Nothing fancy - just a quick note

Hey friends, just thought I would drop a few lines here about whats been going on training wise for IMLP. Things have been good, I've been healthy and my body feels like it is in the best shape that it has ever been. I'm on a rest week this week, but I have 2 more weeks of build until I hit the infamous taper time :o)

I've traveled up to Lake Placid twice since the last update, once on Memorial Day weekend and once just this weekend past. Both trips were beneficial for completely different reasons and I did not feel the same after either. Unfortunately I have no pictures to post, just stories to tell...so let me try to paint a picture with words.

Memorial day was a good trip, I was able to take the Friday before off of work and made it up to LP by 2pm to be on my bike and riding a loop by 3pm or so. It was sooooooo nice to be back in the mountains, as they are something I truly miss. It just felt comfortable, like that old pair of running shoes that has 400+ miles on them and you slip on after a long hiatus. It just felt right, like being with an old friend you haven't seen in ages. It was comfortable, made my heart happy and was just right...

The bike on that Friday was good, Joe Meyers and I blazed it around the bike course and I might have taken it out a little hard, but I was feeling good on the hills and he caught me in the last 2 miles back into town. (great work on his part because at like 30 miles in, I looked back on a climb and he was no where to be found) I ran off the bike for about 30 minutes and felt great. Still too cold to swim (and I had already gotten my swim in on Friday morning) on Saturday we woke up and hit 2 loops of the bike course to get a realistic feel for pacing/nutrition/the hills/etc. That ride was good, got some things dialed in and became more attune with the course. I paid a great deal of attention to landmarks that I was going to hit and look for on race day. Good recon.

Sunday's run was fun, it was a long run day and I wanted to hit the out and back on River Road to recollect and remember those "rollers" along the river. Joe and I started off together and I had to do a pit stop at 3 miles in. He took off and I did my business and was about 3 minutes down, but within the next 3 miles, I caught up to him and blew past him because I wanted to run and that is generally my strong suit. Finishing up the run, it didn't feel like I had ridden 112 miles the day before. I hit 22 miles at 7:20-7:30 pace which woulda put me right on for a 3:20 marathon. I was wrecked afterwards, but the following week was a rest week, so it was perfect.

Overall at the end of the Memorial Day trip, I felt good about the course (might have had something to do with the stellar run I had on Sunday) But I just want to be able to have the run this year in Placid that I know I am capable of. I felt good and relaxed about the race and wished it was the next week. Luckily, we still have 6 weeks or so from today to race day...

Last weekend was a different story, staying with the Graney's it was a blast at their house. Good times, good people, and lots of laughs in between HARD training. That was the end of a "bike week" for me and I wanted to ride 2 loops of the bike course on both Saturday and Sunday also running 4 miles for a transition run after each day. I swam well for the first time in a wetsuit this year and it felt different, fast, but just different from being unrestricted in a pool. I took a moment at the far end of Mirror Lake to stop the watch and float and look around and soak in the energy of the mountains. It really is spectacular up there and when racing and training sometimes you get "laser lock" on the road and you forget that there is energy to draw upon in the mountains and land that you are racing on. It's beautiful and always fills me up, so i recharged for a minute or two and went back to shore.

Day one was fine, normal 2 loops of the course. day two i bonked about mile 60 after passing thru the first loop and when I got to the out and back, I skipped it and went into the store and bought a slice of pizza and a coke. I watched my overall average speed plummet, but I made it back in one piece after another 100 mile day. BRUTAL. Probably the hardest day on the bike I've had in a LONG time. But that was the end of a 21+ hour training week. (I hit 17,18,20 ending with Memorial day and then it's been an average of about 19-20 hours each week with some big miles in there.

I felt a little unsettled getting trashed by the bike course last Sunday, but I feel like I REALLY know the hard parts of the course now and know where I can push and where to cruise. I'm kinda itching to race as I haven't done a triathlon yet this year, but as a close friend once said, you have to let it be a slow burn and not race too much before the big dance. Store it up and rip it on race day. So I guess we'll see what happens in July... I'm nervous, but excited for it at the same time because I know I've been putting in the work. I'd like to bike a similar time to 2007, but rip a MUCH faster run, so we'll see what I can muster.

For now it's a rest week and I have MUCH to catchup on, so I have to run. I'm gonna try to post a TOP 10 list in the near future and that one should be MUCH more interesting than this post. :o) Until then, train and rest hard folks, I'll see you out on the roads. JFT and cheers.

Medved madness 15 miler trail race report

I had the opportunity to run a 15 mile solo trail race last weekend on May 3rd that I did back in 2007 as well. In 2007 it was a first year race and everyone got lost in the middle of it because some moron out walking his dog thru Mendon decided to pull down all the markers that had been hung in trees signifying the course we were supposed to follow. Regardless it was a blast of a race (good friends, fun trails, mud, water, competition…I mean what else could you ASK for?!) and I was stoked to be able to do it again.

That morning I woke up and wasn’t feeling all too excited to race. A little nervous and jittery to be exact. I knew there was to be some stiff competition from a guy that I normally swim with at Masters who is also an excellent trail runner and even on the EMS national adventure racing team. We both had an eye out for each other and knew we could give one another a run for our money.

Well, I got to the race site early and picked up a packet and mumblings were going on about how Jeff Beck, a former SUNY Geneseo teammate of mine was there and Neal Holschute was also present at the race site that morning and ready to rumble on the trails. I first encountered Neal from his days at Williams College in Massachusetts (I doubt he remembers me) but GXC travelled every year to do the Williams Invitational mostly because those guys were sick competition. Neal was wicked fast even back in college. So with the “wonder twins” at the race site, I kinda figured we would all be racing for 3rd place…

We all get to the start and Mort’s giving his normal pre-race chat explaining that there are 3 distinct loops and to follow each color for each loop thru the woods. They had bright colored trail ribbons hanging from the trees so it was easy to spot the trail when it was properly marked. Gun goes off and we’re all joking and running. The usual crew of T$, Matthews, Hatch, Howland and the rest of the folks were there, along with some other good competition including Matt Keefe and Kurt Spacher. We went out at a moderate pace and by the time we hit the single track, Jeff, Neal, Jim Mollosky and I were pretty much separated from the rest of the race. We gapped it pretty quickly. Jeff and I were catching up over the first few miles and he said things were going well with coaching in Fredonia and was inquiring about Ironman Lake Placid to see if he was going to be up in the ADK’s the same time as he was scouting for JOTC. Turns out he’s gonna be, so I hope he pops by to check out the chaos of IM.

Anyway, back to the race, about 3-4 miles in, it’s getting a little hard for me to talk so I let Jeff and Neal pull away (well I actually didn’t LET them, they just kinda ran easier and much faster than I was) and I slowed up a little. Jim was caught in a gap between the twins and I so he was in no mans land. We finished the first of 3 five-or-so-mile loops and went thru the pond and got thoroughly soaked very quickly. I almost lost my balance in the water and it was a little cold so I’m glad I kept it upright!

Loop two was nicer, a few more rolling hills and turns and a little more single track (if memory serves me correctly. About a mile in, I hear someone coming up on me and I look back and it’s Jim Mollosky from Buffalo, NY who was ahead of me prior to the start of loop 2. I thought he had changed his shoes after the pond (would have been smart) but he had just followed the pink ribbons instead of the orange ones for the 2nd loop. He went a little out of the way it seemed and he was kinda pissed about it.

We were bombing thru loop two and suddenly out of the blue we saw Jason Urkfitz, Matt Keefe and Kurt Spacher coming TOWARDS us in the woods. This made me very uneasy because I was feeling good and have a tendency to be directionally challenged. We ran for about another mile before we realized that they were the ones going in the wrong direction and we were okay. Made my heart jump a bit though…and I was upset that they had made the wrong turn (we’ve ALL been there before, I have MANY times) But, Jim and I were running along for about 3-4 miles and I let him soft pass me a few times and I did the same to him to see where his legs were. I know Mendon pretty well and when I realized that we were getting close to the start of the 3rd loop, I put in a surge because I thought I could hold a higher pace than he could over the next 10k-ish loop. I was running scared on the 3rd loop. As I said before we were all racing for 3rd place and I was in it right at this moment. It was my race to lose at this point. I knew that for the 3rd loop Mort was going to take us up the side of Cardiac Hill again like in 2007, so I was saving a little extra mojo for that in the tank. I kept on trying not to look over my shoulder too much to gauge where Jim was, but I could feel that I really couldn’t shake him. I was throwing everything that I could at him and trying to accelerate around turns so that I was out of sight and out of mind.

Somehow I managed to hold him off and was able to sneak in for a 3rd place overall finish behind Neal and Jeff (Jeff was less than a minute ahead, but he apparently lost a shoe in the mud pit near the 12 mile marker - so I’m sure at that point he eased up) But yeah, Jim came in about a minute in arrears to me and it was an overall REALLY fun and muddy run. The post race BBQ and festivities are always a blast there and the sun came out and we all got into dry clothes and relaxed over food while soaking up the vitamin D. I met some cool new folks, hung out with some old friends, had some fantastic food and stayed there laughing and joking pretty much until about 1-2pm from an 8am start of the race. All in all a great day. I ended up winning a pair of Darn Tough socks and a gift certificate for 3rd place overall which was nice. Medved always puts on great races and I know they’re all trail geeks at heart who love to just get out there and play like I do.

Disclaimer; I was pretty BROKEN after this race for a few days. My arms were already sore from demolishing Brian Matthews’s garage and swinging around a sledgehammer for the majority of the previous afternoon. That combined with a REALLY fast and long trail race made for a pretty broken body for this tired soul. I’ve recovered and will likely get the details up of the last few weeks of training whenever I can. Until then folks, JFT and get out there regardless of the weather and play. I will be… :o)

ING NYC Marathon confirmation

(Sorry about the "grainyness" of the above image. It was really small when I had to cut and paste it from the website)

For a while now, I've had a goal to experience all of the large marathons in and around the United States to see how I liked them and just to be able to say that, "oh yeah, I've run that one...it was fun!" This year seemed like a perfect year to be able to swing in the NYC marathon.

It was a nice flat, fall marathon. Sounds perfect after Ironman Lake Placid and will give me adequate recovery time. (I ran Philly in the fall of 2007 after doing IMLP that year too) So I did a little research and wanted to see if it was possible to get into the 2009 ING NYC Marathon.

Turns out it is a lottery system because so many people apply each year to run it. But the nice thing is that if you can hit them, they have automatic qualifying standards. For my age group you just had to run a sub 2:55 marathon within the past year and a half. Tomorrow is the cut off for registration for auto-qualifiers, so if you are thinking about it, do it today!! :o) I got an auto qualifying time by running a 2:53 in Boston last year and just snuck under the standard and into this race.

I just got my confirmation email and my name will appear in the participant lists soon :o) My goal for this marathon is to PR, but seeing as how that is sub 2:53, that might be tricky. We shall see though. I still think I am capable of a sub 2:50, so only time will tell. Wish me luck in the fall, but for now it's still prime time for Ironman :o) Sit back and enjoy the show ladies and gentlemen. This year in Placid, there's BOUND to be some fireworks! Cheers and JFT folks, I gotta run...

Spring Forward 15k report

So as most of you that read this regularly already knew, I had to take what I like to refer to as “forced rest” two weeks ago because I came down with a bout of bronchitis.

I’ll start out by saying that I’m not really a fan of doctors… I tend to NOT want to go to them even when I am deathly ill. This instance was no different. I’d taken a rest week the previous week and trained outside some on the bike and come down with what I thought was the general spring time sniffles and coughing. Well after the rest week, I still couldn’t shake it (despite my attempts to drown myself in Vitamin C…)

Yes it does have 1000% DV of your vitamin C…and it tastes good to boot!

So about a half week later when I realized that I hadn’t gone to a full day of work in 3 days because I kept leaving early or coming in late in order to rest, I reluctantly went to the doctors. Turns out he diagnoses me with bronchitis and gives me a Z-pack (?) of some antibiotics.

The last day of the antibiotics was race day for the 15k. No fun. I still wasn’t feeling well, but still wanted to test out the legs to see if maybe my 2 weeks of “taper” as I was referring to it at the time, would pay off. I had some ambitious goals for the race, I had wanted to break 55 minutes, beat a great competitor who constantly gives me crap (and I return it…) Mr. Carl Johnson among other goals that I had already figured in my head. Spoiler alert!!! That was not my day…

The race started off and it was a little chilly. I made a last minute decision to take off the fleece lined tights that I was going to wear because the sun was out and I knew as soon as we hit the hills; it was going to turn steamy. I had on a pair of radioactive yellow/green gloves, a thin winter hat, and long sleeves. It was a good day to run.

The race went off and I flew thru the 1 mile mark with Matt Keefe (local GVH runner) in about 5:38. We laughed and tried to back off, but I ended up going thru the 5k split in about 17:30 or so and knew it was going to be tough from then on. About mile 4-5 my power seemed to wane a bit and I remembered a conversation that I had before the race with this guy who told me he raced once with bronchitis and it turned into full blown pneumonia and he was laid up for 2 months, so I was okay with backing off a tad because I definitely didn’t want to share his fate.

Around that 6 mile mark Mr. Johnson decided to soft pass me and we hit the 10k in 36:3X, still pretty quick. I passed him back, but he is like the energizer bunny of runners, he’s always right there and I gave him some motivation as he went by me again. From there on in, I didn’t want to push too hard and kinda held back. I really could’ve killed myself out there and ran a smoking fast time, but by the time I hit the finish, I was thru in 56:33 and that was good enough for 10th overall and 3rd in the age group.
It was a RROY (Rochester Runner of the Year) series race, so it attracted some deeper talent. I’m happy with my placing and all being sick, but I know if I had been healthy I would’ve been under that 55 mark and likely broken my college 15k PR. Oh well, there is always next year.

But that’s the story of the Spring Forward 15k. For anyone who cares, I’m back and healthy again too. I just did a 15:49 training week last week and for the first time in 2009, I made it to all 3 masters swim practices that week :o) It’s hard getting out of bed that early to jump into a cold pool… Now that the weather’s nice, I hope you all have been enjoying the roads and trails and getting out there to JFT. Cheers folks, I’ll check back in later on.

Bert's Grand Opening!!!

Stop on by! They will have a bicycle "flea market" next door with all sorts of surprises and absolutely EVERYTHING will be on sale in the store. If you haven't checked it out yet, now is the time to stop in to see dealers and reps from all the product lines in the Henrietta Berts location. 100 Jay Scutti Boulevard, right down the street from Marketplace Mall. See you there!

Ramblings and Ketchup

Yeah, so it's a lively Saturday night and I'm just catching up on old blog entries and relaxing a little bit. This week was a rest week and a significant reduction in volume as compared to previous weeks. (Last 3 before were 13/13.5/15 hours total - even WITH a trip out to Las Vegas the weekend BEFORE the final four tournament...long story)

But things have been pretty good lately. The sponsor for this year BERTS bikes, opened up a new shop located on 100 Jay Scutti Boulevard (same plaza as the BJ's wholesale superstore and right by Marketplace Mall) and they are officially open for business. If you haven't been in there, I highly suggest checking them out and stopping in to say HI. They have a massive wall of bikes (Four high!) to the right when you walk in and a little something for everyone (triathletes included!!)

On the plus side of things, Berts FINALLY threw a jersey my way (a bike jersey....but it's a start, at least it is something with their name on it so I can show my support!) and I actually wore it today on a nice training ride. They are apparently getting together some slick looking triathlon uniforms for me and the Egger's (I assume) and I'll post some photos of those later on when they arrive.

Other than that, things have been pretty status quo around here. I'm still kicking and will have some fun packages coming in the next few weeks from the sponsor that I'll be sure to post about when it arrives. But other than that, just laying down some good solid base IM training in prep for Ironman USA coming up in less than 4 months. (take 2) I'm finally doing intervals and structured bike training, so we'll see if I can hang with the guys in my age group this year on the bike. I have a very ambitious goal of breaking 10 hours at IMLP and it will take going fast on the bike AND the run to do so.

The Spring Forward 15k run is coming up in about a week or so and that's usually the race that gets the lead out of the legs and sees how the base training went, at least running wise... I went a 55:08 there last year and I would really like to see if I can bust open a sub 55 there this year. (that would beat my college 15k PR - and I'm self coached!!!) :o) So we'll see what happens. I was about 15 seconds behind Mr. Carl Johnson last year and that would be a big bonus to be able to squeeze out another W against him this year, but we'll see. He always knows I'm rearing for him and I'm calling Frozen Assets a fluke....for now.

Well it's about bed time for me (well maybe not...) but I want to be done, so I'm gonna head out. Train well and rest even better friends. I'm stoked that the sun is shining and we're all back out on the roads again (my neighbors really appreciate that...) I'll see you in the sunshine. JFT friends, cheers!

Snow Cheap #6 (finale) race report

So as not to miss the entire month of March, I will throw a little post your way on the blog to let everyone know whats been going on. First off, the Fleet Feet Snow Cheap Winter Trail Race Series is over. The last race was some Wednesday back a few weeks ago and it was a blast as per normal.

Since daylight savings time hit, we really didn't need the headlamps for this one. The thaw had hit, and it was a nice night for a run. I don't really remember too much about it other than people telling me not to screw it up before the race by placing 2nd. I am somone who does not really like to let people down so I usually just replied with, "I'll try my best!"

I know I like to "front run" at some of these smaller local races...most people that race with me know that too. That night, my friend Alan decided to give me a little brief scare and BOLT off the start line and play with my head saying things like, "you don't want any blemishes on your perfect series" and crap like that. Within the first 1/2 mile, I had passed him and never heard anything from him again. Other than that, I don't remember too awful much. It was a fun technical race and I was ready to roll. I had just come off of a rest week and was playing around and just bombing thru the woods.I ended up winning it and sweeping the entire series. It didn't matter whether it was a snowshoe or trail run either. I placed first in all 6 races in the series and it was a cool thing to be able to stick to my goals and guns and do something that i thought I wouldn't be able to pull off. Winning a single race is something that as long as you play your cards right and have the ability, it's pretty simple. The whole series racing thing is a different beast all together!!! :o) And I like it! :o) The first few races are easy, then suddenly you have a target on your back and EVERYONE is after you... it's intense. I'd like to focus on series racing sometime down the road.

Grand Pre-Opening tonight!

So there is a grand "pre-opening" tonight for the Rochester superstore for my title sponsor this year. It's supposedly a wine and cheese type event with the "big wigs" in the city of Rochester in attendance. I'll let you all know how it goes (and when the new Bert's in Henrietta is open to the general public...) Cheers! :o)

Snow Cheap Race #5 report

Just had to throw a photo of this in there. This is my college roommate of 3 years wearing a GXC shirt that on the back reads "Streaking our way across the US" because the men's and women's Geneseo XC programs often made it to Nationals and they had a tradition of streaking in the new states trying to get all 50... as you can see most of New England was already filled in. But, I digress...To let you all know, the streak is still alive. I truly believe that it shouldn't be, but I was lucky with a few things last Wednesday night.

The race was a trail race due to lack of snow, so I left the Crescent Moon's at home and brought the Kahtoohla's with me to Cobbs Hill on that evening. I was already in rough shape as that last week I crested almost 14 hours of training. So needless to say my legs were pretty smoked at the start of the race. Now the kicker of the evening came when a light snow started to fall around 5:15pm for a 6 o'clock race. Who knew that this dusting was going to have such an effect on the race?
Turns out that this dusting made a nice little blanket over all of the markers/cones that were out on the course. This added a new dimension of fun to the race as we were now tracking to see if we could even LOCATE a cone, let alone follow a trail.

The gun went off and we clomped around thru the base of Cobbs and immediately went up the nice big dirt hill leading up to the reservoir. I was letting Kurt Spacher take the lead but quickly realized that the entire group was bunching up because we couldn't locate a cone in the newly white field. There came cries of, "Anyone see a cone?" and with so many people it sounded vaguely reminiscent of a hash with other folks joking around and yelling out "beer near!".

Kurt and I tromped along though and managed to make it into the woods. Kurt was leading and on a sketchy, icy section of downhill he took a slide and his feet went right out from underneath him and I swear I almost saw his head bounce off the ground. He quickly clambered up to his feet as I passed, but I was asking him, "Man are you okay?!", and "you took a really hard hit there, you okay?" and I think he must've believed I was trying to get inside his head and freak him out, but I was genuinely concerned.

I led for a while after that and we made it out onto Washington Grove and had to walk to locate the markers for a bit. There were no headlamps in the woods behind us as we had distanced the field by a bit then. We finally located the trail again and took off. I passed Kurt in the woods and we just kinda went on until the switchbacks.
Again, as soon as I knew we were hitting the switchbacks, I turned up the heat once more and started going. I was scared to slip on the icyness, but I had faith in the kahtoohlah's and knew the spikes in them would keep me upright. I heard Kurt being a little more ginger after falling for a second time down the switchbacks and I just pumped it into the finish. This was win #5 for the series and there is only one more race left. Lucky for me, the penultimate race comes immediately after a rest week and will be a good night to see if I can sweep the whole Snow Cheap Series. (my goal from the beginning) This was a good one that I didn't think I was able to win at the start and likely probably shouldn't have, but conditions and equipment allowed me another small victory for the year. :o)

It's a rest week for me and it couldn't have come any sooner. The last 3 weeks were 12, 13.5, and 14 hours respectively so I could use the rest. Take care folks, now's the time of the season to hone in on the base miles and stay healthy. Don't overdo it, but still I implore you to get out there and JFT! Cheers.