For those readers have been following my triathlon trials and tribulations from the start, you’re probably aware that the main purpose for my triathlon goals was to raise awareness and funds for the Temple University Community Music Scholars Program.

And although my initial goal of raising the full $5000 needed to keep the program running was not met, I was very pleased with the successful results of the efforts of everyone involved with this challenge. Ultimately, triathlon sponsors donated $1360 to the CMSP program!

These donations played a crucial role in not only providing the necessary funds for the program, but also made a great impact in raising awareness and support for CMSP and it’s mission. In addition to these funds an additional $1420 was raised by the Littleton foundation.

Furthermore, the Sheila Fortune Foundation stepped in in a huge way with a very significant donation, allowing CMSP to exceed their ultimate financial goal!!!

I’m happy to anounce that CMSP will be back for it’s 40th year as sponsors from all over the country help breathe new life into an incredible program!

Thank you to all who donated and all who helped to make these efforts a success!

More to come…

So What happened to the race?  It’s been 10 days since my first sprint triathlon and I’ve gotten alot of questions, the most popular being “What happened?”

Well, I made it.  I haven’t posted an update for 2 reasons: 1- I was really busy picking up alot of my affairs that I had put aside to train and 2- I needed some time to sit and reflect on my race performance and the goals that I set.

As I sit here and try to “wrap up” what I have been feeling about the race, I’m reminded of a quote I came across recently.  I’m not sure where I saw/read/heard this, but it was something to the effect of “It’s really important to not only fail in life, but to fail fantastically.”  I think that really helped me to keep my race results in perspective.

So how did I do already!?

I feel a bit ashamed to say this, but I fell short of my goal by 491 spots.  My goal was to finish in the top half (720 or better for this race). This was difficult to accept as I had been fairly successful in hitting most of my training goals in the 2-3 months prior to the race.  What particularly hurt most was the confidence I had in my swimming skills going into the race and my subsequent performance in that portion of the race.

It was definitely not a good day for me.  Placing 1211 out of 1440, I got smoked by kids and seniors alike.  I am amazed how many physically fit poeple there are out there!  I laughed, I cried, i sweated, I ran in alot of pain, i peed…finally.  Check back soon for a full story on my race.  Ultimately, the 2 biggest mistakes for me were not being prepared for a swim in a river against current and not peeing before the race (apparently 3 times wasn’t enough).

A few numbers:

Swim: 40 minutes!!!!! I almost died I think.  I was second to last in my group to finish and nearly gave my girlfriend a heart attack.

Bike: 53 minutes (not bad for only having 3 pre-race road bike training sessions and having to pee really bad)

Run: 31 minutes.  I definitely felt the pain on this part, having had to pee for an hour and half at that point.

I think that if I can make some simple adjustments such as training in a river and making sure that I go to bathroom beforehand, I can dramatically improve my times.

If I can make those adjustments and post a total time of 1:44 or less, I can move from 1211 to in the top 500.

So, I did fail in reaching my goal of finishing in the top half, but succeeded in finishing, which was my initial goal when I signed up for the race.  More importantly, I was able to assist CMSP in raising enough funds to keep the program alive and well! Than you so much for all that sponsored me in my race and contributed to this great and awesome cause! I am forever grateful.  Temple CMSP is still tallying the numbers, so I will post the final status on that soon.

You can see my results here. (enter bib# 3698)

** Thanks so much to Kevin Saint Clair, father of CMSP students Jack and Wyatt, for taking to time to give me a few cycling tips and making some readjustments with my bike set-up. These tips proved to be invaluable and I know that once I get a more natural feel for cycling, they are going to help me to really improve my times. **

After a short tutorial session on cycling 101 with Kevin Saint Clair yesterday, I drove down to the tri course and went at it again yesterday. Probably not the best idea, since I should be “tapering” my training this week, but I had to get at least 2 full 15 mile sessions in on the bike before the race.  Kevin’s tips on posture and pedaling helped tremendously, but I still felt what probably was an unnecessary amount of pain/strain in the nack of my neck from looking forward.  I am getting better though, and was able to do a 2 mile run immediately afterwards without stopping.

All and all it was a tough day:

Wake up at 6:30am and drive to work.  Work from 9am-5:30pm. Drive to Kevin’s house for cycling assistance from 6:30-7:30.  Drive to the tri course.  Bike 15 miles and run 2 miles. Finish at 9:05pm.  Home by 9:30pm.  Long day… This is how most of my days have been this month, so training has been a challenge.

Goal for next time: Get more sleep and train in the morning.

Ultimately, it’s been a tough week.  For some strange reason I’ve had the same migraine headache for 5 days now.  It comes and goes but I feel it for about 70% of the day.  It’s realy affected my focus and endurance.  I feel as prepared as I can be for tomorrow, but I’m hoping that 1. my headache goes away and 2. I’m able to perform at a high level in the morning.

Race starts at 8:00am.

Yesterday:

Bike: 15 miles, 57 min. (full tri course, need to shave 10 minutes off that time!)

Run: 2miles, 19 minutes

This morning:

Run: 2 miles, 21 minutes

Ok.  It was a little foolish taking so much time off last week due to the weather.  I swam 44 laps in preparation for the swim leg today. I tried to not stop and put my feet down once.  This did not work.  I also tried to pick my head up and look forward from time to time to get used to maintaining my position in the river.  That was tough as well.  All in all, it was a sluggish swimming session.

I then changed and ran on the treadmill.  I started out strong, but began to tire after about 3/4 of a mile.  Missing so many days really put a dent in my endurance.  Wish I had 2 more weeks. Oh well.  He’s to hoping I finish in under 2 hours at least.

Swim: 44 laps, 28 min

Run: 2.25 miles 20 min

It’s going to be a long week.  I stopped by Fairmont Park today on my way home from work to put in some quality time with my newly borrowed bike.  It was tough.  I was pretty tired 1/4 of the way through the course.  I finished, but it was through complete and stubborn will - not through strength.

I tried to then run, but I was so wasted from biking that I barely made it 0.7 miles before turning around to go home.

It was a really poor day of training….

I was supposed to go swimming and running this weekend at the jersey shore, but it rained all weekend and I ended up being very unproductive due to the weather and no gym access.

So I think taking 3 days off was not a good thing.  I’m going to get some quality sleep this week in hopes of making at least a little bit of progress on the bike/run.

Bike: 15 miles, full sprint tri course, 1hr 4min. (VERY different from a stationary bike)

Run: 1.25 miles, 16 min (pathetic!)

I finally picked up my bike last night - great bike that I borrowed from a friend of the family (I’ll post pics soon).  It took a bit to get used to having shoes attached to my pedals, but I’m getting the hang of it.

I took it out to fairmont park today for a ride through the triathlon course.  It was definitely alot different than training on a stationary bike, particularly dealing with the wind and the hills.  The course is going to be a challenge and I look forward to getting getting my biking skills up to par this week.

Bike: 10 miles, 1 hour with a few breaks (approximately 1.25 distance of the full bike course)

Looking forward to doing some open ocean swimming tomorrow if the water is not too cold.

I wish I had one more month to train. I feel like with a little more time I may actually be able to contend in this race (ie place in the top 10 percent).

I had a really long day today, waking up earlier than usual. I didn’t get to the gym until 8pm. I was feeling exhausted, but have been trying to me really disciplined.

I started with the stationary bike. It was a struggle but I finished. 15 miles in 50 minutes.

I then got my second wind and hit the pool. I started out with a 10 lap warmup, but somewhere around lap 8 I changed my plans.

Today was going to be the day I did 60 laps nonstop.

Well, feeling the pain but doing my nest to maintain good form, I went from 10 laps to 60 laps to 70 laps to 80 laps, without stopping!

AMAZING!

3 days ahead of schedule and 10 laps further than anticipated!

I can’t believe how much improvement I made in such a short time. Very encouraging.

Of course, my time and speed are a whole other factor. Very slow.

Bike: 15 miles in 50:15 min Swim: 80 laps in 52:15 min

I’ll be taking the day off from swimming tomorrow and hopefully doing some open ocean training on Saturday in the Atlantic ocean.

Thanks to all for your support and sponsorship!

Been too busy these past 3 days…

Since Saturday my schedule has been devoid of training discipline:

Sunday: took the day off to cathc up on some work.

Monday: wen to the gym and swam 64 laps - longest distance yet.  6 sets of 10 laps each with 30-120 seconds rest in between each.

Tuesday: had to take off to get some work done

Tonight (Wednesday): Did not get home until 830pm.  It was raining and a bit cold, but I forced myself to run.  I set my gol to do 3 miles as fast as I could. I was pretty tired since I’ve been getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night this week due to some other responsibilities.  I made it 1.3 miles and turned around.  I barely made it home without stopping.

Run: 2.6 miles in 20.25 min.  (not too good, but had very little energy)

Gonna go to bed early to try to prepare for a better end to this week of training.