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Trifatlete | Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead
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Confidence

August 10, 2010
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SteepHill

“Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don’t so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head.” – Joe Henderson

Running can be difficult one day and easy the next. Three weeks ago I had one of my toughest long runs yet and it got me thinking about my goals.

Two years ago I ran the Boston Marathon. I remember someone asking me “what next? You going to run an ultra marathon!” I immediately said no way. 26.2 miles is enough right ?

I ventured into all kinds of distances that year and by the end of racing season I had to set a new goal. Triathlons. Since the age of 18 I have always wanted to become an Ironman. So first step is becoming a triathlete. 2009 I did just that and became a Half Ironman.

2010 rolls around and my goals were simple. Get faster. Run a 5k with avg pace under 7:00 miles. I wanted to run a half-marathon and also a marathon with times of 1:40 and under 4:00 hours for the marathon. I didn’t quite make my times but I have gotten faster and I’m not going to run a marathon this year. I feel like every week has a purpose. A bigger purpose than a marathon.

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Mental Running Block – Over

August 1, 2010
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missing-piece

You can have moments in your running life that you know stand out. It may be your first race, first medal, first win or many other things. In training you try and find those moments as they tend to get you over the various walls as you run.

I went into a triathlon funk after my biggest athletic achievement – the 70.3. I wasn’t dead physically, but mentally the race took a lot out of me. I have no idea why this all happened but I just lost my desire to race. It came back a few times but then winter was upon us and that isn’t the greatest time to train.

I picked a few races at the beginning of the year and decided to skip Triathlons this year and focus on getting faster. The only problem was that this funk I was in led me down a bad healthy lifestyle. I ate way too much and maybe had a few too many beers. All of a sudden I was up 25 pounds. Shoot all that work down the drain.

I decided to run the inaugural Worcester Half-Marathon and Bay State Marathon. My two “A” races. I wanted to run really well and try and hit 1:40 ish. Only problem….that stupid brain of mine.

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Some days it’s so easy

May 19, 2010
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easy

My daughter drew me a cool picture of me running. I asked what I was saying and she made the heavy breathing sound. Classic.

So some days you go out for a run and it is effortless. You glide like a gazelle and barely break into a sweat, yet you are running at a good pace and it just isn’t affecting you. Then there are the days that you just can’t seem to get into it. You are running but it appears as if you are bolted to the pavement with a couple of bricks. In reality you probably benefit more from these kind of days than the effortless ones. As a runner you have to learn to overcome the obstacles.

Beginners always have these type of problems and it is why it is so important to make running a habit. I think it usually takes 3 weeks to get your body adjusted to running.

Beginners (from my experience) run into these issues

  • Run too fast in the beginning (if you’ve been away from running or never run before you need to take it slowly). This can cause so many issues like shin splints that you then become discouraged and give up.
  • Run too long in the beginning (starting off with a run/walk program is great but make sure you stick to it). There is a reason why it has gradual progression. You are easing your body into the whole running thing and trying to establish a habit
  • We all think we can run faster than we can in the beginning. Yes, you probably can sprint for a mile or two the first day but what happens the next ? Soreness, pain and other issues.

Ok, my point is that we all learn from our mistakes and those days that you feel like crap, run like crap and look like crap are actually in my opinion the best days. How many consecutive bad days do you have ? Unless you are injured it is unusual to have consecutive bad days. If you have one of those days just sit down and chalk it up as experience. I like to go through the miles and see where I “lost” it.

I had a really good race on Sunday then took my usual Monday off and then ran Tue/Wed. Last week I ran good (not often but good). This week I ran 6.1 on Tue and 5.1 on Wed. Now, my calves are killing me so I think that is why I had two such days. I ran and it hurt. I look back at it and realize that I probably ran too fast on both days. I look back at my stats and both runs started out with quick 3 miles and then really slowing down after that. That tells me something that I have always knows : DON’T GO OUT TOO FAST. DOH.

So even though I felt like crap they were good runs. Decent times, good mileage.

So, if you have one of those days. Chalk it up as experience. For me it is easy to fix my next run. Go either a shorter distance or go slower. Then maybe I won’t feel so bad after the run.

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My Mileage is Increasing

April 28, 2010
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mileage

For me there is always one week in the year that just sets me up for the racing season. It is the “ah ha” moment where you know that the base building you have done moves onto the next stage. This past week seems to have been the huge hurdle I have been trying to climb over for the past 6 months.

Now, the mileage wasn’t the longest nor the fastest, but for some reason this week it just clicked.

The pains in my shins have all but disappeared and the voices in my head are longer hounding me to stop short of my goal. I even had a great bike ride on the trainer (17 miles). Of course, on that same day I was able to run 5 miles and ride almost 7 miles on my Mtn. Bike all after my long 8.25 mile run the day before.

This week I believe ends my base building phase and moves me onto the next one. I plan on racing a 10k in 2 weeks and the inaugural Worcester Half-Marathon on June 13th.

I have some goals in mind and am not sure I’m going to meet them for these two races. The 10k is really about getting race ready. With the extra “winter weight” I’ve seemed to pack on my speed doesn’t seem to be at what it should. So, I’m going to focus on just racing without getting injured. I’ll try and run at a 8:50-8:55 pace.

The month of may and up until June 13th I’m going to go dry and stop drinking. I figure that will help me lose the extra pounds (as well as focusing on proper nutrition) and then my goal for the half-marathon will depend on my weight.

If I’m close to what I expect my racing weight to be then I’m shooting for a 1:40-1:45 which will be a bit quicker than my PR. I will try and push the pace but what is probably more realistic is an 8:30 pace which will put me in around 1:52 ish and I wouldn’t be unhappy with that.

My ultimate goal is a 3:19 for the Bay State Marathon in October but there is a log of work to be done. Strength training, building up a quicker pace, losing weight.

I hope I’m correct in that I’m coming of my base building and ready to start the serious training. I hope.

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Where have I been ?

March 3, 2010
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missing-link

There are times when you have all the best intentions of doing something and then all of a sudden….POW…right down the drain. I have started-stopped-started this blog many times with all the right intentions, but for some strange reason I tend to neglect it. Why ? I don’t know.

I’d like to say that I’ve now changed but really have I ? I’m not going to commit to writing every day or even every other day, but I’m going to be more frequent. I have goals and this is where I should be expressing them.

So, for the past two months I’ve been in a very beginner phase. What ? Well, I’ve been running since I was 8 years old and it’s been an up and down battle with running. This past year I became a Triathlete. What that means is that I now train for swim, bike and run. More time to train but also less chance of injury. In theory.

I’ve slowly started to increase my mileage. I’m now running between 15-20 miles a week and this month I’ll start to introduce some biking and possibly some swimming.

I am still trying to finalize my races but right now I’m looking at this as my schedule :

  • April (possible duathlon r-b-r)
  • May (Nothing yet, but a 5k would be nice)
  • June (Half Marathon in my own city & Webster Sprint Triathlon)
  • July (Appleman Sprint Triathlon)
  • August (Some Olympic Triathlon)
  • September (5 miler & 5k)
  • October (10 miler, Bay State Marathon & maybe the season ending Duathlon in Lowel)

These are my initial goal races, but things could change. I actually almost decided to do Timberman again, but my heart told me that my main goal is to try and qualify for Boston and to get faster before I do a longer triathlon again.

Next year I’m definitely doing Timberman and hopefully I will be faster and slimmer.

More to come in the near future.

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Winter is Upon Us

December 9, 2009
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ExerciseExhaustion

The blog has been updated and configured and the running has started up again. Well, slowly, but I’m finally trying to get back into a routine.

This past year has been quite busy. I ran 3 races, completed 3 triathlons and logged a lot of miles. I will do a full recap closer to the end of the year but what made me change the blog ?

After my successful 70.3 race, I lost all desire to train, write and pretty much do anything with running, biking or swimming. I’m not exactly sure what happened but I think it was information overload. I needed to rest the brain after a very tough summer. When you work, swim, bike, run, eat, sleep and do it all over again the next day just becomes part of your routine. It is all towards your final goal.

I achieved my goal and in a way I messed up. In my head I stated I was going to run the Harvard 10 mile run and finish the season with the Lowell Monster Dash Duathlon. What I did wrong ? I didn’t follow through with my plan. If I had signed up for the races then I would have kept on training.

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