Travel Nightmare but I'm Home

In my last blog post I said "I'm currently at the airport and am wondering if I get to go home today, especially since today is Jen's birthday. I have my fingers crossed." Well I guess I should have also crossed my other fingers and toes because the last 48 hours were awful. When I departed San Diego to my connection destination I was under the assumption that Pittsburgh International Airport would be open by the time my flight was to land, 5:00 PM. When I touched down at Midway airport in Chicago I powered up my phone and logged onto Southwest.com only to find out that my flight was CANCELED! Then the flight attendants said over the loud speaker, "if you are flying to Pittsburgh, go to the desk agent to reschedule your flight. I knew I had to act fast and made sure I was the first one off of the plane and first in line to reschedule. The front desk agent put me on the first flight to Pittsburgh which didn't leave until the following morning. I was upset that I wasn't going to make it home on Saturday for Jen's birthday. I was also upset because the agent said that there was NO way for me to get my bicycle and assured me it would be on my flight in the morning.

I went to the hotel, ate lunch and got the wheels in motion for plan B. A co-worker of mine touched down in Midway on the flight after me and called as soon as they touched down. She said that the Southwest agent told her that the earliest flight that she could get booked on wasn't till Tuesday and she was able to get her luggage. I decided to head back to the airport so I could get my bike. Once I had my bike I had a big decision to make. Do I risk it and wait this storm out or do I drive the 7.5 hours back to Pittsburgh.

I choose the latter and drove Saturday evening until 2AM Sunday morning. I overnighted with my coworker in Streetsboro Ohio and we made the last part of the drive back to Pittsburgh. When I arrived at my car, this is what I found. I had to dig my car out using my ice scraper (not fun).

My coworkers battery was dead and we had to wait for help. It was very frustrating. While we waited I went into the airport and looked at the arrivials screen only to see all flights into Pittsburgh from Chicago were canceled. I made the right decision otherwise I'd still be stranded in the windy city! The drive home was a little dicey and both cars and tractor trailer trucks were stranded. I have never seen anything like this.

Here is a picture of Jen's car once I got home. This is a Honda Civic, not an SUV.

Once I got home I finished up clearing off the car and shoveled what was left of the driveway and steps. Here are our front steps.

Jen's big birthday surprise was a new set of Cross Country ski's and I couldn't think of a better way to have fun in this snow. All of our streets still had inches of snow so we actually skied down the streets and eventually ended up in a local playground by our house. We trailed out about a 1/4 mile loop through the snow and skied laps around the ball fields. Leave it up to Jen and I to figure out how to get a workout in under these crazy conditions. Once we carved a good path it was actually a lot of fun.

Overall the weekend was a travel nightmare, but I couldn't be more happy to be home.

Now the bad news is, we may have round two of this snowstorm tomorrow as it looks like we may get another foot of snow. I have no idea where we're going to put it.

San Diego - A triathlete's dream especially in Feb.

San Diego is often called the Triathlon capital of the world. I had a work trip in San Diego this week and couldn't think of a better way to kickstart my 2010 season. I arrived on Sunday, put my bike together and headed out for a 1 hour easy ride which soon turned into a 90 minute ride. I had planned to bike from Downtown San Diego to Mission Bay and back but apparently there is no easy way to get there from downtown by bicycle (at least that I know of). At times I was riding on busy highways with cars buzzing past me at 60 miles per hour. Once I got to Mission Bay however, I didn't want to head back. Once I got back from my ride I got in my car and drove to Torrey Pines State Park for my long run. I parked my car near the beach and ran up and through Torrey Pines State Park.


The only problem was that the park closed at dusk so I had to find somewhere else to run for the remainder of the time. I choose to run on Hwy 101 North because I knew there were bike lanes, but what I didn't realize at the time was that there were no street lights to guide the way. The moonlight was also non-existent and it was hard to see a foot in front of me. Luckily I made it back safe without a twisted ankle.

Monday was a day full of training. The day started off at 8AM at the Mission Valley YMCA Outdoor Lap Pool.

There was Masters Practice going on already and I asked the coach on deck if I could jump in. Without hesitation he agreed and I had a great swim with the masters folks. After the practice I swam an additional 1400 yards giving my around 4500 yards for the workout. Directly after the swim I took advantage of the weight room which was by far the nicest weight room I've ever seen in a YMCA. Outdoor pool, awesome weather, great weight room...the jealousy was growing by the second. I lifted for an hour and after a recovery smoothie it was time to climb Palomar Mountain. The climb on Palomar Mountain Road is often compared to Alpe d'Huez (according to some websites I read). Both have 21 or so switchbacks and the mountains are similar in elevation. Palomar has more pine trees at the top, but there are no Alpine glaciers nearby. Alpe d'Huez is a bit longer and much steeper. However for Southern California standards, this is one of the best climbs around. Many locals think this is the hardest climb in Southern California. From San Diego it took about an hour to get to my rendezvous point, Harrah's Casino. I thought about calling the ride off and spending the day gambling instead, but now that wouldn't be much fun would it?

As I changed in the parking lot I thought about all the video cameras that must have been focused on me. It was a casino after all. Once I got underway I headed to the base of the climb which was only about a 2 mile warm up.

Jilberto's Taco Shop marks the start of the 13 mile climb and I knew I was in for a nice challenge.

The first part of the climb was rather pleasant. Not too steep, gradual and a large shoulder. I passed a couple of orange orchids which is something you just don't see in Western Pennsylvania. The first part of the climb took about 40 minutes before you veered left up the mountain.

I'm sure these pictures don't give the climb any justice, but let me tell you it was a leg burner. Every time you thought you were at the top, you went around a bend and kept going up and up and up.
In some places it was if you were biking into the sky.


When I hit the 5000 feet mark I had no idea that the climb was this high. After I was done my altimiter said that the climb was around 4500 feet in just 90 minutes of ascent.


It was right around 5,000 feet where it really started to get cold and snow began to appear. Yes, I go to sunny Southern California and somehow find snow!

Once at the top I considered going down the other side and contemplated climbing up the south side of the mountain but the cold in the air changed my mind. Plus my ride was only scheduled to be 2 hours in length and there was no need to push it longer just because I could. Here I am at the little General store at the top of Palomar.


Here is my heart rate file for the climb. My average heart rate for the climb was 151 bpm which meant I was able to stay aerobic the entire 4500 foot climb. Let's just say that my aerobic engine is getting even bigger in my second year training with Coach Luis.

What took 90 minutes to climb took less than 30 minutes to descend. I've never rode downhill for this long and man was it fun (and a little scary at times). I kept waiting for my brakes to overheat. I finished my Monday with around 4.5 hours of training. Not bad for a weekday in February. Two more times this week I would swim with the YMCA Mission Valley Masters Team. I must admit that I think I was one of the slowest swimmers in the pool and I was swimming my 100's sub 1:20. These cat's were smoking fast! I also did three runs this week in downtown San Diego along the Harbor. There was so much scenery to look at including the U.S.S. Midway. I wish I had enough time to take the carrier tour. Maybe next time.

Thursday I only had to work for half a day so after I was done with work, I headed to Encinitas to visit one of the coolest triathlon shops in the country, Nytro. I knew that I wouldn't have time with travel this weekend do do my long bike and took this opportunity to do a long ride up the coast. I started in Encinitas and rode south to Torrey Pines, turned around and rode north all the way to Oceanside, home of 70.3 Ironman California. Once I got to Oceanside I turned around and rode south again. The ride was really nice especially the long stretches along the coast. My 55 mile ride went by super fast. After the ride I transitioned to a 30 minute run and called it a day.

Friday I had to work again and after work did a 10 mile run in the pouring rain. It wasn't bad at first, but by the time I got 5 miles away from my hotel it was coming down sideways. Luckily the temps were in the 60's so it wasn't too cold.

That pretty much sums up my awesome week in SoCal. While I was having fun in the sun, Pittsburgh got pounded with 18-20 inches of snow, the most snow in a 24 hour period since 1993. I'm currently at the airport and am wondering if I get to go home today, especially since today is Jen's birthday. I have my fingers crossed.

Another Epic Training Day in January

For the month of January I must say today was another great training day. The day started off at 7:30 AM with our friends Jeremy, Jocelyn and Lisa. The plan today was a 3.5 hour indoor trainer ride followed by a 30 minute run and then a 1 mile (1650 yard) swim meet at my Greensburg YMCA. Last night I installed the Real Course Video of the St. Croix 70.3 Ironman race on my laptop and after a 15 minute warm-up I began the St. Croix course on the computrainer. I must say, that I can't believe I've gone this long without one of these. This is totally going to change the way I ride a bike!

Basically you ride the St. Croix course and the computrainer adjusts the tension automatically as the course profile changes along with the faster you ride the faster the screen moves so it's as if you're really on the course! Very cool technology. I can't wait till I install my IM Lake Placid Video. In addition to the all of the cool visual factors, I also get to train with power / watts. I don't know exactly how long it took me to bike the course but I know that my average speed was mid 18's and my average power was 200 watts and my HR average was 151 for the entire ride. Right where I needed to be for 60+ miles on the trainer of continuous cycling.

The bike ride flew by as we all chatted it up (mainly the girls).

Picture of Jeremy and Jocelyn at the end of the ride. After the ride we all transitioned to a 30 minute run and I gave Jeremy the tour by foot of downtown Irwin, PA. My legs felt great just like last week and the time really went by fast on the run too. After lunch, all of us except for Lisa (still recovering from a broken wrist) headed to the pool for my first ever swim meet. One of the things Coach Luis wants me doing this year is more racing in all three sports. This meet will be the first of two mile swims I plan to do in the next 30 days.

Jen and Jeremy entered into the first heat that went off at 2:30. All four of us got in some warm-ups before the start. The two of them had a great swim considering the grueling 4 hour brick that we just went through hours before. Jeremy swam a 21:45.15 (1:19 pace per 100y) and Jen swam a 22:20.23 (1:21 pace per 100y).

(Jen on right, Jeremy on left)

Up next was Jocelyn and I. Since I've never swam a race before without biking and running after I really didn't know how to pace myself, but I figured I'd start conservative the first half and go from there. Couldn't be much different than running the 2 mile in track right? Then I realized that I haven't ran in a track meet in 12 years...ok I had no idea how to pace this thing.

My first 100 was a 1:17 but after that I settled into a rythem and was swimming between a 1:22 and a 1:24 pace. Everything was fine and dandy until I hit the half way mark and started to cramp. It was Triple T all over again. Now i know why (besides the drowning factor) the swim comes first in a triathlon. First is was a slight cramp in my foot when I came out of my flip turns and then it was my quads that locked up. I tried to block it out and kept swimming strong. I had no idea how fast I was swimming but I was winning my heat and wasn't really getting pushed to go any faster (not that i could or anything). Finally I hit the final 25 and went as hard as I could go and swam my final 100 in another 1:17. My finishing time was a 22:52:.60 which equated to a 1:23 pace per 100. My goal was to stay under 1:25, so I was happy. At the end of February I'm going to swim another mile race but with fresh arms and legs. I'll be excited to see how it goes and maybe I'll be able to get into the low 22's or even sub 22.

Here is the groups results. Great times!

It's been a busy week since turning 30

January is almost over and 2010 is off to a pretty good start. On the second week of January I transitioned from my Mark Allen Online Maintenance plan into the Peak Performance plan. Typically you enter into the Peak plan when you are around 20 weeks out from your next "A" race. Looking back at my 2009 log, my training this month has been pretty consistent to what I did this time last year except for being healthy this year (knock on wood). I made a ton of little changes this year that will hopefully set me up for success come spring time. One of those changes is diet. In 2009 when I was in top form leading into my Ironman races, I was weighing in at around 158-160 pounds. After talking with coach Luis, we knew that this was one thing that needed to change. In order to play with the big boys in the 30-34 age group I needed to lose around 10 pounds if not more and become a leaner triathlete. In order to jump start this weight loss I took on a mentally challenging juice and water fast for seven days and have changed everything in my diet. I don't want to give away all of my diet secrets, but lets just say I cut out the occasional pizza and pasta and switched my focus to fruits, veggies, lean protein and healthy fats. The other change I made was I'm now swimming with the Pitt Masters Team twice per week. Since this time last year I've taken 10 seconds off of my average 100 times which is like a 10% improvement. The third change is my running form. Since attending a clinic in December that included talks from Olympic running coach Bobby McGee, I've been trying to focus on my running form and the little things I need to do in order to improve my running efficiency. Let's just say, it's working!

Another exciting thing took place this past weekend. I took part in a triathlon clinic at REI presented by the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club in Robinson Township. I gave a presentation on triathlon basics and some tips that you should do during the winter months. We had a really great turnout and actually the room was too small to hold everyone. It's great to see this sport starting to take off in Pittsburgh and I'm glad to be a part of it!


The weather in Pittsburgh has been brutal the month of January. I've only made it outdoors on the bike one time which means that Ive been putting in a ton of trainer miles which brings me to my next topic. The Computrainer! I needed a change and have been lacking the motivation for those two and three hour trainer rides so I decided to buy a Computrainer. Basically a Computrainer is a trainer that you hook up to your computer and you get to race the terminator. I swear that this little silver guy is as strong as Arnold Schwartzneger and has an aerobic engine like Lance Armstrong. This little guy keeps me working.


The system arrived on Tuesday this week and I had it setup for my Tuesday night ride. I had no problem keeping up my Heart Rate like I usually do and also loved the fact that I can now train with power (watts). I can also save my ride performance and at a later time I can use that saved ride as a pacer later on in the year to measure my performance gains. I also purchased the St. Croix Real Course video and Lake Placid Real Course video. These are slightly different than the Nintendo 64 type graphics shown above and actually show you high definition video of the actual race course. I may try this out on my 3.5 hour ride tomorrow.

Now onto my next topic, Ironman 70.3 St. Croix. Last year both Jen and I signed up for the St. Croix race which is held every year in early May. I've been training really hard this month for that race but unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to pull out. Trust me when I say, I'd really love to go to the Virgin Islands in May, but there's just no way for us to swing it right now. If we were to go for a four night stay it would cost us over $3,000! I think my money would be better spent towards a new bike or maybe that new sub zero Zipp disc wheel don't you? I'm really upset about it but unless we hit the lottery it just isn't going to happen.

So now what do I train for? Great question! I'm working out my first 6 month race schedule with Coach Vargas as we speak. There is a half Iron distance race in Virginia on 5/8/10 that I'm considering doing, but it will need to be approved by coach. Here are the races that I've been given the thumbs up to do or have already done.

5 mile road race - 1/10/10
1650 Swim meet - 1/30/10
5 mile road race - 2/14/10 (tentative)
30 minute Bike Time Trial (sometime in February)
1650 Swim meet - 2/28/10
5K Race 3/7/09
4.2 mile road race - 3/21/10
Miami South Beach Olympic Tri - 4/11/10
Eagleman 70.3 - 6/13/10
IM Lake Placid - 7/25/10

Getting back to my training, I'm projecting around a 20 hour training week this week slightly higher than my 18 hour training week last week which consisted of some awesome training last weekend.

Last Saturday Jennifer and I headed over to Mark's house for a 3.5 hour brick (bike followed by run) with some of the local area triathlon rock stars.


Virtual Coach Troy led us through a three hour spinerval ride on the big screen!

After the ride everyone transitioned into their cold weather running gear for a 30 minute run. Now let me tell you that this can be a dangerous combination when you get a training session going with Matt, Jeremy and Mark. All three of these guys are capable of sub 3 hour marathons, Jeremy just raced Kona and all of them are stinking fast. We ran a 4 mile out and back course and Matt set the pace. A six minute mile pace that is! I said okay, and went with it since my HR was still under my aerobic max. We hit the two mile mark in about 12 minutes and I had no words for Matt. Matt played it off and acted like he didn't know we were running six minute miles. He made it sound like we were going to slow down on the way back, but obviously we didn't!

My HR average for the run was 158 (the top of where I should have been) so let's just say I may have went over my aerobic max just a little bit. I'm just glad the run was only four miles. After the ass whipping, I mean run, Mark's wonderful wife had breakfast (or maybe it was lunch) waiting for us. It was a great day, but wasn't over yet. After the long brick, Jeremy, Jocelyn, Jen and I headed to the local Cranberry YMCA for a 3000 yard swim.

I was really working to keep up these guys as they're all amazing swimmers.

After a long day of workouts it was time for fun and games. This pool had waterfalls and best of all, a waterslide!

I forgot how fun being a kid was!

That pretty much wrapped up our Saturday last weekend and my first training week as a 30 year old. On Sunday I ran 15 miles at around a 7:20 pace while keeping my HR below 158. It was a great weekend and I'm really happy with where my swimming, biking and running is at right now. Tomorrow morning Jen and I are hosting a 4 hour group brick session followed by a 1650 yard swim meet at my local YMCA. This should be classic especially since my arms are fried from my three swims and two weigh sessions I've already done this week.

Sunday morning I leave for sunny San Diego! I'm taking my bike with me and if things go as planned, I'm going to bike up Palomar mountain on Monday and hopefully get in some training with my friend Marit who lives out that way. Looking foward to it.

Winter Freeze and Spring Tease

In the past eight days the weather here in Pittsburgh has gone from -5 degrees to 48 degree's. It's safe to say that this has lead to some interesting training.

Until yesterday, it's been snowing every single day (at least it seems that way) since mid December. This meant great snow for XC Skiing up in the mountains. Even though I had a race the following morning I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get out into the woods. I tagged along with my good friends Drew and Sandy for a long day a top Laurel Mountain tucked away outside of Ligonier Pennsylvania. All the times I've skied here, I've never seen it look anything like this. It was the best skiing conditions and the views were breathtaking!

Drew and Frank

Taking a break on Lippos Loop

Sandy trying to take a picture with her camera phone

Moving on to Sunday, I ran my first road race in almost 2 years, the Frigid 5 Miler in North Park. The frigid 5 was just that, frigid. Coach Luis wanted me to get some speed back so over the next three months the local Pittsburgh scene may see at some local running events! Jen and I were up early Sunday and drove to North Park. We met up with Beth and Oscar for a 30 minute warmup and it was time to get ready for the start. I lined up at the start with Oscar, the siren sounded and we were off. Not even 30 seconds in I was already anaerobic but felt under control. My plan was to not look at my Heart Rate monitor the entire race and just go for it. Oscar and I jockeyed for position and we were running with two other guys and I believe we were all running for 5th place. The four other guys ahead of us were off the front like lightning and were flying. I didn't click my watch the first mile but remember glancing down at it and heard Oscar say something like "oh my", which meant we were going a little fast to say the least. I think our first mile was between a 5:30 or 5:40 mile. The second mile we settled in a little bit and it seemed like I would surge on the downhills and Oscar would then surge and pull ahead slightly on the uphills. We hit the mile 2 in 11:25 which put us at a 5:42 pace for the first 2 miles. I was afraid to look at my HR monitor because I knew I was pushing it harder than I was used to so I refrained from looking. The next two miles we continued to run together but our pace slowed down to a 5:57 average for the next two miles and the two other guys we were running with put about a 20 second gap on Oscar and I and it was also at this time where Oscar surged on a slight uphill and gapped me by about 10 seconds. On the next downhill I knew that he was running stronger than me on the uphills so I needed to put a gap on him if I wanted to have a shot at finishing ahead of him on the final half mile 300 foot vertical climb. I caught back up to Oscar and surged ahead but he stayed right on my heels. We approached the half mile climb together up to the finish but he pulled away and all I could do was hold on to my position. Oscar would actually go on to catch one of the guys that was up ahead and finished in 6th place overall and I came in 8th place overall. My finishing time was a 30:32 (6:06 pace) and I was happy with my results considering I haven't run hard like this in almost two years. Obviously Oscar had a great race as well, and to no surprise, Beth won the female race! Doug (aka Toona) had a great race as well. Afterwards we all ran a 25 minute cool down and headed inside the lodge for warm pancakes!

After the race

Looking back on my Heart Rate data, my HR max only got up to 187 bpm so I started to re-think if I pushed myself hard enough aerobically but I know for a fact, I didn't have anything left in my legs on that final climb and my turnover was not fast at all. Excuses aside, I'm sure all that skiing on Saturday didn't help. :) None the less it was a GREAT day with great friends.

The past week my triathlon training was solid with over 13 hours of training in for the week. I've been spending a lot of time in the water and swam 12,500 yards this week including a new PR! Not quite Ironman yardage, but good enough for January. Although not impressive by swimming standards, I swam a 1:11 per 100 during my swim workout at Pitt on Thursday. Up until Thursday, my PR has been a 1:13. I really tried to get my 100 time below 1:10 but that will have to wait for another day. Coach Jen spent some more time with me analyzing my stroke more via the underwater camera lane. The real improvements have come in my longer intervals. Instead of swimming around a 1:25 to 1:30 pace, I've consistently been swimming between a 1:18 and 1:24 at the same effort. I'm looking forward to getting even faster in the water in the months to come!

Thursday night was not a fun run for me. I ran my normal Thursday night 6 mile course and on one of the bends I hit a patch of black ice and down I went. It took about 30 seconds to shake it off and I had to wince in pain the last 4 miles of the run. The fall left a pretty big gash in my left knee, a tear in my running tights and a golf ball size bruise where the swelling is just now starting to go down. Just all the more reason for excitement of the heat wave we saw yesterday.

Saturday morning Jennifer and I headed over to the Cornman's and joined them for a morning swim. The main set consisted of 6x300's and I felt really good on the first four but I think the week was catching up to me and the last two were just so-so. After the swim we grabbed a quick bite to eat and Jeremy and I headed out on the bike for a 42 mile ride! This was the first time I had biked outside since November 28th and boy what a treat! Both Jeremy and I agreed that we could have easily stayed out another hour or two but our fitness wasn't there and after 42 miles, it was time to call it quits. We transitioned to a ~3.25 mile run off the bike and finished the day with close to 4 hours of training! What a difference outdoor riding can make. Later that evening Jen and I headed into town and met up with some good friends for my birthday celebration. We ate dinner at Yokoso Japanese Steak House in the Waterfront and as soon as we sat down we were greeted with champagne. Our good friends Matt and Kristen unfortunately couldn't join us for dinner but called the restaurant and ordered us a surprise bottle of champagne. The champagne came with a special note that said "Sorry we couldn't make it. Happy 30th. Don't forget you got a run tomorrow morning." It's kind gestures like this that really makes you appreciate who your true friends are. Every day we're blessed to have such kind and caring friends.


Cari and Nick


Ryan and Lisa

Kim, Garvin, Jeremy and Jocelyn

Now as Matt said, "don't forget about your run", I still need to get out and get 'er done. One problem though. It's raining cats and dogs and there is no end in sight. I think the treadmill is calling my name.

Sidi 2.6 Carbon - Birthday comes Early

For the past seven years I've only gone through two pairs of cycling shoes and combined they've endured over 25,000 miles and a endless supply of sweat, tears and other bodily fluids that aren't appropriate to mention on my blog. This past fall I knew that it was time for a new pair. I've changed the cleats so many times on my existing pair that the bolts were stripped and my bike mechanic actually had to drill through the bottom of the shoe and make a new cleat hole....this happened right before my Clearwater World Championship race of course. So yes, it was time.

Birthday and Christmas presents for Jen and I are rarely ever a surprise and all of our presents have something to do with swim/bike/run. I've been eying the new Sidi Carbon 2.6 Triathlon shoes for some time now and yesterday the showed up at our front door.Before Jen could get home from work and wrap them for my birthday, which isn't until next weekend, I opened the box and installed a set of new cleats. I ran downstairs, jumped on the trainer and started to pedal with the new shoes. My initial thought was, "something doesn't feel right". They were the same size as my previous Sidi Shoes, but I had more "wiggle" room in my toes than I was used to. I started to get upset and right away thought that these were going back and then rememberd that the ebay site we bought them from had no returns. I then started thinking that maybe they feel awkward because my foot hasn't adapted to them yet and maybe once they get wet, the leather will shrink slightly and they will fit better. So now I'm at a loss on what to do. I emailed Sidi directly to find out if they changed the sizing over the last 3 years. If this is the case then I must ask, why do shoe companies insist on doing this? When I used to wear Asics, every year the new model of the same shoe would come out, something was different. If something works, why try to fix it? Newton Running is the only shoe company that I know of that has kept the shoe the same the past 2-3 years. And for this Newton Running, I thank you.

So now I'm going to wait for a response to my Sidi email and maybe even take my shoes to my bike mechanic to see what he thinks. It's just frustrating when you buy something the same exact size as what you are used to and it's different. Especially with cycling shoes. Even if the new shoes have full carbon soles, if the shoe doesn't fit right and causes me to lose watts this means I lose power and go slower. Sort of defeats the purpose of buying new shoes right?

Ok so enough with my shoe drama. As for training, it couldn't be going better. I've been consistently logging 10+ hours per week since my fast in mid December and feel stronger by the day. Biking right now is hard because we were hit with at least 6+ inches of snow and chilling to the bone temperatures. Needless to say most of my runs have been indoors on the treadmill or inside on the bike trainer. Tomorrow I am racing a 5 mile road race in North Park and am looking forward to it. Believe it or not it's been over a year since I've ran just a running race (i.e. non triathlon) and almost 2 years since I've ran a running race longer than a 5K. It's going to hurt and I am looking forward to it. I just hope there isn't a foot of snow on the roads tomorrow.

December - A must read!

Yes, I know! It's been a very long time since my last blog post. This is actually the longest I've gone since starting this thing back in 2007 without a post. I really don't have much of an excuse and a couple of the things I did this month I'm sure would have got criticized very heavily by the blog community, so I just opted to not write about it...until now!

Let's start with where I left off in late November. If you haven't heard by now, Pittsburgh is starting a Triathlon club and I was elected as a board member in November of 2009. Through this process I've made a lot of new friends and got to meet a lot of new awesome triathletes. We've had monthly meetings since October and even a social gathering here and there. We plan to be an official USAT (USA Triathlon) club for the 2010 season and already have 25+ paying members. It's really awesome to see the sport of triathlon exploding in Pittsburgh and I'm glad to be a part of it!


This sort of brings me to my next segway that has completely taken over the entire month of December. A couple months ago, I decided to start my own business, Coach Chad - Multisport & Triathlon Coaching. I decided to take what I know and have learned the past seven years of my triathlon career and use that knowledge to help others in the sport. I've been thinking about getting into the coaching business now for a couple years but it finally came to fruition! The first week of December, I set off to Las Vegas in order to become a certifed USAT Triathlon Coach. The clinic was 2.5 days and was awesome! This was the first time in my life where I actually enjoyed going to "class". All of class instructors were Elite Level Coaches who coach athletes on our USA Olympic team, so these guys really knew their stuff. Just when I thought I had known everything there is to know about triathlon, these guys really took it to the next level. After the clinic I had to take a pretty extensive exam which seriously took me a better part of a day to complete, but it was well worth it. I'm still waiting for my test results, but I have a good feeling that it went well and I passed with flying colors. I hope to hear something from the USAT folks this week regarding my official confirmation of the certification process. Since becoming a USAT certified coach, the business side of things has really taken off. I've been working with some really great clients and am looking forward to helping them all reach their goals for the 2010 season and beyond. If you'd like more information on my coaching services, visit my coaching page by visiting the link at the right of my site or by using the coaching link at the top of the page.

During the first part of December, I was working quite diligently to get the business structure off the ground and rolling and for the first time in the last decade put my training schedule off to the side. I took a really long break after Clearwater and after a really long racing season. Mentally I really needed the rest and I think that's also part of the reason for why I haven't blogged in some time. I needed a break from the blog too as it centers around my life in Triathlon.

With the holidays fast approaching and after my mental break form Triahtlon training it was time to get the season started. I've been working with a nutritionist and after my previous 2 years of failing short of qualifying for the Ironman World Championship, I wanted to start the season off with something new. It was time for a change. I began to pay attention more closely to what I've been eating and also decided to try a fast, detox and cleanse of my body. Fasting is said by many to be the greatest natural healing therapy. It’s nature’s ancient universal remedy for many problems. Animals instinctively fast when ill. Many of today’s ailments in society result from over nutrition rather than malnutrition. (okay I'm ready for you all to reply to this and give me the one hundred reasons why fasting is not healthy). Honestly I feel that the fast has taken me to the next level of discipline regarding where I need to be as I head into the 2010 triathlon season.

I began my fast on December 13th and it would last until December 18th. The fast consisted of just water, fresh juices with no added sugar and no added protein and herbal teas. For five days I would commit to myself to not eat any solid foods during this time meanwhile detoxing and cleansing my body from all of the harmful toxins that I've ingested over the years.

Here are some of the notes that I took during my experience.

Well it's been 27 hours since my last meal. It's going okay so far...starting to get a little hungry. As long as I stay out of the kitchen and away from the fridge, I think I'll be okay. Today, I drank 1190 calories of juice (56 ounces) and I also drank 135 ounces of water. My morning weight was 155.6 and body fat was 18%. It'll be interesting to see how much these numbers change the next four days.

Starting to question if this is really doing me good...I was alright last night, but now I'm having trouble focusing and headaches...38 hours so far w/o food... I was getting slammed on facebook for fasting today, but I keep telling myself that there are a lot of benefits to doing this. We'll see who's laughing next year when my body fat is around 10% opposed to 18% and my weight is 145 instead of 160...and I'm going to Kona while others are staying home.

Well I'm in hour 42 of the fast.....and it's starting to test me mentally. Light headed, and the hallucinations are beginning. Fun stuff for sure! A note I received today said "Understand that by undertaking this that you are among the rarest of rare – those who seek complete mastery of self and those willing to delay gratification for a greater reward. Both of these character traits are near extinction today. Whatever your reason for fasting, I commend you on your willingness to rise above, to seek higher reward and satisfaction." Keep pushing on I thought to myself.

I'm 50 hours into this thing and still going strong...well sort of. I've almost convinced myself that I should start eating again tomorrow morning which means 60 hours without food is enough....but I know I'd regret it if I decided to do that. My weigh in this morning was 153.4 which was a 2.2 pound loss from the start of Monday morning and according to my "not so accurate" scale, it says I lost around 1% of body fat. I drank right around 130 oz of water again today and as of 8PM I've taken in just over 1000 calories of juice. I experienced some light headedness on and off through out the day usually when I stood up to fast and as you can guess, yes I'm still hungry. I've also had headaches on and off all day today. We'll see if I can tough this out for another day!

Well I just woke up. That might have been the best nights sleep I ever had. Probably because I'm close to death....No seriously, I'm doing okay with the fast. Morning weight was 150.6 (5 pound loss in 2 days) and my body fat % is 16.3% (close to a 2% loss). Today is going to be the hardest I think.

2.5 days in, and I'm feeling no worse than yesterday. I've lost around 5 pounds in 2 days and my body fat dropped 2%. Mentally it's hard, and the fact that all you can do is lay around and do nothing is probably the hardest.

Almost over the hump. Digestive organs are starting to realize that I am finally giving them a vacation. They are starting to repair from the years of abuse. The fast is tough.

I'm 66 hours into the fast...can't wait to eat again on Friday!!! 3 days complete with just juice and water. Today went a little bit better than yesterday, but within the last hour or two I've been feeling more and more hungry. I've only taken in 700 calories so far today. I weighed in at 150 this morning, 5 pounds less than my weigh in Monday morning. I have two more days of this, but am starting to wonder if I can make it. One day at a time.

On day 4 I typed in an email to Matty Mo, "I might introduce solid foods tonight. I've had it w/ this fast sh*t." I was reaching my breaking point.

Life in the "fast" lane is rough. I decided to stick it out another day though and finish this thing. No reason to quit early. Mentally I'll be tougher. It's like I'm at mile 20 of an Ironman and just have to tough it out for six more miles. I'll be looking forward to my first real meal tomorrow at 6PM!

Well I made it to Friday. Yesterday was by far the easiest day physically as I did not crave "real food" anymore, but mentally it was tough. I kept trying to say to myself that "four days was enough". But then after talking to Marc, the guy leading me through the fast, he convinced me that I'm in the home stretch and I just need to tough it out for another 24 hours. My 5 day fast completes tonight at 6PM and I'm looking forward to my first real meal. My body fat is down around 2 percent for the week and my weight is still down 5 pounds from where I was on Monday morning. Yesterday I only took in around 1000 calories, as I just wasn't hungry. It should be fun coming out of the fast the next couple of days. :)

FAST COMPLETE! Physically it was hard between days 2 and 3, but after that it was easy. Mentally on the other hand it was really challenging. I now feel that I'll be mentally stronger come mile 20 of the Ironman marathon. Just another challenge completed!!!

(I spent a lot of time sleeping with our cat Thai during the fast. Yes, he is a huge Steeler fan!)

Coming out of the fast was not as difficult as I would have thought. I no longer craved fatty type foods like cookies and chocolate (even though I had a couple over Christmas) and really enjoyed eating a healthy fruit and vegetable and lean protein type diet ever since the fast.

The week after the fast was spent with family and friends. My sister was home from Oregon and I got to meet her boyfriend Ryan for the first time.


Stacy goes home today and I didn't see her as much as I would have liked but none the less it was great seeing her. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the Holderbaum family and Christmas day with the Gordon family in Cumberland Maryland. This is always our favorite time of the year and we're both very lucky to have such a great family and the support they give us is out of this world. I had so much fun with our nephew Marty as he is at that perfect age where Christmas is full of excitement!

(Leave it up to Uncle Chad and Aunt Jen to get the kid into sports early!)

Fast forward another week to New Years Eve and all I have to say is what a great night. Our night started off at our friends Cari and Nick's house and followed by dinner at the Walnut Grill. We arrived at the Grill around 8PM, seated shortly there after and it took 45 minutes before we ever got a waiter to "wait" on us. I wasn't as frustrated as some of the other folks because I was having a great time talking to everyone, but it was a little annoying and we decided to leave and go to a different restaurant. When the waiter finally came over we said that we were leaving which brought out the manager. The manager was really nice and offered to make things right. The manager brought us out three bottles of wine, free drinks and four free appetizers. Even though the service was awful at first once the manager started taking care of us, our dinner service was exceptional. If I were to write a review at the beginning of the night I would of gave the place a "zero star" review, but after the way they turned around our night, I have to give it a "five star" review! If you're ever in the Burgh, I highly recommend going to the Walnut Grill. After dinner we went back to Cari and Nick's to ring in the New Year with some games.

The New Year started off this morning with a dip in the 38 degree Monongahela river as part of the annual Polar Bear Plunge. I've wanted to do this now for years and finally had some friends that were just as crazy as me to jump in with. At 9:30 AM this morning Vito, his wife Laura and I made the jump! WOW WAS IT AN EXPERIENCE.


(Signing in to make it official)

(There had to be at least a couple hundred jumpers. See mom, I'm not the only crazy one)

(Any last words before you jump? I love the look on Laura's face)

(This was my first jump at 9:30 AM on New Years Day)

(The air temperature this morning was around 25 degrees and the water temperature was a warm 38 degrees)

(Picture of me and Vito after our first plunge. Yes I look really cold)

(Pictured from left to right are Vito Rocco, Ryan Diehl, Chad Holderbaum and Ken Lambert)

I couldn't feel my feet after wards and even three hours later, they're finally starting to get some feeling back in them. About 30 minutes later we decided to jump in again with Ryan and Ken. Supposedly this brings good luck to your new year and we'll find out come October next year if this is true (if I toe the start line in Kona).

(Get us out of here!)

(Here is my mom's cousin Tom Mal. He is partially responsible for a lot of the crazy stuff I do. Tom is the guy that got me back into running after college, talked me into doing my first marathon and also joined me on my first trip to Boston for the infamous Boston Marathon. He also still holds the family marathon PR by less than a minute over me. Yesterday his daughter gave birth to her first son and Tom's third grandson Jordan. Congrats to the Mal family!)

On that note, here is to a great new year and fantastic 2010. I'm looking forward to finding out what the new year brings us all!

Back to Basics (again)

Monday I began base training again. After a long season and a short break, it feels good to get back to the basics. This winter I really want to work on my biking, especially if I want to get my bike split down to around 5 hours for Ironman next year. I'm also going to be changing things up. Last year, the shortest race I did was a half Ironman. This winter I plan on adding in some 10K running races, time trial races, half marathons and even some 5Ks. I need to learn how to "hurt" again anaerobically. Although an Ironman can be long and grueling I never seem to "hurt" from a heavy breathing standpoint. Usually in a long race, its my legs that fail and not my lungs.

The past week I had two more sponsorship deals come in! One with Honey Stinger and another with Sugoi. Honey Stinger makes awesome tasting energy chews, gels and even recovery bars. I'm excited to have them on board for the 2010 season! Sugoi makes a variety of clothing products that are essential for the long training hours!

As for my 2010 race schedule, it's beginning to shape up quite nicely. I'm planning on kicking off the traithlon season in Miami Florida this April. My tentative schedule is as follows.

April 11 - Nautica Olympic Triathlon, Miami Florida
May 2 - Ironman 70.3 St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
June 13 - Ironman 70.3 Eagleman, Cambridge Maryland
July 25 - Ironman Lake Placid, Lake Placid New York
October 9 - Ironman Worlds (pending qualification)
November 21 - Ironman Arizona, Tempe Arizona

Looking forward to another great year!!!

Ironman World Championship 70.3 Race Report

Where to start? This has been a really funny year for me. I didn't qualify for Kona as I would have liked, had a couple good races but nothing spectacular. Going into todays race, I wasn't really sure what to expect. For example, I haven't been running very well the past couple of weeks, had a tough time getting in my long rides due to the cold Pittsburgh weather and really only trained for this race for six weeks after a four week hiatus from Triathlon in the month of October.

I qualified for Clearwater way back in April at the Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside California. I had mixed feelings about coming back to this race because of the bike course and the large pack riders that this course typically sees.

We arrived in Clearwater on Thursday and laid low up until race time. Jen and I were up and at em at 4:20 this morning and I began my normal pre-race ritual. 750 calories of Ensure and my iPod shuffle witch blasted old school Metallica.

We made it into transition around 5:15 and headed to the swim start. I'm typically nervous before a big race, especially a World Championship race, but not today. My heart rate was high, but that's normal for me before a race. The time trial swim began in the inner harbor adjacent to Clearwater beach. My wave was the last to go off which meant there was a good chance that I'd have a fair amount of traffic on the swim.

The 1.2 mile swim
The water was pretty murky but I sighted well the entire way. I got the occasioanl kick from other racers here and there and ran into some of the slower swimmers from the previous waves, but overall the swim was not that bad. The swim exit was very narrow and the exit ramp was probably like a 20% incline getting out of the water. When I hit the top of the ramp and crossed over the timing mat the clock read 28:23. My goal was to break 28 minutes (which I didn't), but this was still the fastest I have ever swum 1.2 miles. This time works out to a average pace of 1:20 per 100 yards! My average Heart Rate for the swim was 169, right where I wanted it to be. Transition had to be at least a 1/4 mile run and the time showed. It took me 2:53 to make it through T1 and onto the bike.

The 56 mile bike
In order to save time, I mount my bike with my shoes already attached to the bike and I also tape my gels and and salt pills to my bike. I had trouble right off the bat as I did a running jump onto my bike and the guy in front of me stopped. Luckily I wasn't going fast yet as I rammed into his back wheel. It took me 5-10 seconds to finally get going which seemed like an eternity. About a mile into the bike I unwrapped the gels from my top tube and stuffed them in my jersey. Not long after that I did the same with my salt pills but as I unwrapped the tape, the lids flew wide open and I lost ALL of my salt. Luckily it wasn't very hot yet and I had to move to plan B which was to drink my Infinit faster than planned and swith to gatorade in order to get in the much needed extra electrolytes. The bike course was really fast this year as we saw little to no wind. I rode by myself for the first 5 miles until I got swallowed up by a pack of around 50-60 riders. Yes that's right a pack. In case you don't know, drafting is illegal in Ironman and you have to stay at least 3-4 bike lengths behind the guy in front of you. These packs were at least 6 guys side by side and 10 rows deep. I knew I wanted to race an honest race so kept pulling to the outside for the pass. This would go on for the next 20-30 miles. I'd get passed by 20-30 guys blatantly cheating and I'd have to work my ass off to get out of the pack and back to the front. It was frustrating and as I rode through the packs to the front I think I cussed out every rider that was cheating. I would ride from one pack to the next and eventually became sick and disgusted of all of the drafting and the fact that I couldn't pass because they were taking up the entire lane. At one point in the race we were in the far left lane and automobile traffic was riding in the right lane. This was the only way to get around the packs so I said screw it, and rode outside of the cones passing the packs on the right. I did this for the next 10 miles until a referee motor bike pulled up to me and said "Illegal pass on the right" and gave me a yellow card / warning. I quickly shot my mouth off at the ref and said "maybe if people were not riding in packs I could actually pass "legally" on the left". It was what it was, so I just shut up and kept driving on as hard as I could. There was only about 10 miles to go at this point in the bike race and since this was only a warning there was no penalty to be served, but I did have to check-in to the penalty tent which cost me 10-15 seconds. I arrived in transition with my fastest bike split ever. I had biked the 56 mile course in 2:09:59 which meant I averaged 25.85 miles per hour for the duration. My goal was to go under 2:10, so I even had one second to spare. My average heart rate for the 56 miles was 163 (seven beats below my Lactate Threshold HR).

The Run
I ran as fast as I could through transition as I tried to acclimate to my running legs. The first mile off the bike is usually fast, but not today. About a half mile in my right quad started to cramp. The first thing I thought of was the salt I dropped and how this could get ugly real quick. Fortunately the cramps went away at the 1 mile mark, but my first mile was 7 minutes, 30+ seconds off of my goal pace. The second mile was a little better, but I still only ran a 6:50 mile. It was what it was and I just couldn't get my legs going. At mile 3, I felt great and ran a 6:18...but then I thought that mile was measured wrong and didn't want to get to excited. At mile 4 disaster hit. I could feel my stomach getting bloated which meant I probably pushed the bike too hard and my body wasn't absorbing my nutrition that I put in the last 2 hours. Every step hurt and it felt like I was getting punched over and over again in the stomach. Miles 4-6.5 would be my worst miles of the race as I had to slow down to a 7:20 pace in order for my stomach to start working properly. I was also taking in Cola in hopes that it would also help settle my stomach. At mile 6.5 I saw Jen and my parents and said told them that I was having problems. I don't know what really took over next, but my legs still felt great and as soon as my stomach cleared up it was back to the races. I was knocking off sub 7 minute miles once again and not once did my legs tire. Doing the math in my head, I knew I had to maintain 7 minute miles the final 5K in order to PR. I dug deep and went for it. I crossed the finish line in 4 hours, 15 minutes and three seconds (4:15:03). This bettered my time last year by 1 minute and 15 seconds. Not much, but I'll take it. I placed 27th in my age group out of 86 and I was 10th place American in my age group.

Thanks again to my family and all of my friends for another great World Championship race.

Eating for Recovery - My Smootie Recipe

As an endurance athlete, one of the most important parts of exercising that is often overlooked is what you need to do immediately after exercise in order to recover. Athletes that fail to replenish carbohydrates and protein stores within 30 minutes after a workout will never reach their full potential and will often have a hard time bouncing back from workout to workout. A recovery period is needed in order for the body to rebuild itself slightly more than before. Over the years I have found that supplements such as Enderox work very well, but in my opinion over time they can sometimes be hard to swallow (no pun intended).

A great simple recipe that I eat religiously following a workout is a fruit smoothie. It takes less than 5 minutes to make and not only tastes good, but is also good for you.

Ingredients:
1 cup Dole Wildly Nutritious Mixed Berries (frozen)
1 single serving of Oikos Greek Yogurt (flavor doesn't matter)
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1.5 cups of skim milk
3/4 cup of cranberry or raspberry juice
1/2 Banana (optional)
1 tablespoon of fresh granola

How to make it:

I found that it's easiest to make a smoothie using a device such as the "Magic Bullet". You can typically find one of these machines or a generic knock off for in the $20-30 dollar price range.
Start by adding the yogurt to the empty cup.

Next add in the fruit until it reaches the top of the fill line of the cup. I listed frozen fruits above, but if the season is right, you can always add in fresh fruit such as fresh strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mango's, kiwi's, etc.


Next add the skim milk until the glass is about 3/4 full and then add the cran/raspberry juice until the glass is full with liquid. The last step before you mix is to add the peanut butter.


Close the lid, blend for about 60 seconds and presto! After the ingredients are mixed, you can even top off the smoothie with some fresh granola.


Here's to getting you recovered for your next big workout!