I competed in and finished my 10th Philadelphia Triathlon this past weekend, and while it was probably the most fun I had, it was also my slowest.\u00a0 Naturally, that correlation troubles me, but the real correlation needs to be understood to figure out why yesterday was what it was.<\/p>\n
First, I’ve not been putting in crazy training hours.\u00a0 In reality, I’ve been in the pool less than a half-dozen times in the last two months, and I’ve been really unmotivated with running.\u00a0 After the Brooklyn Half-Marathon, I realized that a blister the size of Rhode Island had developed under my left foot, so I let it heal for as long as it would take to not put further pressure on it.\u00a0 After I while, I got complacent and used to not running.\u00a0 I did compete in the Queens 10k race in Flushing Meadow Park last weekend, but as would be expected, my performance numbers weren’t great.\u00a0 My average pace wound up around 8:19 per mile where I had started off with sub 8s.<\/p>\n
On the bike however, I’ve been feeling great.\u00a0 My numbers have been improving steadily, and I feel so strong whenever climbing up hills.\u00a0 I seem to be stronger than most of my riding partners, so that’s also good for the ego.\u00a0 But, I sense that the progress on the bike has hurt the run especially given the lack of brick sessions.\u00a0 My weight has been pretty good and I’m hovering in the high 170s; that’s great for me!\u00a0 I suspect that I’ll shed just a few more pounds be a solid 175 within a month.<\/p>\n
Second, the Philly course is not a fast one.\u00a0 The swim typically has some element of tide within the Schuykil River, but on Sunday, they changed the course due to low water levels.\u00a0 And there was virtually zero current.\u00a0 That’s fine, and I swam well considering my under-training, but a little tide would have helped.\u00a0 The bike course is technical and challenging as it offers plenty of flats, short and gradual hills, tight turns, and fun downhills.\u00a0 The run course is pancake flat; half in one direction away from transition in shade, and the other half in the other direction from transition and no protection from the sun.\u00a0 It’s the latter half of the run that often wears down runners.\u00a0 Whereas other Olympic distance events offer different terrain challenges that are better or worse, most of the ones that I have done are typically faster courses at least with respect to my measurement of performance over multiple years.<\/p>\n
Third, I’ve been inundated with a new work life and some other life challenges.\u00a0 I tend to prefer to sleep more and train less so that I can be energetically refreshed for the toils of each day.\u00a0 I know, however, that I could put in proper run and swim training, so there’s some measure of guilt for not having done so.<\/p>\n
In any event, I enjoyed this race a lot.\u00a0 I know the course well, the bike course suited me very well and I seemed to easily pass most other athletes in my area, and I overcame some dark times while on the run as I finished with a negative split and my last mile being my fastest.\u00a0 I got to see and hang with good friends Anthony (who shared a car ride and hotel room with me), and Jessica and her husband Eric.\u00a0 I felt no pressure and smiled a lot at how lucky I was to be able to do this, how great the weather was treating us, and how this would be a great wake-up call for the next set of training that I will have to do.<\/p>\n
Next up is a series of four triathlons in four weekends starting with the Montauk Lighthouse Triathlon on July 17th.\u00a0 I’ve done well in this event in the past as the bike course favors my skills, so it’ll be up to me to replicate past performances and hopefully run well off the bike.\u00a0 Then there’s the NYC Triathlon, the Central Park Triathlon, and the Staten Island Triathlon.\u00a0 I will have also begun NYC Marathon training, so I suspect the run portion will become an asset instead of being my liability.\u00a0 The swim… well who knows.\u00a0 Fortunately, that’s the shortest leg and the one least likely to ruin my day.<\/p>\n
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I competed in and finished my 10th Philadelphia Triathlon this past weekend, and while it was probably the most fun I had, it was also my slowest.\u00a0 Naturally, that correlation troubles me, but the real correlation needs to be understood to figure out why yesterday was what it was. First, I’ve not been putting in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}