UPDATE: First (non-training) injury

As you can see, I have received my first injury, well at least the first while training for this triathlon. The ironic part is that I didn't even receive this while training. I made it though biking and racing this weekend without a scratch, and then manage to sprain my ankle while walking down from Belvedere Castle in Central Park. I may have to invent a better story than that, but for now the truth will have to do.




UPDATE:

Well, 24 hours later and my foot is feeling a little better. As can be seen from the picture on the left, I no longer seem to have a softball attached to my ankle. I am still limping and don't see running in the near future, at least this week. I figure I will swim and then try to add biking back into the mix.

Spring is here ... Yay Spring, Redux

Well, it looks like spring has finally appeared in the city (again). Although, this time it looks like it will be sticking around for a while. After last weekends Nor'easter, the city had dried out and we had a beautiful springtime weekend. This Saturday's GTS (group training session) was a bike ride. I finally got to put my new bike through its paces. I did a couple of 5 mile loops in the park along with 30 minutes of riding the lower loop. With the warmer weather it appears that everyone else has the same idea.



The weather is too nice to stay indoors and the park is a great place to enjoy the spring time. Of course, that makes riding a bike in the park much more interesting. Think about frogger times ten. The main problem is when there's a collision, the bicyclist is probably more likely to be the one getting injured than the person not paying attention as they stroll absent-mindedly into the road. Thankfully, no frogs, bicyclists, or pedestrians were injured in yesterdays training session.

Today was just as nice a day. Happy Earth Day if anyone is keeping track. As part of earth day the care for the parks run was held, which is a benefit race for the NY Parks Foundation. This was a 4 mile race and while I didn't feel as strong the last 10k I ran, I think that may have to do with being sick for the past week. However, I did finish in about 38 minutes, which was within my goal of sub 40 minutes. The other option is that I got too much sleep and not enough alcohol the night before. Still may need to experiment with these theories.

Spring ... bahh humbug

OK, it's April. WTF is up with the weather. We were teased with that warm weather for a week and then it dropped miserable and cold again. I think we need to find Punxsutawney Phil and General Beauregard Lee, and tell them they can take their early spring and go hide back in their holes for the rest of the summer. Probably feeling a little curmudgeonly because I am still feeling sick, a flu bug or something that has been going around. So with that and work have not been able to do as much training as I wanted to this week. Although I did manage to join the GTS (group training session) this Saturday for the run session which was the actual tri course that we will do on race day. We started off in Riverside park and then ran about a mile to Central Park. From there we do a five mile loop up the west side, across the northern hills and down the east side to the 72nd transverse. The finish line is in the same area where the disco skaters hang out. Although they will be there later in the day, so we won't be having to run though a skating circle. Although that could make for an interesting finish line.



This past Wednesday, I had to work late so I decided to go to the intermediate swim session at 8:30 instead of the basic one at 7pm that I normally attend. My first though after I jumped into the water and look across the poll was "Wait a minute, the middle is gone. The pool is the full 50 meter length, oh crap!" So, not much drilling that night either just swimming laps and then finishing up the night with the dreaded double snake swim. Basically the whole group starts off together in the first lane and then proceeds to swim up and down the lanes for the entire width of the pool and once you get to the end, you come back. Right now the only consolation I can give myself is that it's still 3 months before the race. So lots of time to get better at swimming. Looking forward to warmer weather this week and better health. Time to grab some more Nyquil and OJ.

Mayor Mike B. reads my blog?

Well we have an answer to the puzzle that was brought up in a previous post regarding the times square shuffle. The sign is correct in that there really is a times square shuffle, and no, unfortunately we will not be seeing a bunch of guys in top hats tap dancing through the park. Rather, it is a reference to new traffic patterns in times square. For more info, check out this link: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/pdf/timessquare.pdf.

As requested, the answer to this puzzle appeared in a comment to my post with the above link. This raises a new question since the commenter signed the post as Mike Bloomberg. While the mayor does like to get out among the people and is known for taking the 6 train to work every day, I find it a little hard to believe that he is checking out my little corner of the web and leaving comments late on a Sunday night. After all, I would think that he's got more important or at least more interesting stuff to do, but you never know. So, if it is Mayor Mike, thanks for the info and hope you enjoyed the inner circle roast on Saturday night. I saw the dress rehearsal Friday and was laughing out loud at parts. Especially the rats and school kids on the subway skits. More likely, if it someone who likes to post as Mike Bloomberg, thanks for the info as well.

I'll provide an update on my training in my next post.

Train like you race

It's a common theory for any type of athletic event that you should train like you race. The point being that your training will prepare you for the actual competition day. Our friendly team in training coaches like to torture us on the pool sessions with sideways stroke drills and other assorted ones where the main purpose seems to be to provide them with fun and amusement. They tell us that these drills are good for our skill development, but I sometime s wonder. They appear to be enjoying our sinking way too much. With that in mind, I expect this to be coming soon for one of our Swim GTS (group training sessions) when we go into open water.

My New Wheels

For the past couple of weeks I've been considering getting a new bike. So far I have been training on my mountain bike, a Gary Fisher Tassajara. While it's a great bike for riding over tree roots, down trails or even New York City potholed streets, its not exactly optimized for speed and long distances. So after much shopping, research and picking of various brains, the fine folks at Toga Bikes on West End Ave. and 64th hooked me up with my new ride.


It's a Cannondale R700. I feel much faster when riding it. Although, I am still getting passed by those other guys who have all that official biking gear on. But those race walkers, they can eat my dust! I picked it up yesterday afternoon and rode it back from the bike shop to my place, although it's hard to get to get the feel of a new bike when you are concerned for your life and limb, as happens by riding in New York City traffic. Gives you a new appreciation for the delivery guys. I don't know how they do it. Other having no fear.

I decided to go out and take my new wheels for a spin in Central Park this morning and I could definitely feel a difference. Flying through the park in my new aerodynamic position, I could stay close enough to see what brand of energy bars all the guys passing me kept in the back of their fancy bike shirts. But like I said, those race walkers, not even close.

Afterwards I decided to go for a run since today was a run training day on the schedule and hey, I'll have to ride a bike and then run anyway. The whole train like you race theory. More on that in the next post. As I was finishing my run, I noticed a sign in the park that I had not noticed before.

Can someone tell what the time square shuffle is? Is that a new dance like the funky chicken? I'm confused. My assumption is that it should say shuttle, but I think seeing a bunch of people doing the time square shuffle as they cross the park would be a whole lot funnier. Anyone have any ideas? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Even if you don't have an idea and just want to say hi :)

Bagpipes, drums, and men in kilts, oh my

It's Tartan week here in New York and on Sunday, April 1 was the Scotland Run 10k or 6.2 miles for those of us not up on these newfangled metric conversions. The big question; would I end up feeling like Braveheart (at least the Mel Gibson, face painted inspiring speech one, not the executed, hanged, drawn and quartered version) or a steaming pile of haggis.

Let's look at a little background. Well, so far in training I have been doing around 50 minute runs and/or around 5 miles, so this would be further that I have been regularly going. Plus we'll add to that the fact that I didn't exactly get a ton of sleep the night before. That's a story for another blog, but lets just say that it involved an exploration of various lower east side establishments and the wonders of chocolate and alcohol combinations. So that works out to about 3 hours of sleep.

As expected, lots of bagpipes, drums and men in kilts. The picture above is the bagpipe procession that led the runners down from the gathering point down to the start line of the race. More pictures below:

Before the race milling around the field, not quite sure what the big stuffed horned animal guy wearing a kilt is or what it has to do with Scotland. Anyone?

Waiting around with the rest of the runners at the back of the pack for the race to start.

Let's follow the bagpipes to the Start line.

Afterwards, finished, now someone point me to the bagels!

Still rockin out to the bagpipes afterwards.

And in case you were wondering how I did, I was very pleased with my personal results. The run felt good to me and although I felt a little tired at somewhere between the uphill portion of the 4 - 5 mile mark, I kept going.

As I was running, I thought back to the Connection to the Cause breakfast that we had after our morning group training run on Saturday. Some of the staff from the Leukemia & Lymphoma society spoke to us about the good things they are able to do as a result of our efforts. One women spoke about her own experiences fighting cancer and how the efforts of people in Team in Training lifted her along when she was unable to physically do any type of activity. Listening to the stories of teammates who have completed marathons, triathlons, and bike rides, the common thread seems to be that they are inspired to keep going when they are tired from their personal connections, friends, family members, etc with cancer. Any physical tiredness we are feeling after running, biking, swimming, being tortured by the coaches, etc is nothing compared to the daily struggles of the patients to sometimes just get out of bed in the morning and complete another round of chemotherapy. I guess the point is that we end up inspiring each other to go further than we want or though we could.

I completed the 6.2 miles in about 58:54 while running the last three miles at a 9 minute mile pace. Afterwards I still felt strong with no desire to collapse on the ground and walked back to uptown to my apartment. What have we learned from this? It appears that the secret to my athletic success is alcohol and lack of sleep. Funny, but they never mentioned that in our group training sessions. I may have to follow up with the coaches on that one. And maybe a little inspiration too. You never know.

PS: And no Haggis to be seen anywhere.