Update

Been a while since my last post. The sad thing is that I haven't really been doing all that much training lately, so I really have no excuse. I guess I just haven't needed to say much lately.

Life outside of triathlon has been pretty busy. Work, as always, is busy, but on top of that, Kristen and I have gone out to Montauk for some relaxing, and Canada for a wedding within the last month. I'm an anxious traveler, so this was a bit stressful for me, but everything went smoothly so that helped.

The Canada trip was probably the most interesting. It's nice to go to a wedding with someone you love. Looking at Kristen during the ceremony gave me the chills-in a good way! It was easy to picture us up there getting married. I've never felt that way before, so I guess it's a GOOD thing! On top of that, her family (which I had never really met before) were the nicest people EVER! I can't remember ever being treated so nicely by strangers! Maybe it's just the fact that they're not New Yorker's, but wow they were nice. Basically, the trip was just one big smile!

Back to triathlon, I can't believe it's this point of the year. Tomorrow is the first of August, and Timberman is only about 3 weeks away! Getting down to crunch time. I'm excited to race again and make up for blowing up in CT at Rev3. It'll be a good chance to compete with some great athletes and see how all my training pays off. After that it's on to the Mighty Hamptons Olympic race, and then the Mighty Montauk Half Iron to tie things up at the end of October. I'm going to throw some running races in (10k and they NYC Marathon) just to sweeten things up! :)

So that's about it for now. I get back to training hard on Sunday, so I'm going to use this time to get in all the odds and ends that I never seem to get to when training a lot.

Push 'till ya puke...Always.

Builing my first bike!!!!

Ok, so I've never actually built a bike from scratch before. I've been one of those fakers that knew how to do most stuff, but never actually HAD to build from the ground up.

This past friday, I recieved two giant boxes from the good people at Fed Ex. One contained a sweet black, naked carbon frame, and the other all the components for said frame. Long story short, I had some work ahead of me.

I've started slow and have been patient with the assmbley, finding out that it's really not all that hard. It's all about not forcing things and taking your time. It's gonna be fun to actually ride something that I'm totally responsible for putting together.

The pic above shows what I've done so far. I'm done with the building part, now I just have to cut the fork, route the cables, and throw on the chain (not in that particular order).

Generally, I've chosen this little project as a de-stresser. Training realeases much of my stress, but I've haven't used my hands to build anything in a while. I think that's an important thing for a man. Call me old fashioned, but there's nothing better than getting your hands a little dirty and spending some quality time with your tools. I think it centers me in a way that not many other things can. Also, I stress a lot about my bikes. I guess it's because I couldn't, in the past, control everything about them. My hope with this bike is to learn EVERYTHING I can about bike maintenance and upkeep. A goal in the back of my mind is to never have to take my bike to the shop again to get fixed. We'll see.

I'm happy to take on this challenge and am excited to see how it turns out. Wish me luck!

Push 'till ya puke...Always!

What would Matty Reed do? Part II

I've been really into training like a pro lately. Not that I'm into putting in insane volume or anything like that, but just generally following the attitude I imagine most pros have. I've gotten very serious about this triathlon thing this year, and I've found it important to think of it in a professional way.

So today was another time I had to ask myself, "What would Matty Reed (or any other pro) do?"

I've been dealing with a bit of sciatic nerve pain this week. Tuesday morning I got a sharp 'ping' at the top of my right ass cheek that hasn't gone away. It hasn't really hindered my training, but I know it's there. Long story short, after running, biking and swimming like I normally would all week, this morning I woke up to a little more pain. It wasn't much more than the day before, but enough for me to notice. A red flag immediately went up. I figured I'd see how it went, and decide on whether or not to do my 2hr 15 min run later in the day.

Work was busy today, and all I could think of when it came time to train was my bed. I decided to head home, take a nice little midday nap, and then go for the run. Well.....I never made it. I was too tired and the sciatic still hurt. Damage control time.

So this is where thinking like a pro comes in. Do I push through and train for the day injuring myself more, or do I lay off for a day, take care of myself, and feel great tomorrow? I went with option number two.

I think anyone (not a triathlete) looking at this situation form the outside would see this as a complete no brainer. However, for us 'type-A tri-types', the answer isn't so simple. We just wanna push and push and push. Resting to most of us is close to blasphemy. We don't think enough of rest as being an ally. Fortunately, today, I was able to think like a pro and take care of myself instead of making a little thing turn into a big thing. After taking a nice 2 hour nap, eating well, and resting my ass cheek, I already feel better. My head is clear and I'm sure that with a good night's sleep tonight, my body will follow suit.

Push 'till ya puke...Always.