My book
Some of you may know that a short while after I created this blog, I came up with the idea of using my experiences, both in coaching and competing in endurance sports, to write a book. Over the past year, the book has largely been a work in progress. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing parts of the book through my blog. Not sure if I will ever get around to finishing it and getting it published. The whole process has been quite a bit of fun.
Below you will find the cover, table of contents, preface, and first two chapters. Over the coming weeks I will release additional chapters. I hope you find my attempt at being an author informative, inspiring, and most importantly entertaining.
Sincerely,
Scot (The Multisport Maniac)
I hope you enjoy my stories, an inner look at
my training, and my guide on how you too can be a Multisport Maniac.
Below you will find the cover, table of contents, preface, and first two chapters. Over the coming weeks I will release additional chapters. I hope you find my attempt at being an author informative, inspiring, and most importantly entertaining.
Sincerely,
Scot (The Multisport Maniac)
Preface
Being an endurance athlete is not about the sport, but
rather the challenge. Whether it
is taking on a new distance, trying to set a personal record, or simple a new
adventure, it is the adrenaline and the feeling of accomplishment that makes us
who we are.
I started partaking in endurance sports in March of 2006
shortly after finishing graduate school. I had always been an athlete, playing many sports since the
age of 5, but this was my 1st true test in the endurance world. My 1st road race was a 5 kilometer
St. Patrick’s Day race in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The race consisted of some rolling hills
and finished with a flat sprint on the Minuteman Bike Path. That adrenaline surge I got once the
finish line was in sight was something unto itself.
Right around the same time period, I bought my first road
bicycle. Having struggled on my
old 10 speed Huffy commuting back and forth to work (my typical routes were 8 ½
to 11 miles each way) a few times, I decided it was time for an upgrade. My primary purpose in getting the bike
was commuting, but I was also interested in some group riding and even floated
the idea of possibly getting involved in triathlon. I laugh at it now, but when I bought the bicycle my friend
Mark told the salesman, “This is Scot, he is new to riding, but will be doing
50 mile Saturday morning rides in no time.” Little did I know what was in store for me?
In addition to getting into many sports, I also got into
coaching. Having roughly a 20 year
background in soccer at the time, my wife (Amy who will be repeatedly mentioned
throughout this book) and I started coaching an under 10 soccer team. As my interest in multisport activities
continued to grow, I also got into coaching triathlon and became a USA
Triathlon certified coach.
Over the years, my adventures grew to new heights and I have
participated in many different types of sports. In addition to running and cycling, I participate in swimming,
triathlon, trail running, cross country skiing, hiking, rock climbing, soccer,
and down hill skiing on a regular basis.
One of the things I have always loved about being a multisport athlete
is the cross training benefits between the sports.
After reading count less books on training for different
sports and a few more books on the exploits of endurance athletes, I started to
maintain a blog. It really started
out as a way to archive my stories, training, and race reports. Over the years it became a place to
consolidate my results: # of events completed, times, charity fundraising,
etc., etc. I started by just
publishing links to my posts on Facebook / Twitter to see if my friends would
read them.
- First some of my friends would mention here and there that they have been following my blog. I would get comments like, “You signed up for what? Are you crazy?” which is standard language for endurance athletes.
- Second I received a Christmas card from some friends informing me they love my blog. Which I found as a very interesting way to tell me they were reading it, but none the less appreciated.
- Third, one of my pro-triathlete friends mentioned that he was following my blog. Having a blog in the pro-triathlete world is actually quite common as it provides a way share race schedule and experiences with fans.
At this point I realized I might have something and decided
to embark on a new journey. The
main purpose of this book is to share my experiences in training for and taking
on events in different endurance sports and provide a guide to helping others
do the same. Some of them are more
main stream like running a half marathon while others are a little different
like taking on a winter triathlon (run, mountain bike, cross country ski) or an
8 stage triathlon through the mountains in the state of New York.
One of my draws to endurance sports has always been the
visible progress you get by working harder. You truly get out what you put in. I have learned countless lessons and made numerous friends
from taking on and coaching others through endurance events. As a net result I feel that I am much
stronger person, both mentally and physically.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part
1: Where it All Began
Chapter
1: Endurance Sports
Chapter
2: 1st Endurance Events
Chapter
3: The Early Years
Chapter
4: High School
Chapter
5: College
Chapter
6: My First Race
Chapter
7: Coaching
Part
2: Types of Events and How to Train for Them
Chapter
8: General Training for All Endurance Events
Chapter
9: Single Sport Events
Chapter
10: Multisport Events
Chapter
11: Goal Setting
Chapter
12: Racing
Chapter
13: Recovery
Part
3: Events
Chapter
14: The Tri-State Trek
Chapter
15: Firmman RI (1st Half Iron Triathlon)
Chapter
16: Hyannis Road Races
Chapter
17: Mooseman Half Iron
Chapter
18: The Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride
Chapter
19: Survival of the Shawangunks
Chapter
20: Gunstock Winter Triathlon
Chapter
21: Croom Fool’s 50K Trail Run
Chapter
22: The Vermont 50
Epilogue
About
the Author
Part 1: Where it All Began
Chapter 1: Endurance Sports
“Take
calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” -- George S. Patton
According to
Wikipedia, endurance sports are “… a subset of sports in which the goal
is prolonged athletic output over an extended distance or for an extended
period of time.” [1] The article continues on to stress that
they are aerobic in nature and lists a number of types of endurance sports, including
marathoning, rowing, cross country skiing, triathlon, and endurance motor
racing.
Aerobic vs. An-Aerobic
The difference between aerobic and an-aerobic is low
and high intensity exercise. When
the body is working out at a high intensity, the energy demands exceed the
capacity that can be generated purely from oxygen and carbohydrates are
consumed at a faster rate producing lactate. This also causes faster depletion of ones glycogen stores. Generally one does not work out solely
aerobically or an-aerobically, but somewhere in between. Most endurance sports function in the
mid to high aerobic zones. Well
trained individuals can generally run shorter road races or even take on sprint
triathlons an-aerobically. [2]
To me an endurance sport represents any event that requires
a plan to train for and to complete the event. This can be as informal as running three days a week before
taking on a road race to as formal as following a structured, periodized plan
with focuses on strength training, swimming, cycling, running, nutrition, and
rest (time off) for taking on a triathlon. To complete an endurance event successfully (or to best of
your abilities), requires creation of and execution of a plan.
Often this requires one to push outside of their comfort
zone, to dig deep, and struggle physically and emotionally. It is the effort and will power
required to push outside these bounds that lure most people into endurance
sports and that feeling of satisfaction and achievement is what keeps them there. After completing an event and knowing
what you are capable of makes you a stronger person, in all aspects of
life. Many endurance athletes cite
this struggle as one of the true feelings of knowing you are alive.
Completing an endurance event generally includes undergoing
a great deal of physical and mental pain, but often results priceless memories. Over time the recollection of the pain
fades quickly, but the feelings of accomplishment, of achievement, and of
success never go away.
Using the above definitions it is hard to say when I
completed my 1st true endurance event. After being a member of the track team in high school and college
and running a few short road races, I was quite familiar with pushing myself to
my an-aerobic limits (it is amazing how bad one can make oneself feel in under
a minute running a 400 meter race), but not as much on the aerobic side. 50 kilometer and 50 mile charity bike
rides and sprint triathlons are probably when I first made the transition to
endurance sports.
Chapter 2: 1st Endurance Events
“It is better to err on the
side of daring than the side of caution.” -- Alvin Toffler
Throughout this book I will describe events that I have
participated / competed in and follow up each set with a look at my training
for each event. My 1st
events didn’t have much structured training, but as I learned more about endurance
sports, I started following much more stringent plans.
The Event: Give Peace a Tri
URL: http://www.givepeaceatri.net
Date: July 7th, 2007
Distance: Sprint Triathlon (1/4 mile swim, 8 mile bike,
3.1 mile run)
Time: 53:52
Place: 34 / 174 Over All, 9 / 41 Age Group
On July 7th, 2007 (7/7/07 seemed like a pretty
lucky date to start), I completed my 1st triathlon, a short sprint
triathlon named “Give Peace A Tri” at Surry State Park in New Hampshire. It just so happened that I have
relatives that live roughly twenty minutes from the park, so my whole family
(mom and dad, sister, and wife) all made a weekend out of it. My sister also got into triathlons at
the same time so this was her first race too. The race was pretty low key (even for a sprint
triathlon). It consisted of a ¼
mile swim, 8 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run (Typical sprint races consist of a ¼ -
½ mile swim, 12-15 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run). The transition area (area in triathlon where you swap out
your equipment when switching from sport to sport) was a grass field and everyone
spread out beach towels randomly (generally there are bike racks and assigned
spaces). I was glad for the short
swim as I had just begun my attempt to really learn to swim (I had always swam in
pools and lakes as a kid, but never competitively) and didn’t see an 8 mile
ride or 3.1 mile run to be to hard.
A few things that I remember vividly about the day was a
nervous feeling the night before / morning off, feeling of complete panic when
the open water swim started, and feeling like I couldn’t move my legs at the
beginning of the run. None the
less, I made it through the event, quickly declared myself a triathlete, and
then headed back to my uncle’s house for celebratory burgers and beer. All and all it was a great experience
and I was ready for more.
Training for my 1st
Triathlon
Training for my 1st race was completely
unfettered. I didn’t really know
much about endurance sports at the time and new even less about triathlon. I got the gist that in order to
complete the race, you needed to do each of the events, but it never occurred
to me how much goes into planning out your transition and doing brick work
(workouts where you go directly from one sport to another) to train your body
to be able to transition from sport to sport. My training largely consisted of lap swimming, cycling back
and forth to work, running ~3 miles once or twice a week.
The Event: Harpoon Point to Point
URL: http://www.harpoonpointtopoint.com/
Date: August 11th, 2007
Distance: 54 Mile Charity Bike Ride
On August 11, 2007 (My 27th Birthday), Amy and I
completed the Harpoon Point to Point bike ride to benefit the Vermont Food
Bank. This was our 2nd experience
doing a charity ride and we highly recommend it to those who have a love for
cycling. The Harpoon Point to Point
has three options: 25, 50, and 115 miles.
We opted for the 50 mile route as our longest ride at the time was
37 miles and figured 50 sounded
like a good challenge (note that it is not recommended you ever try to go more
twice the distance of ride you have completed within recent months).
The way the 50 and 115 mile options work for the Point to
Point is you arrive at the brewery (Windsor, VT) bright and early and then get
bused off to the start and ride back to the brewery. The ride started in Royalston that year (the 50 mile start
has since been moved to Bethel), and upon further inspection of the queue
sheet, we realized the ride was 54 miles (instead of the advertised 50). After a few flat miles we found
ourselves climbing for what seemed like an eternity (was probably ~1000 feet over
6-7 miles) before finally reaching the first aid station.
Scared of what might be in store, we tried to settle in a comfortable
pace, but found ourselves next whipping around corners at 40 mph as we zoomed
down hill. This process repeated a
couple of times until we reached the aid station around mile 46. From here to the finish included one
last steep climb followed by one more down hill. Feeling pretty spent at this point I sucked down a
caffeinated gel packet and dug in with what I had left.
Charity Rides
Most
Charity rides generally include some type of hardship; whether it is steep
climbs, long distances, or multiple days, the goal is to make you work to
complete the ride. Since the
primary reason behind the event is to raise funds for those less fortunate,
suffering becomes a way to empathize.
It is this empathy and the ability to give back / help out that makes
charity rides so popular.
Harpoon and the Vermont Food Bank had planned this hill well
and all three of the distances had converged to the same route at this
point. Signs were placed every 50
yards up the hill informing you about the Vermont Food Bank’s work and the
prevalence of hunger in the state of Vermont. By the middle of the climb my quads were screaming and all I
could do was focus on getting to the next sign. By the top the hill, the signs became much more powerful and
I remember that last one saying, “eating is a right, not a luxury.”
Finally we cruised back into the parking lot at Harpoon,
showered (Harpoon has makeshift showers in tents setup for their athletic
events) and relaxed at the BBQ before a long drive home. I realized at this
point I was starting to become hooked and was anxiously researching my next
event.
Training for the
Harpoon Point to Point
Similar to my 1st triathlon, training for my
first 50 mile bike ride was pretty unstructured. It primarily consisted of cycling back and forth to work
with a few longer rides on the weekends.
Most weeks I would put three solid days of cycling in and then would be
so tired I had to take the next two days off before continuing. Soon I would learn how much of a
difference additional sleep and better diet would make.
[1] Definition
of Endurance Sports, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Endurance_sports
[2] Definition
of Aerobic Exercise, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_exercise
Tune in Next week for the next set of chapters. All feedback is welcome.
Scot
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