Monthly Summary - October 2008

Here's October 2008:

Swim: 11,981 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 0.0 miles
Cycling (indoors): 5:55 (hours)
Run: 19.0 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 11 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 18:45 (hours)

Weight: 169 pounds. Weight's up about 7 pounds from last month. Is that because I barely did any cardio training at all? Or is it because I increased the amount of strength training I did? Or is it the five days in Mexico where all I did was eat and drink? Probably a combination of all three. A little extra muscle and a little extra fat. Sweet. I also have a little confession to make. My chiropractor/ART guy (who I've stopped seeing for now) recommended taking a low dose creatine supplement. According to him (and my research on-line), it's just enough to increase muscle mass a little and hopefully help me build strength in my hips and quads. But it's not so much that it will cause the problems usually associated with creatine, such as dehydration, cramps and muscle pulls. I've been taking it for about a month and I'll take it one more month to see how it goes. Because so many things have changed in my training recently, it's hard to tell whether - or how much - it's affected me. This is all a long-winded way of saying that maybe some of my weight is attributable to the creatine.

As for this month in general, I'm not sure what to say right now. I'm having a difficult time thinking of positives in my training, so I'll ignore it for now and instead focus on the fact that this is marathon weekend in the City, which is very exciting.

I was in mid-town this morning for an appointment and there were tons of tourists (like always), but these were "running" tourists. You could see it in their clothing and their bodies and the fact that many were wearing official marathon gear and doing short runs to stretch out their legs. People are psyched to come here and check out the best marathon in the world. As for me, I'm looking forward to getting out on the course and cheering on the runners. Last year I had a great time watching from 4th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn and that's where I'll start off this year. I'd like to get out there early to watch the women's and men's leaders and stay there to see my friends. After that, I'll move to First Avenue in Manhattan (probably around mile 18 or 19) to watch from there and give some friends that extra push to get around the Bronx and to the finish.

Best of luck to Emily, Nick and Sarah (over at Love of Shoes) on your first NYC marathon and to Ron on your 7th? I'll be looking for you!

Viva Mexico!

Wow! What a (long) weekend. The resort was beautiful, it was mostly sunny and warm, the ocean clear and warm, the food was delicious and the drink was certainly flowing. And our friends' wedding was really amazing. And yes, it sucks to be back.



I'm mostly letting training go. I haven't run in almost two weeks and didn't do much of anything while we were in Mexico. I'm going to see another doctor next Tuesday (election day!) for another, fresh opinion. Things just aren't getting much better - it varies from time to time and rarely hurts in more than one place at once, but at times it's my IT band, my right patella, the inside of my left knee, my piriformis or my hip. Sweet. I'm willing to "start over" - PT, massages, whatever. I talked to Coach John today and he recommended not doing anything at all until after my appointment. That way, I can tell him and the PT (assuming that's where he send me) that I've already tried taking time off and need a more "active" solution.

On both Saturday and Sunday I did Tai Chi in the morning and an ocean swim a little later. This was the first time I'd tried Tai Chi, and while it was OK, I don't think it's for me right now. I liked that it was relaxing and somewhat meditative, but I didn't feel like I got much out of it. I think that right now, when I'm straining to find an activity that will help me heal but give me some feeling of "exercise", Tai Chi isn't the solution. The ocean swims were great! The water was really warm, clear and pretty calm. Parts of the swim were over a reef and there were some smaller fish swimming around.

My primary activities in Mexico were eating, drinking and hanging out. With no races on the calendar and making an effort to not train, I finally let myself go a bit. I "let myself go" a little too much on the wedding night! It felt good at the time, but my goodness, I am still recovering.

Strength - October 20

Indoor ride - October 21
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 130

Strength - October 22

Indoor ride - October 23
Time: 45 minutes
Average heart rate: 135

Tai Chi - October 25

Swim - October 26
Distance: 1,750 yards
Time: 30 minutes
Location: Esencia Hotel Beach, near Playa del Carmen

Tai Chi - October 26

Swim - October 27
Distance: 1,400 yards
Time: 24 minutes
Location: Esencia Hotel Beach, near Playa del Carmen

Our "Football Sunday"

Today is Sunday, and fall Sundays are great football days. It's a pity that it's a nice day outside because I've spent most of the afternoon tied to the TV and the computer.

Today's a nice football day, but last Sunday was the ultimate football day!

I've already described our day at Fox NFL Sunday and then the Chargers-Patriots game in San Diego, but I finally uploaded the photos.


The day started with us standing on the soundstage watching the taping of the pre-game show. It was pretty sweet. They took got a picture of us with the whole broadcast team on the set, but I don't have that yet. And we weren't allowed to take any of our own pictures in there. But this was the TV set-up in room where we got to watch the games. Not bad!


It had enough TVs to enjoy all of the games. Most of the Fox team came into the room at one point or another to have some food and watch football with us. They were all pretty engaging, especially Terry Bradshaw, Jay Glazer and Mark Grace (who was there for the baseball broadcast later in the day). The picture of Elizabeth the other day with Michael Strahan was from this room.

After the early games, we jumped in the car and drove down to San Diego to watch some football live!

It was a beautiful day in San Diego (as they all are), we had great seats:


And the best thing of all was that it was an awesome game, and the Chargers won!



Swim - October 15
Distance: 1,531 yards (1,400 meters)
Time: 30 minutes

Strength - October 15

Brick - October 16
Indoor Bike
Time: 47 minutes
Average heart rate: 139
Transition: 2:14
Run
Distance: 3.0 miles
Time: 26 minutes
Average heart rate: 157
Course: West Village, Washington Square
Conditions: Sunny, warm, low 70's

Swim - October 17
Distance: 1,250
Time: 31 minutes

Strength - October 18

Indoor Bike - October 19
Time: 1:10
Average heart rate: 124

Slowing it down

First off, congrats to Matt on a great race at Kona!

I've been in Southern California since Saturday morning. It's been a really nice and mostly relaxing trip and until this afternoon, I hadn't spent much time on the computer (that's a good thing!).

New York has been stressing me out recently. A large source of that stress has been the fact that I'm not able to "enjoy" New York as I'm used to doing. After a bunch of years of treating NYC as my personal party playground, I've spent the last few years treating it as my personal training playground. And, as I've written, fall in NYC is really for running. The whole city and a bunch of friends (including my Blogger friend over at Love of Shoes) are training for the NYC or another fall marathon. And I'm jealous. The weather has been beautiful training weather - cool mornings and evenings, not a ton of rain or wind. But as I have to keep reminding myself, I'm doing this in order to enjoy next spring and summer. It's tough.

I'm also feeling a little harried by the NYC pace recently. Every so often when I'm walking through the City by myself - running errands, going to or from work, going to meet a friend - I'll notice that I'm just flying down the street. It's rarely because I'm in a rush or that there's somewhere I need to be. It's just because that's that "pace" of the City. I've been feeling it more and more recently. When I notice what I'm doing, I try to slow it down, just a pause in my stride or a slight hesitation is often enough. I feel myself slow and notice the street and the rest of the people around me whoosh on by. The City just moves that quickly on its own. The pace doesn't need me to keep going and I'm not sure I need the pace anymore to keep myself "going".

So it was a nice time to get away. I don't like traveling. I don't hate flying like some people do and I love being in other places, but the process of traveling really destroys me - to the point where I often re-consider taking the trip over and over again throughout the entire process of packing, heading to the airport, checking in and even waiting for the actual plane. But once I'm on the plane, I relax and start breathing a little easier. And I've been breathing easier ever since the plane took off.

This trip to Southern California (LA, then San Diego for a day, now LA again) has been just what I needed. The weather's been beautiful, I haven't had a whole lot that I had to do, and except for wondering about how Charlie's doing, I've barely thought about home at all. I've done some easy running and went for a nice swim in the outdoor pool at my parent's Y (I love love that pool). I spent most of today sitting in the sun by the hotel pool in LA. Pretty nice life.

The highlight of the trip though was our Sunday in LA and San Diego. This trip was partly due to a prize package that Elizabeth and I bought at the CAF Gala back in June. We started Sunday at Fox Sports' studios to watch the taping of Fox NFL Sunday. After the taping, we hung out in a little room (with 12 TVs) and watched the early NFL games. At various times, the Fox NFL crew came into the room to hang out, eat some food or chat. This was Elizabeth's highlight:


It was sick. I'll write more, but the guys were surprisingly engaging. After the early games, Elizabeth and I drove down to San Diego to see the Chargers whoop the Patriots on Sunday Night Football. It was a great game. Then, finally, we had dinner with my parents. I have a bunch more pictures from the day, but no USB to upload them until I get home.


Swim - October 8
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 31 minutes

Strength - October 8

Brick - October 9
Indoor Bike
Time: 40 minutes
Average heart rate: 125
Transition: 2:30
Run
Distance: 2.75 miles
Time: 24 minutes
Average heart rate: 149
Course: West Village, Washington Square
Conditions: Sunny, warm, mid-60's

Swim - October 10
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Strength - October 10

Run - October 12
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 26 minutes
Average heart rate: 139
Course: Beverly Grove (LA)
Conditions: Sunny, high-50's

Swim - October 13
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Run - October 14
Distance: 3.75 miles
Time: 34 minutes
Average heart rate: 148
Course: Hollywood/Hollywood hills
Conditions: Warm (low 70's) and sunny

Kona

My blog is always about me, me, me (and sometimes a little bit of Charlie). But today, it's for my friend Matt who will be racing at the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii this Saturday. Go Matt!

Most triathletes and probably every single one who races in an Ironman dreams of racing at Kona. It's the big daddy. You get a trip to Hawaii, which is obviously a nice place to be. The very best long-course triathletes are there every year, along with tons of sponsors, media and triathlon-celebrities. The course is known to be grueling - hot and incredibly windy most years. And it's all the more prestigious because each year only 1,800 people "get" to do it. And most of those people qualify to race at Kona by being among the very best in their age group at a qualifying race. For those of us who can't do that, there are about 200 slots available each year in the lottery. Two hundred. Out of something like 7,000 entries. That gives you about a three percent chance.

And we've come full circle. This year, Matt snagged one of those 200 lottery slots and he's in Kona right now getting ready for the big day. In case you're interested, his bib number is 1228 and on Saturday beginning at 1PM EST you can follow along with him here.

p.s. Here comes Presidential debate #2!

Swim - October 1
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 31 minutes

Strength - October 1

Brick - October 2
Indoor Bike
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 126
Transition: 2:02
Run
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18 minutes
Average heart rate: 148
Course: Washington Square
Conditions: Sunny, cool, low 50's

Swim - October 3
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 32 minutes

Strength - October 3

Brick - October 5
Indoor Bike
Time: 32 minutes
Average heart rate: 127
Transition: 2:41
Run
Distance: 2.25 miles
Time: 20 minutes
Average heart rate: 151
Course: West Village
Conditions: Overcast, cool, mid 50's

Strength - October 6

Brick - October 7
Indoor Bike
Time: 30 minutes
Transition: 2:12
Run
Distance: 2.25 miles
Time: 20 minutes
Course: Washington Square Park
Conditions: Sunny, cool, mid 40's (WHAT???)