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The Hills are alive……

 This week brought the return of something that I’ve missed tremendously…..HILLS!   Those of you that know me know that I hate running and riding on flat areas and paths.  We have an incredible 6 mile path that goes through three or four different towns.  It’s always well maintained regardless of weather and it’s safe from traffic, but it’s FLAT!  I also hate the treadmill or as I call it the dreadmill.  Living in Bergen County there is no shortage of hills, short steep hills, rolling hills, long hills, you name it and we’ve got it. In the past my training regularly included hills and there were three areas that I frequented.  First was Akers, it was a quarter mile steep hill that was great for hill repeats.  Then there was Ridge Rd which is approximately one mile from bottom to top also good for longer repeats and lastly there is The Wegman’s Loop.  I would park my car at Lifetime and run over to Wegman’s.  The half mile run was the perfect warm up for what would lie ahead.  It’s appr
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What’s a little Nor’easter

 Well here in the Northeast we went from mild January temperatures to freezing cold to Nor’easter in a flash!  The forecast from the “experts” I use that phrase lightly, was 8-12 inches of snow, frigid temperatures and wind gusts of 20mph or higher.   I’ve been in a great rhythm with my workouts lately, feeling stronger and stronger each day.  I was excited to do my first hill workout this past Thursday, but frigid temperatures at 5AM put that on hold.  After a brief conversation with my coach he decided to replace the hill run with a hard-ish bike workout and a progression run(faster each few minutes).  This was my first “speed work” of any kind of this training cycle.  Given my restrictions with my heart rate I really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out GREAT!  All of my low intensity workouts definitely started to pay dividends when I pushed a little bit. So this morning we had our weekly Zoom and Zwift with my team.  Miles and minutes definitely fly by when we are togethe
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No Excuses

 One thing that I pride myself on when it comes to my training is being disciplined about it.  Sometimes that discipline makes me a dull boy and more often than not Lori suffers for it.  It’s hard to make plans and have a social life when I have a long ride or run to do and I want to be in bed early to make sure I get those precious zzzzz’s.  I also really don’t drink that often while I’m training not for any specific reason, but I just tend not to.   Last night however was one of those rare occurrences.  I had been exchanging texts with a friend who we hadn’t seen in a while and we decided to have a virtual cocktail.  I figured, one tequila while catching up and that would be that.  Well, the first one went down like water and so I had a second.  Jordan had a friend over and his parents were coming to pick him up so we had invited them to come in for a little while so the boys could continue to hang out.  They arrived and I ended the FaceTime call to catch up with another friend in re
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Habits>Resolutions

 I’ve never been a resolution guy for the same reason that I believe New Year’s Eve is amateur night out.  Yes, it’s the start of a new year and I know some people look at it like a clean slate, a turn of the page a chance to start a new.  However, there is a saying that “Motivation is crap.  Motivation comes and goes.  When you’re driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed”. Just look at the gym parking lot on any given day in January or February…..packed, can’t get a spot.  Show up to that same gym in March……different story.  The motivated have moved on and the driven are thrilled to have their gym back.   I like to think that I am goal oriented and therefore driven.  Don’t get me wrong my motivation comes and goes throughout my training cycle, but my drive toward my goal is what keeps me moving forward.  On December 31st I take my calendar down and replace it with the next year’s calendar.  This year as I did it Jordan was standing in my room and as he flipped through 20
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They’re always watching……

 The day after Christmas 2021, it was supposed to be day 2 of my bachelor week.   Let me bring you up to speed, ever since I’ve been a wholesaler it’s been impossible for me to go away for winter break because it’s year end for business.  I need to be home to help my agents get business submitted and paid for year end.  A couple of months ago my sister in law and my nephew decided to go to Florida to see my in laws and suggested that Jordan and Lori join them.  Just because I can’t get away they shouldn’t suffer, so it was decided.  For months both Lori and Jordan were looking forward to this trip, a break from the everyday and the cold and the routine.   In true 2021 fashion Covid decided that she’d make one last stand.  A new variant swept across the world starting a few months ago and caused a little more chaos.  People traveling to see family they haven’t seen in over a year sent travel to pre pandemic levels.  That being said it wasn’t vaccines that were in high demand, but rather
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Favorite Time of the year

 Ah, late December, holidays are here, kids getting ready for Winter Break, generally a favorite time of the year for many. I happen to have two favorite times of the year for different, but similar reasons.  The first is the first week of April because it’s Masters week.  Even though I don’t play as much golf as I used to that week is still extremely special to me because it was a special week that I would spend watching the greatest golf tournament in the world with my father.  He’s gone almost 18 years yet Jordan and I still watch the Masters every year and carry on that tradition. This week also tends to be a favorite for me because it is the week of the PNC Parent Child Championship.  It is a golf tournament where former major winners get the chance to play with a family member.  Most, but not all are father son pairings.  My dad and I had our fair share of success in father son golf tournaments and earlier this year Jordan and I won our first parent child tournament.  Today thoug
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Roll with it

 Last week made me remember that training isn’t always perfect and neither is life.  My early week workouts were great, felt strong and execution was on point.  I had purposely flipped my Friday swim and Saturday long ride because we were going to Long Island for the weekend, more on that in a second.  Friday’s ride was great!  One of the big things that my coach has me working on this off season is making sure that I’m riding more efficiently which will in turn help me to run better off of the bike.  It’s kind of like driving a car, if you slam on the gas and then the breaks over and over your fuel efficiency will suck, but if you apply even pressure to the pedal than better gas mileage.  So, it’s all about a constant output of energy on the bike.  Enough of the technical side, my numbers were great on Friday. We headed out to Long Island and after dropping Jordan off at a Bar Mitzvah I headed to the gym to swim.  I showed up, changed and headed to the pool only to find out that at th
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