Brandon's Marathon

NYC Triathlon

The Running Man

Koobi Saddles

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Selle San Marco Saddles

Amphipod

Fuel Belt

NYRR Achilles Hope & Possibility 5 Miler

 

 BMP: Episode 47 [78:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterday was the Achilles Hope & Possibility 5 miler in Central Park. The famous, Ari and I had arranged to meet at the registration tent prior to the race and to run the event together. Achilles Track Club, for those who may not know, is an organization who holds as it’s mission statement: “Our mission is to enable people with all types of disabilities to participate in mainstream athletics, promote personal achievement, enhance self esteem, and lower barriers.”. I am no stranger to Achilles and have been there to cheer on many of their athletes before this event and have also been passed by one of their Iraq War veterans in a race!

Now, to say that I was “re-inspired” by this event is not entirely true. I think that, to be “re” anything, one needs to have lost their initial drive. I have not. However, as I stated in my article last week entitled, “Time”, I have been struggling with the amount of my life my training must take up, but lacking the time to allow it to do so. This weekend, I found myself renewed. On Saturday, I went on a 5.5 mile run in the morning, then headed out to rehearsal. Following rehearsal, I headed home and went on a 30 mile ride down the West Side Greenway (my first time on that route in a while). Knowing that I had an event the next morning, I looked forward to that soreness that makes you feel alive, like your body is working again.

The next morning, I went to the event in Central Park. First, walking through the parking area in front of Tavern on the Green, the amount of high-tech wheelchair gear was amazing! The amount of high end wheelsets on those chairs could almost surpass the wheelsets on überbikes at a triathlon. As I walked toward the registration tent and looked around, the people there, some with mental disabilities, some missing one or both legs or arms, I began to think. What if I wasn’t sore that morning because the part of me that should be sore was missing? Would I still be there? What if I couldn’t walk to the start, but had to use my arms? Would I still be there?

These athletes were there because they are just that, athletes. No matter what, at the end of the day, they were not letting some small thing like being a double leg amputee stop them from going out and using what God gave them. The wheelchair start went off before the main pack, and it was incredible to see these athletes, some of whom were forced to go backward in their chairs, due to their condition, just smile the whole time.

As Ari and I got to about mile 4 (holding down about a 7:15/mile pace), the heat and humidity began to kick my ass a bit, I said to Ari, “I’d like to go on the record and say that I am officially no longer having fun.”. Once I got home and had the chance to reflect, it made me realize how thankful I was to have been able to toe the line with the athletes from Achilles. So, to each and every one of the member of Achilles Track Club, thank you! I would also like to say a special thank you to the veterans who were there running. You have given of yourself with an unconditional love for our country and I am eternally grateful. As long as I have breath, I will defend and honor the sacrifices you have made for our freedoms. Thank you.

Official Results:

Time 36:55
Pace 7:23/mile

Makes 12 servings

Ingredients

Oven Barbecued Brisket Ingredients Cont.

Oven Barbecued Brisket Instructions Cont.

Oven Barbecued Brisket Tips Cont.

Over the past couple of weeks, and to be honest, before that, people have been writing in to ask and comment about finding the time to train. I have to assume that the recent number of these questions and comments is directly related to the fact that it is now “event season”. It’s probably also related to daylight hours being more plentiful (in the Northern hemisphere, sorry Oz!!), and yet we still cannot find the hours in the day to do what we need to.

This week, I find myself in a particularly interesting situation. As you may know, I am an opera singer (tenor) and this week, I was fortunate enough to pick up a gig at the last second. The gig itself is not until November, but the rehearsals are/were Wednesday through Sunday of this week. On top of that, I do have to work during the day to pay the bills in between away jobs. So, my days this week begin at 6 AM and I can usually be in bed by 11PM. To further complicate matters, I have come down with what seems to be a cold. I think I am now over the actual “sickness” part of it (headache, chills, runny nose, etc.) but I am dealing with the after effects, which I find can quite often be far worse than the illness itself. I will get back to my schedule in a minute.

I have come to realize that it is very important to differentiate between a “workout” and “training”. I believe that the difference is largely mental in nature. For me, the term “workout” conjures up an image of doing something as maintenance, while training is done with a very specific end-goal or event in mind. Also, for many people, “training” involves a very specific program that is leading them in the direction of said event. While “workouts” may be very specific and laid out, I look at them as something that is less taxing, simply by virtue of the fact that you can allow yourself to be more flexible with what you are trying to accomplish (in my opinion).

I am “training” for Ironman Wisconsin, which takes place on September 13, 2009. Along the way, I will also be competing in the New York City Triathlon, and maybe a couple of other events. On a recent episode of the Running with the Pack podcast (Episode 49), one of the hosts, Allan Gyorke asked me if I was following a training program on my way to IM Wisconsin. Although I answered his question in sort of a rambling “yes and no” kind of answer, the real answer is no.  For me, I find that programs make me feel very “locked in”, and if I can’t get in the workout that is scheduled, I get upset or angry with myself and the situation, which leads to me just being more annoyed and then onto bad “training”. That being said, I do read many training programs to get a feel for where I am relative to where they say I should be. Which brings us back to time.

Here in New York City, this June, we have had rain 23 days out of the 25 days so far in the month. This is CRAZY. Of course, that doesn’t really mean that it’s either a soaking rain or an all day event, but it still affects my plans. For instance, I like to ride in the mornings. I wake at about 4:45 AM, have some breakfast, allow myself to wake up for a few, and try to be out the door by 5:30 AM. This has not been happening. Because of the way my day works I rarely get to sleep before 11 PM and when I can manage to wake up and get ready to go, it is always raining. Some of you may be wondering why I am scared of a little rain. I am not. What I am scared of is the usual training route that I ride from Manhattan to Nyack and back is a very heavily trafficked route from the suburbs into the city. When it is raining, not only are my tiny little road tires difficult to handle, but so are the tires on the, much heavier than I, automobiles. That combined with New York’s recent #1 ranking in for most aggressive drivers, and bleary-eyed mornings does not make me want to risk it.

Now, back to this week. I will most likely only be able to ride one day this week, on Saturday morning. Due to my cold, I MUST rest my body or I will be pushing myself through an insurmountable obstacle. As someone reminded me before the Brooklyn Half-Marathon a few weeks back, I need to trust that my cumulative training will do the trick. From now, I have almost exactly one month until the NYC Triathlon, and a little under three months until IM Wisconsin. Once this weekend is over, I will make a real point to get home and get to bed earlier. I will also make a much more significant point of running in the rain if I need to. As for swimming, that is the one thing not affected by weather, and I have not had too much of a problem getting in the water. In fact, that’s where I’ll be this afternoon, in between work and rehearsal.

So, I think the answer to all this is balance. I think it’s taking stock of the time that you have, and realizing that time is finite, and the only REAL necessity in your training (or workout) regimen is REST and RECOVERY. So, maybe you have to make a couple of sacrifices on things that you want to consider as necessary parts of your day, but when you look, you realize that they’re actually indulgences (I mean, do you HAVE to take an hour to watch “America’s got Talent”, or could you be in bed an hour earlier?). Keep training, keep working out, keep sane. Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Running with the Pack Episode 49 (with me!!)

WIN Detergent

2009 Patriot Triathlon Official Results

Newton Running on YouTube

Brandon’s Marathon on YouTube

One Hundred Pushups

Tom Simpson Massage

Rio de Jinero Marathon (GO RAPHAEL!!!)

Brandon on Facebook

 

 BMP: Episode 46 [64:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A Gift For Winter from Athletes for a Cure on Vimeo.

The Revenge of Shrekilocks

Yesterday, June 20, 2009 was the Patriot Triathlon in East Freetown, Massachusetts, produced by Sun Multisport Events. I was a member of the relay team, The Revenge of Shrekilocks, along with my brother-in-law, Adam (run leg) and his best friend, Harrison (bike leg).

The weather report for the day had been changing throughout the week, and the night before we got the good news that any rain would most likely hold off until around 3 pm. Team Shrekilocks met up at the race check in at 6pm on Friday at Cathedral Camp (race site), where we got some decent schwag and headed off to dinner. After a great, if not slow meal at The Pasta Bowl, we all headed back my sister-in-law’s parent’s house in nearby Mattapoisett.

My alarm was set for 5 am, and I popped right out of bed. I usually have a hard time sleeping before any race, but for whatever reason, I slept like a log. We were out the door by 5:50 am, and on our way to the race.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the wide open layout of the transition area. In race past, I have become accustomed to some rather cramped racks and such, but there was no less than 15 feet between rows of racks and often times more. We had plenty of time to set up being that our wave began at 7:30 am, and at about 7:15, we all headed over to the swim start in Long Pond.

Our wave included; relays, aquabike, clydesdale and athena racers, which numbered probably about 30 (give or take). It was an “in the water” start, which was great in my opinion because it allowed me to walk in to about waist deep so that I could start swimming right away rather than having to deal with any running/jumping into the water. I managed to get myself to the front of the wave (in my shiny, new Xterra Vortex 3 sleeveless wetsuit) and the start went off without a hitch.

There were some swimmer-looking guys that I was a bit concerned about, but I passed them pretty quickly. I got out of any pack and on my own out in front pretty quickly. Then, at about the half-way point, as I rounded a buoy, someone came up on my left. Now, at about this time, I had begun to pass people from the other waves and I thought that this was just someone else I was passing and had missed seeing. Then I noticed that I wasn’t gaining any ground on this person! I looked and saw that they had on the same cap color that I did, as well as…PINK GOGGLES!!! There was a chick keeping right up with me!! Now, not that I am incapable of having my ass hand to me by a woman, but I was just not expecting it from my wave! So, I decided to just pace with her and I believe she decided to do the same. We stayed side-by-side until the turn back in toward the beach. We came up on someone from an earlier wave, and she went to the inside, right next to the buoy and I wound up getting bounced way out to the right. I had to pause for a second and make sure I hadn’t been thrown too far off course (which I kind of had) and during that little pause, the other swimmer gained about a body length on me.

At some point, as we made our way back in toward the beach, she crossed behind me and began to go wide right. Again, I paused to make sure I was on course, which I was, and decided that she was veering way off. As I hit the beach, I didn’t look back and hauled some serious ass around the transition area to the swim entrance. One thing I thought was nice, was that the timing pad, which picks up your chip and thereby your swim time, was right by the water’s  edge. This was nice because it gives you a more accurate idea of your swim time. I have been in races, where the timing mat was about 100+ yards from the water!!

As I ran through the pathway that was set up to funnel swimmers to the transition, I had to  kind of cram myself around some people that were taking up a LOT of the path. I got to the transition, found my rack almost immediately and made the switch-off to Harrison. About the time Harrison was heading out, someone behind me asked if it was me who was first out of the water (for our wave). Turns out, it was the woman who had been pacing me. Her name was Tracy and she was so very nice. We got to speak for a long while and I gave/give her unlimited kudos on the swim that she turned in!!

My goal for the swim was to be the fastest swimmer in the race, a goal which I made to myself but didn’t share with anyone other than my team. I did not accomplish that goal. My swim time was 18:32 which was fourth fastest, the fastest time being 18:09. I must admit, I am a bit annoyed by this fact, but I can’t rewind time and push it now!! That being said, I do not believe that the swim was a true half-Ironman swim distance. Especially since the fastest swim time last year was 27:58. I mean, I would be happy if I went that distance in 18:32, but being realistic, I would also then have some sort of record!

After changing into dry clothes, I went down to the bike course to wait for Harrison to come around on the first loop of a two-loop course. Prior to the race he had been downplaying (in my opinion) what his pace would be. He called this “expectation management”. So, we expected him to show up at maybe about an hour and a half from the time he left. Instead he came riding by at an hour and twenty-three minutes!! His total time on the bike was 2:47:06 (58 miles, so more than a half-iron!!), with an average speed of 20.8 miles per hour (we’ll call it 21!). As a matter of fact, Harrison came running into the transition area so fast that he almost crumpled from his legs cramping, and at the same time had an insanely fast transition time of thirty-one seconds!!

Before his run leg, Adam, my brother-in-law, had to pee about 4 times inside of 30 minutes! I don’t blame him, seeing as before my swim, I went to pee and by the time I had walked directly from the porta-john to the swim start, I had to go again. Due to some significant humidity and heat, he decided to run in just his compression shirt rather than that, plus a tech-tee over top. He also made good use of my hat that was courtesy of Newton Running. We couldn’t see Adam at any point on the course, but we knew that he would be in at approximately one hour, forty-five minutes from his start. Sure enough, Adam’s run time was 1:45:00!! It took a minute for him to be able to talk (as it did for all of us!!), but when he did, he was very satisfied with his run (as were we all!!!).

Our total time was 4 hours, 52 minutes and 24 seconds (4:52:24). Now, while we were hanging around and gathering our belongings after the race, results began to go up. We saw that we had come in fourth place (not bad out of 11 teams!!) and decided to head out to grab some food. Later that night, I checked to see if official results had been posted. It turns out, due to a 4 minute penalty by the third place team, we had bee bumped into third place!!! We’re not sure if we get an award or anything, but we should!!

As for the event itself; it was very well run. The check in was smooth and all the staff had most of the answers to any questions, and if they didn’t, then they knew who to ask. The transition are was AMAZING!!, It was more wide open and comfortable than any I have ever been in. The water was perfect and the waves had just enough people to be competitive, but not crowded. Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend the Patriot Triathlon. We have even begun talking about plans to come back next year!!

If you would like to see the official results of the 2009 Patriot Triathlon Click here!!

As always, I will have a further race review on Brandon’s Marathon Podcast later this week, so be sure to check back on Tuesday!! And also, a HUGE shoutout to our cheerleaders; Danielle, Kate, Kathy, Christian and John!! Thank you all for making the EARLY trek to encourage us!!

Yesterday evening, at 5:30 on a particularly beautiful day here in New York City, a group of runners met at The Bosthouse in Central Park. We were meeting with the common interest, not only of running, but of running smart and running healthy. The vehicle through which this took place was Newton Running.

We were met by Danny, Ian and Ian. Danny, being one of the founders of Newton was not only INCREDIBLY in touch with his product (obviously), but is one of the foremost experts on running in the world today. With the help of the Ian’s, Danny explained in very clear terms the theory and technique behind using the Newtons to further proper running technique. What was of great advantage was the fact that what Danny was explaining is not some revolutionary concept that ad piles upon piles of numbers to digest, but rather, was simply common sense and utilizes our true “natural” running technique.

After we met, we went up to a part of the park where there was a traffice turn around (fortunately with no traffic) so that we could run around the circle to nail down the technique. One of the FIRST things we did was TAKE OFF OUR SHOES! I think it is important to note, to the Newton skeptics out there, that 1. Not everyone was wearing Newtons. and 2. They explained the technique WAY before the technology.

We then went on a short group run on the bridle path (not too sure how far) and during the run, the Newton crew was taking the time to look at our strides one at a time and gives us tips and encouragement. They also were more than happy to answer any questions that we had.

I will go more into detail about some of the things we discussed on next week’s show, but for now, suffice it to say that if Newton is EVER in your area you should go talk to them. In the meantime, I will be putting up videos every day (if I can remember) that come from Newton themselves. If you would like to explore more about Newton, please visit their site, or feel free to ask me any questions if that is easier for you and I can pass them along. However, they are extremely accessible and I’m sure would be hapy to help out with anything you may want to know!!

For my part, I would like to say thank you so very, very much to everyone from Newton!! If you guys EVER want to do another thing in NYC, you can count on me to drum up as many people as I can get my hands on!!

For those of you that read my blog (runanskyrun.blogspot.com), follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/runanskyrun), or are my Facebook friend (that you have to ask me for) you’ll know that I do most of running early in the morning. Both my wife and I are busy people and if I don’t get my miles in the morning, I don’t get them in for the day. It’s also not as warm during the summer months.  I’d like to share with you some tips for preparing for morning runs. As a disclosure, Steve Runner spoke about morning runs on Fdip 179 (March 20, 2009). I apologize if I sound repitiious but I have been using many of the tips mentioned in Fdip 179 long before Steve recorded Fdip 179.

• Get Enough Sleep: you will have a lousy run if you don’t.
• Let Your Body Wake Up: your body has been in a sleeping state and you are probably a little groggy.  Do yourself a favor, allow your body time to get used to being in an active state.
• Eat and Drink: your body has been in a fasting state while you were asleep. It is important to eat and drink to refuel and rehydrate your body. My food of choice is a whole grain English muffin with peanut butter. With that, I drink about 16 oz. of water.
• Let Your Food Digest: trust me on this one. Bad things will happen if you don’t. Enough said.
• Enjoy it: one of my favorite things about morning runs is watching my town wake up. Papers are getting delivered, automatic sprinklers are on, birds are chirping, and best of all, there is less traffic on the streets.

My apologies for not guest blogging more often. My life has been very hectic these days.  I hope you enjoyed this entry. As always, Brandon and I love comments and feedback.

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 BMP: Episode 45 [67:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is some amazing video coverage of the Ironman Boise 70.3 that took place yesterday, June 13, 2009.  Inside of ONE MILE to go, Craig Alexander ran down and passed Chris Lieti who lead off the bike. If you look closely, you can see the killer shoes that Crowie is rocking across the finish line!! (Newtons, in case you can’t see)

Thanks to KBCI-TV in Boise for the coverage.

2006, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

Serves: 4 servings (1 serving is 2 banana halves plus 2 Tbs syrup)