I’ve figured out the perfect formula to get onto the podium:<\/p>\n
Okay, the last bullet point trumps the rest of them and it’s why I’ve been on the podium three times in the last three races.\u00a0 Some obvious questions:\u00a0 why have I virtually given up on training?\u00a0 What’s causing the malaise?<\/p>\n
There are a lot of factors actually, but they all roll up into life.\u00a0 My wife and I have a lot of life changes happening in the next bunch of months and as we anticipate them, we are experiencing stresses and anxiety that are different but similar.\u00a0 For me, you’d think that training would be an ideal antedote and my best friend.\u00a0 The toxins that are released, and the increased serotonin production would seemingly mitigate some of the effects of this anxiety, but instead I’ve regressed into a kind of off-season mode.\u00a0 My diet has been bad, and I’ve even been drinking soda in the last week!\u00a0 I know, it’s THAT bad.<\/p>\n
As has been the case with\u00a0 me many times in my life, I’ll get to a breaking point and say enough is enough.\u00a0 That will spur a new training discipline and I’ll get deep back into the healthiest of lifestyles.\u00a0 That day could be as soon as Monday, but who knows.\u00a0 I just know that I’m not there yet.\u00a0 Being lazy is a terrible addiction and I’m in the thick of it now.<\/p>\n
So how have I been doing so well?\u00a0 Race Selection!\u00a0 These three podiums were all in very small races featuring 300 or less participants.\u00a0 I’m also in a new age group having “aged up” this year into the 45-49 Male category.\u00a0 As such, I’m the youngest age in that age group and competing against 48 and 49 year olds amongst others.\u00a0 I would argue that my general youthfulness and ability to recover well from athletic events benefits me well in this group.<\/p>\n
In the Central Park Triathlon, I raced a course I know like the back of my hand.\u00a0 In the Staten Island Triathlon, I had raced the course maybe a couple of times in the past, but it was flat and fast.\u00a0 In this past weekend’s Pequannock Triathlon (in Pompton Plains, NJ), it was a brand new event for me, but was also flat and fast.\u00a0 In all three events, I had a decent swim considering virtually giving up on swim training a couple of months ago.\u00a0 My run performance in each race was horrible; I’ve had to walk for 30 seconds once or twice in each race.\u00a0 But the bike segments were awesome.\u00a0 Knowing that I’ve not been swimming or running much or that well made me believe that I should hammer the bike course and see if I can get up front.\u00a0 It worked great each time.\u00a0 And, I seem to be getting stronger and stronger on the bike!<\/p>\n
This past weekend, I didn’t know the course, I knew no other athletes, and had no idea what to expect.\u00a0 It was actually quite refreshing to be a newbie and anonymous.\u00a0 The swim was in a man-made lake and was unfortunately super crowded.\u00a0 The race director should have spaced out the waves better, but I got through it and once on the bike, I went for it.\u00a0 I kept a keen eye on the power meter and tried to make sure that I was close to a max effort for as long as I could hold it.\u00a0 In the end, my average speed was 23.08 mph, just shy of my all-time high of 23.11 mph on a 20 mile course in 2004 (this course was only 11 miles).\u00a0 As was expected, once on the run, I was terrible.\u00a0 I remember thinking to myself that I hated how I felt and how I wished that I had trained better to really open up my potential.\u00a0 Part of the run course was on a trail, and as I looked around, I reveled in the beauty of the nature around me… and looking to my right revealed a beautiful lake with the sun shimmering on the flat water.\u00a0 In an instant, I smiled and remembered how lucky I was to be able to do this stuff.\u00a0 I trudged along and got to the finish line convinced that I hadn’t placed.<\/p>\n
I gathered my gear, and was about to head to the car when I came across the guy responsible for timing.\u00a0 I asked if results would be available on a website later to which he responded that the website was updated with each runner who crossed the finish line.\u00a0 I quickly checked and found that I had actually finished third in my age group.\u00a0 I didn’t believe it until they eventually called my name and gave me a trophy.\u00a0 What a thrill… and I can only imagine how much closer to second I could have gotten if…<\/p>\n
I’ve signed up for a few more races so that I can make it to 130 on the career by the end of the season.\u00a0 Two are in Asbury Park, NJ and the third is a 7 stage race that has athletes run-bike-run, then swim, then again run-bike-run.\u00a0 The bike legs are each 9 miles, so this will be more of a runner’s event.\u00a0 Guess that I means that I’ll have to really start run training again (event is in early October, so there’s time).\u00a0 I’ve decided to forgo the NYC Marathon this year and defer to next year (we’ll see).\u00a0 If the race calendar goes as planned, I will have the following stats:<\/p>\n
130 completed triathlons<\/p>\n
285 completed endurance events<\/p>\n
16 years<\/p>\n
These are big numbers and not what I expected when I toed the line at my first triathlon many moons ago.\u00a0 At the time, the idea was to get in shape.\u00a0 As time progressed, this took a life of its own.\u00a0 Can’t believe that the numbers are this big!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve figured out the perfect formula to get onto the podium: Train very little. Eat a lot. Drink alcohol. Race selection. Okay, the last bullet point trumps the rest of them and it’s why I’ve been on the podium three times in the last three races.\u00a0 Some obvious questions:\u00a0 why have I virtually given up […]<\/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-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","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=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}