Gran Fondo NY Race Report

The day started at 4:15.  I didn't get to bed til around 11 and was restless until about 12.  Finally got to sleep and Mel go up to pee and woke me at around 3.  Got back to sleep for that extra hour.  Had all my stuff packed and laid out, got ready after coffee, yogurt and a PB & Nutella sandwich and was on my way around 5:15.  Decided to drive to Fort Lee, right near the finish area instead of to midtown Manhattan.  Didn't want to deal with the extra mileage at the end of the day.  Got out there before 6, got everything together, rolled out and over the GWB and into Manhattan for the start.  Flatted before the race even started.  Damn city streets.  A kind shop owner whose business is right around the corner helped me do a quick change and all was good as new.  Broke in my CO2!  Was riding up to the staging area and , boom there's George Hincapie with his crew getting ready.  Sweet.  Stop by the Mavic van to dump the CO2 and refill with air and then over to the start we went.

Started on the lower level of the GWB and rode back into Fort Lee.  After winding our way through there, we headed down into the riverside park.  Rolling hills and some crappy asphalt.  Got back onto the main roads and things were going well.  Before I knew it we were 20 miles in.  Lotsa rolling terrain and a different route for the first 20 miles than previously planned due to logistics.  

First timed climb came up at 33 miles or so.  A REAL nasty hill.  Steep.  Double digits all the way with a max of 16%.  Ouch.  And there's still 3 more.  I passed and got passed.  There were a pair of chicks that were going ovaries out on the hills and I got chicked. First aid station was right after.  Stopped in, refilled water grabbed a banana and some pita chips and went back out.

Second timed climb, which is the only one I had previously done, was much harder this time around.  Again those 2 fems chicked me.  I passed more people here than passed me.  A longer hill with a little less grade but still maxing out at 14%.

3 timed climb was Bear Mountain.  The big boy.  The timed part if just under 4 miles...that's not counting the whole mile that precedes it.  I put it into the lowest gear and went to work.  I passed a large number of people and got passed by maybe 5 or 6.  I just kept picking them off.  I knew the top would be 50 miles so I kept looking at my watch and saying just XX more minutes.  Got to the top and took a breather and enjoyed the view.  Shot down the hill and stopped at the aid station at the bottom.  Grabbed a bagel, refilled my gatorade and water, ate half of non-ripe banana and had a smidgen of coke.  Headed out for the 20 miles to the next rest stop.  

I got to around 63 or 65 and my left hamstring started to cramp.  A momentary pause in my peddling caused it.  Then my left quad lit up.  I stopped, got off the bike, stretched and downed some fluids.  It cleared up and I continued on.  I pretty much stayed in the easiest few gears.  This was a tough section of the course.  3 big climbs had passed and they were assaulting us with another 3 mile climb.  I was questioning if I could finish the ride at this point.  My muscles around my knees started to cramp shortly after.  Luckily I made it to the 3rd aid station and was able to take an extended breather and really down some fluids.  I managed to pee and it looked ok but there wasn't a lot of volume.  I stretched out and massaged my legs and let the feet out of the shoes for a while (welcome back big toes).

I'd finally got my butt going and as I start out I see a guy wearing a BMC kit standing next to a black suburban in a cul de sac off the route.  GEORGE HINCAPIE.  Next thing I know there he is, next to me, for about 90 seconds.  Then he stood up and that was that.  Bye George.  Awesome.  Watching him ride was sick.  He attacked the timed climb like it wasn't even there.  I attacked it like I'd already been bent over a few times on Friday night.  We got to the top and then the 2nd most fun part of the ride...the decent of climb 1.  WOW.  That was fun.  Closed to traffic, just booking.  Down in the drops, as aero as I can get.  Those are the photos I want to see...like right now.

After blowing past the turn at the bottom doing about 40 I turned around and the rest of the ride was just an exercise in determination to finish.  most of it was downhill with small climbs and a few longer less steep climbs within the last 10 or so miles.  The finish brought us back to the same road we started on, which along with shitty pavement, brought us 2 way traffic on a road barely wide enough for 2 cars and the additional complication of pedestrians.  I guess that road closed sign was optional.

The finish was lack luster.  My finisher photos likely show me with my head turned trying to tell the official what my race number was since he apparently couldn't read the race bib.  No water, no snacks, no nothing for the riders.  Oops.  To add insult to injury it was a nice climb out of the riverside park to get to my car.

All in all I enjoyed myself.  I have some mixed feelings.  I know I could have trained better and for Philly that's exactly what I will do...a less hectic schedule will greatly help that.  I cursed the race directors for all the extra climbing, but I guess to keep with the true nature of Gran Fondos from Italy they chose to put on a tough event.  I hope though that for next years iteration they work out a few kinks, ditch the riverside park road or try to get it repaved and find a venue that's not a pain to get to. Oh and make sure they provide some kind of refreshments at the finish.

The getup

 View form Bear Mountain

 View from GWB on my way to the start.

Running Mania...More Like Scheduling Mania

Busy.  That is the word to best describe my life at the moment.  I have a lot I want to do and not a whole bunch of time to do it.

Training properly for GFNY is one of those things I want to do but struggle to find time for.  Maybe it’s a lack of motivation.  I’ve managed to squeeze 3 bike sessions in so far this week, 2 of them being outdoors and the other on the rollers since Mother Nature decided to toy with us some more.  It’s tough to squeeze in rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the short time between work and class, but I seem to be able to get a 45 minute ride in without an issue.  My other problem is my required rotations.  I’m also committed to completely 75 hours of ambulance ride time done over 12 hour shifts on my weekends and that’s obviously a large chunk of potential training time.  Luckily I have already knocked off 3 of these shifts and have 3 more to go.  I’ll have them all done long before GFNY thankfully.  Pile this on top of class time, and trying to spend some QT with the GF and time is tight.  My cat is even complaining.

The biggest issue I have with these shifts is the prolonged affect it has on my body.  I don’t have an issue with a 12 hour shift, but the inability to eat and drink like I normally would and leads to me being dehydrated and malnourished come the end of the shift so I have zero motivation to exercise when I get home and the next day tends to be a little rough.  I have a shift this Saturday but I went ahead and signed up for the GFNY Group Training ride Sunday morning.  We’ll be covering about 50 miles, which will be the longest I have ridden to date.  It’s going to be challenging for sure.

My legs feel pretty wrecked at the moment.  I did Revolver on the rollers last night and couldn’t max out my HR.  I am trying to decide if this is because my legs are tired or because the rollers are just not giving me enough resistance now that I am riding outside more.  I’m going to assume the later, but I am also a bit tired so it could be a bit of both.  Hopefully I have some spunk in my legs come Sunday morning.  I hope it’s a productive ride for me…I don’t take a trip to Jersey lightly.

Why 2010 Sucked And What I'm Doing About It In 2011.

2010 was a disappointing year for me.  I started off the year with high hopes.  I had a relaxing December 2009 and kicked off the new year by giving the 30-30 Challenge(30 runs of at least 30 minutes for 30 consecutive days) a second(really a third) attempt.  I got through January with one of my highest mileage totals since I had started running again, even eclipsing the heavy months of my marathon training the previous summer.  All seemed to be good.  My legs felt great, I was splitting time between my Nike Frees and my Vibrams and I went into February with a solid plan laid out for my Long Island Marathon training.  I even had two 5k races mixed in there.

February went well and I had a stellar 10-mile long run and an even better 12-mile long run where I managed to drop my pace the last 2 miles to what I anticipated I would be race pace on May 2^nd.  I entered my first recovery week feeling good.  I knocked out an easy 8 miles.  My calf felt a bit tight but it wasn’t bothersome during or after.  My next run, which was to be a tempo run, is where my year went completely downhill.  I was approaching an intersection on a downhill and was slowing up because cross traffic had the green.  I was 20-feet away from the intersection when I felt the pain that would haunt me almost the entire year.  It was my left calf again.  It felt like any other calf strain I’d had in the past year.  I was out in shorts on a chilly day and in an effort to avoid hypothermia, I turned around and started a slow jog back.  That slow jog is probably was truly did me in, but having no cell phone to call for a ride and not wanting to hitch I followed the only option I had.  I got home and my calf was tight and sore.  I figured I’d give it a few days.  That turned into a week.  The pain seemed to be gone, but it came back.  I saw my sports doc, got an xray, was denied an MRI and started with a treatment plan.  I was on and off with running.  The pain would go away, I’d run a few days and it’d come back.  I changed my marathon entry to the half, lost money on another half and a 15k and resolved to get myself to the start by whatever means necessary so I wouldn’t lose another chunk of change.  I ran the half, wearing my Brooks, which had only been used a handful of times.  I suspected part of the problem was my minimalist footwear.  7 miles in the pain returned.  I altered my stride and managed to finish the race.  I was hurting.

A long time coming...

I haven’t written a blog in a really long time.  This is due mostly to my inactivity through the end of December and part of January, but also because I am currently in class to earn an Advanced EMT certification.  It requires 3 hours a night, 2 nights a week of classroom time, plus a half-hour commute both ways.  On top of that, it also requires 139 hours combined of clinical rotations in a hospital setting and ambulance ride time(I already ride an ambulance as a volunteer but this is additional time with a certified preceptor who evaluates my skills/help me become proficient in them).  The clinical time adds up quickly, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow when you’re working a full time job, trying to maintain an exercise, SLEEP, and spend time with your girlfriend.  My cats are in protest too with one pretty much ‘becoming’ the girlfriend’s cat and the other displaying is vocal prowess anytime I am home and not paying direct attention to him.  That being said, I am glad to be in this class.  It’s a challenge to me, as it involves fields that are far outside my daily realm of skills and in the end I will be able to provide a higher level of care to those who live in my fire departments coverage area.   The course has just over 3 months left so it’ll be over before I know and I’ll get to stick annoying patients with needles until my hearts content.  Kidding…mostly.

So what have I been up exercise wise?  Well, a new gym opened up right near work; a 3 minute drive away.  It’s a LifeTime Fitness, so it’s one of those fancy schmancy gyms that costs an arm and a leg and maybe your left nut too.  Being a fancy schmancy gym, it has everything you could want.  There are 2 indoor pools, an outdoor pool with separated lap lanes, an armada of cardio machines, every type of weight machine possible, free weights, a yoga and pilates studios, a tiered cycling studio, martial arts studio, rock climbing wall, basketball and volleyball courts, locker rooms with private showers, and the list goes on.  It’s fantastic and it’s expensive but with what I am able to do now, I find that it is worth the cost.  Oh and they are FiveFingers friendly.

So what am I doing there?  Well, since it opened I’ve been doing a consistent weights and core routine most days of the week during my lunch hour.  I can shoot over there, get in a 40-45 minute routine, return to my office and eat lunch with in about 75 minutes.  My boss is thankfully cool about me just working 15 minutes later and taking that extended lunch.  I’m doing a lot of core and stability work to try to decrease my chances for injury this year as I get back to running.  More on that later.

I’m also...wait for it…swimming.  Yes, me, the man with bum shoulders is swimming.  And not just a little bit of swimming.  I’m going 3 or 4 days a week, and swimming anywhere from 1000 to 1600 meters.  I never thought I’d be swimming for fitness.  Most bouts of swimming generally end in my subluxing my left shoulder.  I’ve found that swimming with proper form and technique is actually no problem for me.  I’m definitely not proficient and the whole breathing part has been the biggest battle, but with continued consistent swim session things have gotten substantially easier.  I’m also doing spin classes, though not as much as of late.  I was trying to attend the early morning classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays but it’s harder than it seem.  Being in class until 10 PM those days doesn’t help me either, and the girlfriend didn’t like the alarm going off 2 hours before hers.  I was doing a Saturday morning class as well, but with the weather improving I don’t plan on spending my Saturdays indoors much longer.  I haven’t done any rock climbing yet.  I need to schedule a “training” session for the auto-belay devices.  I also might sign-up for a personal training session or 2 so I can learn a few more exercises to add to my routine to help build leg and core strength and give me a full body workout.

On the biking front I’ve been using the nice set of rollers I got for Christmas and have been either doing easy efforts while watching TV, or entering the world of Sufferlandria and kicking my butt to the tune of Sufferfest training videos.  I’ve have 4 of these videos and have used all of them so far.  The 2 hardest ones I have are Downward Spiral and Revolver which are intense interval sessions.  If you’ve never heard of Sufferfest then check them out at www.thesufferfest.com.  All the video and music is licensed and at $10 or $11 a pop, you just can’t go wrong.  It’s a nice way to vary your workouts, or fill in a gap should the weather turn bad.  My efforts on the rollers have been pretty helpful in finding weakness in my peddle stroke.  I find I have a huge gap in my right leg when reaching the end of the stroke and trying to start the next, and that my left leg is quite a bit better.  I’ve been working on a higher cadence as well, with my efforts showing during my first outdoor ride last weekend.  Last summer I spent a majority of my rides in the mid-80s for my average cadence and last Saturday I managed a 93 average on my first outdoor ride of the year.  Not a bad improvement.  This has brought along a relearning of my gearing as I’m used to using the big ring almost exclusively.

I laid off the rollers this past week because I’ve been having some man issues due to the constant pressure of my perineum area on the saddle.  It started to become bothersome then neared painful and I had one instance where sensation was absent for almost a day.  Yeah…not fun!  I’ve ordered a trial Adamo Breakway saddle made by ISM from TriSports.com.  I have it for 7 days, so I will be putting in a lot of hours on the bike this coming week.  Many people who have the saddle report an adjustment period since the saddle utilizes ones sit-bones over the perineum for load bearing.  The result is some muscle soreness during the initial rides.  I’m looking forward to getting it installed today and getting in a numb-free ride in on the rollers and then getting out for a ride tomorrow to continue tweaking it.  I don’t suspect the soreness will be an issue for me.  A little muscle soreness beats a numb body part any day.

As for running, there’s been none.  Actually that’s not true.  I did run on Tuesday and went 1 mile.  This was 100% intentional and on track with my plan to only run very short distances for the first few weeks of returning to running.  I don’t have any races planned, but will most likely do the NY State Park Summer Runs Series starting in June.  Plenty of time to get back in shape for 5 and 10k races.  I hope that I can find a sweet spot this time around and bring myself back into decent running shape and avoid the same nagging calf injury that’s plagued me for almost a year now.  I’m going to stick to Vibrams only.  I’ve been doing all my weight routines in them and want to stick to what I feel will work best for me.

So that’s my long awaited update.  I’m going to try to give some more frequent but shorter updates.  Next post will be about my race plans for this coming year.