Long Bike Course - Sayreville Through Rocky Hill and Points West

This course is a nice, flat course with wide shoulders. Traffic is still present, but the traffic lights are few and far between, giving all cyclists that do this course a great place to ride with very few stops.

The Gmaps course is here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5870269

I mapped the first 30 miles of the course. One can easily go A LOT more if he or she wants.

One can easily do 50-100 miles here, with even the opportunity to ride into Pennsylvania if the athlete is really looking to go long.

This will be one of the more common itineraries of the new triathlon club since the start point is literally just minutes off the Outerbridge. This means that a group can go off early, get in 50 miles, and still have the rest of the day to do other things.

Here are some pictures of the course...

Here is where we start...Raritan Bay Waterfront Park. Plenty of parking here.

We make our way through Spotswood and East Brunswick. A little tight here, but it gets better.

You get a nice stretch of road with not much traffic lights. You can easily cruise here.

Once through Jamesburg, you'll have endless wide roads, most with wide shoulders and less traffic. This is shot at an industrial park in Cranbury.

Coach's Personal Blog: The Primal Diet...An Ongoing Success!!!

A lot of people who know me know that I keep a pretty meticulous record of the things I do, along with the things my athletes do. I find it's a good way to accurately go back and see the good and bad in my life.

In this case, it's really good. The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning that I'm doing this year has given me good reason to go into my past, to see the mistakes that I did and know that those mistakes can never be made when I finally attempt the Slam this year, because one big mistake on my part will very well mean failure for something as gruelling as the Slam.

Anyway, let me talk about diet. As an Italian living an American lifestyle, I  was very bad on my diet, even though I was doing well in triathlons. Even when I was hitting the podium in the 90's in triathlon I was a notorious soda-drinker, pasta and bread eater (thanks to my Italian lifestyle). My youthful metabolism and the punishing training I did tended to keep the weight off.

Time, of course, tends to expose the mistakes masked by youth. I steadily gained weight at the turn of this century, my training went downhill, and there was a time when I wasn't participating in races at all. I called it "semi-retirement", but in a way I was entirely too embarrassed to race, especially when I knew I qualified for the Clydesdale division.

Yes, the Clydesdale Division. I checked my logbook and in January of 2011, I weighed in at 215 pounds. That was the highest official weight I've recorded for myself and I was quite embarrassed wearing size 38 jeans. I did finish the Vermont 100 the year before but had no energy up the hills. Although I was proud to finish that race, I finished in a little over 28 hours.

 Oh, yeah, I was a porker back then. Soda and grains can definitely do some bad things to a body, just like it did mine.

January was right before the transformation started to happen. Due to my crazy soda consumption I had to get 2 root canals as my teeth were starting to rot. I decided right there and then to quit soda cold turkey, except for long distance races. I started to drop in weight a bit to about 204 pounds.

Again, I'm glad I keep a good history of my training, because 204 pounds was my official weight for the Leadville 100 in 2011. As I found out rather cruelly, the race took no prisoners. The race is perhaps one of the toughest on the planet due to its altitude and lack of oxygen. I died at the Hopeless Aid Station at mile 46 after struggling up the front side of Hope Pass.

Rather than blame it on altitude, which I knew I couldn't control, I blamed it on my weight, which I can definitely control. I was still very heavy and started to cut out any foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup and start the long road back to success in these races.

That diet, along with the switch back to triathlon training, got me ready for the Vermont 100 last year (2012). I dropped a substantial amount of weight and officially weighed in at 189 pounds. What a difference it made from doing Vermont two years before! I was bouncing up the hills and, with the help of a great crew, finished at an impressive time of 21 hours and 24 minutes, about a 6.5 hour PR!

So where am I now?

At the end of last year I was starting to toy with the primal diet because, upon doing extensive research, it actually sounded like the best diet to take. Instead of blaming the obesity epidemic on fat intake, they actually blamed it on carbohydrate intake and the toxins found in grains, especially wheat.

 The primal food pyramid...there are no grains in this pyramid!

But I was an Italian. Although I cut down significantly on carbs, I still was clinging onto bread and pasta.

Then, I won the Western States lottery...

...and decided to attempt the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning...

...and have someone chronicle the Grand Slammers this year and turn our stories into a coffee table book (you can donate if you like, just click here).

That fear just drove me straight and went 100% primal. No breads, no pasta, no grains. Just raw food, nuts, some chocolate, fruits, and vegetables.

It is now about 13 weeks until the first race of the Grand Slam, the Western States 100, and I am glad to say that I am currently 179 pounds, I actually have my six-pack abs back, and I feel very, very agile running the trails.

I'm too sexy for my shirt...took this with an old camera, but the six pack is in there somewhere. Trust me on this. :-)

That's sort of better. There's a little definition on the abs this time. :-)

And the side view is great. No spare tire whatsoever. Primal diet rules!!!

I would have never thought that I would get my fitness back at almost 44 years old but here I am, ready to rock and roll!

What is also interesting is that my insides, my gastrointestinal tract, has never felt more sound in my entire life! No bloating, no bleeding, no stress, everything is running on all cylinders.

I still haven't run the Grand Slam yet, so it's too early to tell how it will impact my ultras, but I'm telling you right now that I feel that my age has reversed with this diet. I can definitely give those young'uns a race for their money!

Anyway, if you're interested in what I've done with my diet, you can definitely talk to me about it, either personally or over emails. I really think it's changed my life for the better and I know it can change yours also.

Some references you might want to take a look at with Primal or Paleo Diet:

Mark's Daily Apple - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Living Paleo - http://www.livingpaleo.com/

The Paleo Diet - http://thepaleodiet.com/

Periodization - One Key to Longevity in Endurance Training

This conversation happened about a week ago as I was waiting for the pool to open. The name has been made up, but the exchange was real:

Sam: "You run too?"

Me: "Yes, I come from a triathlon background."

Sam: "So you do triathlons, have you ever run a marathon."

Me: "Yes, in fact I've run some ultramarathons as well."

Sam: "An ultramarathon? What is that?"

Me: "Any race that is longer than the 26.2 mile marathon distance."

Sam: "They have races like those?"

Me: "Yep, they do. There's a lot more ultramarathons now than there ever was before."

Sam: "And what ultramarathons have you done."

Me: "I did the Vermont 100 race last year."

Sam: "100? As in miles?"

Me: "Yes, miles."

Sam: "Holy crap, how long did that take you?"

Me: "About 21 and a half hours."

Sam: "How long have you been running?"

Me: "Since 1988, about 25 years."

Sam: "And your knees aren't bad?"

There is a common misconception that too much running, or anything long for that nature, will eventually lead to a breakdown of the body. So much so that it will render you permanently injured.

And if you do look at trends, it seems to be the case with really competitive athletes. In their 20's, they do so well that they place high in the standings, even making the podium, but when they grow older, they undergo a series of debilitating injuries that will render themselves disabled, in a more permanent basis.

Twenty years ago, in an era I call the "No Pain, No Gain Era", the science of endurance training was not as researched or developed as it is now. Most of the competitors used to have 2 speeds back then. Fast, and faster. Anything slower than that was considered "junk miles" and was considered not beneficial to overall fitness.

The science knows better now, and that those "junk miles" were actually the best way to improve on fitness and race times. Those "junk miles", we know now, actually give an athlete a huge foundation so that when it was time to run fast, his body is more adapted to the extra stress, which will minimize injuries and contribute to a quicker recovery from the stressful workout.

But this science is slow to filter to the athletes themselves. I see athletes finish up their last race in 2012 only to start training hard for 2013 without much of a rest. I see athletes doing track and hill workouts in January when their big race is 5 months away, in May.

In other words, I can easily tell who is going to suffer through major injuries in the future and disappear from endurance training altogether.

Folks, remember why you started running, cycling, and swimming in the first place, to increase your overall quality of life and hopefully lengthening your life for several more years.

This is a long term goal, of course, one can be easily distracted from this goal when one is focused on day-to-day activity.

It is also, in my opinion, the most important goal of fitness and one that should never lose focus on.

When Sam asked about my knees, I briefly told him that my training was set up so that I can allow my body to recover from the stress of racing. I told him that, even after 25 years of running, I felt that I actually had the knees of a 20 year old. No stiffness, full range of motion, no arthritis, nothing. Just a pair of very healthy knees (knock on wood!).

And that is the key to longevity...building rest into your training. And that is where Periodization comes in.

What is Periodization?

Well, the Wiki states it accurately... "Periodization is an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period. It is a way of alternating training to its peak during season. The aim of periodization is to introduce new movements as one progresses through the macrocycle to specify one's training right up until the start of the season."

Cycles are big. Everything around you revolves around cycles. Some cycles are very short, like the progression of day and night. Others take a very long time, such as a star's life cycle. Our sun is going through its life cycle in billions of years. There are smaller cycles inside bigger cycles. Cycles are the actual order of the universe.

If it works so well for nature, then it's only natural that you should incorporate it into your training.

The 3 cycles of Periodization

In my training approach, there are 3 significant cycles that I use to plan my training. First, there is the macrocycle. As the word implies, this is the largest cycle of your training. This is your entire competitive season, which, in most cases, is a year.

The second is called a mesocycle. In normal cases, the mesocycle lasts about a month. Each mesocycle has an overall theme, or objective, that will hopefully contribute to your success during the season.

The last cycle is called a microcycle. This is usually a week of training.

When it comes to building rest into your training routine, ALL 3 CYCLES have to be addressed. Remember that.

Microcycle

Starting off with the microcycle, most people already understand that during the week, they need to follow a hard training day with an easy training day (or two if the hard session was particularly hard). That hard session will break down their bodies significantly; they need to allow the right amount of recovery time for their bodies to heal and adapt to that stress.

The hard/easy day approach most people understand. What they cannot come to grips with is building rest into their other two cycles. And these are much more important.

Mesocycle

Each mesocycle is about a month long. You've been doing the hard/easy day approach for the first 3 weeks of your current mesocycle, building up your overall running volume in the meantime. That third week, you really hammered out the workouts well, giving 110% and getting a great response in return.

Now is the time to back off the entire 4th week and consolidate your gains.

And by backing off, I mean, no hard workouts at all, and cutting your current weekly volume by at least 25%.

Some of you are probably rolling your eyes at this moment. A whole week off?! Is he crazy? I'm going to lose everything I gained.

No, you won't. Trust me on this. As a matter of fact, when that recovery week is done, you'll be stronger than ever before. You just gave your body a significant time off after 3 hellish weeks of training; you're going to be stronger, faster, and less prone to injury.

And that first week back after the recovery week will be epic, to say the least!

So give yourself a week of recovery after 3 hard weeks of training.

Hopefully you jotted that down. That is a rule of thumb. :-)

Macrocycle

As for building rest into the macrocycle, this is the biggest of them all. Listen, I think that most athletes still want to train and race well into their sunset years, right. I still have this dream that when I turn 100 years old, that I'll still be racing in some capacity.

Hey, after a quarter century of racing, I'm well on my way of getting my wish granted!

Anyway, the rule of thumb here is to allow yourself AT LEAST 2 MONTHS OF RECOVERY after your last important race of the season. I usually go with 3 months, but 2 months is acceptable.

Think about it. You trained hard for 7 months, then did about 2 months of hard racing. That's a lot of accumulated stress on the body! You need to down-shift now. Those little aches and pains that you're starting to feel are no joke. There shouldn't be anything stressful during those 3 months and your overall volume should be very low for your offseason.

It's also healing for your mind too. There is a lot of mental energy that is spend during your ramp-up to your season. If you keep concentrating on training immediately after your season is over, you run the very real risk of mental burnout. It's happened to me once, and it took me nearly a year to recover.

This is where having a balanced life is important. Allow your mind to drift to other important areas of your life. Start getting to know your spouse and children again. Do some cross-training (skiing, mountain biking, karate, yoga, etc.) to keep your mental focus sharp while you maintain your fitness base.

And yes, it's OK to detrain here. I know the loss of overall fitness is taboo in our field, but trust me, it's OK. Remember, when you start your new macrocycle, you WILL have time to improve on what you did last year.

Plus, you'll keep your mind sharp and your body healthy for years to come.

If you have any questions in your overall planning for the 2013 season, I can definitely help you out with designing your plan using the above methods so that you can perform to the best of your ability in 2013.  If you have any questions, you can contact me at ironpete@ironpete.com. Here's to a successful 2013!

Grand Slam of Ultrarunning Journal: Technology and Running, Really?

This is one of the snippets from my daily Grand Slam journal I'm writing in. I figured it was important to share now.

...and now, things have gotten even more sophisticated. In addition to the heart rate monitors they now trust their phones and watches to give them accurate distances. Most of these runners now have some sort of technology taped to their arms as if they are cyborgs. It just feels so wrong on all sorts of levels that I've naturally resisted getting such devices.

As most runners are stuck with technology to tell them right from wrong, I seem to be one of few who have seen what is wrong with these devices today; that they keep people from being in tune with their own bodies. Listen, I don't care what a heart rate monitor says; if you are out of breath after running for several minutes, chances are that you are going too hard. The body naturally TELLS you these things, if you care to listen.

And that is what this whole ultrarunning philosophy is all about, to get 100% in tune with your body. To know instinctively if you're going too hard or too easy. To know your body's behavior when you start to get dehydrated. To know your body's behavior when you need certain types of foods. To know the warning signs of an impending injury. Yes, the body tells you all these things! You don't need a $300 GPS watch to determine what your pace is; if you've run for plenty of years, you should know your pace instinctively!

I am not anti-technology though. As a coach, I do recommend beginners to get a heart rate monitor so that it can help them start to know what is a hard pace and what is an easy pace. It is a good guide to have for those who are starting out, so that they don't make rookie mistakes. But after several years, I tell athletes to start to wean themselves off the technology and start trusting their bodies to tell them the information they need. That is the road to increased self-awareness, and I'm sorry to say that 99% of these people will not transcend to this level.

Call it a fixation of technology. Again, people create their own limits because they slip into another comfort zone and stay there. It is easy to keep that machine on your arm and have it tell you your pace and heart rate. You really don't have to think hard. Just let the machine do the “thinking” for you. But the downside of this is that machines are NEVER perfect, and more often are worse than your body's signals. In addition, machines like heart rate monitors disregard a lot of variables that might affect your energy and effort from one day to the next. For example, running with a heart rate of 155 might feel good one day, but might feel impossibly hard the next day. Maybe that is because you might be coming down with an illness, or maybe you were dehydrated from the previous day's workout. Or maybe your stress levels from work were much higher than yesterday, leading to much tougher run at that heart rate level. Heart rate monitors don't take these intangibles into account.

Your body and its signals, however take EVERYTHING into account. And that is why it is so important to listen to your body if you really want to perform well in races, especially the longer ones. Getting ultimate sense of awareness of oneself should be the ultimate goal for everyone. Heck you're exercising to make your body better, right? Don't you think that getting to know how your body works is part of that program also?

It's not easy for people to understand this next level of training. It is as alien to them as ultrarunning itself. And I guess that is why there are still few ultrarunners in the world. Yes, ultrarunning has gotten more popular, but these 100 mile races will never get any easier for the people new to it. Look, if people want to run 100 mile ultras and still want to run well into their old age, they are going to HAVE to take their training to this level. Otherwise they will be broken before long. And no heart rate monitor or GPS device will help them at this level.

And even shorter distance athletes should be warned about relying too much on these machines. I've also seen a lot of those people sidelined permanently also because they didn't take that extra step to actually listen to their bodies. Yes, bodies do give very accurate warning signals if you run too hard. If they just got their heads out of their GPS devices and heart rate monitors and actually pay attention, they might finally get the message before they get injured.

 (snippet ends)

"Impossible" Is Not In My Vocabulary

I need to address certain issues that I've seen when talking to people about my training. It's been bothering me for some time, so I need to get this out.
 
My first 3 week Build Phase included long runs of 20 miles, 26 miles, and 32 miles during the last 3 weeks. It's been a good ramp-up for me and I'm glad my training has been going smoothly for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning.

But the remarks I've gotten from people this past week, although complimentary, have included a word that has driven me crazy for a good number of years now. And it's about time I address this word and its true meaning directly.
 
Please don't think that what I'm doing is "impossible". I really don't want to hear this word uttered from other people. I've heard it way too many times this past week, and it's been frustrating me. When I hear a word like "impossible", it means they have already given up and have resigned themselves to being satisfied with less.

Believe me, I know most people see training runs of 30+ miles as "impossible for them to do". Nothing can be farther from the truth. Their training might not require them to do 30+ miles of running, especially if they are focused on shorter distance races, but if, somehow, they needed to get 30 miles of running done in a pinch, they WILL find a way to do it. With the right focus, everyone can do it.

What I do is never any secret. I jokingly call these runs "anti-tempo" runs for a reason, they are very, very slow. With the exception of the 20 mile run I did, both the 26 and the 32 mile run I did were done very slowly. Anyone who regularly runs a 9-10 minute miles as their comfortable pace will find a 12 minute mile very easy to them. Multiply that by 30 miles, and I can definitely bet the farm that all of those people will make it to the end of the run, even with a little energy left to get up and do a run tomorrow.

It's really not rocket science at all. And this is the main reason why we ultrarunners run slow...so that we can run long! The foremost on all ultrarunners' minds in a long race is the preservation of his/her body over that entire distance. And that is what these long runs are about. Taking careful steps on the downhills, and walking the uphills is normal on these runs because these methods preserve the body over the long haul.

I just want to say to everyone out there that ANYONE CAN DO THIS, if they put their mind to it.

One of the comments I got this weekend was that "you are a machine". Now this comment I like! Why, because I can tell them right back that they are machines too. Of all the machines humans have ever built, they have never built one that surpasses that of the human body. You have to acknowledge that the human body is the most extraordinary machine that has ever been created. If you treat it right and give it proper maintenance, the body has the extraordinary ability to repair itself. When stressed, the body automatically adapts and responds to that stress so that it can handle that stress.

You are human machines too. That means you are capable of doing far beyond what you think you are capable of. All you have to do is THINK that you can, and, with proper training and focus, you will do.

So please. What I do is no secret. What I do is not "impossible." What I do is not "superhuman". What I do IS HUMAN! Instead of looking up to me, look to me as someone who is still trying to break his perceived boundaries. We are equal. The only thing that is different between you and me is that I have started to realize that I'm the one responsible for setting limits on myself and that I'm trying my darndest to break them. If you start to realize this, I'm sure you'll act the same way also.

Once a person realizes that he's in a prison, he or she will do whatever it takes to get out. Even a prison of his or her own making.

As a coach, this is what I train people for. To make people realize that they can do what they previously thought they couldn't do. To expand their realm of possibilities, to make them realize that they too are capable of extraordinary things. To get themselves out of their own prison.

And I still run these ultras to prove two points:

1) To prove to myself that I am still quite capable of doing more than I've already done. Even after all these years, I'm still in the process of trying to expand my own boundaries. My choice in going to the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning this year is that example. I must admit that a side of me is still convinced that doing four 100 mile ultras is "impossible" for me to do. But I'm willing to prove that side of me wrong.

2) To set an example for other people to start waking up and realize that they are capable of extraordinary things too, if they put their minds to it. The bottom line is that you can indeed set a lofty goal for yourself and work to achieve it. Even if you initially feel that this goal is "impossible" to attain. That is the message I always try to convey to people, that nothing is "impossible".

So please, don't say that nasty word in front of me. I might just give you a bit of a slap just to snap you out of that defeatist attitude you are showing me.