclists: those who have crashed, and those who will. welcome to the club" This comment was made in response to the fact that my buddy Corona and I crashed and burned for the first time today. Let me re-phrase that, we both completely and absolutely performed a picture perfect Yardsale across some train tracks by Jamesville Beach in Syracuse, (aka the transition location for the Syracuse 70.3 that is coming in September). Here's the aftermath on my side. Its remarkable that only the bike lever broke off the bike and that I only have a bruised elbow, it really could have been way worse.
This accident happened at about the 5hr mark of our ride that was originally planned to be 6 hours. So on the bright side, even though we crashed and had to call it a day, we at least got a good solid 5 hours in! And my original training had been scheduled for 5 hrs, so I was right on target! Haha, you've got to find the good in everything.
But yeah, the crash happened right at the beginning of the homestretch. We had just hit about mile 86 or roundabouts and we were headed for home after completing the Syracuse 70.3 loop. We were hitting our tempo power zones (meaning that we were starting to really push the pedals down for the last stretch home). Mike was leading the way on this course and had ridden it multiple times and did the exact same course the week before. As he approached these train tracks he slowed down a bit and got ready to absorb the bump that always come when crossing train tracks, something that usually always works over these. Well this time we didn't have the best of luck, Mike's tire caught the track and turned his front tire immediately to the right and launched him. Brakes don't exactly work as they should on bikes in wet conditions so when I hit the brakes and tried to avoid Mike's heap I to when down in a flame of glory. Mike even said that he saw my face both before I commenced my launch and during. It would have been so funny (weird) to come upon the aftermath of this. Just picture to mean sprawled out in the middle of the road, across train tracks just rolling around checking their bodies to see if they were all in one piece and then doing the same for their bikes. Thankfully though a nice guy in a white pickup truck stopped and gave us a ride home..super cool of him. He turned out to be a rich dude who build housing complexes near where Mike lived, and happened to be headed that way to check on them. You wouldn't know it by the old 4x4 he drove that he was this well of dude but when he dropped his dog off at his house before taking us back to Mike's, we were treated to seeing his Mansion size home. I guess the rich are rich for a reason because on the way back to Mike's he did try to sell me a house. Unfortunately I told him that I would be emptying my piggy bank to fix my bike and that a house wasn't quite in the budget yet. The funniest part of the ride home was that he had this crazy doverman pincher dog, scared the daylights out of me (I mean the things was huge, and mean looking!) ....and it made Mike sneeze like 15 times on the ride home. Mike didn't have the heart to tell the guy that he was allergic to dogs, something I found out when we got back to his house, although I did have quite an inclination that this was the case after his 10th sneeze within mmm....18 seconds of being in the truck. Priceless.
This accident happened at about the 5hr mark of our ride that was originally planned to be 6 hours. So on the bright side, even though we crashed and had to call it a day, we at least got a good solid 5 hours in! And my original training had been scheduled for 5 hrs, so I was right on target! Haha, you've got to find the good in everything.
But yeah, the crash happened right at the beginning of the homestretch. We had just hit about mile 86 or roundabouts and we were headed for home after completing the Syracuse 70.3 loop. We were hitting our tempo power zones (meaning that we were starting to really push the pedals down for the last stretch home). Mike was leading the way on this course and had ridden it multiple times and did the exact same course the week before. As he approached these train tracks he slowed down a bit and got ready to absorb the bump that always come when crossing train tracks, something that usually always works over these. Well this time we didn't have the best of luck, Mike's tire caught the track and turned his front tire immediately to the right and launched him. Brakes don't exactly work as they should on bikes in wet conditions so when I hit the brakes and tried to avoid Mike's heap I to when down in a flame of glory. Mike even said that he saw my face both before I commenced my launch and during. It would have been so funny (weird) to come upon the aftermath of this. Just picture to mean sprawled out in the middle of the road, across train tracks just rolling around checking their bodies to see if they were all in one piece and then doing the same for their bikes. Thankfully though a nice guy in a white pickup truck stopped and gave us a ride home..super cool of him. He turned out to be a rich dude who build housing complexes near where Mike lived, and happened to be headed that way to check on them. You wouldn't know it by the old 4x4 he drove that he was this well of dude but when he dropped his dog off at his house before taking us back to Mike's, we were treated to seeing his Mansion size home. I guess the rich are rich for a reason because on the way back to Mike's he did try to sell me a house. Unfortunately I told him that I would be emptying my piggy bank to fix my bike and that a house wasn't quite in the budget yet. The funniest part of the ride home was that he had this crazy doverman pincher dog, scared the daylights out of me (I mean the things was huge, and mean looking!) ....and it made Mike sneeze like 15 times on the ride home. Mike didn't have the heart to tell the guy that he was allergic to dogs, something I found out when we got back to his house, although I did have quite an inclination that this was the case after his 10th sneeze within mmm....18 seconds of being in the truck. Priceless.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Big Weekend Ahead
Welp, as luck would have it as soon as one Achilles starts to feel better the other decides to throw a fit and act up! Seriously, why can't they just live in harmony. The soreness is in a different spot than it was on the other one which makes me wonder if it is just a results of some muscle pull on the lower calve area. The pain isn't really intense, just noticeable when I walk down stairs. Hopefully a good nights sleep and some ice will make it feel better. I have a nice 6 hour ride planned with CuseTri tomorrow morning and I am really hoping that it gives me no issues. I've been dying to get my mileage on the bike and run back up but I will be smart and back it down if things don't go as planned. The run will still be there when I need it..their is no need to push these things...
But aside from me complaining about my lower legs, I can't tell you how excited I am to get to ride with my good buddy Corona tomorrow. A 6 hour ride can be pretty daunting even in the best weather, and since Upstate and Central NY are expecting hurricane gusts of wind and temperatures in the 50's with rain...well that add's another piece to the puzzle. The conditions will not be ideal but they will be manageable. Everything is manageable if you plan ahead. The route is planned, our safety is planned, our nutrition is more or less planned, our clothing is planned..the weather however is not, so we will just deal. Will strap lights to our bikes and ride on...who knows the weather could be alright, that's the beauty of unpredictability :)
Optimism Rocks
But aside from me complaining about my lower legs, I can't tell you how excited I am to get to ride with my good buddy Corona tomorrow. A 6 hour ride can be pretty daunting even in the best weather, and since Upstate and Central NY are expecting hurricane gusts of wind and temperatures in the 50's with rain...well that add's another piece to the puzzle. The conditions will not be ideal but they will be manageable. Everything is manageable if you plan ahead. The route is planned, our safety is planned, our nutrition is more or less planned, our clothing is planned..the weather however is not, so we will just deal. Will strap lights to our bikes and ride on...who knows the weather could be alright, that's the beauty of unpredictability :)
Optimism Rocks
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