March into April, centuries and a swim meet

The last 3+ weeks have been very busy training and getting ready for the quickly approaching start of the 2010 season. With the exception of last weekend, the previous three weekends included a minimum of a century ride and then at least a sixteen mile run, with Easter weekend as the biggest of them all with a ~111 mile ride followed up with a 20+ miler. All of the rides and runs have been extremely solid for me, with HR's at a good IM to HIM intensity level, with high average speeds and paces considering the time of year. Not surprising though, considering the typical company. Three and a half weekends ago, the meeting place was at North Park on the day of the Just a Short Run races. Here I met up with Chad, Matty Mo, [Cousin] Nate, and Joe V. Here are the IM ladies, getting ready to start their own ride.
This Saturday started first with a 3000 yd swim, and then the guys and gals headed out separately, and in the end Chad and I got in about 101 rolling miles with a speedy transition run on Lake Shore Drive. This capped nearly a 7 hr training day. Below, Chad, Matt, and Nate cruising up a short climb just north of Evans City.
About a mile or so later, stopping to fix Nate's slow leak flat before bombing down 528 into Evans City.
Sunday we had about a 16.5 mile run with some solid ironman effort intervals at the Schenley Park oval, doing 5 X 5k descending with Joe and Chad. We started these at 7:20 pace and finished up at 6:40 pace, trying to force the legs to run long on tired legs as this is the name of the game. The following week saw a little mountain biking on my local trails in addition to normal training sessions, and here I am showing off my cycling affiliations of Sewickley and Ballou Skies as I am slowly covered in mud.
The next weekend (4/3) I met up with Joe on his 40th birthday for a speedy century into Ohio, West Virginia, and back into WPa.
Joe cruising down Quicksilver Rd in the Midway region,
And yours truly a couple miles later on North Branch Rd.
Stopping at the 100 mile mark for visual confirmation that Joe's ultimatum of 20mph or faster had been observed for his bday ride.
Checking in in my driveway, noticing that the avg speed appears correct, but that I missed some miles when navigating my way across the Sewickley Bridge and through all of the lights and traffic in town.
Map of the tri-state century, which was my fastest ever in training, and maybe even including races, to date. I can't wait to try that with the Zipps...
Easter Sunday started off with congregation at the Church of the Sunday Morning Long Run, doing 20+ miles on the Montour Trail and finishing off with a dip in the creek (Run).
Natural ice bath = free. Not paying for party ice = priceless. Creek slime/stink = I could have done without.
Joe suffering through the last couple minutes of his 20 minute soak.
Once I got home on Easter, finding my basket left by the Jocey bunny.
Crosstraining, walking my family's horses, or rather them walking us around the neighborhood.
From left to right, Jack (jiggy), Oakley (oaktown), and Nessie (brown-ass).

Last weekend was the first break in the Ironman base/build routine, for the annual AMYMSA League Championships. This was held at Clarion University and the Sewickley Y Masters had 9 swimmers attending, 8 men and 1 woman. This was the first time I think since I started swimming for the team that we had enough guys to field two relays. Here we are on Saturday (4/10), smoking the field and setting a new AMYMSA Top Ten record in the 200 Medley relay, 140-179 age group. Mark led off with back, then Bill did breast, I did fly, and Jimbo swam free to finish in 1:44.19. Video of the race, we're in lane 3 -


For the rest of Saturday I did the 100 Free (:54.18), 50 Free (:24.52), and 200 I.M. (2:14.60). My freestyle events were less than stellar, but I was pretty happy with my I.M. Here are all of the guys with the exception of Mark H, at the banquet dinner later that night. Bottom, l to r: Bill W, Bill G, Mark C; back: Jim, Dan, Ben, and me. Photo courtesy of Janine.
On Sunday, here is the same relay team but in the 200 Free relay, led off by Bill, me, Jim, and then Mark. We couldn't quite beat the old SEWY team of yore from 2003, but we posted the 2nd fastest time ever in the league's age group with a 1:33.56. Video below, once again in lane 3.


For the rest of the meet, I swam the 100 I.M. (1:00.30), 50 Fly (:26.43), 25 Free (:11.07), and the 100 Fly (:59.27). Very happy with the 100's, not so with the 50, and indifferent with the time in the 25. Here is video from my 100 Fly. I am in lane 5 with the yellow cap and Orca speedsuit. Bill and some of the other studs beat me pretty handily :(


Last weekend was great and the SEWY men came in 2nd in the team competition to the Cranberry Wave. Though with only 8 swimmers to their 11, winning was a mathematical impossibility, despite our noticeable dominance. We like to think that we were the true winners, if the meet were being scored with a points per swimmer or per capita scoring system. Next year. The weekend was a lot of fun though and the beginning of a taper for the triathlon race season to come. See you at the races!

return to the blogosphere, 01.12.10

Back by popular demand, Knuckle Up Triathlon returns to the blogosphere for the "tens" (2010)! I suppose a lot has happened since my last blog post, which was an inexcusable 6+ weeks(!) ago, but really not too much has happened in the way of significant training or anything on the racing front. I'll mention some of the things that stand out to me, but really just start fresh with the New Year.

Definitely the most tri-applicable news is that I am now on a new tri bike for 2010, a 2009 Felt B2 Pro. After five great years of training and racing on the trusty Cervelo steed, I have retired this bike to the pastures and I am stoked to be on the full carbon rig for the new season. The Felt is super comfortable (I think I have a nearly identical fit to my P3 dialed in now on the B2), and I can't wait to see what it can do on the open roads. It just looks incredibly aero and sharp with the Zipp wheels and DA drivetrain. Hopefully some of this snow will melt soon and we'll get one of the unseasonably warm winter days that I've been telling everyone we're bound to get and I am so desperately hoping for.The biggest non-tri news without a doubt is that my younger brother Chris got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Alyson. CONGRATS guys! They are planning a summer wedding of this year and I can't wait for that and for them, they are a great couple and this is going to be huge! Christmas and New Year's came and went, and I enjoyed the time off from work and as always had some nice time with my family and my newly minted inlaws. Wonderful gifts, wishes, and holiday love and cheer was spread far and wide. New Year's Day Jocelyn and I went to the Y for one of our traditional New Years Day workouts, and once we were done swimming, took some fun underwater pictures and also a few practical ones and video for some stroke analysis.
Friends Jim, Leslie, and Bill. Jim is our masters swim team's self-appointed "spiritual leader", Leslie a northern VA swimmer visiting her USMS buddies, and Bill is our masters coach and resident super-swimmer at the SEWY Y. Note the swedes on Bill as proof of his speed.
Unfortunately I have yet to find my groove with the indoor cycling this winter and have been struggling to get in real long sessions on the weekend. So in place of some of the volume that my sanity is not currently allowing for, I have been supplementing with a little more intensity than usual and am getting in some focused, steady to mod-hard sessions. Not having the group CompuTrainer sessions like we have the last two winters has definitely made a difference, but some talks are in the works to put together some basement sufferfests with friends! In the meantime though, Jocelyn and I are trying to make the most of this old school, snowy Pittsburgh winter with a little cross country skiing. Last Saturday the wife and I went up to Sewickley Heights Park and did some xc on trails we had previously only run or biked on.
Saturday night we had dinner at our friends' Joe and Fay, where they made some awesome homemade Chinese, with some mongolian beef and coconut curry vegetables and rice. There was also a case of Hofbrau House Dunkel on hand, as well as some sake and the night was definitely full of great tastes and indulgence. Below is the tasty wedding cake made for us by Fay's mother, which all of us made quick work of after the Chinese feast!
Pictured from l to r: Judy, Jocelyn, Steve, Fay, and Joyce. (not pictured: me, Joe, and Russell)
Sunday morning was a little rough seeing as I am now a lightweight, but Joe and I met for an 11 mile progression run in the 8 degree temps. It was a struggle to get going, but after 5 miles or so I found my legs and we started clipping along around 7min pace and below. JV and I post-run trying to warmup and let hats and beards thaw.
Sunday afternoon Jocelyn and I saw Avatar which we thoroughly enjoyed - I must admit, I'm a sucker for visually astounding, reality bending, consciousness questioning sci-fi flicks. I had the same sort of feeling after seeing the original Matrix for the first time. Sunday evening we had dinner at my rents' house, and afterwards my mom pulled out my old swimming warmup jacket that she found while cleaning some unseen corner of the house. This was a huge blast from my AG swimming past with the Sea Dragons, and probably from about when I was eight or nine years old, judging by the progressive swim lesson patches and the size of the thing. It would be so cool to sport this relic from my first days as an endurance athlete to a current masters swim meet, but I doubt I could get this tiny hoody around my shoulders or zipped at all!
So until the weather warms considerably, I'm going to have to stay motivated by watching the upcoming winter games, and following along with the ongoing Epic Camp in NZL for the next 5 days. I better start getting into that champion mindset myself though, because the first race of the year is only about three months away! Happy training-