Clinic presentation, Pittsburgh Marathon relay, and PCNC Night Talk appearance

Since I raced in New Orleans about three weeks ago, it has been all about recovery and getting back into the groove, while still trying to prepare for my next race, which is happening manana. Along the way, I have had some unique and novel experiences for me as I continue on my journey as a triathlete. On Sunday Apr 25th, I spoke at the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club's clinic at the Over The Bar Bicycle Cafe on the southside, and presented a talk geared towards beginner triathletes. The talk went very well and it wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as I was expecting, and I got a lot of good feedback and questions from the audience. Also presenting were Chad and Brodie, and it was very interesting to listen to them speak about their topics as well. Here I am, talking about forgoing socks for a sprint distance tri, or flying dismounts, or some other beginner friendly technique...


Then last weekend, I raced on a relay with some fellow runners from the Hounds at the Pittsburgh Marathon. Initial reports were that we had won the relay category in 2:33:40, although strangely some other team has magically appeared ahead of us just this week in an improbably fast time of 2:17:10. We'll be sure to look into that, but overall I was surprised at the legs that I had in my leg, a 5.9 miler, which I covered at about 32 minutes flat officially, which worked out to 5:25 pace. Had I been running either an open 5k or 10k, I would have had huge PRs! Here I am, suffering on the road with my HR through the roof somewhere in Homewood or East Liberty.
Here is our anchor leg, Mark, one week removed from running the Boston marathon, finishing strong for what should be the relay division win.

Last night I had my television debut, appearing on WPXI's Night Talk on the PCNC channel with Ryan and Kim, to talk about Ballou Skies, the peanut butter sales, and all things related to the the charity and the tri-team. Here are the three of us with the host Mike Romigh towards the start of the segment.
Ryan spoke very knowledgeably and with a great sense of pride about the charity, what they are doing at Ohio State with the research, and generally about all of the big picture stuff.
I spoke about what it means to me to race under the Ballou Skies banner, and what it takes to keep going in a tough race. Thoughts always come back to the sacrifices made, the charity and Ryan, and how fortunate am I to be out there, using my body and triathlon as a platform to raise awareness for Ballou Skies and DMD.
Kim spoke about our marketing efforts, about the website, blogs, Facebook cause, etc., and also echoed what it takes to get to and race in some of these events.

It was an amazing experience and hopefully some of you out there in the Pittsburgh television market got a chance to see some if it during that dismal third period of the Pen's game.

Today is a busy day and then we are off to beautiful Lake Anna Virginia for the Kinetic Half, starting tomorrow morning at 7AM. Race report and updates to follow shortly!

Indoor winter training at its finest

The ten pound bag of almonds arrived last Friday to start my weekend off right.
It continued with the sprint masters practice that night and then a long day of training on Saturday. Saturday morning Jocelyn and I drove up north a little to Mark’s house to meet up with what is becoming a pretty regular group of Pittsburgh area Ironman nut jobs. Mark had us all setup in his very spacious basement for a three hour trainer ride to kick things off for the day. We managed to go through one Spinervals video, a Universal Sports broadcast of the 2009 Ironman Louisville race that two of the morning's riders raced, and then finished up with a little bit more of Coach Troy with an "On the Road" of Lake Placid. After the trainer ride we transitioned to a quick (and I mean quick) ~4 mi run from Mark’s house out to a turnaround in Troy Polamalu’s neighborhood. After the run Mark and his wife Jenene had a wonderful brunch prepared for us and we got in some much need calories and continued the stimulating conversation of the morning and good times. After leaving Mark’s place, Jocey, the Holderbaums and myself made the drive up a little further north to the closest YMCA available, Cranberry (vs Baierl), that would admit scurrilous Sewickley Y travelers, and got in the third and final workout of the day. This was finished up with some obligatory underwater camera fun, waterslide action, and of course my beloved tradition of post-swim steambathing.
Saturday night Jocelyn and I just relaxed at home and watched a movie while letting our legs begin to recover. Sunday morning dawned with more rainy conditions, and while Jocelyn went out to North Park to meet up with a friend for her 12 mi run, I slept in a little bit longer and then ventured over to the Montour Trail for my own slopfest twelve on a nasty, muddy, icy/crusty rail trail. I made fellow Pharaoh Hounds runner sightings out in the miserable conditions, seeing Eric and Jo toughing it out as well. Sunday closed out with some NFL viewing, a trainer ride, and a nice family dinner where we got the latest on my brother and fiance’s wedding deliberations. Finishing the training week out on Saturday, I jumped up over 13 hours for the week so things are continuing to build on the ever present numbers chase and fitness enhancement.

This week started very well on the training front, with a tough masters distance workout on Monday, doing such fun sets as 200s on the 2:30 and 100s leaving on 1:15, and then a solid aerobic bike effort on Tuesday night followed by getting back out on the road to run yesterday morning and this one. Here's a shot from my run this morning - I had a so so swim last night, as I was kinda playing it cool as I had been feeling a little “off” since Tuesday night. Had nothing to do with the bike effort, but probably an encroaching bug of some kind that Jocelyn likely transported home from her elementary school. So far so good though, and I hope to fight that off as well as the niggling right foot discomfort I had been feeling off and on since last week. This probably resulted in running too hard, on the too far left portion of some of the highly cambered local roads. I shouldn’t complain too much though, as I’ve been relatively problem free (knock on wood) since I went minimal on the running shoes. Caveman style is good for more than just eating! Good information on minimalistic running can be found here.

So tonight I will do another moderately long trainer ride and plan to run tomorrow AM and then swim in the evening. And then Saturday morning it is back with the Ironman crew for another marathon training session. This time I heard there is even a waiting list for the session! Happy training and eating everyone! Caveman up!