Fun Training Day

Today was another longer day of training. I did a 12 mile run in the morning although I woke up a bit later than I wanted and it was warmer out. I was hoping to get out the door around 7:45, but slept until 8:20 and the weather was about 10 degrees warmer and the sun was up making it a hotter run. After that it was quick food and off to the pool for an IM based swim set of 4200m. It was a bit hot in the pool and made it hard to push but I had fun swimming all alone.
After that it was a short 1 hour bike ride through the neighborhoods and then off to see Pam and work on my biomechanics. Whew a long day, but at least it was warm here in San Diego.

Training in Chula

The past few days have been some tough training as my body has been feeling a little bit off since the flight. I have been out riding a few times out and back on Otay Lakes Road. Today was a 9 mile run with a little bit of tempo and a bunch of strides at the end followed by an hour and a half ride. The best part of the day was working with my MAT (Muscle Activation Technique) Therapist Pam Minix. Pam and I worked on my running form and did a bunch of exercises aimed at helping my technique. MAT works really well and Pam is one of the best therapists I have worked with.

LS Girls State Champions! LS Boys State Runnersup!

This is a two part post. The first part being the more important part and the second part just being what happened today.
This weekend was state championships for Massachusetts swimming and diving and going into the meets both our boys and girls teams were seeded well. We were hoping for top 3 finishes for both teams and possibly the first state championship since the boys won in 1998. The boys started off on Friday night with amazing races and a true team effort, with everybody but 1 kid who swam at states scoring a point (and the one who didnt score a point set a PR). We were in 3rd or 4th for most of the meet training Andover, BC High and St. John's Prep. St. John's winning the meet was a forgone conclusion so we were more concerned about Andover and BC High. The last two events to score were the diving and the 400 free relay. Our divers were diving well but we were down by 20 points with two events left so we thought that 3rd would be where we would end up... but then our divers ended up finishing 1,4,5,8 and scoring 42 points and vaulting us into 2nd place so all our 400 free relay needed to do was finish 6th or better. The relay ended up in 5th place and 2nd place was ours. The boys worked really hard this year and tied for the regular season DCL title, were 2nd at DCLs, 2nd at Sectionals and 2nd at States. An amazing year!
On Sunday the girls team bested the boys team and walked away with the Sate Championship. There were several amazing performances including a 52.92 100 freestyle, and two relays winning by 5 seconds. The girls team fought with power and guts and I was amazed at how focused and determined they were to succeed and win the title. Of course at the end of the meet Ann and I got thrown in the pool. There is no complaining when you get thrown in a pool by your team because they deserved it. All I could do was laugh and think back to when we threw our coach into the pool after winning states, it is something that I will never forget and this weekend was a weekend I will never forget. The 2008-2009 LS Swim and Dive team worked hard all year long and we went into the season with few expectations but they worked through some tough problems all year including pool closings two times and snow storms canceling 2 meets. They really persevered this year and they now have a great story to tell.

The second part is that I am now in Chula Vista, CA for the next few weeks for a hard training block. The flights were long and delayed including a 7 and a half hour flight from Boston to San Francisco due to the winds, a missed connection due to landing when I was supposed to be departing and not having a ride but instead having to take a cab. All in all it was a long day and I am excited to be in warm weather and am ready to train.

LS Swimming and DIVING - Massachusetts State RunnersUp

Last night my Lincoln-Sudbury swim team had their state championships. We went into the meet knowing that it would be a tight fight for 2nd place between Andover, BC High and ourselves. Our team has some amazing depth this year and every single athlete who went to states was a key contributor. Our ace in the hole ended up being diving as our 4 boys scored 42 points which pushed us almost 20 points ahead going into the final relay. Coach Ann and I knew that we had a great lead going into the 400 free relay and just needed to finish top 5 to get 2nd place. Our kids had an amazing race and were able to pull it off, but of course we did not tell them so they thought we were 3rd or 4th. It was so great to see the team do so well and get their 3rd straight 2nd place finish (league meet, sectional meet and state meet). This is the best LS has done since my team won the state championship in 1998. Now we get to go coach the girls on Sunday as they look to get a state championship.
As far as my training is going, things are amazing. I am feeling great and enjoying a recovery week this week before I head off to Chula Vista, CA for some warm weather training. On Thursday the coaching team of Rich, Tim, Mike and I met with Synta Pharmaceuticals to launch our new training programs with them. We are officially coaching their team this year and it is lots of fun to see 50 excited athletes with a wide variety of goals.

Train with the Pros and Florida's Great Escape

I had another chance to get out of the cold weather this past weekend and travel to Florida. Sara McLarty invited me to attend a camp she was running named "Train with the Pros." I had the chance to meet 5 great age groupers and train with them for 3 days and then we all raced in Florida's Great Escape triathlon which was held at Lake Louisa State Park. I had a wonderful time and to cap it off I had a great race. I led the entire swim (except for the run in) and had an amazing run. I ended up 1:40 down on Kevin Collington off the bike and almost ran him down. I ended up 14 seconds behind him at the finish and figured I had ran around 25 flat for 5 miles, but I ended up finding out my run split was 24:25. I felt amazing running and the sand and dirt trails did not slow me down. I am really excited because I felt like I have had a great offseason of training and am exactly where I want to be. Now I only have 6 more days until I leave for Chula!
On another note the Lincoln-Sudbury swim team I coach finished 2nd at Sectionals in both the boys and girls North Sectionals. Our girls set the state record in the 200 free relays. Pretty amazing.

Warm Weather!

Ethan and I went for our long run today and it was 48 degrees outside, which was a huge change from our long run last week where I think the high was in the low 20s and the roads were covered with ice. It was so much nicer to be outside running with warm weather, but there was crazy wind blowing in certain places which made it feel a bit colder. After my run I stretched and then went outside and chipped away at the ice in my driveway and got most of it off. Needless to say I am stoked to get down to Chula Vista and train with the ChuCrew. This year I will be training with Steve Sexton, Kevin Collington, Ethan Brown and Jordan Bryden. We had a great training session last year (with Mikey Orton in the crew) and I hope this year will be just as good.

Team Psycho ITT

Today was the famous Team Psycho Individual Time Trial which was held at FastSplits in Newton. This is the 3rd year I have been in the TT and last year we had a great finish for the top 5 places. My goal this year was just to have fun and be close to where I was last year. I really had fun (as much fun as you can in a 22 minute TT). I was 17 seconds slower than last year but had a lower heat rate. I also was not as destroyed as I was last year and did an 8 mile run and then swam 4800 in the pool. Rich made a Super Sunday Workout to cap the week off right and boy was it hard, lots of fast 50s.
Last night I had the opportunity to go to a holiday party at a local pharmaceutical company, Synta. I had the pleasure of meeting the Synta founder at the Escape to Bermuda triathlon last year and he invited me to come and meet his companies triathlon team. To my surprise they have almost 50 people out of 200 on the triathlon team at Synta and my coach, Tim Crowley and I, have signed on to be their coaches! I am so excited to be working with Synta as they are doing some amazing work and working on new cancer fighting drugs. The atmosphere at the party was amazing and all of the employees I had the chance to talk to are so excited to be working at Synta and doing such great work. It was very amazing!