Day before NJ Marathon - Update

Just chilling out the day before the NJ Marathon!

I did an easy 3 mile run at 4:30 in the morning. Followed up with what is loosely called a swim at 6 in the morning. I did an easy 1500 meters, all broken up into easy breaststroke and freestyle with fins. I was mostly stretching out and loosening up all the muscles for tomorrow, so that's really the extent of the workout.

I ended the workouts today at 6:45AM, so that gives me more than 24 hours of "chilling out" before the NJ Marathon, which starts at 7:30AM.

We're going to have a great day for it tomorrow. Start time temps are in the mid 40s and will go up into the low 50s. Light wind, and a partly cloudy day.

We couldn't have asked for better conditions.

My strategy will be to hang out with the 3:25 group for a while, then take off at the right time.

There's no telling what that "right time" will be. My body will tell me.

I'm a cerebral runner. I make decisions on the fly during the race, according to what my body is signalling to me. It's not the easiest strategy, but those who have mastered this strategy are the most formidable runners. I always strive to be the cerebral athlete and encourage this on the people I coach.

Anyway, that's about it. Wish me luck tomorrow!

First Big Race - Nj marathon!

Made a day of it in Asbury Park today, choosing to get there early, do a little ride and a little run, then getting some coaching work done before the NJ Marathon expo opens at 3PM.

On the bike, I decided to ride through Deal into Long Branch, just to see what those last few miles of the marathon look like without the double vision associated with the later miles of a marathon. It's a tough, lonely road, especially at miles 22-24. It's a place where one has to stay strong as they weaken.

Got my work done at a local lunch stop before finally making my way to the expo at the Convention Hall. After visiting some of the friends who are in the Pace Team for this race, I decided to return back home for the night.

This is the night I tell everyone it's important to get their 8 hours of sleep in, because tomorrow night will be tough to sleep with the race the next day.

Tomorrow I become scarce. I do a short run and swim in the morning, then I hole up and lay low for the rest of the day while I concentrate on the race.

I'm going to be a bit conservative here, hanging with the 3:25 group instead of the 3:20 group. I'm hoping that at some point, I can take off ahead of that group and finish 3-4 minutes ahead of them.

I'm very much in shape, but not exactly trained for the marathon. Right now the Ironman in Ireland is consuming my training. In that race, I wish to maintain a pace of under 9 minutes per mile to get under 4 hours in the marathon portion of that race. It's not exactly the 7:40 pace I need to do in this marathon, so I'll stay conservative. There is still a good hint in my training that I can pull it off on Sunday though.

Only time will tell.

Century Ride for Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be my first century ride of the year. With Ironman Ireland closing in very quickly, it's time to up the endurance on my rides!

Here is the final route through NJ and into PA.

The course is around 97 miles and takes into account all the "known" road closures and detours on the course. If all goes very well, the last 3 miles will be done in Johnson Park to fill out the 100 miles. But, if there are other "unknown" detours on the route that I come up upon, at least I have those miles in my pocket.

Wish me luck!!!

Initial overview of the Ironman Ireland course. Part 1

Since I'm pretty analytical (anal?) about the particulars of the races I and some of my athletes do, Ironman Ireland is definitely no exception.

I'll be musing about the course the next couple of months, starting with initial reactions and then going into the particulars of the entire course.

Today I started to really take a look at the bike course. Thanks to the street view of Google Maps, it helps *a lot* about the types of roads I'll be encountering on the bike and on the run.

The transition area of the race is located at Youghal Beach, east of the city of Cork. Figure 1 below shows the location.

Picture showing the start and finish of the ride at Ironman Ireland

Before I start, I learned about how a lot of Ireland's roads are when I made a car reservation for the trip. The insurance was quite expensive, but it is clearly needed because the roads are notoriously narrow. A lot of dings and dents happen with rental cars in this country, so I loaded up with insurance to make sure that if anything happens, I don't get "dinged" for a cent.

So imagine to my surprise below that a lot of the bike course is on those narrow roads (sarcasm). I truly hope that they close down the entire road in these sections, because having it open to traffic will clearly pose a risk to triathletes here. One look at Figures 2-3 below and you will agree. Those roads are only about 5-6 miles into the cycling course.

 

OMG, these roads are so narrow! If theses roads are open to traffic, it's going to make for a very adventurous bike ride!


Lastly, take a look at Figure 4. Triathletes will have to make a left turn at that intersection. The turn itself will be quite a hairy one to begin with, given the narrow roads, but if Ironman allows the condition of the road in this picture as is, turns like these will be quite an adventure! I truly hope that they do clean the roads a little because they are inviting a lot of bike wipeouts and crashes at these turns.

This is one hairy left turn I have to make here.

That's about it for now. I'll come up with another update on the course every several days.