Rico 2011 Race Schedule

Date	Race	Location	Time	Result
Jan 22	Manhattan Half Marathon	Fair Lawn, NJ	2:04:58	2836/4369 Overall
Feb 6	Gridiron 4M	Central Park, NY	29:57	913/5813 Overall
Mar 6	Coogan’s Salsa, Blues & Shm	Manhattan, NY	35:29	4675/5374 Overall
Jun 26	Westchester Med Ctr Duathlon	Valhalla, NY	1:22:31	49/170 Overall
Aug 21	Ironman 70.3 Timberman	Guilford, NH	6:13:49	1068/1649 Overall
Oct 15	Hartford Half Marathon	Hartford, CT	1:50:31	1105/5153 Overall
Nov 6	New York City Marathon	NY, NY

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Intro to Ironman Lake Placid 2011 by Rico

With encouragement from my friend Michael Kimelman, I've decided to once again do a full Ironman Race in 2011, choosing IM Lake Placid. Since registering a few months ago, I have struggled to feel excited about this race, mostly due to the time commitment required to train. For ronman Florida race in 2009, I trained for a solid year with countless hours and sacrificing everything else in my personal life. Prior to Ironman Florida I had only done Olympic Triathlons. Since Ironman Florida, I have completed four Half Ironman races with a fifth planned in April 2011 in Oceanside CA.

Given that I will be starting at a higher level of fitness and training, I am only planing to train for 6 months in preparation for the Race. The plan is to be more efficient in my training and balance out my personal life. Return on my invested time will be the training theme. When I look back at the training for Florida, the most time consuming aspect was making the time to train on the bike. Riding also happens to be my favorite part of the training so I probably spent more time on the bike than actually needed. Late last year I had purchased a Computrainer and I have set it up in my home gym. The plan will be to do the bulk of the bike rides indoors on the Computrainer. While this may sound painfully boring to most of you reading this, I am convinced I will save time and still provide an equal or possibly higher level of fitness. I will have the opportunity to test this on April 2nd 2011 when I head out to Oceanside. The training plan is to do 100% of the bike miles on the Computrainer. The previous two years I had done Oceanside, I rode outdoors through the winter, I did not have an indoor trainer. Also in an effort to have more personal time after work, I will add some training sessions on weekday mornings (I struggle with this as I am not a morning person) and do shorter 6 mile runs during the week at lunch time.

I will post a weekly summary of my training showing the total time and miles. I will not detail the type of workouts. Keep in mind when reading the results the bike miles and some of the running miles will based on the Computrainer and treadmill.

Training will Start on January 10th 2011 with Race day July 24th (28weeks).

Rico

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2010 Ironman Timberman 70.3 by Rico

My preparation leading up to the race was a bit unconventional, I had just completed the Bronx Half Marathon and biked 50 miles the weekend before rather than taper. Also spent Thursday and Friday ALL DAY on my feet visiting Mystic Seaport/Aquarium and Six Flags New England before finally arriving to New Hampshire with Regina, the kids and our adopted step child Mike Kimelman.

The temps felt perfect for race day, low 70s with overcast. I was hoping the rain would not hit but eventually did mid way through the bike. The Pros started at 7am with my wave starting at 7:50. The swim start was crowded and I took an unusually high volume of kicks and elbows for the first quarter mile. My sighting was not the best but overall was happy to see my time of 44:06.

I quickly got into an easy rhythm on the bike, I had planned to bike based on a heart rate of 85% rather than just hammering away to maximize my MPH. My watch was not reading my heart rate nor my speed, so I was left to use perceived exertion to base my pace. For the first 15 miles I kept what felt like a sustainable pace as though I was doing a full ironman. I than picked up the pace slightly and when I hit mile 25 I was feeling strong. I decide to once again pick up the pace and really start working hard but keeping it comfortably hard (if that makes any sense). I wish I had the stats on my heart rate but when I got off the bike, I felt strong with energy in the tank for the run. Despite what I thought was a slower pace I realized that I still managed to finish with a strong bike split of 2hrs 50min flat or 19.8MPH on what was a hilly bike course. Starting the bike split slowly and not getting to cocky or letting ego take over was paying off.

I lost a little bit of time in T2 as I accidently ran down the wrong isle and struggle to find my transition spot. My sneakers and socks were soaked due to the rain but by the start of the run the rain had stopped.

At the start of the run I was immediately in the right place mentally. I was feeling happy with my bike split and had energy to spare. At this point I knew as long as I didn’t fall apart I was going to have a shot at a PR. The first mile marker came quickly, Before I really knew it I was already at mile 4 and still feeling no pain. I though about pushing harder but I was on track for a PR by keeping at my current pace. There is still a long way to go and anything could happen. I hit mile 7 and realized I was feeling the same as I did during my first mile, no breaking down. Typically by this point I am hating the sport, cursing myself out and claiming to never registering for another race again. Instead I was smiling and feeling like I couldn’t be having a better time right now. When I hit mile 10 I finally felt the effects with my legs feeling heavy but by this time I was on such a high and feeling great about my race that It would take more than heavy legs to slow me down, I kept the same pace right to the finish line. I passed a lot of people in the last three miles of the run, that’s how I knew I was having a great race, I generally never pass anybody in the last three miles of a half ironman. This time it was me who was doing the passing right to the finish line with a half marathon time of 2:00:51 and overall finish of 5:40:01 (11 minutes faster than California). I finished strong and even got slightly emotional about it for 10 seconds and smiled the rest of the day.

They say almost everyone shows up to race physically ready to race but 80-90% of the field does not know how to execute a race, I believe that comment to be dead right. A successful race = a good run. There is no such thing as a good bike followed by a bad run. That usually means you messed up on your bike which means you had a bad bike. I proved that to be the case this weekend with a PR and feeling stronger at the finish line than any race I have done.

Thanks to Mike Kimelman for really pushing me to go do this event, and of course special thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Regina and the kids for being my number one fans and doing so in the rain.

Rico

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2010 Westchester Medical Center Biathlon - Rico

Event: 2 mile run / 15 mile bike / 2 mile run

Date: June 27th 2010

This was a fun event with several of us racing including, Marc, Mike, Tony, Valerio and doing her very first event, Regina. I would of loved to see Jason in this race also for the trio to once again race but it will have to wait for Greenwich.

I had two goals for the day, first was to beat my brother valerio and second to finish faster than the year before. I was kind of successful in both.

We lined up at the start, I kissed Regina goodbye and wished her luck in her first event. I was very excited for her and feeling proud to see her line up at the start to race rather than with three cameras taking pictures. lol, After that it was on, I followed my brother as he positioned himself, my my main goal being to stay shoulder to shoulder with him. I anticipated him running a 7:15-7:30 pace but he took off much faster. I managed to keep him in my sights but i was not shoulder to shoulder. He pushed me to run my fastest run split of 6:51 placing 54/244 place, blowing away my last year split of 7:57. As I ran into transition, I saw my brother running out with his bike. I had some work to do now to gain that time back. I had a very fast transition gaining 13 position in transition and started the bike in 41st place.

I hammered on the bike, My goal was to average 20mph and catch up to my brother. I felt really comfortable on my Tri bike, every time I race with her I feel more and more confident. It took me allot longer to catch my brother than i thought, I finally got him with about 3 miles left to go. I exchange a few "kind" words with him and than passed him by. Goal was to put at least 30-45 seconds on him plus transition time. (my brother is not very speedy in transitions). I averaged 21.5mph, beating my estimates and gaining another 15 positions putting me in 26th place overall.

I have learned from my past mistakes to not go out sprinting, I kept a pace for the first few minutes of the second run at a steady pace to get my heart rate back in check. Once I started feeling stable I began pushing again, i kept looking back for my brother but he was not insight, I was feeling confident. I probably slowed down my running pace by constantly looking back but i was surprised he was still out of sight. I finished the run with an 8:02 pace and lost 3 positions for an overall finish of 29th place out of 244 participants

So you ask so what happened to my brother? well he ended up making a wrong turn on the bike and finished with a DNF. Very disappointed, realty is I probably would have lost but It sure would of been a more interesting finish.

Overall i was very happy with my performance and year over year improvement. I improved in each of the legs of the race including transitions from the previous year as you can see below.

2010 2009

Run 1 0:13:42 0:15:56

T 1 0:00:48 0:01:29

Bike 0:41:52 0:47:59

T 2 0:00:38 0:01:05

Run 2 0:16:05 0:16:26

Overall 1:13:05 1:22:54

Congrats to all , everyone had a great race and everyone improved from the previous year. Special congrats to Regina who had an awesome first race and blew away our estimated times. I anticipated a finish for her of 1hr 40 min, She finished in 1hr 32min beating Tony's time from last year!!!!.

Mike K had an amazing 3rd place finish, with the two leaders (brothers) having drafted off each other on the bike, in my book Mike won the overall race!!!! Tony destroyed his time from the previous year and had some very impressive splits. Marc well not sure where he found his speed running 7:30 splits and biking only 30 seconds behind me. He has been keeping his speed a secret, well the secret is out and I will now be watching Marc carefully as he is well capable of taking me on in one of these races.

Thanks

Rico

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I NEED A MAIN EVENT!!! - Rico

Last year I had the Ironman, This year I have the Miami Half Ironman, but I will have completed two other Half Ironman's this year before Miami. Miami is not feeling like a Main Event for me, given I can finish it in a decent time if it was tomorrow. I need to set goals that are currently unachievable to motivate me in my training and push beyond my limits. I have Set the following goal for Miami.

Overall Time 5:15hrs
Swim : 42min 2.13/100 meters
T1: 3min
Bike: 2:33hrs 22mph
T2: 2min
Run: 1:55hrs 8.45 min/mile

Jason already informed me that the bike split will not be achievable, that only fueled me...Its on like donkey kong and now I feel like I have a Main Event coming in October, let the training begin!!!! (not that it had stopped) .

Rico

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London Marathon

So after watching both the 2009 & 2010 London Marathon races, i felt inspired. These guys make running sub 5min miles look easy. I started to think well maybe i am just a wimp and i dont push myself hard enough on my runs. Maybe if i just tweak a few things about my form i can gain some free speed?

So today i tried to run pushing harder, I typically train at an 8min mile pace, So i tried to do some intervals,

After a warm up mile, I ran my first interval mile at a 7:30 pace and felt ok. Recovered for a few minutes and the second interval mile at 7:00pace, didn't feel hard until the last quarter mile, again recovered a few minutes; third mile was supposed to me a 6:30 pace but only last 3/4 of a mile. Original plan was to do another mile at 6:00 pace but decided to stop there...

Oh well, after watching the marthon I stupidly thought i would be able to jump on and do 6 min miles lol, i was wrong,

Oh and FYI, I strongly suggest you dont follow my lead on this interval training, this was just false hope that maybe running a 6 something min mile didn' really hurt, well it does, for me anyways...

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Weekend Computrainer Workout

This was the last weekend to get a long bike ride in before Ironman California 70.3. Unfortunately we were hit with a tsunami of rainfall. Thankfully Mike Kimelmen just purchased a Computrainer. He was nice enough to let me use it Saturday and he downloaded the Cali 70.3 bike course. I managed to complete the course through about mile 45 after the last major hill. It was a great workout with lots of information to keep me motivated and focused. I can barely last 45 min on an indoor trainer and i managed to stay on the trainer for 2:30hrs. It could be that it was a new toy that kept me motivated. I would be curious if i would have the same level of motivation after a few weeks of use. From my first time experience i would highly recommend the purchase of this toy of course that is if $1,700 is burning a hole in your pocket and you just dont know where to spend it.

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2010 Murray Todd Half Marathon Run

Waking up at 4:45am never gets easy. At first I wanted to bail on this race and just take out my bike given the forecast was for 60 degree temps but Marc held me to the original plan. I had rode my bike for 45 hard miles the day before with my brother, Mike K and Ronel and so I planned on a 2:00hr half marathon run and was treating this event as a nice easy training run.

Of course that never does happen, I found myself running 8:10 pace through the first three miles, it didn't feel hard and I felt strong. My legs were a bit sore and tired from the bike the day before but nothing major. When I hit mile 7 it was roughly 58min. I had been talking to two other runners that i had ran with since the start of the race and was not paying attention to time. It was looking like i was well on my way to breaking 1hr 50 min which had been my goal two months prior but failed to accomplish. I pushed a little harder the last 6 miles and finished with a PR of 1:46:32. I was extremely happy with my results.

I may need to recalculate my goal time for the run in the California Ironman 70.3. My goal time was 2:00 hrs but may revise to 1:55 hrs.

Rico

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2010 4 mile Haiti Run in Central Park

This past weekend I did the 4 mile Haiti Run in Central Park. My Goal was to break 30 minutes and do a 7:30 pace. Based on one of my best training runs I had done this past Thursday of 6 miles in 45 minutes I thought it was achievable (training run was on a treadmill with no incline)

The start was crazy with over 9,000 people registered. After fighting and dancing around everyone at the start of the run, i was still on track after two miles with a time of exactly 15 minutes. Mile 2-3.25 was all uphill for the most part, after mile three my pace fell off and i was at 23.10 minutes. I would need to break a 7min mile to finish under 30min. I just didn't have it finishing the 4 mile race in 30:50min, averaging a pace of 7:42.

This was my first race at any distance where i finished under an 8min mile pace. I was very happy with the results and feel the training is paying dividends.

Rico

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Feb 2nd 2010 Empire State Building Run Up

I would recommend this event to everyone. You will never look at a tall syscraper the same way again...lol. It was much harder than you could imagine to climb 86 floor and almost 1,600 stairs. I had no expectation of time since i really had no idea what to expect.

At the start of the race i immediately start to run up the stairs at a pace that i thought i could sustain. I was passing a lot of people and i should of known right away i was pacing myself to fast because i know i'm not a strong runner. I hit floor 10 and i felt my heart was going to jump out of my body. If i had my heart rate monitor it would of read 105%. I didn't want to stop and wanted to maintain some sort of fast walk up but even that proved to be extremely difficult. It was a painful event to finish in 19.09 minutes. I'm glad i did it and i would love the opportunity to torture myself again next year but I will train for it and will pace myself more appropriately.

Thanks for reading
Rico

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Ricardo's California Half Ironman Recovery Week #8 Jan 25th

I took the week off from all training. It wasnt intended that way but i went into complete recovery mode, usually i do light workouts during my recover week but hey sometimes u need a mental break from it all also...

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #7 Training Jan 18th

Monday
Recovery Day

Tuesday
Foundation Run
4.5M / 40min

Wednesday
Tempo Run
4.5M / 38Min

Swim
1,750 yards / 45min

Thursday
Recovery Day

Friday
Recovery Run
3.0M / 30min

Saturday
Foundation Bike
38.0M / 2:25hrs

Sunday
Race Run
13.1M / 1:51hrs (net out 3min emergency bathroom stop)

Summary
Swim 1,750 yards / 45Min
Run 25.1M / 3:39hrs
Bike 38.0M 2:25hr

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #6 Training Jan 11th

Monday
Steady State Bike
10 min warm up
3 x 15min Steady state at 75% HR
5 min recovery between sets
5 min cool down

22.0M / 1:10hrs

Tuesday
Tempo Run
7.0M / 56min (pace between 7.30-8.30)
avg pace 8.0

Wednesday
2,000 yard swim

Thursday
Foundation brick
1hr Bike / 20 min Run
18.0M / 2.25M

Friday
Foundation Run
4.25M / 40min

Saturday
Foundation Bike
35.0M / 2hrs


Sunday
Long Foundation Run
10.0M / 1:30hrs

Summary
Swim: 2,000yards 45min
Bike: 75.0M / 4:10hrs
Run: 23.5M / 3:26hrs

Saturday's bike was the first outdoor ride with my new Felt B2. Didnt get many opportunities to stay aero on the bumpy and busy streets of Westchester. I was very happy with its climbing abilities.

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #5 Training Jan 4th

Monday
Steady State/Power interval bike
10 min warm up
10 min steady state
3 sets of 4 x 1 min (1min AR) power intervals
5-8 min recovery between sets
10 min steady state
10 min cool down
24.0M / 1:20hrs

Tuesday
Long Foundation Run
12.0M / 1:55hr

Wednesday
Swim 1,000 yards
250 warm up
500 drills
250 cool down

Thursday
Recovery

Friday
Speed Interval run
10 min warm up
12 x 30 sec at max speed (2min AR)
5 min cool down
5.0M / 45min

Foundation Bike
17.0M / 1:00hr

Saturday
Fartlek Run
10 min warm up
8 x 30 sec sprints @ 6min pace
5.0M / 41min

Sunday
swim 1,000 yrds

Swim 2,000 yards / 1:00hr
Bike 43.0M / 2:20hrs
Run 22.0M / 3:21hrs

Increased the volume this week, I skipped a bike workout, I need to get outdoors on the bike.

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #4 Training Dec 28st

Monday
Recovery Run
2.0M / 20min

Tuesday
Temp Run
4.0M / 33min
Tempo 20 min at 7.30-8.05 pace

Wednesday
Stead State Bike
10 min warm up
2 x 1 min fast pedal
3 x 10 min steady state (4min AR)
10 min cool down
17.0M / 1Hr

Thursday-Friday
Drinking and eating
(I really need to take my training more seriously
After the ironman im just not mentally ready to give
up on all the extras yet)

Saturday
Long Tempo Run
quick warm up
6 miles at 8.25 pace
last mile slightly slower
7.0M / 1Hr

Sunday
Steady State Bike
10 min warm up
2 x 1 min fast pedal
3 x 15 min steady state (5min AR)
8 min cool down
22.0M / 1:15hr

Base Swim
1,000 yards / 25min

Week Summary
Run 13.0 M / 1:53hr
Bike 39.0M / 2:15hr
Swim 1,000yrs / 25min

I'm happy i finally went for a swim and while my cardio is fine, i did feel fatigue in my arms with even a short swim. I will try to hit the pool twice a week.

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #3 Training Dec 21st

Monday
Recovery

Tuesday
CPI4 - Power intervals
High Gear 4-7 RPE
RPE 10 during intervals
Set #1 4 x 1 min/ AR 1 min
Set #2 4 x 45 sec/ AR 45 sec
Set #3 4 x 30 sec/ AR 30 sec
AR between sets 6-8 min
16 Miles / 50 min

Wednesday
Foundation Run
4.25M / 40 min

Thursday
45 Min Weight Training

Friday
Xmas Binging

Saturday
Tempo/Steady State Bike
10 min warm up
2 x 2min fast cadence (2min AR)
Switched between Tempo and steady state with no recovery for 32 min
Cool Down 10 min
17 miles / 1:00hr

Sunday
Foundation Run
4.75M / 45min

Week Summary
Run 9M / 1:25hrs
Bike 33M / 1:50hrs

Another shamefully low volume week, you would think by posting my weekly training it would motivate me to increase the load a bit but not yet. When I do workout they are solid workouts with a purpose so I am still getting the most out of them. Its all about ROI (return on investment) Again no swimming this week.

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #2 Training Dec 14th

Monday
Fartlek Run
5 x 30 sec 6min pace
1 x 60 sec 6min pace
4.25M / 39 Min

Tuesday
Bike - Power intervals
High Gear 4-7 RPE
RPE 10 during internvals
Set #1 4 x 45 sec/ AR 45sec
Set #2 2 x 45 sec/ AR 45sec
Set #2 2 x 30 sec/ AR 30sec
Set #3 4 x 30 sec/ AR 30sec
AR between sets 8 min
15 Miles / 50min

Wednesday
RECOVERY


Thursday
Tempo Run
39 min RPE 8.5
Tempo at 7.45-8.30 pace
6.0M / 49 Min

Friday
Foundation Bike
Moderate Aerobic REP6-7
9 miles / 30 min

Saturday
NYRR Ted Colbit Race
15K Run / 9.3M
1hr 18min 43 Sec
8.27 Pace

Sunday
RECOVERY

Week Summary
Bike - 24M / 1:20
Run - 19.55M / 2:37

As you can see so far after two weeks of training I have yet to hit the pool, I really need to start doing some drills to improve my efficiency. Also my total hours are very low, making sure i don't jump in to hard to fast after Ironman Florida, still testing out the body.

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Ricardo's California 70.3 Week #1 Training Dec 7th

Monday
Fartlek Run
5 x 30 sec 6min pace
1 x 60 sec 6min pace
4.25M / 40 Min

Tuesday
RECOVERY

Wednesday
Steady State Bike
10 Min Warm up
3 x 10 min @RPE 7.5 / AR 4 min
17 Miles / 1hr

Thursday
Tempo Run
22 min RPE 8.5 (8.0 min pace)
5.0M / 45 Min

Friday
Steady State Bike
10 Min Warm up
3 x 10 min @RPE 7.5 / AR 4 min
17 Miles / 1hr

Saturday
Foundation Run
5.5M / 55 Minutes
Moderate Aerobic REP6-7

Sunday
RECOVERY

Week Summary

Bike - 34M / 2:00 hrs
Run - 14.75M / 2:20 hrs

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2009 NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K Run (9.3M)

This is the first scheduled event of my 2010 Race Season (yes i know this event technically is in 2009)

It was cold 27 degrees Saturday morning but once you started running you quickly warmed up.

Husband and Wife Team, Gabe and Kate made it out, Gabe ran/walked about 7 miles (he didn’t officially register) but give him credit for trying to support his better half…This was Kate’s longest run ever and completely unplanned, I asked them if they wanted to join in on the fun and she was quick to answer yes and dragged Gabe out by the ear.

Big congrats to our genetic mutant of the group Mike Kimelman who ran it at a 6:10 pace, placing 39th out of 3,467 people, Mike with all that speed, for xmas, all I ask is for you transfer some of that speed over to me, you can afford to give it away!!!!.

Gary Wager was nice enough to pace me the entire run, it was an easy training day for him but a full race day for me, a bit frustrating when people make it look so easy, my goal was to break 1:20 and with his help I finished 1:18:43, at an 8.27 pace.

Next Race, January 24th Central Park Half Marathon. See you there.

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Ricardo's Ironman California 70.3 2010

On December 7th 2009, I began training for Ironman California 70.3 to occur on March 27th 2010. Given its only been a month since I did Ironman Florida Nov 7th 2009, I am second guessing my recovery period. I feel healthy and strong and the next few weeks will tell me what i need to know and I will listen to my body. My training so far has been shorter but more intense workouts. I am anxious to do Ironman Cali 70.3 again and break six hours, since I failed to do so the first time.

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