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Monthly Archives: July 2012

15 Days to Ironman (and a cool bar)

Posted on July 28, 2012 by admin Posted in All, Fitness, Triathlon 2 Comments

Since returning from my youngest brother’s 4 day bachelor party Coach S has me in a sort of ‘Hell Week’ (or 2) to get me ramped back up. Ironman is in 15 days. I am actually more excited than nervous for it. Do you know why? Home turf bitches!

Speaking of home turf, I took a break Wednesday night to hang with my coworkers and one of them led us to this ultra unknown waterfront bar! It is in Long Island City at the end of a very industrial and desolate stretch of road. As you come to the end of the road, to the left is an auto shop. Next to it is a fence with an opening and a hand made wooden sign that says something like ‘Annabelle’s Yacht Club and Grill.’ Upon entering you find yourself in an open area with 10 picnic tables lining a most scenic waterfront view of mighty Manhattan. The bar is just a window where you order bottled beer or white wine that evidently tastes like apple juice.

Notice how convenient it was to park my Yacht nearby. Disclaimer: Beyond Defeat does not condone drinking and sailing.

The place is definitely rogue ops, but it’s got quite a view. I was told by my coworker that it is a Bulgarian run bar, hence the Bulgarian sausages and Chevapi being served on the lone grill. I totally recommend checking this place out for a spectacular NYC sunset.

Back to ‘Hell Week’… I shaved 4 minutes off my 1 Mile swim time! Wooo hoo! Thanks Jim (from ‘Dad Posse’) for teaching me a new technique!

Long Island City Swim

Evolution: how did you get here?

Posted on July 18, 2012 by admin Posted in All, Fitness, Running, Swimming, Triathlon 2 Comments

I think it’s really important to reflect on how you got to certain places in your life.

“You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”

Seriously. This morning as I was riding my track bike (which has no brakes or gears and cannot coast) I thought, “Wow, this puppy is so different from my Tri bike!” Then I remembered, track bikes are my roots! If I had never started riding a track bike, I would have never attempted a triathlon!

In case you don’t know my athletic past, there is none! I went to art school people, and am still an artist.

In the year 2000 (say that in the movie preview guy voice) my mountain bike was destroyed by a truck in midtown. I had ridden it like 10 times, it was a graduation gift from my Dad and to help for when I moved to the city.

I was pretty bummed. I was telling my friend Jae (aka Hardy Boy) about the ordeal. He rode track bikes, the most dangerous of al bikes, and suggested I get one since I had such strong legs from playing ice hockey.

I did just that and was propelled into a world of bike riding. Thanks Jae!

I rode NYC streets every day for around 9 years. Then, in 2008 the president of our company told me I needed to run the NYC Marathon.

I did and was propelled into the world of running. Thanks Allen!

In January of 2009, shortly after getting hooked on running my friend Todd told me I needed to do triathlons. “Todd, I can’t swim to save my life!” He agreed to teach me how to swim in order for me to get my triathlon on.

I learned to swim and competed in my first of many triathlons. Thanks Todd!

Looking back, all three were catalysts to each other, the end result being that I became a triathlete. Had my 3 friends not believed in me, and I not believed in myself, I would not be where I am today.

How did you get here?

RACE REPORT: 080 NYC Triathlon: 2:18:49

Posted on July 10, 2012 by admin Posted in All, Fitness, Race Reports, Triathlon 8 Comments

I wasnt going to race the NYC Triathlon this year because I forgot to sign up in time, but then the lead sponsor Aquaphor offered me a chance to partner with them. I have a hard time resisting a good race.

The night before the race we (Jeff, Ali, Cat, Abbe and I) headed to New Jersey to a huge family party put on by my Uncle’s girlfriend Cassandra. (Great party Cassandra!) My Uncle Bill was retiring to go back to school to get his Ph.D. and this was in celebration of both events. I am really proud of my Uncle Bill for making this decision, it’s very inspiring and so of course, Tri or no, I wasn’t missing the party.

As if that wasn’t good enough, my Grandma was a surprise guest!

So really, going to a party where you have no idea what food you will be eating and how late you will be out is risky business the night before an Olympic Triathlon, but hey, mix it up a little right? Also, family is really important to me.

I was asleep by 11PM. Not bad.

RACE DAY

I woke up at 6-6:30 and had some coffee and checked twitter to see where they where in the ‘heats.’ SIDENOTE: The NYC TRI has like 60 heats and it takes 2 hours for all of them to go. I estimated that I would be going off at 7:30-7:45 AM a full 2 hours after the Pros had started. 

Some of you are saying, “Wait, Baker what about transition! How are you going to get your bike shoes in there?” Excellent question. My biggest complaint about the NYC TRI is how transition closes at 5:45AM and you end up waiting around for 2 hours. 2 precious hours where you could be sleeping! There is no way around this. Try sending off 3,000 swimmers down the Hudson at once and it would spell disaster. My solution? When I dropped off my bike the day before I just set up my bike/run gear then! Boom!A few friends were like, “Baker it’s going to rain tonight, your shoes will get wet.” Listen honey, after racing the entire Rev 3 Quassy Olympic in a cold downpour I have become immune to rain. I’m actually really happy about that because I used to be a baby about in-climate weather.

Back to the race.

I took a cab up to 96th Street at 7AM and had oodles of time. While sidelined waiting to go I hung out with my friend Ben. He was doing the race after breaking his toe a few months earlier. Props Ben!

It was now that I ate 2 bananas. These would be the only nutrition I would have aside from half a water bottle full of EFS on the bike. Less is more? I have no idea but it worked.

Soon it was time to line up for the plunge. It was hot out and I was looking forward to a dip in the mighty Hudson. The current was flowing something fierce and I wanted to get in before it reversed. FUN FACT: The Hudson River is not a river, it is a tidal estuary the ebbs and floods daily. Meaning, the current changes direction from North to South daily and vica versa depending on the tides.

As we neared the Start pier I got excited. It’s funny how just 2 years ago I was terrified, and now it’s second nature. In my head I like to say, “The Hudson… she calls…”

As I stood on the edge my group of racers was kind of blah. I looked up and down the line up and yelled, “Come on fellas! Lets have a great race out there!” at which point everyone erupted in cheer. Bravo.

The gun went off and we took the plunge. I started digging in immediately. My goal was to blast through the swim. It did not happen.

I started with great form. My sighting was on point. There weren’t too many people around me but my arms felt like dead weight. Immediately I thought about how much swimming I had been doing the last week and perhaps this was a side product. None the less, the show must go on. I pressed forward and just got it done.

Other setbacks? I have swum the Hudson like 15 times. Never ever have I swam it when it was so dirty. My hand kept hitting drifting trash like styrofoam cups and wood pieces. At one point I ducked underwater and swam under the garbage slick.

There was also this dude that was zig-zaging in from of me and I could NOT get around him. It was like an open water traffic jam. I think I even popped my head up and gave him a, ‘Seriously man?’ Look as we were side by side.

As you exit the swim there is a 400 meter dash to transition. Some people complain but to me, it gets your legs loosened up for the bike. I saw Erica and Lora and gave em a big “Heeeeey!”

As you run along they have this section of shower things along the straightaway you can run through to wash off. This one guy was taking his wetsuit off IN the shower area so people couldn’t pass through. I wanted to pass him a bar of soap or something.

As I approached my bike I had no idea what to expect. Remember, I hadnt been in transition since the day before. Arriving at ‘The Morrighan’ everything looked perfect. Tires full, shoes in tact. Let’s roll!

Speeding out of T1 I saw the gang again and gave them a funny face. Once out on the highway, it was go time. It was kind of congested so I took my time carefully passing people. It wasn’t until about Mile 3 when my legs were in check that I dropped the hammer and started plowing past people.

Thanks Erica for the great shots!

I was riding with 2 guys and we were leap frogging. I was really starting to have fun. One of the guys would pass a group of people and get like 200 meters in from me, then when an opportune time presented itself I would plunge ahead passing him and so forth. We weren’t drafting each other, just kind of flanking each other barreling up the highway. Dig it.

The course is an out and back with some long rollers. As we got up into the Bronx, Riverdale to be exact, I heard, “Yea Baker!!!” It was Sharon cheering everybody! Right on!

It was just past here I got very pissed off. I was on a tear now and in my highest gear, not concerned with saving anything for the run. On a downhill I was coming up on 2 riders and announced, “On your left!” As soon as I said that, and I was going way faster than him, he merged hard left blocking me and I had to slam on my breaks. Not cool at all. I let him go ahead as my heart rate cooled. The minute I warmed up again I jammed past him at top speed, furious.

The second half was even more fun. I don’t know how, but I got Scotty from Star Trek in my head. Every time I was in my fastest gear I would say (out loud mind you, in my own version of a Scottish accent) “Captain, we’ve got to to faster to break warp speed!” This seemed to push me faster in fact. Whatever works right. SO for the remainder of the trip I imagined having a conversation with Scotty and how we were trying to always break warp speed.

Heading back into transition I knew the run was going to be brutal. It was already really hot out and the sun was climbing high.

I immediately set off at a hard pace. I just didn’t care. I also had no Garmin on so I had no idea what speed I was hitting. This is a neat way to race. Not really conducive if you are trying to PR, but it makes the race about feeling, not numbers.

What a ham.

As we ran across 72 Street towards Central Park I was moving quick, but my legs were still wonky. It wasnt until we enter the Park that everything started coming together. I was taking smaller strides at a faster rate and passing a lot of people. To keep myself motivated I was hunting people in my age group.

At the Mile 1 aid station Matt6 was volunteering. I ran up to him yelling, “Bakeeeeeer! I made you the best Cytomax drink ever” We had a laugh before i pressed on. I also met a guy here who knew me from the Fire Island 5K races! Small world!

I think I was happy to have found shade.

Harlem Hill sucked, both of them. When you run Harlem Hill clockwise there are 2 uphills. No fun! Something interesting happened on the way down one of them. I was passing this big meat-heady dude and he said, “No fair, I’m like twice the size of you!” I was so annoyed that he was allowed into the race that I didn’t even know what to say. I felt like shoving him into the bushes… but I didn’t.

Things were real hot on the East Side of the Park. There was zero shade. At Engineers Gate I saw two familiar faces cheering me on, Eissa and Elyssa!

With 1 mile to go I was excited to be done. I had no idea what my pace was, I just kept chasing people. Up along Bethesda Fountain I heard Dani cheering me o then saw my brother Jeff and his fiance Ali! I gave them all high-fives, sweaty high fives! Then, I saw Abbe in the Finish chute!

Sex/
Age
Age
Place
Overall
Place
Swim
0.9M
T1 Bike
24.8M
T2 Run
6.2M
Total
Time
M34 16 158 24:40 4:03 1:08:28 1:34 40:07 2:18:49

I finished in 2:18 which is 1 minute shy of a PR. Had it not been for my swim I would have bested it, but there will be other battles.

After a few group shots Jeff and Ali departed leaving Abbe, Erica and myself to go get some ice coffee and muffins. What a fun start to the day!

—

Big ups to my sponsor Kompetitive Edge who represent some of the best gear out there (TYR, Quintana Roo, Newton, Oakley) and support me with it! Also big thanks to the race sponsor Aquaphor for giving me the opportunity to race!

Hudson NYC TRI Olympic

Body Evolution

Posted on July 2, 2012 by admin Posted in All, Fitness, Training: Cycling 1 Comment

A popular phrase I like to use is something I call Body Evolution. I believe that during training peaks we evolve to a kind of ‘next level.’ Most of you have had it, but might not realize whats going on. Check out my very first post to read about when I first discovered it.

Today, I had a Body Evolution moment as I consumed 3 meals before lunch. I did this so I did not die, as I certainly felt like it. I was shaky and even tripped a few times on the walk to work.

You might say, “Dear Baker, how do you know this? How can I, a runner or triathlete, know when I click into a new level?”
Good question reader, you have to listen to your body and watch for signs.

First, lets back up and see what I have been doing recently.Sonja has been amping up my workouts in preparation for Ironman NY and she has me riding my bike A LOT. Sunday I rode 84 miles out to Stony Point and back and I was riding pretty hard. That night I slept like a rock and I slept for a long time. Still, I had a hard time waking up for work. When walking to work I had a ravenous hunger. Like crazy man hungry. If someone had pushed me or antagonized me it would have been game on, a kung fu battle right in midtown Manhattan.


Look at my snazzy Kompetitive Edge race kit!

I made it to work and immediately ate a huge bowl of muesli, breakfast of squirrels. An hour later, I had another big bowl. An hour later I had a salad, then roasted potatoes, spinach and a salmon fillet washed down with 3 Girl Scout cookies. Samoas baby. All of this while still feeling like I was high. What is wrong with me!?

Body Evolution is happening! I shocked my body into a new level and its just adjusting. This happened to me a lot when I first started being running in 2008 but has been less frequent recently. I was really happy to have hit a new mark.

Have you ever had a Body Evolution experience?

Biking Body Evolution
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  • VIRTUAL RACE REPORT: 156 #TCSNYCMarathon – 3:13:44
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