Blog 2015

The month of May has flown by and Iron Fit Endurance Athletes have been rocking!

Susan Roman and Shelley Bache braved early season cold temps to race Bassman International Distance Triathlon on May 3^rd and it’s a good thing they did!  Susan won the age group while Shelley finished 2^nd to Susan!  They are pictured here on the podium. 

Meanwhile, that same weekend was the Long Island Marathon weekend!  Deepak Chopra had a great 10K, Peter Morandi had a PR in the half marathon and Donna Morandi ran the half as well while supporting an athlete who was a first-time finisher.  Jodie Robertson also ran the half, winning the event and setting a new course record!

The next weekend was the Mother’s day Duathlon at Hecksher State Park.  Gordon Lewis decided to race despite coming down with Bronchitis and still managed a 3^rd place finish in his age group!  Thankfully he shut it down after that and recovered the remainder of the week!

The following weekend was the Power of a Woman Triathlon put on by Event Power.  Hilary Topper competed and had a GREAT day! You can see her race report HERE.

Irene Lam also competed and had a great day, while her talented daughter Emily competed and finished 2^nd in her age division!

That same day Jose Hernandez raced Gran Fondo, a grueling 100 Mile cycling event that heads up to Bear Mtn.  He crushed his time from last year!

Also racing that weekend was Ernest Martinez who headed to Texas to race Ironman Texas!  Ernest had a tough winter to train for an Ironman, but he got it in as best he could!  LONG trainer rides were something that Ernest got used to, but trying to mimic that Texas heat was tough!  Ernest had a tough day of heat and humidity to contend with, but he did it!  You know things are tough when your athletes report that, “It was eerie watching people around me fall down and lay down…that kept me drinking fluids and moving.”  Congrats Ernest on toughing out a hard Ironman!

The Brooklyn half was that same day.  Peter Morandi again PR’d in his half marathon (just missing out on a sub-2 hour race!!  He’ll get it next time for sure).  Also, Donna Morandi had a great race where she did do a sub-2 hour race on legs that were not rested (she’s training for the Quassy 70.3)!  Kiri Spillane raced Brooklyn after competing in Boston just weeks before.  She had a great race, not far off from a PR!

 This past weekend Jackie Lott headed to her home state of New Jersey to test her fitness in the Jersey Genesis Triathlon (she’s training for Challenge A.C.).  She had an awesome day that proved to both of us that she is well on her way to a great day in Atlantic City next month.

Also, Shayne Lewis and Jose Hernandez decided to jump into the Town of Huntington Triathlon this past weekend a few days before the event.  Jose had a strong race despite having dedicating his spring to primarily cycling and Shayne had a great debut this season finishing 2^nd in his age group!

Also, I had the pleasure of training my good friend Erin Miller for the Rev 3 Rush Richmond this past weekend where she placed 3rd in her age group!

In group training news:

I headed up to Bear Mtn with Jodie, Jose, Shayne, Noah, Irene and their friends for some good hard riding and hill climbing! 

 I also had a chance to sneak in an open water swim (my first of the season) with Susan, Christa and Jodie.  We even had kayak support!

This past weekend was our first group open water swim in the bay.  It was surprisingly warm at 70 degrees!  Thanks to my dad for setting up buoys!

 Im looking forward more races ahead this summer!  We have athletes racing Quassy and Eagleman next weekend, as well as Patriot Half, Challenege AC, Riverhead Rocks and many more in the months ahead!  I’ll keep the results coming in!

Don’t forget to check out my calendar for the latest in group training that you can be a part of!

Happy Training and Racing :-)

Dee

April 2015 Recap

“Boston on 12 weeks of Running?”

April has been such a HUGE month of racing for Iron Fit Endurance that I don’t know where to start for my recap!  SO, I decided to highlight one race that was particularly impressive and then do a short recap of the other races and athletic accomplishments that the Iron Fit Endurance crew had this month!

When I first met Kiri Spillane she was in the middle of recovering from a stress fracture in her knee.  She was diagnosed with this 1 week before what was to be her 2^nd NYC marathon.  In her first marathon, the year prior, this mother of three ran a 3:36 qualifying her for Boston!  When we met up she was focused on finishing Boston, despite having this injury that ended up taking her out of running for over 2 months!  We started up and had her doing everything BUT running.  Kiri was biking on the trainer 3 to 4 days a week (this was a new addition to her training, which I believe helped her to gain strength as well as keep up her cardiovascular fitness).  We also had her  “run” in the pool.  I am a HUGE advocate of water running.  I personally have done this in the past while rehabbing injuries, including one injury that had me out of running for over 3 months!  I found water running to be an incredible substitution that had me back to running almost seamlessly! 

Finally, on January 16^th, Kiri got the green light to start running again! (keep in mind that the Boston Marathon was just 13 weeks away)!  We started her out VERY gradually…she started with just ½ mile run 3x/week for the first week!  For the next week she ran 1 mile 3x/week (this was 11 weeks out from Boston, mind you).  From there we progressed on to 2 miles 3x/week (I got this method of getting back to running from my genius podiatrist, Dr. McGuiness and I swear by it!).  Kiri followed everything that I planned out for her to a tee.  She kept up the biking as well as the pool running, until she was running longer distances.  She never ran over 18 miles, and she only did that once, for her longest run.  We did, however, add quality to her runs once she was ready.  Every run she did had some sort of quality in it, which in my opinion, made up for the lack of distance.  She was nervous, but she forged ahead.

Kiri ended up finishing Boston in amazing fashion.  She did a 3:40 on a very tough day with rain and wind.  Her knee felt great and still does!  I was so proud of her.  Sticking to a plan where you aren’t putting in the typical “marathon miles” can be very tough mentally.  One can feel under-confident even getting to the start line!  She not only got there, but she excelled! Congrats on a great race and thanks for the challenge of getting you there on such little time!

In other races, here’s the recap!

Shelley Bache, who will be competing in the Alcatraz triathlon in June, competed in the “Philly Love Half marathon” on March 29^th.  She had a great day!

Robin Munch and Alyssa Kasek, both new to running, headed to Mrtyle Beach to compete in the Diva half Marathon and 5K!  Robin finished the half in 2:15 (like I said, she was new to running!) and Alyssa competed in the 5K, after having to bow out of the Half due to injury.  Smart move on her part!  The two had a great time down there, as you can see!

Susan Roman headed to North Carolina for the Tar Heel 10 Miler.  A TOUGH course and a great training day and race for her!

Jose Hernandez, who is focusing more on the bike this spring competed in the grueling race, Battenkill where he crushed his time from last year and had an incredible race posting a VERY fast time for a fierce course!!  He also just competed in the Spring Cycling Series in Branchbrook where he finished with the main pack.

Hilary Topper competed in the Cedar Creek Duathlon and had a great day!  She had two smoking-fast run splits and a strong bike too!  She had a great day out there.  Here’s a link to her race report: http://www.arunnersdiary.com/spring-duathlon-at-cedar-creek-park/#utm_sguid=133014,d381626d-5306-6ba8-4907-68a0c8d7332a

 Zach Lam (Noah and Irene Lam's son) finished 9^th Overall in the Mini Mightyman pool Triathlon!  Congrats on a great race!! here's a picture of the Lam family after the race!

Jim Nostrom completed an amazing feat, doing the Bike Across Florida, 170 miles coast to coast!  Awesome Jim!

Frank Fiorello finished 2^nd in his division at the St. Anthony’s Triathlon in Florida this past weekend! Hot humid temps and a stacked field didn't stop Frank!  Awesome race!

Both Noah and Irene Lam posted PR’s in their 5K times at the Contractor for Kids 5K.  Their son Elijah had a PR that day too while their other son Zach, stayed with a friend to help her through her first 5K!  Go Lams!

In other news, we had two great weekends of 50 Mile bike rides for great causes, first at the ALS Ride for Life:

…and then this past weekend at the CWC warrior Ride:

I want to thank everyone who is a part of Iron fit Endurance.  It's been such a fun journey for me so far and I look forward to more!

We will continue swim workouts at 8PM on Thursdays at Suffolk County Community College through May.  Also, Im excited to start up track workouts at Runners Edge!  These workouts will start at 6PM on Tuesdays from the store, located in Farmingdale.  They will be starting soon!  I will keep you posted for an official start date!

Also, visit The Hub for any of your bike needs.  They just recently did a great job tuning up my tri bike!

Thanks again and happy training and racing! :-)

With winter in full effect, everyone has to be creative when it comes to training.  The Iron Fit Endurance athletes and I have been riding at The Hub when we can.  When The Hub is booked with other people training, we head to our “Iron Fit Warehouse” where we suffer together on the bike!

A few athletes have done it right this winter, John Burgess spends the winters training in Florida and Frank Fiorello, has spent quite a bit of time training and racing in the warmth of Florida and other warm areas too.  Jim Nostrom is now LIVING down in Florida and is spending time training for a 170 mile cycling event across the state!  He is pictured here wearing SHORTS before a local 5K down in Florida.  Lucky guy...

I headed down to Puerto Rico with a few girls to do some warm open water swimming and to do a little reconnaissance for a 2016 Iron Fit Endurance training camp!  I am really excited about the camp for 2016 and am in the process of planning it.  More details to come!

Recently, I had the pleasure to do a talk about “Training with Power 101” at The Hub for the Wildwood Warriors.  I spoke about the basics of training with power and what to do if you do decide to invest in a power meter (an invaluable investment in your training and racing).  I have been training with power since 2004, when power meters were “less known”.  As I told the Wildwood Warriors, it was an eye-opening experience for me!  I worked with my coach, who was a master at training with power and I got to see first-hand how beneficial it was to train with a power meter.  11 years later and I still wouldn't train any other way.  Why is it so beneficial to your training, you ask?  Well, I’ll tell you:

• INSTANT FEEDBACK!  With a power meter you know how you are performing instantly as opposed to heart rate, which lags.  For example, say you have a VO2 workout of 5x4 minutes.  With a power meter you know what to hold for those intervals and you know instantly if you are hitting the wattage range or not.  With Heart Rate, it will take some time to get into the heart rate range you need to.  By the time you reach the VO2 Heart rate, you are already well into the interval.  With heart rate, it’s just not as clear whether you are working in the range that you should be.  With power you know exactly where you should be.
• CLEARLY SEE YOUR RESULTS AND IMPROVEMENTS!  With a power meter you know exactly what you are doing in each and every workout, which makes it clear when you are improving!  For example, say you do the classis “2x20 at threshold” workout each week.  With a power meter you have specific ranges that you need to hit.  But one day you go out and you find that you exceeded that range!  Usually you hold in the range of 210-220 watts on your 2x20’s, but now you find 220-230 watts to be the numbers that you are hitting.  You are clearly seeing improvements in your workouts and your threshold!  With heart rate, you cannot see improvements like this.  Now, with your power meter, you have a new goal for the next time you are doing the workout and you can clearly see the improvements in your training!
• YOU KNOW WHEN YOU NEED TO RECOVER!  Let’s say you head out to do the “2x20 workout”.  You are pushing at the very same “perceived exertion” that you usually do.  You are doing everything you can to hit your threshold range of 210-220, but you find that you can’t even break 200 today!  This is a CLEAR sign that you need to STOP the workout, spin easily home and REST.  Your body needs to recover!
• RACING BECOMES SIMPLE!  When I was racing pro I used to say that racing with a power meter was “like cheating”!  After figuring out what wattage range I could ride in Ironman and still run off the bike (or any distance triathlon, for that matter) I would train at this wattage.  Come race day, I felt confident that I could hold that wattage range, and if I did everything right nutritionally, come off the bike and run my best!  How great is that?  There is no guess work!
• POWER KEEPS YOUR WITS ABOUT YOU!  When racing any distance race, half and full Ironman especially, what is one of the biggest mistakes that athletes make?  GOING TOO HARD ON THE BIKE AND KILLING YOURSELF FOR THE RUN!  With a power meter you know exactly the range to ride at and you know what wattage you should not exceed, which prevents you from “burning matches” for the run!  Again, there is no guessing!!

I can go on and on about training power and its benefits.  The main thing to remember if you do indeed invest in a power meter is the fact that power will mean nothing to you if you don’t do at least one of two things:  educate yourself by investing in a great book on training with power such as the one pictured here, “Training & Racing with a Power Meter, 2nd Ed. Book by Hunter Allen & Andrew Coggan, Ph.D.”, OR work with someone who knows power and REALLY knows how to train with power properly.  If you do, you will have that “eye-opening” experience that I did back in 2004, and I guarantee you will never go back!

Stay Warm and Happy Training!

Dee

2015 Is Going To Be GREAT for Iron Fit Endurance!

The first official season for Iron Fit Endurance is in the books, and it was so much more than I could have expected!  You can check out the past blogs to see all of the incredible results and training that the IFE crew has accomplished in 2014.  2015 has already started with a Bang!  Just this past weekend, we had two PR’s from our Iron Fit Endurance athletes!  Training has been moving along steadily despite the cold weather, and my athletes have big goals and races on the horizon.  I’m SO excited for the season ahead!

Here you can see Christa and Susan braving the cold out east on a ride (they made cookies for an after ride snack):

Also, we headed out on a cold and windy day for a group ride from The Hub!

When the weather is just too cold, we have the BEST indoor facility around for Group rides at The Hub (http://www.thehubhq.com/).  Irene was even able to bring her daughter Emily to the suffer session at the Hub this past weekend:

Frank Fiorello has been down in Florida and keeping busy.  He finished first in his division in the HITS series Olympic distance in Naples, FL on January 10^th and then raced in the Key West Half Marathon this past weekend (January 18^th):

Jim Nostrom, friend to Iron Fit Endurance who recently moved down to Florida, just finished the Disney Marathon in wonderful fashion:

Susan Roman headed out to California to race the “Star Wars Rebel Challenge”, which consisted of a 10K race on Saturday and a half marathon Sunday.  Her goal was to PR in the 10K and "have fun" in the half marathon Sunday, and she did just that!  Susan PR’d in the 10K by almost 2 minutes breaking a huge barrier in the 10K.  She woke up the next morning and was still able to run her 3rd fastest half marathon ever!  Susan has big goals this season and I am so excited to be a part of her reaching those goals!  You can read more about her race this past weekend here in her blog: 

http://wingnut-goingunderground.blogspot.com/2015/01/first-race-of-2015.html

Jodie Robertson headed to Texas this past weekend to race at the USA Half Marathon National Championships.  Jodie is a VERY accomplished runner who recently bested her marathon time, running a blazing 2:34 and qualifying for the Olympic Trials “A-Cut”.  I just started working with Jodie in triathlon and am VERY excited to see what she can do…  The introduction of biking and swimming hasn’t hurt Jodie’s running one bit.  She was able to PR in her half marathon yesterday by almost two minutes, clocking a fast 1:13:38!  Jodie is also sponsored by Runners Edge (http://www.runnersedgeny.com/) and The Hub (http://www.thehubhq.com/), who are no doubt just as excited to see what Jodie can do in triathlon!  Her husband, Aaron has quite a running resume as well and will be joining Jodie in her triathlon endeavor.

As we get through the winter months, with the summer races on the horizon, I am happy to announce that group swims at Suffolk County Community College continue on Thursday nights at 8PM.  All are welcome ($15 drop in fee).  Also, we continue our group bike workouts outside, when the weather cooperates and at The Hub when the weather does not!  You can check out the calendar on my website for group workouts coming up:  http://www.ironfitendurance.com/Triathlon-Training-Long-Island-Group-Training

Thanks to all of my athletes for coming to the first annual IFE party on January 10^th.  It was so wonderful to have everyone there and to see how the group has grown in just one year!

Thanks again and Happy Training!

Dee :-)