Speed Workout Numero Due

I went out yesterday for my second speed workout from coach Vanessa. I was suppose to get out with her at 7 a.m., but my body was not having it after the workout the day before (read post below.) It was raining pretty heavily around 6:25 in the morning, and I thought there is no way that anyone in their right mind is going out there to run this morning. Well, I forgot that Vanessa is obviously not in her right mind! So, I went to the office to get some work done yesterday, and decided that I would try to go out later in the afternoon for my speed workout. I really dislike the feeling of knowing that I have a workout in front of me. I felt guilty that I did not get out of the rack and get it done, and I was nervous about how it was going to affect my performance when I finally got to the track. While I was working in my office, I received a call from my former piano student, Noah,  who I train with during the summer. I have trained with a lot of former students, both from the university and from my private piano studio. Last summer, Adam and I trained Noah towards his first duathlon. It was great watching him race. Noah is a college student with one year left at one of those prestigious Ivy League institutions. College can sometimes be unforgiving on the old waist line. With the abundance of inexpensive hops and barley, quarter wings, and availability of junk food both in and out of the cafeteria, it is no wonder that so many college students come back weighing a good ten or fifteen pounds heavier than they did when they left for school. Cousin Matthew—who lasted exactly three days at Coach Mark's "Fat Camp—" put on thirty pounds. Here are some suggestions to all college students looking to stave off the pounds during the course of the academic year:

1) Avoid alcohol: Sure, the occasional beer or two is fine, but several beers are just downright idiotic. I should say, if you drink enough, you will almost undoubtedly end up looking idiotic. People generally have very poor self awareness after five or six beers. If that does not impede your insatiable appetite for the spirits, just keep in mind the now infamous words of my brother Len, who once warned me: "Beer leads to heroine."

2) Stay away from anyplace open past 10:00 p.m. If a restaurant is open past 10:00 p.m., they are invariably serving food to idiots who have been drinking far too much alcohol to find shoving copious amounts of curly fries, chicken wings, cheeseburger "sliders," potato skins, mozzarella sticks, and various sodium enriched, high fat, and caloric foods down their throat  inappropriate.

3) Nurse that beer! Seriously. If you are worried about looking cool for your friends, just stick an imaginary nipple on that bottle. If everyone is drinking at a much faster rate than you are, no one will know how many beers you have had. No one will care.

Back to my speed workout. Here is what I did yesterday:

2 mile warmup
Two, 1 mile cut-downs:  1st at 7:45/2nd at 7:28 with a recovery lap in between
800 recovery lap
then 3x800 (it was suppose to be 4x800, but I ran out of time, honest!) They went down like this:

1st 800: 3:45
2nd 800: 3:27
3rd 800: 3:15

Then I did a mile and a half cool down. I felt pretty good considering the long bike workout the day before with all the hills. This morning Coach Vanessa met me at my house and I ran the last four miles of her six mile recovery run. I'm tapering—remember.

Noah did pretty good on the track with me. It was hysterical to watch him run because he was wearing his Vibrams Five Fingers. Halfway through my workout, I was coming up behind him on the track when I noticed he was not wearing his Vibrams at all. Sans shoes! This guy really thinks he has some Tarahumara in him. 

Noah's feet turned the loveliest shade of red from the track. 

Running my last 800 so fast that Noah can hardly keep up with me.

The side of me I would prefer most of my competitors get to see. But I am a realist.

More soon. Swim lesson tomorrow with Coach Jack. More on that soon... and the new rig. 

Train Smart!

Who Fartlek'd? The Steep Learning Curve Of Mile Repeats

A little fatigue set in on Tuesday following a brutal introduction to mile repeats by my friend Vanessa. My legs were a little bit on the jello-y side for the rest of the evening, but I managed to squeeze in some much needed rest. 

Tuesday's workout called for a bike/run. I ran to the track to meet my buddy Vanessa, who just came off of an impressive 3:38 at Boston. She thinks she could have ran it faster, and I have no doubts that next time around, she most certainly will. The plan was to do mile repeats on Tuesday. The run from my house to the track is almost three miles. I had to leave a little later than I wanted to help get the boys off to school. When I arrived there at nine, I was already  sweating fiercely. If I have not already mentioned, it went right from mid-50's to 88 degrees in the matter of a day here in western New York. What is up with that? Anyway, the humidity Tuesday morning was right around a bazillion percent. (funny, spell check recognizes the word "bazillion.")

Here is Vanessa trying to convince me that mile repeats are a good idea.

This is me NOT buying it.

For those of you who do not know what mile repeats are I will give you the skinny: Basically,  you take your the average of your best 10k times as a base for your first split. So, if your average 10k time is somewhere in the 48 minute range, you want to run your first mile split in about 8:00. With each consecutive  split, you want to run 5 to 7 seconds faster. In between splits, you run a slow recovery lap around the track before you delve back into the fiery furnace of pain. 

It was time for my first go. Eight minute mile. I got this. Run Forest run. I crossed the finish line in 7:35—waaaaaay too fast for a morning with a bazillion percent humidity. 

I took a swig of GU2O and did a recovery lap. As I was running the lap with Vanessa, I expressed concern that she might have to resuscitate if I run any faster. She said that I ought to try and run at least the same split, or 3 seconds faster. Okay, second time around, I finished right at 7:33. So, I ran over to my water, poured it on my head and started running my second recovery lap. It seems so easy. Here we go, third time around:

This is me feeling completely dejected after my miserable attempt at mile repeats.

We planned on running five mile repeats this morning. I am embarrassed to admit that I only was able to do two. I got less than a quarter mile around the track on my third repeat and the body said, "Excuse me... what are you doing?" I had to shut it down. I did, however, run it back to the house with Vanessa talking about medievalist nerdy stuff (she's a nerdy medievalist,) although, she is not really nerdy, but supercool. I learned some valuable lessons as a result of my feeble first attempt at a track workout:

1) Do not go out past 7:00 a.m. to start mile repeats. 

2) Don't believe Vanessa when she says she "I am not trying to kill you," then laughs hysterically as she turns around and heads toward the track.

3) Try NOT to run in bazillion degree heat with bazillion percent humidity. 

Later on that afternoon, I hopped on my bike and did a ride out to work. I made sure I went the extraordinarily long way, because it is not that far to work—only 11 miles, but I made it fifteen. I did some work and rode back a couple hours later. The legs were a little fatigued Tuesday evening. 

Today I had my first swim lesson with Coach Jack. That's right, you heard it here. I decided I did not want to go on being a less than average swimmer. Coach Jack is awesome. More on my lesson and progress later. This evening i ran my 8.35 mile course in 1:05:36, completely shattering my old course record (set on Sunday) by four minutes! Think I am steadily getting the nutrition part down on my long runs. No lower g.i. issues today—thank goodness!

Breaking News: Stella got her first hair cut yesterday. 

Here are the before and after pictures:

Isn't she cute?

Rig Update: Rig is being built by the only cat I trust to do it. I will be taking some pics and movies of the build and sharing them on my blog. Very excited for the build. More excited to ride it!

More soon. Train Smart!

Crossing The Finish Line And Picking Up The Pieces

Phew!  What a weekend. I had a nice 14.35 mile (24km) run with my training partners Adam, Manuel and Mike on Saturday on my way to the concert hall for the premiere of my newest composition, Stress Test. I felt pretty solid all the way there, but the last two miles my hip flexors and calves were starting to get a tad bit tight. The great thing about doing such a long run on the day of a huge premiere was that I was about as laid back as I could possibly be throughout the rehearsals that I had to coordinate throughout the day. Not only did I have a premiere, but I was also the artistic director for the concert series that premiered four new works with choreographic essays. My premiere was great, and the performance the following day was even better. It was great having my friend Kelly play the concert as well. She played the flute part on my piece, but she is also a fellow triathlete, so we got to have a little bit of nerdy triathlete talk in between rehearsals. Now that the premiere is over, you would figure that I would not know what to do with my free time. Much to the contrary, I am now in the process of catching up with all the grading, writing, and general life activities that I put on hold—or at least slowed down considerably—the last three weeks. Now, in the aftermath of all the craziness I am—like The Average White Band—starting to pick up all the pieces.

I went out yesterday for an hour mountain bike ride. Fifteen miles of dirt, mud, sweat, sun, and fun. This is the time of year that I need to mix it up a bit. I have not been swimming much lately on account of being so busy, but I believe everything kind of happens for a reason. My shoulders have been a bit sore after my long swim workouts. I did a 3400 yard swim last week. I tried getting in the pool today, but I think the stress of the weekend and all the traveling in the car had left me very tired. Nothing really makes me more tired than spending hours riding in a car. I also feel like I have been doing a terrible job hydrating lately. I can always run and bike when I am tired, but swimming is a completely different deal. If I am tired, forget about it. Never mind the fact that the pool at my Y is about four hundred and fifty degrees.

Hopefully, I can get on track with my training again, especially the swimming. I know that is my third discipline, so I really need to keep on it. I feel like I have been marginally maintaining my cardiovascular strength lately. I also feel like I need to start getting in the weight room again to increase my shoulder strength and range of motion. I have had a little break from all the weight training and I need to get my butt back in there

Update: Congratulation to (Mr.) Kelly Covert for being the winner of the Fly By Night Duathlon held at the historic Watkins Glen Motor Speedway on 29 May, 2010. I will be contacting race director Jeff Henderson to let him know. Congratulations (Mr.) Kelly Covert—not to be confused with Mrs. Kelly Covert.

Oh yeah, I finished my PhD at doctor school on Tuesday, thus the infrequent posts. I am now Dr. Mark. My mother asked me if I felt differently now that I am Dr. Mark. I said "No, no... I am just as dumb and absent-minded as I was before I began."

Until next time.. train smart!

Feeling like an Ironman

I met Manuel at the gym today for a little LSD—NO, not the trippy 1970's hallucinogenic drug made popular by such psychedelic rock bands as The Greatful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but rather some Long Steady Distance. We averaged just under 8 minute miles on our hour run. We were not pushing it at all,  but I still felt incredibly strong today. We opted to run inside today on the treadmill. Although it was a blistering 12 degrees out, and the wind was whipping pretty fierce, we decided that our lungs and nerve endings would thank us in the long run (no pun intended,) if we ran inside on the treadmills. I always put the treadmill on an incline of one to one and half degrees, as I am told that this will more accurately simulate running outside (sans -5 degree wind chill.)  It is amazing how much more energized I felt with a little rest and some quality tunes rocking out on my iPod. I also did a little bit of daydreaming/visualization on my run today. I don't know if any of you have ever done this—and I embarrassed to admit this—but I often think of me racing while I am out training. I get these images in my head of me on the bike passing by onlookers—and other bikers—and running strong the last 10K of a race to while listening the music and excitement at the finish line. I might sound lame, but it is that little psychological espresso that I need to keep motivated. This week was pretty hectic with a lot of time spent writing music, and a heavy swimming volume. By Friday evening, I was pretty spent, but I managed to find a second wind Saturday morning for my run/bike. I can not believe that I am already entering week 5. Here are the number comparisons between weeks:

WEEK #4 - 2nd Week of 1st Pre-Season Cycle
Swim 2:30 - Bike 4:30 - Run 2:20 -- Total: 9:20


WEEK #5 - 3rd Week of 1st Pre-Season Cycle
Swim 2:30 - Bike 5:30 - Run 2:50 -- Total: 10:50


The bike is not daunting to me at all—boring as hell sometimes—but never daunting. Actually, for the first time since I have started training  for triathlons, I am actually really excited to get out there and perform whatever discipline is on the docket. I use to dread swimming, but I enjoy it once I am there. The hardest part is waking up at that scorchingly obscene hour—4:45 a.m.—to get to the gym.  The long steady swims are still difficult, especially when it comes to keeping my technique solid on long swim, but when I can break up the workout with different drills and strokes, it makes it a lot of enjoyable and manageable. 


Running is extremely contagious. Once I get bit, I want to continue piling on the volume. For some reason, I noticed last season that I perform better as the running miles increased (with the notable exception of the Cats Half Marathon Course, which was ridiculously difficult. Adam, Vanessa, and I counted fifty hills. My hamstrings were pretty much ripped to shreds by mile 10.  So, say if I were out for a 13 or 14 mile run; I would start to really get into a rhythm—and start to run negative splits—at mile 8 or 9. Crazy, right? That high is so intoxicating when you know you feel strong at the end of a fairly long run, and you allow yourself to use that adrenaline to motor the rest of the way. 

The Team:

I have wanted to introduce the team for some time. For some strange reason, we either never had a camera around, or we are never all in the same place for very long. I mean, let's get real, you can not have all the Superfriends in the Hall of Justice at one time for very long. Who would be out there fighting crime?

From front to back: Me, Scott, Adam, and Manuel.

A big thank you to my Spinning instructor (that's Lori in the pink,) who kicked our tails so hard Saturday morning that I thought oxygen masks were  going to deploy from the ceiling.

Left to Right: Me, Jodi, Lori, Adam (training partner.) I have to use that caveat, because we spend so much time together outside of the gym, there are some who think that we must be domestic partners.

Giveaway: Don't forget, I am giving away one (1) Ironman Race Trainer Kit  (courtesy of Timex) on my blog. I own one. I love it. You are automatically entered if you are a follower, but you could increase your chances by following the directions here.

Good luck everyone, and happy training!

Born to Run, Part II

Whether you agree with Christopher McDougall's assertion that the modern running shoe is solely (pun intended) born out of corporate greed, increase running related injuries, and will lead inevitably to the downfall of western civilization—I personally believe it will be the world's steadily growing addiction to social networking sites—you should consider the main premise of the book to be worthwhile, i.e. human beings are  physiologically 'hardwired' to run. Not only are humans decent runners, but no other mammal on the planet is equipped with the long-term endurance capacity that we have inherited from our primordial ancestors. Okay, the running shoes will long be debated. I know runners who love their shoes, have run tens of thousands of miles in them, and have gone their entire lives without ever sustaining an injury. Of course, for me, it is very convincing that some of the greatest track coaches in the United States make their athletes practice barefooted at least part of the time. What I am convinced with—wholeheartedly—is that we are all born to run. 


The proof came to me fairly early in life. While I was a 25-year old graduate student at Ithaca College, I would ride my canary yellow Giant ATX 760 up South Hill to the music department. It was a good 2 mile climb. It wasn't Boulder, Colorado, but it was still a nice little ride that accelerated my heart rate and woke me up on many frosty fall and winter mornings. I had a lot of energy to burn. Most of my time was spent in front of a piano either writing or learning music. One time, I walked outside the music department on a unusually warm October afternoon and just had this overwhelming urge to run. I had just finished practicing and was on my way across the quad to grab some lunch when I broke into a little trot. Perhaps I am just an impatient human being, but I just want to get places quickly. When I started teaching at the university, I would run everywhere I need to go. 
I could be sporting khakis and dress shoes with back pack in tow, and I would still run just about everywhere. It always made me feel great to just go! Even now, if I go to the grocery store, I will park a little further away so that I can run. Crazy, right?  These days, I almost invariably wear my New Balance running shoes everywhere I go. I think it is pretty normal to want to run. Wouldn't it be cool if everyone just started running more often—to work,  the grocery store, school, away from five children. Kidding. What is interesting, and telling, is that my kids all run around during the summer like Kenyan runners on Red Bull. Why is that? I think humans do not learn how to run, they learn how to slow down and walk. We tell our children to slow down. Well, I seldom do, unless they are running around the house threatening to break any of the luxury items that we might own, you know piano, okay... piano. 


Timex Triathlon Race Trainer Kit: I will be writing an extensive review of the Time Triathlon Race Trainer Kit. I want to thank the nice people at Timex and Tristan Panasik who sent me the kit—per FTC regulations—to review on my blog. Adam and I are still doing some tests that we will finish up this morning with our 1:30 brick workout (50 minute bike, 30 minute run.) Did I mention we are in day two of Ironman training? Wahoo! 


Get out there!

10K Turkey Trot

It's official. I am going out tomorrow morning to run my first 10K since the dreaded marathon. It will be especially nice because I know a lot of my friends, and people I train with will be out there. The weather looks like it is going to cooperate as well—partly sunny, high of 50. My brother Leonard and I are registering in a couple of hours as a brother/brother team. I am especially excited for him because he has recently bumped up his running, with his first eight mile run this past week—ever! Hey, Len... only 5 more to go to run a half, and you are more than 9 months out still. I will also be running (behind) my friend Vanessa, who recently qualified for the Boston Marathon.

I know I have not been running a lot, so I have a pretty conservative game plan for the race: survive. Well, the actual game plan is a bit more ambitious. I want to run a solid eight minute pace for the first three miles and then try to run negative splits the last three. That will put me somewhere around 49-51 minutes. The cooler air this time of year is a blessing. What I have to be conscious of now—at my ripe old age—is leg fatigue. I have been doing squats and stretching quite a bit since about mid-October, so I am hoping fatigue is not an issue. If I feel good after the run tomorrow (i.e. knees,) it may just give me the confidence to start striving for double digits again. I also feel a bit of excitement about getting back out there and training. I have not felt that way since before the Musselman half-iron on 19 July. My secret weapons for the race are ibuprofen, 2 endurolytes and one vanilla flavored GU with caffeine. Perhaps I should try to get to bed at a reasonable hour as well.

Good luck to my friend Jodie who will be running a half-marathon in Vegas—or so she says. Of course, what happens in Vegas... And good luck to my fellow runners out there tomorrow, especially Vanessa, Manuel, Len, Tom, and Karen. Let's burn some serious turkey calories!

Post-race day pictures to follow!

5K and More Stretching

I had a good week of swimming that capped off with a 2500 yard Master Swim on Sunday (a little more than a mile and a quarter.) One of my students who is on the college swim team told me that their warm-up is 2200 yards and that he usually swims between 7000 and 10,000 yards during a practice. Of course, he gets the advantage of only training one sport as opposed to three simultaneously. I spent the first half an hour in the pool learning how to do flip turns. The result: not quite there yet. I can not seem to manage a somersault in the pool, even though I spent countless hours doing them as a child vying for the attention of my parents who pretended to watch for hours.

I ran my first 5K since my injury back in September on Saturday. I made sure I warmed up the legs beforehand by stretching and doing a nice pre-race jog. I started slow. I ran with my brother for the first half mile who runs at a slightly slower pace than I do. I picked up the pace about a mile in. I could feel the fatigue in my legs still and my wind was a little short after not running for so long. A lot of athletes I talk to think that swimming is the most difficult cardiovascular workout, (someone recently told me that it requires four times the effort to swim a mile than it does to run one.) It may very well be a better cardiovascular workout, but I do not think there is any substitution for any of the disciplines. I noticed that I really could not push it too much more than I was doing. I ended up running a moderate 7:51 pace for the race. The knees and foot felt good until my brother ended up finishing and we went back to run with his wife. I noticed my right knee started hurting a little bit and I had a slight pain on the left side of my right foot. It will subside—I have been there before. My friend Jodie—who reminded me several times that she beat me—was awarded first prize for females 20-29—great job Jodie! (That's her on the left with the pink hat with Karen Leastman who also ran.) My brother Leonard ended up running 4-minute PB over his fastest 5K. Now, that is impressive! I am not sure he realizes just how ridiculous of an improvement that is over a 5K.

As a result of all this discomfort, I have started an intense daily stretching routine. My goal is to increase my overall flexibility. My wife, who has the flexibility of Gumby, is coaching me along and we are starting to stretch together in the evenings. Remarkably, I have seen dramatic results after only a few days of prolonged (at least 20-30 minutes) of stretching. My hamstrings were not just tight, they were a liability out there racing. Tight hamstrings lead to a shorter stride, knee, hamstring and foot pain. What tends to happen is that I will compensate for my muscle tightness by changing my natural gait—not good!

I am very conscious of not eating like an Ironman while my training has decreased in volume over the last month, but it has been difficult. I make sure that I am on that bike or in that pool everyday burning some calories keeping my weight down.

I am going to try to run another race this weekend. There is a great 10 miler for Hospice, but I think I better listen to my body right now and just run another 5K and reassess things after that.