A Tri Grows in Brooklyn

my training blog my training calendar my training reports Planned training log

inspire me (2)

Wednesday - June 25

Ugh—that sucked. I had every intention of working out. I really did. But, since my wife was out at a play, I had to put the boy to bed and, in so doing, managed to somehow fall asleep with him on his bed, and woke up much to late to do anything. On the plus side, I did catch up on some zz’s which I apparently needed. It’s so frustrating—just when one part of my legs gets better, another acts up. My right calf is fine, and now, all of a sudden, my left calf feels wonky. I honestly cant’ remember the last time I was able to run without any kind of discomfort or weirdness somewhere. It was probably sometime in September or October of last year. It’s annoying. I suppose it could always be worse, but I’m frustrated at not being able to make as much progress in this sport as I would like to. I know I’ll never win my AG, but I think my bike and swim have improved to where I could at least be consistently in the top 10 or so if I had been able to improve my run as well. But more than that, I just want to run. I really miss my late-night 90-minute runs up the Hudson River. I miss being fast when I want to be. I miss being able to run 10 2-minute repeats of this really tough hill in my neighborhood. [/rant] B: Optimum Power cereal L: Black Bean soup, banana S: Gorp, banana D: Turkey sandwich, some pretzels, cheese.

inspire me (2)

Tuesday - June 24

Bike

42m
13.25 miles
18.93 Mi/hr

Trainer

I put in a few pictures from the Gold Coast Tri in the album. My wife has better ones, but she hasn't downloaded them yet. Still a little tired today, but I got in a decent workout on the trainer. Lots of big gears and high-cadence stuff. B: Optimum Power cereal S: Banana L: Tuna sandwich, banana S: gorp D: turkey sandwich on ww S: berries, pretzels

inspire me (5)

Monday - June 23

Strength

I'm tired. Must train tonight. Wife got home late, and we had to unload the car and crap. So, I did some stretching & strength stuff at home, which I've been kinda neglecting anyway. Need to get back down to racing weight, so I need to be smarter. Arg. A girl in my department just brought in a giant bag of peanut M&M's. My favorite. Must....be....strong.... I have about 5 lbs of strawberries in the fridge. We went berry picking in Long Island, and we went a little overboard. If anyone's got some tequila around and a hankerin' for a strawberry margarita, c'mon over. B: YOG L: Tuna & cucumber on baguette D: Turkey sandwich on ww

inspire me (0)

Sunday - June 22

Bike

1h 00m
20.25 miles
20.25 Mi/hr

Avg 18.5 mph on the way out and 22.mph on the way back.

Got up early again and hung out with the boy. I went for a ride once everyone else was awake—lots of wide, flat roads. It was a little windy, but I had the tailwind on the way back. Spent the day in town. Greenport is a terrific little town on the north fork or Long Island. Just as pretty as the Hamptons, but much less expensive, no “scene” to speak of, etc. The bummer of the day was that I have to work on Monday, so I had to leave in the evening. Luckily, my son passed out in the car on the way to the station, or there might have been tears. I rode the train back to Brooklyn, and didn’t get in the door until after 10pm. . B: French toast L: fish and chips (mostly fish) D: Hummus/tomato/cucumber sandwich, peach

inspire me (0)

Saturday - June 21

Just hung around the house mostly, waiting for our friends to arrive. We had a nice breakfast in town and bought groceries for the house. Later, we went to the beach—first time my son had ever ridden his bike on an actual street. I got in a short OWS at the beach—maybe 200y or so—not enough to log. Spent a while paddling around in the water w/the boy. I made a fantastic dinner: grilled whole black sea bass stuffed w/herbs, a salad made from: local tomato and cucumber, grilled fennel, and grilled baby bok choy. The tray w/the fish was garnished w/grilled lemons, grilled red onion, and a few grilled prawns. I also made corn on the cob (it’s a little early in the season, but it was ok), and for dessert, I dusted fresh pineapple wedges with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon, threw it on the grill until it was a little caramelized, and served them over vanilla ice cream. We drank it with a bottle of local rose, which was perfect. After the kids went to bed, we drank a bottle of Krug that someone had given us as a present. B: egg & cheese on bagel L: hummus, cheese, fruit salad, bread D: See above.

inspire me (5)

Friday - June 20

Today, we're headed to the beach. Have a great weekend, and good luck to everyone racing. Hopefully, I'll get some riding in--lots of nice flat stretches of road near the water. Last night was mixed: I just couldn’t get the crampy feeling out of my calf last night, no matter how much I stretched, so, me and a friend decided we’d run the first mile and call it a night. I stupidly forgot both my ace bandage and my neoprene wrap, either of which probably would have helped). I think we managed in about 8:45 or so, which wasn’t bad considering that there were 15,000 people, about half of whom were walking, packed into a 3.5 mile course. Yes, 15,000 people. 3.5 mile course. It was kind of like trying to run a 5-k through the crowd entering a concert arena. We walked back to the party, had a G&T, a few snacks, and then I went home and drank champagne with my wife and parents. It’d be nice to have one run in 2008 without some kind of nagging pain somewhere, but c’est la vie, I suppose. I foam-rolled like a madman before bed and that helped a little. B: Optimum power cereal

inspire me (3)

Thursday - June 19

So tonight’s the “JP Morgan/Chase Corporate Challenge”. It’s a 3.5mi race in Central Park. There is an actual “race” and, for some companies, it’s pretty competitive. Most of the people from my company plan to walk the course. I plan to run, although I’m not going to go all out. I’ll say under 29m as a goal. There’s no chip timing though, so I’ll have to go by my stopwatch—I’m not about to show up to this thing wearing a Garmin. My co-workers think I’m enough of a freak just because I plan to run the whole distance. The company puts on a really nice post-race spread and party. Open bar, raw bar, the whole nine. I have to leave kind of early, because my parents are visiting and they want to celebrate our wedding anniversary with my wife and I tonight, so I can’t get home too late. So, my primary motivation for running as fast as I can is that, the sooner I finish, the sooner I get to the party and the more oysters and cocktails I’ll be able to enjoy on the company dime before I have to race home. Sigh. I wish I was faster. This would be a good time to be able to run a 5:45 mile. Tomorrow, we’re headed to the beach. Not sure what kinda Internet setup the beach house will have, so I may be BT-impaired. But rest assured, I’ll be training my butt off. In between grilling lobsters and drinking chilled rose’ champagne. Happy 15th anniversary to Mrs. JMK and me! It’s truly amazing that someone has been able to put up with all my BS for so long. It should be an inspiration to everyone. We’re so complimentary, it’s really funny. We share the same values, but actually we have very different tastes, when it comes to food, music, movies, etc. But most of the things I’m really good at are not her strengths, and vice versa. I met her when I was a sophomore in college, and, I think if you had told me then and there that I was going to marry her and spend the next 20 years with her, I would have told you, “Sounds like a plan.” B: Opttimum power and skim milk L: Cold sesame noodles and hot and sour soup Pre-race: Strawberry clif blox D: