We just received our first round of Men’s and Women’s cycling jerseys. They look and feel great. They have a relaxed cut which is between race and club cut.
• 100% soft polyester microfiber
• Flatlock stitching to avoid chaffing
• Anti-microbial
• Full length covered zipper
• Dye sublimated graphics
• Elastic gripper on back to keep hem in place
• Side mesh panels for maximum ventilation
• 3 deep back pockets
It’s been brutally cold here in the North East so training out doors is either non-existent or very limited. But that’s no reason to stop your winter training phase which is also your foundation phase which can either make or break what your upcoming season may look like.
Although some people may hate the idea of training indoors, if done correctly it can be highly effective and motivating. During the winter months I do almost all my training indoors, with the occasional ride or run outside if temperatures reache above freezing.
Here are some indoor training tips that work for me during the winter months.
1. Set a routine - Try and set a routine that works with your training goals, work, and family schedules. It may be tough at the beginning, but work hard at trying to establish your daily routine. Before you know it you’ll start to establish a consistent schedule, you’ll get stronger and your motivation will increase.
2. Use a Fan - A fan is crucial to training indoors. It lowers your body temperature, and allows you to train at higher intensities with out over heating.
3. Using HR monitor and or Power Tap - It’s important to quantify your training by HR or Power (on the bike). These tools allow to monitor your training and allows you to see where your fitness levels are during the winter.
4. Add Variety - When on the treadmill or bike trainer, mix things up by adding harder intervals, different speeds, and incline changes to keep things interesting. You’ll make the biggest fitness gains the more you keep your body guessing. If you train at an easy to moderate pace you just end up being good at that pace and never find yourself getting to the next level.
5. Listen to loud music - There’s a reason that spin classes pump loud music. It gets people motivated and want to move. Increase the volume of a heavy tune during an interval, let the neighbors know what you’re listening to.
6. Get angry - This may sound a bit off but it works for me. During really hard interval sessions whether on the bike or treadmill I find myself getting a bit angry, it helps push a little harder and allows me to get through those brutal minutes.
7. Watch motivational movies - Maybe it’s an Ironman event or a Tour de France video. Having a movie playing helps pass the time. I prefer anything with a bit of action. Band of Brothers is currently playing in my dvd player.
8. Consistency - Improved fitness comes from being consistent. Your body doesn’t know whether you’re running on a treadmill or outside, as long as you are running.
9. Don’t skip workouts - Whenever you think about skipping a workout, just think that your competitors are either running outside or hammering themselves on the bike trainer. You’ll soon see come race season who put in their time during the winter.
10. Goals - I think this is THE most important part of any training or fitness plan. Indoor training requires a lot of discipline, and motivation. Setting goals for each workout will increase your motivation. Seeing if you can maintain a certain power output on the bike, or hold a certain pace your uncomfortable with on the treadmill will make you a stronger and faster athlete. Also take a look at what your performance was a year ago and try to build upon it to increase your fitness and race results.
Make your goal setting challenging but with in reason. Look at where your fitness is currently, what your family and work obligations are. You want to set challenging goals, but goals that are attainable with the time you have. If your goals are out of reach you’ll find yourself discouraged and less likely to train at all.
The more you can make your training a part of your daily life the less you’ll think about it. You’ll find yourself just heading down to the basement or garage and getting that workout in. You’ll thank yourself come race season.
And remember this is supposed to be fun. If you’re not having fun, why do it.
Happy Training!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/fashion/24triathlon.html?_r=3&ref=style
Here’s a link to an article recently published in the New York times. Not sure how accurate it is, average spending of $22,000 on the sport a year seems pretty high. Do all you Ironmen and Ironwomen really spend that much?
World champion freediver Guillaume Nery dive’s at Dean’s Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world filmed entirely on one breath hold by the french champion Julie Gautier
Below is a brief report on the teams effort over this past weekends walk for breast cancer. Congratulations on completing all 60 miles over a 3 day period.
I am thrilled to share that our ENTIRE team completed the full 60 miles –with no visits to the medical tents, no rides on the sweep busses and no help from the Temple football team with our bags or our tents ! In short – - we rocked it !! It would not have been possible without your donations and ongoing support! While THANK YOU does not seem nearly impactful enough – it is the only word coming to mind ! Together we are making a difference !!
Photos attached are “the beginning” and “the end” … note that in the end we added two additional members to our team. Lori and Tara are both affected by breast cancer and have had various surgeries. They were walking solo .. we met them early on day 1 and they became our inspiration throughout… what amazing women they are !!
A quick summary of our 3 days:
On Friday we began our journey @ 5am – with a ride out to our starting point: Willow Grove Mall. After they brought us all to tears with the 7am opening ceremonies – the gates opened and @ 7:30 we were off on our journey. It was just over 40 degrees but thankfully once the sun came up it warmed up to perfect walking weather! I wish I could tell you where we walked but not being a native Pennsylvanian or Philadelphian half the time I had NO IDEA where we were. I heard the words Abington at one point, recognized when we walked the hills of Manayunk and then had a vague idea that we were around City Ave. We finished our 20 miles around 3:30 with an entry into Fairmount Park that made for some great photos of the city skyline. As the weather was cold/windy – we were able to forego outdoor camping and instead created tent city in Hall A of the Convention Center! We grabbed our bags from Hall D and then moved up to Hall A where we put up or own tents. I have to admit –we didn’t need the Temple football players to help us with our bags but we did need the boys scouts help with the rain tarp (not sure why we needed a rain tarp b/c we were inside). It was quite a scene – very pink!
We were up @ 5am on Saturday and bussed back out to Fairmount Park for our 7ish start. The big sea of pink marched out of Fairmount Park and headed to the Main Line. We spent the day marching through Haverford, Narberth and several other towns along Lancaster Ave; we passed all the colleges and several of the prep schools. It was warmer and less windy and being Saturday – lots of people out cheering us on! Long about 2pm in the afternoon the cheering stations really help! All the little Brownie troops giving out candy make you feel Halloween came early! We ended the day with that nice hill back into Fairmount Park .. mileage was a little longer so we came in about 4:30 on Saturday. Again we were bussed back to the Convention Center – where there was some tending to blisters and aches and pains – and lots of enthusiasm and pride for having knocked out over 40 of the miles !
As Sunday was the last day – we started about an hr later – giving us all time to repack our bags and our tents! We set out from Fairmount Park through the city of PHL – enroute to the Navy Yard. While our team was doing great – there were a fair number of people in obvious pain – who kept on walking. It was amazing to watch their determination to fight for a cause that has impacted their life in some way. Sunday was great in that there was so much scenery – we walked through the gardens in Fairmount park, the Zoo, down Market Street, past City Hall, down South Street, past Geno’s and Pat’s and down past both Stadiums .. finally at about 3:45 pm we approached the Navy Yard. As we walked into the Navy Yard we saw all the Komen stuff but more importantly we quickly saw our huge cheering section of husbands, kids, parents, friends all in our team shirts .. cheering us on! We ended our journey as we began – with a ceremony of all the walkers and the survivors. It was inspiring!
A few quick facts:
This was certainly one of those memory making events… thanks for being a part of it !
It’s been about a month since the Syracuse Half Ironman. I’ve had intentions to write a race report (do people really read these things), but life got in the way. So here it goes.
The past year has been a life changing one, for the better. The birth of our daughter last October has been an incredible experience. Always a new adventure around the corner. That being said, the training has been pretty spotty this year. Fine with me, I would rather chase her around the house than slog in a 4 hour ride. But you pay for it come race day.
This was the first year that Ironman was holding a race up at Syracuse, so a friend and I decided to check it out. We arrived a couple of days before the race to settle in, get our gear situated and checked into transition. Friday night we decided to check out the local bar scene, had a beer or 2. Hey beer is considered carbs right? To cap the night off we witnessed a fight, 2 chicks taking on a couple guys. Believe it or not the girls won, but I question the gender of one of them. In the end, one guy was left with a bloody face while the lovely ladies were taking away in cop cars. Syracuse can keep their bar scene. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
1.2 mile swim.
The swim was pretty uneventful. The water temp. was a warm 62 degrees. At first it numbs any exposed body parts, feet, hands, face. Why do I do this? But after awhile you ignore the ice cold burning sensation, and just focus on getting the hell out of there. My goal was to come out of the water in under 35 mins. which for me is a decent time. Didn’t happen, mini icebergs started to form on my ankles dragging me to the depths. Or, maybe I just need to work on my swim. I exited the water in about 37+ mins. No worries I figured I can just make it up on the bike.
56 mile bike.
The bike course had some challenging parts, long and short climbs with a lot of rolling sections. Towards the beginning of the ride there was a long mile+ climb, nothing steep just continuous. I thawed from the swim and started passing a lot of people, working my way up in the field. About halfway through the course I rode up onto a group of about 10 riders that were pretty much drafting off each other, smiling and talking to one another. What is this? They don’t seem to be suffering enough. I do my best to move up through the group and plan to ride away from them, as I didn’t want to get caught drafting and receive a penalty. After about 2 minutes of a fairly hard effort I notice the group is pretty much on my wheel, and they are less jolly, they even have a little bit of pain on their faces. If I’m suffering EVERYONE has to suffer. The race referee comes by and breaks us up and pretty much stays with us for the remainder of the ride. I had a decent bike, I finished in 2:43, just over 20 mph. Not too bad for a challenging course. Where I made a huge mistake was my nutrition on the bike, something I need to work on. I only consumed 1 gel, and 1 1/2 bottles of sports drink. Not nearly enough calories to get me through the run. It comes to bite me later on.
13.1 mile run.
Running is by far my weakest link. I exited transition feeling good, my legs weren’t to drained from the bike so I was happy about that. After the first mile or so a couple of people started passing me but I tried to ignore them and just focus on what I needed to do. If I let them dictate my race I’ll certainly blow up, and I do that well enough on my own. I ease into a comfortable 8:15 pace, taking in fluids at some aid stations. At about mile 4 the course starts to descend onto what appears to be a highway, with traffic. Not exactly an ideal route for a run. We stay on this straight, flat section of road until about mile 8. I was keeping pace until this point, which is where the lack of calories starts to take effect. My legs were toast, it was hard to just lift them off the ground. I could have crawled faster. At this point a spectator took one look at me and said, ” Well, at least your arms and legs are moving forward.” I would like to see you do this funny man. It certainly felt like I was moving backwards. I just wanted to lay down, eat pizza, and go to sleep. But I had another 5 miles to go. The longest 5 miles I ever had to run, well crawl.
In the end I hobbled across the finish line in 5:43, totally dehydrated. I downed a whole bottle of Gatorade Endurance in under a minute. That was the fastest thing I’ve done all day. Considering where my fitness was at, my goal was to break 5:30. Next time.
Now comes the best part, I get to go home, see my wife and play with my daughter. Eat pizza, and go to sleep.
Does it come in carbon fiber?
This past weekend was our first one day training camp which took place in Harriman State Park located about 45 mins. north of New York City. The idea of creating a series of training camps came from training endless hours on our own. Wouldn’t it be great if we can train with other like minded people, share advice, tips, stories and prepare for our upcoming races. After all, for me the most rewarding aspect of this sport is sharing it with others. We enlisted the help of professional triathlete Arland Macasieb who has been racing for 15 years all over the globe. He’s on his way to Ironman Philippines as we speak. He’ll be orchestrating our camps in all three disciplines.
We also wanted to add a discipline to our camps that may be overlooked or not even thought of to help endurance athletes. Yoga. I admit, I’m not crazy about yoga. Actually I think it’s extremely boring and slow. My wife has been trying to convert me for years with very little success. But after doing a session this past weekend I can see the benefits that yoga has, especially on triathletes. We can reap the physical benefits of strength, flexibility, and balance. Coincidentally, there’s an article in this months Triathlete magazine about adding yoga into your training schedule. We must be onto something.
The day started with introductions, a quick talk from Arland discussing the course profile, advice on gearing and ascend/descend techniques. After getting our gear sorted we hopped on our bikes for either a one or two loop ride around the Harriman course. It’s a bit challenging with some rollers and a continuous 1.5-2 mile climb. The first couple of miles we used to warm up before we hit the climb. Right before that climb there’s a steep, long descent where you can reach speeds of up to 45 mphs. Then up you go. It’s not particularly steep, it has some flatter sections which is good for a bit of a recovery. After the climb Arland said “Let’s do some 2 by 2 pace lining”. Now, triathletes are notorious for having pretty bad bike handling skills, so this will be interesting. All in all we did pretty well. Learning how to handle your bike is a valuable skill to have. After about 20 miles of climbing, pace lining and drills, it was lunch time.
After lunch Arland gave a brief lecture on what makes for speedy and efficient T1 and T2 splits. Lots of valuable information. We also practiced the proper way to get on and off the bike with your shoes still clipped into the pedals (not easy). If done incorrectly, face plant ensues. As the lecture came to a close we prepared for our Fartlek run session.
Which looked like this:
2x :15
2x :30
2x 1:00
2x 1:30
In between each interval there was a slow jog. It doesn’t seem like much but when running at about 90% you start feeling it after the first 1:00 interval. In total we did a solid 3 miles of interval training
Before our yoga session started we decided to take a dip in the lake to cool off. Practiced some swim drills, dolphin dive and high stepping. Along with that came the odd stare from beach goers.
As yoga started I wasn’t looking forward to being contorted into a pretzel. But the subtle stretching, and strength poses proved beneficial. My hammies were definitely tight so they could use the help. As I was looking around while trying to do the poses I could see that I was by far the least experienced, trying to mimic the others while keeping my pain threshold in check. By then end I really felt refreshed and properly stretched. I think I like this yoga thing.
In the end it was a great way to spend the day. Gaining more experience into something that inspires me, pushes me and makes me just a bit more resilient.
Montauk is up next. It’s our 3 day camp, with more milage, more yoga, and more swimming.
Can’t wait!
Congratulations to Risa Jameson for winning her age group at the the 15th annual Montauk Point Lighthouse Sprint triathlon that took place this past weekend. Each year this event draws over 500 athletes, who compete on the beautiful roads around Montauk passing the iconic lighthouse that over looks the Atlantic.
Risa finished the sprint distance race in a time of 1:23, placing her first in her age group and 11th female overall. Smoking the bike course averaging just over 20 mph. Well done Risa, keep up the good results.