A very brief collection of thoughts and commentary on efforts to develop and maintain physical (and accidentally mental) wellbeing.
The basic plan: I use racing in triathlons, running races, and cycling time trials as a means to keeping myself in condition and happy. Due to a series of beautiful knee injuries (and eventually age), I no longer play zigzag, skill sports (cricket, Australian rules football, touch rugby, basketball, etc.). Last game of any kind was for the Boston Demons against the New York Magpies at Franklin Park in 2000 when the "good" ACL abruptly found itself no longer in one piece; first one was dispatched many years before that in 1986. I have primarily raced short course triathlons (sprint and Olympic distance), the occasional duathlon, and road races up to the half marathon, and the odd snowshoe race. But mostly I just enjoy the discipline of training, which largely happens in the basement Experimental Training Laboratory.
Replay of South Greenbush Time Trial, June 2016 (8.3 miles at 27.3 mph, a PR; 1440p HD):
Some random highlights (the lowlights are plentiful)—
Racing:
- 2014: Nantucket Triathlon and Hero Triathlon.
- 2013: Represented the US in the Age-Group Sprint World Championships held in London's Hyde Park.
- When "no one has shown up", I've won a few small races.
- 200?: NYC Triathlon
Training:
- The backyard 40 mile hillful TT:
- Lincoln gap: Steetest paved mile in the US (20\% incline).
- Riding Tantalus, Honolulu:
- Outlining Coatue on Nantucket:
- 90 miles at 24.7 mph
My favorite training may well be back country snowshoe running in horrible conditions.
The performance goal: to (repeatedly) deliver `the beautiful race.' Ideally, ignore devices reporting time, Watts, heart rate, etc. (useful as these can be), and just race well. The feeling can be one of euphoria. Sometimes.
Being fit is not quite the same as being physically healthy so I balance my training with various kinds of
simple functional strength training. I also eat a lot of chocolate.
For some reason, I find all of this intrinsically interesting.
Such as they are, a summary of my race results are up on Athlinks. But my favorite performances are mostly in training.
Starting at the end of 2012, I've been recorded all sorts of training and racing sessions. I've been using Contour cameras (but the company is now toast). Here's my fastest loop in Central Park (13:42, 26.6 mph; take off is at 1:05):