New Wheel, Fast Wheels!

I was feeling pretty dejected after my failed display of bike-mechanic skills. With my head hung in shame, I threw out a hail-mary and fired off an email to a local bike-racing club seeing if anyone had a beater-wheel I could borrow or buy off of them for cheap while I searched for an adequate replacement. Like Flutie, my prayers were answered! Art, a veteran wrench wrangler and racer, fired back an email saying that he had just the beater-wheel I was in search of.

Upon arrival, bike and shamefully broken wheel in-tow, I entered his mecca of all things cycling - his basement. Vintage TdF posters and race-numbers adorned the walls, while bikes of all make and model were carefully leaned/hung/resting in every perceivable corner. Did I mention this man has a collection of 50+ jerseys from various teams and events?... Jesus. I have three.

Him: "Let me take a look at that thing."

Him: "Hmmm."

Art then goes and starts leafing through a hanging collection of wheels. He pulls one out and turns back to face me. What the f!? In his hands, still in its original packaging, is a brand new, carbon copy of the exact same wheel that I had busted. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?! Wooooooooooooowwww!

Him: "Whatta we say... 20 bucks?"

Me: "Yes. Abso-f'ing-lutely YES!!!"

I didn't show up empty handed though. Just for his kindness of offering to help, I delivered to him a tasty beverage from the Goose Island Brewery, seasonally and lovingly named Sofie.

Mmm... the good stuff!

In addition to SAVING THE DAY, Art also gave me a free lesson on what it means to act PRO. It was like having the bike-snob standing right in front of you, insulting you in a humorous and entertaining way that you could do nothing but enjoy. I thought I knew how to change a tired, but I guess I did it like a Donkey. BABY POWDER, PEOPLE - if you don't use it, you ain't PRO! (When you say it, you have to say it with an air of disgust, punctuation and superiority as if the very fact you need to utter the word is a waste on whomever you are using it towards). PRO!!

Because of Art, I will undoubtedly shell out the $20 to officially join the CBRC (Capital Bike-Racing Club) and adorn my soon-to-be first pair of bib-shorts with pride (and a little bit of awkwardness).

* * * * * * * * *

If you've paid any attention to my daily-mile stats (side-bar right), running distance and intensity has been DOWN these past two weeks. I had a hernia scare that was most-likely just a strained groin muscle (never had this before) from an overzealous 7-mile effort a couple of weekends ago. In an effort towards smarter training, perhaps I shouldn't leave it all out there in January. Thus, I dialed back the running, got the groin under control (please, no jokes) and are back at it.

And WOW, what a nice treat!

On Saturday I ventured out for my (not-so) long run of the week - 5 miles. It was finally above 20 degrees outside so I was excited to get out there and do it. I found myself doing 1/2-mile laps on a half brick, half snow/ice-packed trail. I got in a bit of a warm-up with the wife and then set off on my own at about the 0.75 mile mark. When I finished, the watch read 39:30, or a 7:54 min/mile average. That is far and away the fastest I have ever run any distance over a 5k, and you know what?... I could've kept going and taken it out to a 10k and MAJORLY SLAYED my current PR. Of course, we all know training PRs don't count for anything and I also just finished talking about training smarter, so I did the smart thing and cut it short at 5.0 miles.

Victory!!

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ARGGHHHH!#$@$!@!! DAMNIT!@#$#@#!!

Chalk this one up to stupidity... damnit! My back wheel had some play in it (rode with it throughout the end of last Fall) and while I was doing some winter-cleaning, I decided to take a shot at "fixing" it. I took apart most of the hub on my back wheel, even peaking inside to see the bearings for the first time. After everything on the outside was all shiny and new, I put it back together and tightened it all up.

BIG MISTAKE.

Little did I know, you don't tighten the cones. BAD! Of course, since I didn't know that I proceeded to tighten them up niiiiiiiice and snug. I mean, they were lose, my wheel was wobbly so I figured, "what would it hurt if I snugged it up a bit, right?" STUPID.

After it was all cleaned and put back together I put the wheel back on my bike only to find that it would make a 1/4 rotation in either direction and then just seize up. Thinking I had over-tightened the cone and only needed to find that happy medium of tightness, I screwed around a bit more, only finding the same result each time. I called a local bike shop, who thought I had done the same, and they told me to just bring the wheel in today and they'll show me how it should be.

Fast forward to today at lunch where the bike-mechanic is shining a flashlight down into my hub showing me where a huge chunk of the cup is "missing." It turns out my tightening down on the cone was applying pressure which led to the snapping off of pieces of the cup itself.

It says BALLS!

So, instead of a cheap tightening-fix, which I thought I was dealing with, the dude at the shop told me that I'm now going to need a whole new wheel. Of course, he said I could just buy a hub if I wanted, but after the cost of labor to install it, new spokes, etc, it would work out to just about the same amount. Nice, huh? F@#$@#!!

Well, if anyone out there has a serviceable wheel laying around in their garage that could compete with what I was formerly running and would love to sell it to me on the cheap out of pity, that'd be great! In the meantime, I guess it's time for me to start learning about what makes one wheel better than another, and continue to sit on my nuts on those ridiculously uncomfortable seats on the spinning bikes at the gym.

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BEER REVIEW: Abita Amber, Abita Brewing Company

I had the pleasure of enjoying my first beer from the Abita Brewing Company while on vacation in New Orleans this past holiday season. While sitting out on the balcony of our apartment after a quick twilight run through the French Quarter, I cracked open my first Abita Amber. I don't know if I was still coming off a runner's high, or perhaps lost in the euphoric sound of trombone shout-bands coming from the corner on the street below, but this beer tasted pretty damn good.

Ahh, the good stuff!

[Full disclosure: I'll be cheating a little bit here as I get started by using beeradvocate's reviews to get the feel for what a beer-review should actually sound like.]

APPEARANCE - 4.0
Mostly a hazy, orangish color. There's noticeable carbonation upon the pour, and you can get a medium head if you pour it right, but there's nothing prominent about it, nor does the carbonation do much to support head-retention.

SMELL - 3.5
Not much to the smell, in my opinion. Others have noted, and I can confirm, that there is the presence of the aroma of malt or breadiness. It's definitely not very strong, but on the other hand it's also not non-existent.

TASTE - 4.0
The good, malty flavor sticks out the most to me. Given my inexperience in identifying beer-flavors correctly, I want to say there is a hint of honey, but that too might just be the maltiness. Who knows. At the very least, it's a bit sweet.

MOUTHFEEL - 4.0
There's a medium to light mouth-feel that is dry, crisp (from the carbonation) and smooth. Not a ton left on my palate, but there was enough flavor to get its point across and leave you with a satisfied, malty after-taste.

DRINKABILITY - 4.5
This is a VERY drinkable beer. It doesn't try to be any more than what it is. The carbonation, mixed with a good balance of flavor makes it a perfect "after-sweat" beer. In other words, it's a great beer to drink after a hard workout!

OVERALL GRADE - B
SERVING TYPE: BOTTLE
BEER TYPE: VIENNA LAGER (AMBER?)
ABV: 4.50%

I rarely drink ambers so I don't have much to compare this to. I can say, however, that it is a thoroughly enjoyable beer that comes with great memories for me and could easily replace your favorite lawn-mower beer.

[MORE BEER REVIEWS!]

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Crying Wolf or Just Crying?

Both kneecaps gave off noticeable levels of warmth in the hours/days following Saturday's 7-miler. Upon further examination, they also both exhibited noticeable swelling, virtually no discoloration (i.e. redness/bruising) and ABSOLUTELY no pain. My internet detective skills have pointed me toward the beginnings of an over-use injury, but other than that I'm prospect I'm clueless.

Last evening I treated the symptoms with advil and ice-packs (no vaporub this time). This morning I found no swelling and/or discoloration what-so-ever, and cooly got in my weight and ab routine as planned.

Whatta ya think - am I good to go for tonight's tempo run?

* * * * * * * *

In other news, my two, knee-specific, gel ice-packs are being mailed back to me from Washington, DC this week. I have a feeling those bad-boys will very much come in handy during the coming weeks/months.

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NAILED IT - A Long-Distance Training Run

After a slew of crappy treadmill runs these last couple of weeks, I decided to "man-up" and face winter head-on. So, today (yesterday) I ran outside! Yes! I did it! Wow, I'm so awesome! This run made up a very key workout: a 7-mile tempo run at half-marathon pace +00:30 sec/mile (8:30 min/mile). Lets start off by looking at how I geared up for this outdoor adventure.

The top half, consisting of a Nike hat-liner, Nike hat, neoprene face-mask, Native sunglasses, Nike thermal long-sleeve shirt, Nike long-sleeve Nike Dri-fit shirt, windproof EMS cycling jacket, Zoot windproof cycling gloves and my Garmin Forerunner 305 w/hear-rate monitor.

The bottom half, consisting of Nike Dri-fit socks, Nike compression shorts (underwear), Nike thermal running tights, Nike running shorts (w/liner) and my Brooks Ghost 2 running shoes.

Irregardless of this past week's snow-emergency, which dumped over a foot of snow on the Albany-area, I decided to drive down to the waterfront to see if the trails were plowed. I'd much rather run an out-and-back instead of 14 laps around the semi-plowed Empire State Plaza. As luck would have it, a walker was exiting the trail-head just as I was arriving and he was able to confirm that AT LEAST one-mile of trail was acceptably plowed. Excellent!

Where I started on the trail in front of my car.

Looking down-river and down the trail. Quite peaceful, eh?

I started the run off and felt very comfortable. The first 1 mile of the run is definitely the "hilliest" part of the entire 4 1/4 mile trail. It doesn't have hills, really, but mild-and-steady inclines that show up on your Garmin more-so than in your legs. It's also BY FAR the area most exposed to the wind. While none of these factors are necessarily favorable, they do allow me to break up the run into different mental segments that I could focus on overcoming. This paid dividends in the end, I think.

It turns out only about 1.65 miles of the trail were plowed. Beyond that?.. 12+ inches of snow. I had brought my yaktrax with me for the trail, but it was plowed so well that I didn't need them. On the other hand, the unplowed sections beyond the 1.6-mile mark were so deep that yaktrax wouldn't have done me any good. The one problem I did have was that two out-and-backs would only net me about 6.6 miles, roughly 0.40 miles short of my 7.0 mile goal. Crap, that would make me incorporate an extra turn-around, most likely near the end of the run, which means another mental hurdle to keep track of when I'm deep in the pain cave.

As the title of this post most-certainly already gave away, I made it past that last hurdle and successfully nailed the run. Of course, I did have to haul ass for the last mile in order to hit my time-goal, but that lapse in tempo was easily attributed to running against 15-20mph winds.

Post-run. If you look close, you can see snot/sweat mid-drip over my mouth/chin. Nice!

After the run, I celebrated in a way that only I know how - beer, nuts and nfl playoff football. And boyyyyy was that nice!

In other news, I tweaked my workout plan just a bit.

The revised, revised plan!

My weekly miles section is now fully updated, unlike where it was when I left it last. Wednesday and Thursday are now back-to-back days instead of Friday and (long-day) Saturday. This should allow me to perform much better on the long-runs, minimize the chance of injury and come much closer to mimicking the race conditions.

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Housekeeping

For the thousands of you who tune in daily to see what the latest pile of crap great insight to emerge from my head looks like, you might already have noticed that there have been some minor changes to the content around here. For starters, the navigational header just under my banner has suddenly become much more useful. There is actual content within - imagine that! I've thrown up a few recipes, some motivational videos (lifted shamelessly from Big Daddy Diesel's blog, I admit), created a page that links easily to race reports.

Who knows what's next?!.. The sky's the limit!!

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Anyway, I'll hopefully have the opportunity to continue to update those pages so that they are actually useful... mainly to me, but hopefully to some of you who are looking to kill some time, as well!

I've also solicited a few companies whose products I use regularly in my training to see if there's any way I can finagle some free samples out of them. I'd love the chance to sample and review new or existing products and see if they can help me with what is turning out to be quite an ambitious 2011. However, I'm not sure if Ferrari has ever sent a blogger a car to test before so I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for reading!.. and in the meantime I will be boarding up the windows trying to wait-out the snow emergency that is attacking the Albany, NY region. My first Nor'easter!! Wohoo!!

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RECIPE ALERT - Lanieo's Pasta

We all know what spaghetti is, but do you know what acini di pepe is? For comparisons sake, spaghetti is classified as a #9 pasta. Acini di pepe, on the other hand, is a #78 pasta. Aptly named after the Italian word for "peppercorns," this bite-sized pasta plays very well with any sauce or vegetable you throw at it. It's one of the few pastas that I probably wouldn't attempt to make at home just because it would take so. damn. long.

* * * * * * * * * 

Lanieo's Pasta

STATS
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 30 minutes  

INGREDIENTS
1 package uncooked acini di pepe
1/2 cup olive oil
2 T butter
1 T garlic (minced)
1 T dried basil
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup pine nuts
1 (10 oz) bag baby spinach (chopped)
1 (16 oz) package portabella mushrooms (chopped)
2-3 tomatoes (chopped)
Balsamic vinegar (garnish)
Feta cheese (garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste  

DIRECTIONS 

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. (Firm or slightly undercooked acini di pepe works best for this dish.) Drain, transfer to a mixing bowl, and set aside. 
2. Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat, stirring to blend. Stir in garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes, and reduce heat to medium. Stir in pine nuts and cook until lightly browned/toasted. 
3. Add mushrooms to skillet and saute. 
4. Add spinach, cover, and cook on low heat for 5 minutes, or until spinach is wilted. 
5. Toss spinach mixture with pasta, mix in chopped tomatoes and serve. Garnish with crumbled feta and balsamic vinegar. 

NOTES

1. Make a double-recipe of this stuff because it keeps really well and is great for left-overs.
2. Garnish liberally with balsamic vinegar when serving - very tasty!

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HMRRC Winter Series #3 10K - Race Report (Kinda)

While it was technically a race, I used the HMRRC Winter Series Race #3 (a 10K) completely as an opportunity to do a tempo run outdoors. Being a member of the Hudson Mohawk Road Runner's Club allows me to participate in any of their Winter Series races for FREE. How could I say no to that extra motivation to get my ass outdoors and workout?!?

 And they're off!..

Buuuuuut, before we get to the race...

[begin tangent]

Pre-race preparations technically began Saturday night where I proceeded to consume 3 aluminum bottles of a "beer" from a brand which will remain nameless for fear of embarrassment. Said beers were consumed while I was in attendance at my first ever LIVE Roller Derby Bout! Wow, that shit is intense and INCREDIBLY entertaining! Now, I don't have any previous knowledge or experience to compare this with (other than having an ex-gf who eventually started dating girls and now excels considerably at the derby), but I'd say our derby experience was a bit different than the norm. For starters, we got to listen to a great LIVE rock/punk/ska/alternative/whatever band the entire night! That made a world of difference in the energy and the mood of the whole arena. Secondly, the girls were surprisingly not as fat or butch as one might incorrectly assume, which makes for great ogling, as well as a strong advertisement for any male friends who might still be doubters. Unfortunately, our team, the Capital City Legislayers, lost big-time to The Empire Skate Troopers. Despite the outcome, it was a great way to spend a Saturday evening and I'll definitely do it again.

At this point in the evening, I was still doubtful that I would actually make it to the line the next morning to start the race. You see, earlier in the day I strained a muscle in my back pretty badly after I engaged my wife in a surprise rough-housing attack. I'll spare you the details, but the end result had me immediately short for breath and tumbling to the ground like a house of cards. This was around 11:30am, and I pretty much had to lay motionless on the ground until closer to 3:00pm, when the pain started showing signs of retreat. In the interim, however, I solicited the application of some ICY-HOT on the troubled spot. Not being able to find the icy-hot, my wife opted to instead bring out a bottle of Vick's Vaporub. Unbeknownst to me, she proceeded to rub vaporub all over my back.

...........!@!)*@()!*

As she was walking away, I noticed the unmistakable bottle in her hand and said "wtf?!?!" in so many words. She, of course, burst out laughing at being caught red-handed and then admitted to not being able to locate the icy-hot. A great laugh was had by all and I eventually directed her to the location of the actual icy-hot. Despite my killer back pain, my sinuses were crystal clear!

[end tangent]

Oh yeah, the race...

So, I was never convinced that my back would feel healed enough that I could actually run, let alone walk around the apartment doing normal everyday stuff. It turns out the beer/advil/ice/rest combo did enough of the trick to get me to the starting line the next morning. It was cold as F*CK though, and easily the coldest conditions I've ever run in. We started the run off at around 20-degrees with wind gusts of 15-25 mph throughout the entire race. NASTY!

 Our route around the SUNY campus.

No timing chips involved in this little community affair, so I was at the mercy of the start/finisher's clock, as well as the Garmin on my wrist. We got going and I warmed up a bit with Elaine so the crowd could start to thin out. Eventually it did and I took off ahead up the road. It was relatively uneventful from there until the finish. I passed a ton of people and was only passed by 3 or 4 people. I turned the jets on a bit at the end coming up a hill so that I could have the mental victory of passing 4 people whom I'd been trailing the whole race just before the finish line.

 I negative-split a tempo run - is that good or bad?

After the race, we could go inside the local university (SUNY) and enjoy free fruit, hot-chocolate and hot vegetable soup! Ahhh..... (sorry, no pics!)

My goal was for this to be a tempo-run with an 8:30 min/mile pace. I finished with an 8:32 pace so I'll call it a success. Onto training week #2!

52:46, 64th Place

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RECIPE ALERT - Adie's Lentil Salad

I didn't know what the hell a lentil was until about two years ago. That is a bit odd considering that it was one of the first crops domesticated in the history of the world. Nowadays, it is a staple of my diet! Lentil soup, lentil salad... whatever! It's all good. This is another very diverse recipe that you can tweak to your vegetable preferences (add green/red peppers, etc).

* * * * * * * * *

Adie’s Lentil Salad

INGREDIENTS

1 lb green lentils

¾ cup olive oil

¼ balsamic vinegar

3 green onions (minced)

1 clove garlic (minced)

3 T chopped parsley

2 T dijon mustard

3-4 tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

1.       Chop and combine all ingredients.

2.       Refrigerate and let marinate for 6 hours before serving.

NOTES

1.       I probably use more of a 1:1 olive oil to balsamic vinegar ratio to keep the texture less oily.

2.       This goes well with pretty much anything, especially anything that comes off your grill.

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My Favorite Quinoa Recipe

You've got to be familiar with Quinoa by now. If not, at least make sure you're pronouncing it correctly (qui-no-uhh keen-wah, bitches!). This shit is super healthy and you can stuff your face with it, along with your favorite calorie-free beverage, to easily achieve that "full" sensation w/o accidentally eating too many calories. This is a staple of my non-winter diet, but I'm sure to make it sometime in the next couple weeks because I love eating it so much.

[note: I plan to add a bunch more of my favorite recipes in THIS section under the FOOD RELATED tab you see above. I hope this encourages others to share some of their favorites, too!]

* * * * * * * * *

Sean's Quinoa

STATS 
Active time: 20 minutes

Start to finish: 45 minutes

Servings: Makes 4 (side dish) servings.

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons grated lime zest (green only – white part is bitter)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup quinoa

1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 medium tomatoes, diced

4 scallions, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

1.       Whisk together lime zest and juice, olive oil, and sugar in bowl.

2.       Cook quinoa in a medium pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, until almost tender - about 10-15 minutes. (should be firm, yet tender when done).

3.       Add quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed, then stir in remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.

NOTES

1.      Adjust the ratio of quinoa-to-vegetables based on your preference. I usually toss a few extra beans and tomatoes in there with mine.

2.      Sliced avocados and hot-sauce are a great way to add even more depth.

3.   Fresh lime-juice FTW!

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My National Half Marathon Training Plan UNVEILED!!

Well, with a whimper of self-doubt as to its intelligence, here it is!..

(Click so you can actually see it, or go HERE)

It's definitely not completely finished yet, which I will launch into in a moment (as you can tell from my incomplete math in the right column), but it seems to be in good enough shape so that I can get going on my training without having potential fitness sacrificed by my indecision. Also, it's important to point out that reading a recent post from Mary Egger's blog (via LesserIsMore) allowed me settle in on this more conservative training plan much easier than I otherwise would have.


Four Days of Running
The plan, as I foreshadowed in previous posts, is very much derivative of Hal Higdon's Intermediate Half Marathon Training Plan (seen HERE). Since the race is on a Saturday, I bumped everything "left" by a day so that I would be used to doing my longest runs on Saturday mornings. The original plan also called for 5 days of running, with 1 of those days (throughout the entire program) being nothing but running 3 "junk" miles, in my opinion. I nixed the junk-mile day and cut it down to 4 days. Also, I added importance to "regular" days by turning them into tempo runs, since there were otherwise none.

Speed-work
I REALLY like doing the speed-work, and this plan had some, so that was a HUGE perk. It just feels good to speed up a bit and enjoy that fast foot-turnover. I altered it slightly from its original state by incorporating a few 800s and lengthening the amount of distance doing actual fast running. This is the most under-developed part of the plan, however, and I am thinking about increasing the distance spent running fast, ala the FIRST Program. What's holding me back is the prospect of too much hard-running leading to injury.

Cycling
Having cycling as a very active part of the cross-training was crucial, especially since I have my first bike-race coming up in mid-March. While you only see two days of cycling per-week on the calendar as of now, I plan on transitioning Sunday (labeled "rest") into a third day, to be completed on the trainer while watching NFL playoffs. :)

Not Included in the Above Plan
I left off all references to strength-training and core-work on the above plan so as to not muddy the waters. Both are already a big part of my training regiment and will continue to be so. For reference, I generally do my cycling in the early morning and follow up that evening with my strength/core work. I also have not included any stretching

* * * * * * *

Any thoughts you all have would be welcome. If I'm able to pull this training off successfully and injury free, then the next step would be to rest/recover.... AFTER THAT, I would re-evaluate my ability to use the FIRST program for the Berlin Marathon. That'd be sweeeeeeeeeet! But, lets take it one huge-ass race at a time.

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2011 Race Schedule

If you haven't noticed already, my proposed race schedule (sidebar right) is QUITE ambitious, especially considering previous years/seasons. Here it is, in full (as of now):

*note - the asteriks represent races I'm already registered for.

HMRRC Winter Series 10K* - 1/9  [Training Run(s)]
As a new member of the Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club (HMRRC), my $15 yearly membership entitles me to participate in a bunch of free races throughout the year. There is a series of 5 winter races that seem to give me a great opportunity to get my ass outdoors, off the treadmill and give my calves a real workout. The first one is this weekend, and I'm thinking about getting out there and just using it as an opportunity for a training run (no dreams of PRs b/c those aspirations could lead to injury)

TBM Spring Series Race #1 (cat5 bitches!)* - 3/19  [First Bike Race!]
MY FIRST ROAD BIKE RACE!! And damnit, am I excited! From what I understand of the cycling category system, my lack of competing in any bike race has me at an unofficial cat6 rating. And, just by competing in a road race, ANY road race, promotes me immediately to a cat5! So, unless I am unlucky enough to end up in one of those wildly-popular and reputable cat4/5 bike-wrecks, I am just a few short months away from earning official status as a Cat5 Donkey! The course itself is flat and fast, and only 18 miles long. Perfect! This race will provide me the proper motivation to not slack off with the cycling cross-training that I will be doing in preparation for my next, and more important race...

National Half Marathon* - 3/26  [At Least 30 Days of Rest]
This will be my first-ever half marathon EVER, and also my first "A" race of the season. Lots of pressure, eh? It's also a great chance to return to DC! Look for my training plan in the coming days. Until then, think positive thoughts about me achieving an 8:00min/mile average come race day. (This would be a GREAT pace for me!)

Saratoga Springs Lions Du - 5/29  [71 Days of Rest, Bike; 64 Days of Rest, Run]
Another FIRST for me (assuming I do it)! I've never done a duathlon, and the distances seem very good. Tough, but good. I also feel like I will have given myself enough time to make a full recovery from the beating my legs will inevitably take. The plan would be that I then can use the fitness I've acquired, and then focus on more speed-work leading into late-spring.

Hudson Crossing Sprint Tri* - 6/12  [14 Days, AHHH!]
ANOTHER FIRST!! After the half-marathon, in an effort to make sure I give myself enough time to recover, I plan to start back up with swimming. This will also cure my workout bug and keep me from thinking I've healed well before I actually have. I also look forward again to really dialing into some more speed-related races, AND GETTING BACK TO TRIATHLON! Wohoo!

Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race - 6/18  ["C" Level Race, No Rest Necessary, Right?]
This would be purely for fun. Of course, only as fun as biking directly up hill with no warm-up can be! :) Still, it sounds like a shit-ton of fun and would add another summit to my Adirondack belt. There's another bike "race" up Mt. Washington which would be cool to do sometime, but jesus that costs like $300, which seems a bit steep to me.

Boyne City Independence Day Run 10K - 7/4  [22 Days of Rest]
Another purely fun-run. At this time of year I always find myself vacationing in northern Michigan near Traverse City, and I like nothing more on vacation than eating, sleeping and exercising entirely at my leisure. Last year I brought my bike, went for three rides, three runs and a handful of open-water swims. I also ate my brains out. This year will at least give me a nice goal-race to look forward to... maybe. Or, I'll just do my regularly scheduled swim/bike/run/eat/sleep/DRINK routine.

Warrior Dash!* - 08/13  [33 Days of Rest]
I'm wildly excited about doing this race. It just looks incredibly fun, exciting and I can only imagine the energy level of all of those participating will be like nothing I've ever experienced. Plus, there's a whole large group of us doing the race so it will make for a great, drunken adventure. DEFINITELY AN "A" RACE!

NY Capital Region Road Race - 8/20  [7 Days of Rest,"C" Race; 40 Days of Rest,"B" Race]
I'm unsure about this one, but I'd love to do this bike-race since it's literally right down the street from where I live. It's also the biggest bike race in my area and it would be great to be a part of it. I have high ambitions to participate (race?.. heh, am I to that level on a bike?) in as many local bike-races as possible to build up some experience. It'd be great to make cat4, but I hear you have to do 10 races in order to achieve that... and that seems HIGHLY unlikely given my current race schedule. Never-the-less, this would prove to be great motivation for adequate cross-training during the lead up to the year's ultimate A race!..

Berlin Marathon* - 9/25  [36 Days of Rest (Bike-Race), 42 Days of Rest, "C" Race]
I'm calling this an "A" race, but in reality it's a huge vacation planned around a huge race. My first-and-only marathon was a huge flop, so if I'm able to pull this one off w/o injury then it's already a wild success. Any time goals I have will come much further down the road, obviously, based on how training is going. I look forward to celebrating any success with the opening of Oktoberfest, the day of the race!

Troy YMCA Monster Dash 5K - 10/29  [34 Days of Rest]
By the time I hit this race, there should have been plenty of time to recover from the marathon AND it offers a great way to get back into training and racing to make light of my fitness level at this point of the year. Its short distance also means I won't be necessarily be jeopardizing injury by adding a ton of miles post-marathon. Plus, I did this race this past Fall and it was a great small, local race! It ALSO gives me a chance to break a course record! And GODDAMNIT, I know that guy with the stroller will be training his ass off to beat me this year AND I CAN'T LET HIM AND HIS BABY WIN!

Detroit Turkey Trot 10K - 11/24  [26 Days of Rest]
Another great local race, especially considering I'll most likely be in the Detroit area again during Thanksgiving. It will most likely be another "A" race b/c it will be another shot at breaking a PR. And, from the looks of it, this will be my second and last shot of the year at taking down my 10K PR which I set this past Fall. And, if we're lucky, it won't be pouring rain, I won't miss the start and I'll be able to do some actual racing with people at my same ability level when nearing the finish line.

Albany Last Run 5K - 12/17  [23 Days of Rest]
My racing season's swan song, same as this past year. A fun, holiday run that I can recruit a whole group of family/friends to run with me, and then go out with afterward. Think of it the same way we're all thinking about Lance's appearance at the Tour Down Under. :)

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So, there it is! I might add in a 5K/10K here or there b/c my network of YMCAs has a series of them in the summer, but their schedule hasn't yet been released. Other than that, you can see I have a few major races, and then a lot of fun, first-time races. The non "A" races will be used for measures of my fitness and to put some more experience under my recently enlarged belt.

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TO SEE MY RACE SCHEDULE AS IT SURELY EVOLVES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, CLICK HERE.

TO READ MY RACE REPORTS FROM THE ABOVE RACES (AND MORE!) CLICK HERE.

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More of THE FAT

Part of the plan as I start my half-marathon training in earnest is to eat smart. I really took advantage of myself way back when during TRI training because I could get away with eating ANYTHING. And, despite my worst efforts, I still lost a ton of weight. BAD Sean!

As of late, I've enjoyed the baked, low-cal tidbits of information I've gained from Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. I'm not through it all the way so I can't offer up an overall thumbs up-or-down, but there's plenty of small, yet valuable points that are good for me to bear in mind. After I'm done reading this, I'll start reading Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight. While the extra knowledge from both will, I'm sure, be valuable and have a net-positive impact on my eating habits, I'm equally excited about the ancillary effect of reading books like this - it's always on my mind. If I'm thinking about it more, I'm practicing it more.

My ideal racing weight is about 175 pounds. As of today, I'm fluttering in the upper 180s (thanks to a food-filled trip to New Orleans over the holidays).

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Oh, and here are some incredibly small distance totals from last year's efforts, starting on June 1st (when I signed up for DailyMile). I'm not sure if I will take the time to scour previous blog entries to add up the swim mileage... probably not. :)

Run - 210 miles (56 in November)
Bike - 606 miles (184 in September)
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816 TOTAL MILES

Lets see if we can't (at least) double everything this year, ok? :)

P.S. GOOD RIDDANCE TO RICH RODRIGUEZ. JESUS! FINGERS CROSSED FOR THE NEXT GUY...

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Fattening Up Before Slimming Down - THE FAT

Thoughts, news and opinions have been building up for a few weeks, and I didn't get a chance to dump anything out of my head before the holidays. So, these next couple of posts have the potential for high-ratios of absent-minded, topic-shifting confusion. In no particular order, here we go...

Half Marathon Training Plan
I've all but decided to go with a modified version of the Hal Higdon training plan, which includes more cross-training (via cycling) and speed/tempo-work (ala the Furman plan). Of course, this is still in my head and I need to take the time to commit it to spreadsheet. As soon as that is complete in the next few days, I will post it and would very much appreciate any feedback you all might have. 

Looking Ahead to 2011
I'll skip the tacky "here are my resolutions" bullshit and just tell you what I want 2011 to be about with respect to training/racing. Racing in 2009 was great fun. Recovering in 2010 was tough, but training was great fun. I look forward to having shit-tons of fun in 2011 by racing regularly (B + C races primarily, with a few serious A races spaced way out). These B + C races are about attaining a wider array of experience (i.e. not only 5Ks chipping away at PRs), trying new things (Monster Dash!) and learning how to stay fresh by balancing training/racing... as opposed to training for a single triathlon for 7 months, then injuring yourself! :) 2011 will also be about training SMARTER and staying injury free. "Duh, asshole... we're all trying to do that..." Sure, but this whole concept is new to me so I get to say it.

Wait, wouldn't a list be a more successful way at communicating my 2011 goals?.. Damnit, I'm not deleting the paragraph I've already written. LIST!...

• Racing - more often, more variety, more fun!
• Be (Serious) Injury Free - no more knee issues, b/c I will be...
• Cross-training for my cross-training - in other words, maintain a regular routine of basic strength exercises to keep shit from breaking down. Cycling cannot account for 100% of my run x-training, nor the other way around.
• CAT 5, BITCHES - GET IT! Yep, I'm going to do at least 1 pure road-race next year and achieve my CAT 5 (aka OFFICIAL DONKEY) status. :)
• Do more TRIs, duh - Now that I can run again, the door is wide open to get back into doing TRIs! Of course, this also means I have to reacquaint myself with the swimming pool...
• Get flexible - THIS struck a chord.
• STOP EATING ALL OF THAT SHIT, FATSO! - yep, I love to eat all of that greasy, nasty shit that most athletes would scoff at - chinese food, fast-food, mexican food... ALL OF IT! For years and years I would tell people (and myself) that my primarily motivation for working out was so that I can get away with eating whatever I want. Of course, that's just stupid. My knees will thank me when I take the load off.

This was surprisingly short compared to what I thought it would be. More on the race schedule in another up-coming post (because I want to get some thoughts on this too, if possible).
By the way... riding in wet, nasty, stank-ass cycling shorts b/c you forgot to wash them pull them out of the bag they were balled-up in from the last workout SUCKS.

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