Bahamas, 2006

Bahamas, 2012...Live now, or it's gone.

April Summary

Starting weight (first three morning average): 210

Ending weight: 207

Total workouts: 19

Weekly Avg Work: 7 hours

Longest bike: 96 mile commute home from Wall Street via Bear Mountain

Longest run: 12 miles slow

Actual bike watts/1.5 hours (aero): 199 watts

Estimated 56-mile stand alone ride pace: 18.5 mph

Estimated 13.1 mile stand alone running race pace: 7:00

Estimated Ironman finishing time: 11. hours (1:20/6:30/3:45)

Hardest workout: Crank the Cank computrainer at 215 watts; finished, but barely at 190+ HR

April saw an increase in Ironman training from 5 hours-per-week to 7 hours-per-week, largely due to a 96 mile slog with Gerheart and Atkinson from Wall Street home via Bear Mountain one night. We didn’t even climb the hill and were still fairly thrashed and late for dinner. The Eleuthera, Bahamas vacation in the middle of April was probably good for acclimatization but little else–the lobsters were scarce this year and we saw few spear-able fish…and no sharks! Either the locals had come through the reefs just ahead of us or I’m worried at the boys’ prospects in a decade. Fisheries management is not a strong suit of any country today.

Fruitless in fishy flesh only. We had an adventure, and a long swim for an 8-year-old.

Apr 1: 50 mile road loop/ 17 mph/3:20/HR 140-170

Apr 3: 42 mile ride into work/2:17

Apr 5: 4x5min intervals cycletrainer/330 watts/ HR 175-190

Apr 7: 9.08 mile run Bahamas/8:18 pace/HR 174 avg

Apr 9: 9.18 mi run/7:45 pace/161 average

Apr 11: 8 mi run Bahamas ( with 2 one mile intervals)/7:47 pace/168

Apr 13: 1 hour LifeFitness 230 watts/155-185

Apr 14: 5X3 minute cycling interval LifeFitness 330 watts

Apr 16: 4X2.5 minutes Star TRac Level 17/440 watts

Apr 17: 7500 meter erg/ 29:25/1:57 average

Apr 18: 40 mile ride into work/ 2:15 hours

Apr 20: 96 mile ride from Wall Street/6 hours

Apr 21: 12 mile run/ 8:30 pace/155 HR

Apr 22: 1:30 ride steady state computrainer aero/HR 160-180

Apr 27: 20 mins level 14 Star Trac/ 10 mins level 13/HR 180+

Apr 28: 6 mile run/7:30 pace/165 HR

Apr 29: 1:25 Crank the Kank computrainer/ 210 watts/ 165-195 HR

Apr 30: 42 mile ride into work

The "Spa"

March Summary

Starting weight (first three morning average): 214

Ending weight: 210

Total workouts: 16

Weekly Avg Work: 5 hours

Longest bike: 42 mile commute

Longest run: 9.6 miles slow

Actual bike watts/1.5 hours (aero): 199 watts

Estimated 56-mile stand alone ride pace: 18.5 mph

Estimated 13.1 mile stand alone running race pace: 7:00

Estimated Ironman finishing time: 11.5 hours (1:20/6:30/3:40)

Hardest workout: Crank the Cank computrainer at 230 watts—DNF (blown up at 1:15)

I averaged 5-hour workout weeks in March, about 40% of what I’ll do on Ironman day alone. I don’t feel too far behind. My body has gotten used to quick ramp-ups (and free *Falls*). Besides, these next two years are workload experiments. By 2015, when I want a max effort at 45-years-old, I’ll know what mix of workouts is most efficient.

As any time-crunched 40-something athlete knows, time and injuries dominate performance. We can’t yet retire, and devote weekday daylight to workouts, but the wheels are coming loose. Let’s leave injuries for another post and take a look at my current time allocation.

50 hours sleeping

50 hours for Goldman, Sachs

40 hours family time

5 hours/week coaching the boys’ football and soccer teams

5 hours workouts

2 hours writing

16 hours commuting

Last year, I was writing much more (both at night and on the train) trying to finish a book, and sleeping a bit less. This year I’ve had more Goldman work on the train. And anyway I needed a break from hardcore writing. Looking at the time allocation, it’s pretty obvious where the extra workout time in April, May, June and July will come from: Sleep and commuting. This month I started occasionally bike commuting from Greenwich, CT to Goldman HQ in lower Manhattan. It’s 42 miles, but more importantly, these commutes don’t interfere with family life in the mornings and minimize the impact on the way home.

Train+ subway commute: 1.5 hours

Bike commute: 2.25 hours in, 2.5 hours home through Bronx rush hour.

Run Commute (9.6 miles to 125th street): 1:15 run to 125th Street adds only :30 to commute.

Bottomline: If I move to 2 roundtrip bikes to work-per-week (from one) and add one run, I can add another ~6 hours of work at the cost of 2 hours of sleep and 4 hours of commuting. That will put at 10-11 hours of training per week. That’s still below the minimum of 12 hours recommended by time-crunched triathletes, but 10 hours will have to suffice this year.

No more basketball until 2016

March Workouts

Mar 1: 60 minutes Startrac cycle, 220 watts HR 155 (sprained ankle recovery)

Mar 3: 45 minutes hilly computrainer in aero/230 watts/ 180 HR

Mar 4: 35 mile Greenwich ride with Dave Lehman/slightly hilly/HR 160/2 hours

Mar 5: 45 minutes steady state Lifecycle bike 220 watts/155 HR

Mar 6: 4×5 minutes 235 watts Lifecycle/178 HR

Mar 10: 1:05 hilly computrainer/230 watts/HR 175 (:10), 180 (:18), 187 (:50) Mar Mar 11: 38 mi ride Greenwich with Jake Gearhart/HR 155/2:20

Mar 14: 9.6 mi run to 125^th Street/ 1:13/ HR 160-170

Mar 17: 1:15 hilly aero computrainer/ 225 watts/HR 175-188

Mar 18: 90 mins steady state aero computrainer (160/170/175) 199 watts

Mar 20: 42 mile ride to work/2:23

Mar 22: 5X 5 mins 315 watts

Mar 23: 20 min run through French Quarter

Mar 24: 50 min run around Tulane

Mar 29: 42 mile ride home from work/2:35

Mar 31: 90 mins aero computrainer, 197 watts, HR 160+ :30, HR 170+ at :45…still seeing drift but not as bad.

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A nice February workout for 6-year-old Ryan...50# Wahoo

February Summary

Starting weight: 215

Ending weight: 214 (Key West vacation did not help here)

Total workouts: 12 (Key West vacation did help here)

Longest bike: 30 miles outside

Bike watts/2 hours (aero): 177 watts

Longest run: 12.4 miles (Southport 20k; hilly)/7:22 pace

Estimated 56 mile stand alone ride pace: 18 mph

Estimated 13.1 mile stand alone running race pace: 7:20

Estimated Ironman finishing time: 11.6 hours (1:22/6:30/3:45)

Hardest running workout: Strained (r) calf at mile 9 of 12.4 mi race and had to gimp.

Hardest cycling workout:

The injury came early this year with a grade one right calf strain during a 12-mile race on February 12. That I had only twice run more than 5.5 miles in January—and before that fewer than five times in 2011—didn’t help. Calf strains and metatarsal stress fractures have recurred for five years now. It’s a combination of skinny calves, a top-heavy body, a pounding stride, a sharp mileage ramp-up, a torn brevis tendon in my right ankle, and awful flexibility. I can run a marathon on a stress fracture but not a torn calf. I need to get serious about stretching. Maybe I’ll work it into the office routine (consisting of staring at four computer screens) or tell the boys to stomp the tightness out of them when we wrestle.

On second thought, in 2008 my 3-year-old gave me a nasty case of turf toe by jumping off my back onto my calf while I was playing horse, so I’ll avoid the ruffians except to build calluses.

Adding insult to the injury, on February 27th I was a last-minute substitute on a local basketball team and, wearing light hikers, rolled my bad ankle within five minutes. I’ll stick with the doctor’s orders–with just a single lateral tendon intact, no basketball or sand volleyball. Ever.

Workouts

February 4: 30 mile flat computrainer 1:32/170 watts/HR 170-180

February 12: 12.43 mile race/1:31/7:22 pace/HR 183

February 15: 1 hour seated life fitness cycling 193 watts HR 173

February 16: 1:07 seated life fitness upright bike 193 watts HR 170; 30 minutes elliptical 177 watts

February 17: 30 minutes recline bike 200 watts; 15 minute jog

February 18: 8 mile run with Suz/8:30/mile

February 19: 2 mile run easy to retrieve rental car

February 20: 45 minutes seated bike 230 watts/HR 170

February 23: 2×20 minutes StarTrac bike 260 watts/HR 175-185 (#1) and 188 (#2)

February 24: 9 mile run from office to Harlem/HR 155/8:15 per mile

February 25: 33 mile ride/2 hours/ HR 155

February 26: 7500 meter erg/28:45/HR165-190

February 27: Basketball game/45 minutes

Back when training was fun, the 1996 Eco Challenge (Suz Bottom, second from the left)

Starting weight (first three morning average): 217

Ending weight: 215

10 total workouts (two Monday holidays)

Longest bike: 30 miles outside

Longest run: 9 miles slow

Actual bike watts/1.5 hours (aero): 177 watts

Estimated 56 mile stand alone ride pace: 18 mph

Estimated 13.1 mile stand alone running race pace: 7:45

Estimated Ironman finishing time: 11 ¾  hours (1:25/6:30/3:50)

Hardest workout: Riding computrainer through two episodes of Mad Men for 1:30, a great series but not exactly adrenaline-filled.

My max running HR is ~202 and the most I’ve seen riding is ~195. My weight fluctuates between 200 and 215 pounds during the year, depending on work and extra-curriculars. Writing took the toll this year.

ON January 1^st, 2012, I weighed 217 pounds. I need to be around 200 by June, giving me 2 months to train at race weight before Ironman New York City. I’m a demand-sider. The supply—including kids’ party pizza, burgers, beer and monster $1 cinnamon buns from carts on the walk from subway to work—is fairly constant throughout the year. To control my weight I exercise. I do cut out the brownie sundaes at California Pizza Kitchen during the trimming months (March-June).

To establish a baseline, on New Year’s Day I ran a flat 5.5-mile loop around Tod’s Point in Old Greenwich, a typical Fall maintenance run. I finished in a sprint in 39 minutes (~7:05/mile). The fall layoff had taken its toll. Bigger every year.

ON January 2^nd, again at 217 pounds, I rode a flat 30-mile course in the aero position on the computrainer in my basement to the first three episodes of Mad Men. I averaged 177 watts in 1:30:55. I wasn’t able to stay in the aero tuck for more than 20 minutes, and by the end it was 5 minutes in position, five minutes on the horns. I’m ~30 watts stronger on the horns. I suffered from obvious heart rate drift: HR165 (minute mark :20)/HR172 (:25)/HR178 (:38)/HR179-181 (:45)/HR183 (:50)/HR188 (1:15)/HR190 (1:25).

I weighed 212 after the ride, a loss of five pounds. I lose about 4 pounds of sweat each hour even in a 60-degree basement. My engine likes it cold. The August heat will be a problem (NYC Ironman is August 11), so I try not to drink during these indoor workouts and any runs under two hours.

I’ve got weak legs, but 177 watts surprised me to the downside considering the effort at the end of the ride. I rode the last two L’Etape races over Tourmalet (2010) and Alpe D’Huez (2011) to get a tiny taste of what the Tour de France riders face daily (having heard the Tour compared to other endurance events, I was curious). I was able to get my sustained (2+ hours) sit-up output well over 200 watts.

Unfortunately in both those Tour stage  I suffered from severe cramping (I walked 750 meters up Tourmalet in ’10 and soft-pedaled the top third of Alpe d’Huez in ‘11). The latter race had zero to do with sodium, electrolytes etc. I was pounding pills. Either I stayed too long in the red or my Lipitor prescription (ten years now) finally caught up with me and caused the muscle fatigue I’d dismissed for a decade.

I’m going Lipitor-free this spring and summer as a test run.

ON January 7^th I did a tiny run-ride-run, (1.5 miles—1 hour—1.5 miles) another typical fall maintenance workout where I run to CVS, grab three newspapers, then continue to Sportsplex where I ride a sit-up bike at 200 watts while reading for an hour, then jog home.

ON January 8^th I ran 7 miles—the most since May of 2011—at a 7:45 pace at an avg HR of 178. My thighs were pretty fatigued; I could feel the workout while chasing the boys that night.

Lessons from the 4 benchmark workouts (I won’t start swimming until April):

1)   Need to (finally) start stretching. Now, I’ve always believed what the current data proves—that stretching does little good, especially in running. But I need to be limber enough in the hamstrings to get comfortable in the aero cycling position without popping my heart. Also, the injuries have been piling up and I’ll sacrifice muscle snapback for fewer strains, pulls and tears. As my buddy Tim Ryan has said, the engine has only so many miles on it, and I can’t take back the 100-mile foot workouts we adventure-racers put our bodies through in the late ‘90s.

A brief history of my endurance injuries: 1986-2006: nothing major; 2007 (Age 37): bulging disc from climbing in and out of the cramped Humvee in full armor, then a right calf strain that prevented me from running USMC Marathon for a fundraiser (Suz ran in my stead); 2008: metatarsal stress fracture, turf toe; 2009: calf strain (r), then calf strain (l); 2010: pinched nerve in neck/trapezius flares up after an hour of riding all season; 2011: inflamed neck again, torn brevis tendon in (r) ankle (decide against surgery), calf strain (r); 2012: only a matter of severity. Injuries are just part of the cycle now.

2)   Back to the lessons. Improving my horrible cycling is the key to my triathlon, and to do it I need more leg power. With an Irish build, I’ve always hated leg weight training. At my age it’s necessary pain. I’ll start in March.

3)   I need some workouts where I keep my HR in the 160s-170s instead of jumping to the 180s for 45 minutes+. 150s-160s would be ideal but I’m not doing overnights until June, and don’t have the time for extended rides when the sun is high on the weekends. Early mornings are about to re-emerge. When I use HR as a governor on long workouts, I’ll finish with twenty minutes at maximum effort, then try to follow it with weights.

The year goes like this:

January thru mid-February—2.5 workouts/week (weekends), usually one indoor ride and one outdoor run. I don’t use treadmills.

February break thru March—4 workouts/week, including a weekly cycling interval workout, with occasional 7500m ergs mixed in to remind me what hard training once felt like. I’ll also hunt out any races to get some max efforts in.

April-May—4.5 workouts/week including bike commutes into the city (42 miles), some long workouts, and a few short triathlons.

June-July—5 workouts/week mixing regular bike commutes, weekend triathlons with no tapers, and the occasional all-nighter (for the last two years I have ridden from 5pm to 5 am, including several Bear Mountain repeats, to get my mind right)

August-September—Ironman and a few shorter Tris. In the past I have gone slack on riding here (I have no love for cycling). Maybe I’ll try to extend the 2012 season.

October-December—There’s an Ironman in Cozumel I’m considering. And perhaps I’ll take one final crack at the 3-hour marathon barrier in DC or NYC in the next few years. But the fall is generally reserved for soccer coaching, plentiful food, and Redskins games.

Jan 2: 30 mile flat computrainer indoor aero ride, 177 watts, 1:30:55, HR 180

Jan 7: 33 mile ride/HR 160/2:27

Jan 14: 1.5 mi run/1 hour upright bike@200 watts/1.5 mi run

Jan 15: 30 mi flat computrainer indoor aero ride, 178 watts, 1:30:47, HR 180

Jan 16: 7.6 mi run/one 9% 500-meter hill/173 HR/7:36 pace

Jan 18: 45 minutes computrainer/200 watts

Jan 22: 6.5 mile run one 9% hill/ HR 165/ 8:18 pace

Jan 28: 25 mi computrainer indoor aero, 180 watts, 1:15, HR 180

Jan 29: 9.2 mile run one small hill/HR 172/7:47 pace

If only the boys could tow me through Ironman...

After a decade-long hiatus from serious endurance sport, I missed the benefits of hard work concomitant with big goals. In 2010 and 2011 I entered a smattering of triathlons and long bike races loosely following modern training guidance: A time-consuming mix of short, high intensity intervals and long, low intensity workouts in HR Zones 2 and 3. The training did not work for me. Working a full-time job while maximizing the time spent with my wife and two boys (8,6) — including coaching two sports each in the Fall and Spring — didn’t leave time for a scientific programme, especially 5+ hour weekend “base” workouts. So I decided to go old school as an experiment. I’m reverting to the ethos I learned as a rower in the 1980s at St Paul’s and Harvard, and as a 1990s Marine: Every workout is a race. All into the oar, all the time. Finish strong. Now I needed a big goal….

Qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in 2014, when I turn 45.

To do it, I’ll have to race under 10 hours. My best time ever, run when I was 25-years-old, was 10:26. So I not only have to drop 20 pounds (the easy part, at 217 lbs) but must also turn back the 20 years–and cut 26 grueling minutes. At least. Qualification standards are tougher every year. As a trader, probabilities are a big part of my life. Odds are I will not qualify for Kona. But that’s secondary.

Committing to a goal is more important than achieving it. The benefits of big goals outweigh the inevitable shortfalls. It took me 25 years to realize this, but I was always late bloomer. Through my sophomore spring in high school I was a mediocre athlete who could not conceptualize the benefits of hard physical work. Then I had some success in rowing. The sport emphasized determination over skill, and teamwork above all. There were no individual all-Americans. By adhering to the philosophy of relentlessness imbued by coaches Chip Morgan & Rich Davis at St. Paul’s, and Harry Parker at Harvard, my teammates and I won dozens of races, collecting hundreds of jerseys (losing crews hand their colors to the winners).

Oddly, in addition to unrivaled camaraderie and newfound discipline, I took from rowing the feeling of regret. In 1990, I was part of the fastest collegiate crew in the country, winning the Eastern Sprints and the Henley Regatta, but we finished 2nd in the National Championship. That six-minute block of life haunts every one of us. By 1991 I was a good rower by Harvard standards but unexceptional. Great Harvard rowers went on to row for the national team, and exceptional rowers represented the U.S. at the Olympics. I consider Olympians the highest athletic achievers. What bothers me isn’t the fact I never represented the nation in rowing, as I later did in the Marines. My erg scores were at the bottom edge of selection camps. At 6’4”, 196 lbs, I was small for the next level.

What bothers me is that I never gave it a proper shot.

My teammate Norm Bellingham, a kayaking gold medal winner before coming to Harvard, marveled at the fanatical work ethic in the boathouse but once observed, “You guys are driven more by fear of losing than glory. At this level you must aim higher, or someone who doesn’t know any better will defeat you.” His conclusion puzzled me. It was true that losing was devastating in a sport where you worked all year for a single six-minute race, but I didn’t understand how to harness all that work in a different psychological engine, especially when strategizing exited the brain when it went anaerobic, which was about thirty seconds into a crew race.

Four years later I understood what Norm meant. In 1994 was invited to try out for an ultra-endurance racing team captained by Robyn Benincasa, who would eventually become the top female adventure racer in the world. Her team was to race in the 400-mile Eco Challenge, a grueling multisport expedition race over rugged terrain and rivers where the clock never stopped and you slept only when you dared. Her tryout attracted professional triathletes, bikers, and mountain men. Looking at their previous race times, they were in another league. But I eagerly signed up for the 36-hour tryout. Rowing had given me a capacity for pain, and the Marine Corps had further taught me how to suffer. I wanted to make a run at my limits–and my competitors. I was well back after the kayak leg, and after the mountain bike leg I felt like I was in another time zone. But overnight on foot wearing a pack I slowly reeled in the triathletes, who had treated their machine bodies well over the years, with nutrition plans, massages and prescribed rest. Not tonight.

By aiming high and then grinding away, I landed on teams that finished the Eco Challenge 2nd and 8th (in a brutal 10-day race in which only 14 of 75 teams finished), and eventually raced with teammates that ranged from the Marines and the Rangers to Playboy Playmates. From there Ironman and ultra marathon workouts followed. I ran an ultra never having run farther than 10 miles in training that year. In 2001, I decided to take a crack at Mount Everest from the North Side because I was told it was a tougher climb. I’d never been above 14,000′ and did not summit Everest, turning back at about 28,000′, which was very disappointing.

But in the ten years since graduating Harvard, I’d developed a much different attitude about the crux of achievement. It was a gradual realization that took place after thousands of tough hours starting in high school. I only wish it had come sooner.In essence, I had come to believe that big goals paid dividends that weren’t visible at the outset of the journey. Achievement had become secondary to discovery. To explore through hard work, you had to lean hard into your limits. To find your limits you needed something out of reach. I’m taking a crack at Ironman qualification not because I think I can get a coveted Kona slot.

I want to see what’s out there…