Weekend Expectations

April 30, 2011 --

Good evening, I hope everyone had a happy and productive Monday.  This coming weekend is the first in which I will be running two races.  Saturday, I will be running in TriRock New York at Harriman State Park, and Sunday I will be competing in the first leg of the United Health Care Triple Crown Race Series.  

Friday afternoon I will be heading into the city to pick up my race packet for TriRock, and I must say I am so excited for this race this year.  This will be my first tri of the season, and I can't wait to show off the new speed in the run leg of the race.  This will also be my first opportunity to get in the water in my new TYR Hurricane CAT 5 wetsuit!  

I am not sure exactly what I expect my finishing time will be, but I do plan to have a competitive time and hope to finish top five in my age group.

After TriRock, I will head right up to Rhode Island to the race expo for the Providence Race.  I have a time I am shooting for, but do not want to let that information out of the bag just yet.  I do not know how I will feel after the triathlon Saturday, and do not want to be disappointed if I am unable to hit my time goal after I posted it here.  As far as I am concerned, the Triathlon on Saturday is my top priority of the weekend and the half marathon is secondary.

I am very excited to be getting back into the heart of race season! It truly is the best part of the year!

Also, I am a huge New York Ranger fan who are in the middle of their playoff run!  Let's Go Rangers!!!

Training Updates

Saturday, April 21, 2012 --

A few updates to mention today.  First off, Thursday night was a Team Bicycle Planet training session dedicated to working on T2, the bike to run transition.  We set up a bike rack in the corner of the parking lot...racked our bikes, set up our transition areas and got to work.  We talked a lot about how to get through transition as quickly as possible and some of the big dos and donts of triathlon transition.  One big hit of the night for some of my teammates were elastic laces for the running shoes.  About half of us, myself included, already had elastic laces on our shoes and in a matter of seconds had convinced the other half to make their way to the shop after practice to pick up elastic laces of their own.  It's no secret that having elastic laces shaves precious seconds off of a transition, but more than that I really like how they can never really be tied too tight or too loose.

After some chatting about how to speed up transition, we put our newly learned skills to the test; starting about fifty feet away from the transition area, running in as if we were entering T1, taking out the bike, riding a few hundred yards, and returning to test our times for T2.  It was a lot of fun, and there are really some great people to learn from and offer tips to on Team Bicycle Planet.  With my first triathlon of the season only two short weeks away, I really want to spend some time at home working on transition at home.  One big area I'd like to work on is mounting and dismounting the bike.

My last big tip for transition...keep it simple.  A good transition set up has only the essentials.  There's no reason to unpack every piece of triathlon gear you own just in case you need it.  This comes mostly with experience, but eventually you will be able to figure out exactly what you need for transition, and have a nice routine down to get in and out quickly.

Aside from my triathlon two weeks from today, I am also running a half marathon two weeks and one day from today.  Training for that has also been going great!  Today I went out for my long run and was very happy with my 10 mile run in 1:26:50.  I ran with a pace of 8:41 min/mi. which for me is very fast.  It appears that all of my winter work on my running is really paying off, and I could not be happier!!!

I am super excited to get out on the road in race conditions to test out these new legs!

On another note, I am seriously disappointed with how the New York Rangers have played the last two games, and really hope they can turn it around first in game 6 to force a game 7 and then really give it everything there.  Lets Go Rangers...I still BELIEVE!

Fast Approaching...

April 13, 2012 --

Happy Friday the 13th to everyone out there.  This is the second of three such dates penciled into the 2012 calendar this year.  The first was in January, and the third will come in July.  We are just about half way through April and for many, they will be competing in their first triathlons in three short weeks.

For me, I open my triathlon season in Harriman State Park at TriRock NY.  It's hard to believe that less than a year ago, TriRock was the first triathlon I ran.  It will be nice to return to a familiar race, but due to September's Hurricane Irene, the race will be taking place on a completely different course.  Last year the swim took place at Lake Sebago beach, but unfortunately the hurricane washed away the beach, and this year's race will take place at Lake Welch.

This is the first of many races I have planned this year.  I am not sure exactly what I was thinking when I was planning out the season, bur I am really looking forward to the excitement and the challenge of my season.  My main race this season is the half ironman in Maine at the end of August so that is what my training will be focusing on, but I hope to be competitive in my other Tri's.  I worked really hard on my run speed in the 'off season' and am looking forward to better times this season.  I am coming into the season down fifty pounds from from the Mighty Hamptons race.

UHC Triple Crown

April 7, 2012 --

Good morning, and welcome to the weekend!  It has been awhile since I have posted on here, and to be honest it has been a combination of a busy schedule and sheer laziness which has kept me away.  I did make a few small updates to the homepage, adding a new page for the UHC Triple Crown.

Many of you may be asking, what exactly this triple crown is, so let me tell you.  Last year, I ran the United Health Care half marathon in Newport, RI.  I absolutely loved this race, and immediately signed up to run it again in 2012.  Long story short, I soon learned two different things.  First, that Amica Marathon (@Amicamarathon) was offering an opportunity to bloggers to enter either the Amica Marathon or UHC half marathon in Newport, RI and blog about their training and experiences at the race.  Secondly, I learned of the triple crown series United Health Care was sponsoring.

The series, consisting of half marathons in Providence in May, Jamestown in July, and Newport in October is looking to "crown a half marathon champion of Rhode Island in 2012."  This series absolutely appealed to me for several reasons.  First, after the 2011 half in Newport, I have the utmost confidence that UHC will put on three fantastic races.  Secondly, Rhode Island is not too far of a drive from where I live on Long Island and is a beautiful state.

I am really looking forward to these three races, the first of which is just four short weeks from today.  I ran 8 miles yesterday in 1:06:41, and am looking forward to a big PR in Providence!

In the next few days I will post my 'insane race schedule' for 2012...Last I counted I think a total of 14 or 15 races.

Happy Easter!