3 Months to go...

As I sit here on the third anniversary of my knee cap breaking, I've been reflecting on how far I've come since the injury.

April was a very productive month for me. My goal was to continue to build my bases and since the weather has started to clear up and get warmer, I wanted to start getting some work outdoors in, especially on my bike. I signed up for three events over the month that provided a lot of hill work on my legs in a half-marathon race and bike ride. Lastly, I joined the Philadelphia Triathlon club's weekend trip to Jim Thorpe, PA to preview the Black Bear Triathlon course.

Bucks County Half-Marathon
The Bucks County half-marathon was held on Sunday, April 13th in Tyler State Park. The course consisted of a figure 8 pattern for the first eight miles and then there was a second loop on the bottom loop of the figure 8. The first five miles were pretty much downhill and fast (good Broad St prep) and I know I was doing a sub 7:00 minute pace. Then the hills started, they seemed long with a few plateaus but I got through them fairly well between miles 6 - 8. There was a nice downhill towards the Finish line which also was the start of the second loop so the downhill started again from miles 8 through 10. Then it was back up the hills again. The hills definitely slowed me up the second time around and I walked through two of the aid stations on the plateaus. Since I know what they looked like, they seemed shorter the second time around even though I ran them much slower. I cruised the final downhill to Finish and completed the half-marathon in 1:36:34 which was about a minute under my goal. The bigger surprise hit me later when I checked my result and found that I was 21st Overall and 2nd in my Age Group. I got to stick around for the awards ceremony to get a small plaque.

Fleche Buffoon Bike Ride
The Fleche Buffoon was another ride that I had targeted because of the elevation climbs during the ride. It had like 14 steep climbs in the 73+ mile route. Here's the course elevation profile:

Luckily the weather was great and I met a couple of guys that I rode with from the Philadelphia Triathlon Club. I think my first hill workout went really well as I tackled most of them fairly well on my tri-bike and there were two climbs (Miles 30 & 42) that I felt were much steeper than the rest, but I was able to make it up both of them on my bike. The second steep hill, I couldn't figure out which way to go at a small plateau and I ended up tipping over on my bike and spraining my wrist. That was the only downside to the ride so I had it iced and wrapped for a few days. We completed the 75 mile route in just over 5 hours and then headed over to the Triumph Brewery in New Hope for some good food, conversation and beers.

Jim Thorpe Weekend
Lastly, I signed up for the Philadelphia Triathlon Club's Jim Thorpe weekend to get a preview of the Black Bear triathlon course for the Half-Ironman that I am doing on June 1st. We camped out in cabins in a state park along a lake. They scheduled two rides for us while we were there. The first ride started on Saturday morning and was a 28 mile out and back near the park and people could do as many laps as they felt like. The course included a large hill which was fun going down but brutal going back up. I rode the first 28 mile lap with Chris and Michelle. It took us about 1:44 to complete the lap. Chris and Michelle weren't doing a second lap so I went back out on my own. I got a little lost at one point but ended up doing the second lap in 1:50 so I was happy with the ride. Upon getting back to the campground, I laced up and went for a six mile run on a trail in the park that ran along a stream. It was a nice gradual downhill on the way out which helped get my legs underneath and the uphill return wasn't too bad either. I felt like I got my first solid brick workout in.

Sunday morning we headed over to Beltzville State Park to ride the Black Bear course. I have to admit that I really didn't have my legs under me on Sunday after the brick workout on Saturday. Since Black Bear is also a two-loop course, I planned to do a single loop and try to do a longer run. The bike course is much hillier than I expected and the 28 mile route took us 1:55 that morning. It was much cooler and windier than the previous day and I think that contributed to our slower pace. I dropped my stuff off at my car and suited up to go for a run. I was hoping for an eight mile run but ended up only doing 4.5 miles. My legs were drained and part of the run course was closed so I packed it in. Two brick workout in one weekend was certainly a lot. My understanding from both bike routes that weekend was the total elevation gain is about what I should expect when I get to Lake Placid, just over a longer distance.

Here's a summary of my training mileage to this point:

	January	February	March	April
Running (Miles)
2013	115.25	103.89	100.01	99.41
2014	112.52	117.22	138.07	102.58
Biking (Miles)
2013	201.4	190.26	104.19	217.89
2014	309.8	281.37	355.29	410.49
Swimming (Km)
2013	13.2	14.2	10.0	14.9
2014	22.2	19.7	25.3	27.0

May Training Goals
Now that the weather is warming up, my goals for this month are to ramp up my training volume, mostly on the bike and some running. I plan to be doing one solid brick workout per week that includes my long ride followed by a 6-10 mile run. In addition, I plan to start open water swimming at Camp Ockanickon again which is timed nicely with the Penn pool closed for a few weeks. Lastly, I'm also starting to practice my nutrition plan while on long rides. I'm told that I should be taking in 300-400 calories and hour during the Ironman so that's going to take some practice to see what I like and how easy things are to carry while I'm riding.

Upcoming race schedule

Phillies 5K - 3/22 Finished 24^th place out of over 4,700 runners. Time 19:32, Pace 6:18 min/mile
Bucks County Half-Marathon - 4/12 Finished 21st Overall, 2nd Age Group, Time: 1:36:34, Pace 7:24
The Fleche Buffoon 75 Miles Bike Ride - 4/19 Completed in 5:10:37
Million Dollar 73 Miles Bike Ride - 5/3
Broad Street Run - 5/4
WPR 26x1 Relay - 5/17
Black Bear Half-Ironman - 6/1
ODDyssey Half-Marathon - 6/8
Lake Placid Training Camp - 6/19 - 6/22
Lake Placid Ironman - 7/27

That's all for this month. Next monthly update in early June after the Black Bear. Happy training!