Brain Surgery to Ironman

 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 per...

 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 m...

 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 Fa...

 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 Jorda...

 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 was...

 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 par...

 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 he...

 Another solid week of training in the books.  All green in TrainingPeaks means no missed workouts again which is something that I’ve always taken great pride in.  I’ve always believed that having a coach is having an accountability partner, yes it’s one that you pay, but that makes it all more important to me to do every single workout he gives me.   This week’s big win for me was not the endurance training aspect, but rather the gains in the gym.  Ever since I started my triathlon career my coaches have stressed the importance of not only lifting, but lifting heavy.  In 2018 while training for Maine 70.3 I looked back and realized that one of the reasons I didn’t get hurt, not even a niggle in 10 months of training was likely due to the strength training.  I am very aware that as a “older” athlete the need to strength train and lift heavy is paramount to staying injury free. So, I did 2 heavy strength workouts this week, my go to is the simple tried ...

 So, I’m now back being officially coached for almost a full month and to say it has been a learning experience would be an understatement.  My body has already done 140.6 miles and even with almost 6 weeks off the expectation was that muscle memory would take over relatively quickly and I’d jump right back into a 6 day a week training schedule.  What we didn’t expect was the changes to my training and nutrition that are a result of the cluster headaches. For the last month I have been doing all of my running at a very low heart rate with no focus on pace.  A friend told me that the pace would get faster at the lower heart rate as long as I was patient and trusted the process which I have so far.  This past Thursday was Thanksgiving and with it came the annual turkey trot races.  I decided that this would be as good a time as any to do an early season test of my new training on a fairly hilly 5k course.  I spoke to my coach prior and we decided that I ...

 Another full week of training in the books.  This phase that will last for a fair amount of time is known as the base building phase.  Ironman training is not all that different than building a house or a business, you have to start with a strong and solid foundation or base.  After not really exercising at all for all of September and half of October  because of the cluster headaches it feels good to be headache free and in a groove.   Last year while training for my first Ironman I got in the habit of writing down all of my workouts on a calendar.  I’m not a pen and paper guy by any stretch of the imagination and my workouts are all in an app on my phone called TrainingPeaks, but I got in the habit last year of writing them down as well.  Something about seeing them in my handwriting every day and subsequently checking the box every day was even more satisfying than turning the “boxes” green on the app.  It has become my Sunday evening rit...

 I just realized that I completely dropped the ball on keeping this blog updated.  On August 21 of this year I along with two of my close friends completed the first and likely only Ironhorseman 140.6 mile triathlon.  Canada never opened their border so our back up plan became the primary plan.  It truly was an incredible experience that I got to share with family and friends and had the most incredible surprise waiting for me at the finish.  After running down the street in the rain and embracing Lori and Jordan at the end of a long day I had one more thing waiting……a video message that Lori had arranged from Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman.  He uttered the words I had worked so hard to hear, Jonathan Schwartz, You are an Ironman!!!! The only thing that can possibly top that will be to hear those words on July 24, 2022 on the 5 year anniversary of my second brain surgery live and in person in Lake Placid.  That’s right, I’m going to do this again, b...

 Hard to believe that January is behind us.  Less than 200 days until Ironman Mont Tremblant or the first annual Bergen County 140.6.  This first week of February also marked my biggest week of training volume since starting training in November.  The cool thing about these bigger weeks is that they not only push me, but they give me a good indication of how I’m progressing.  Last week was my first real test, it was my FTP, functional threshold test, on the bike.  I went in with no real expectations, after all I hadn’t “tested” in a long time.  I also started working with a group of like minded athletes focusing on mindset, just another layer of accountability.  They made me realize that whatever the number was on the test is right where I’m supposed to be now!  This way of thinking definitely helped and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.  More importantly, the first week of workouts with my new FTP was challenging, but not imp...

 December 11, 2012-December 11, 2020..........8 years and it seems like a lifetime ago.  When I went to sleep last night I said to Lori that I couldn’t believe it had been 8 years since my first surgery.  I remember being in the hospital watching the news and seeing the stories about Superstorm Sandy and the benefit concert that was taking place or the horrific news out of Connecticut about the senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Eight years later and it’s a pandemic the world hasn’t seen in a century, it’s a child in the White House who can’t accept defeat, but one of the things i’ve learned over the years is to not to watch the news because it’s negativity that I don’t need in my life. While the world has changed and stayed the same in a lot of ways, my life has certainly changed and only for the better. My surgery awoke a new passion and drive that had long dissipated, that drive to challenge myself and become a better man, a better husband and a ...

 As I write this it is the end of November and Thanksgiving weekend, the official start to the holiday season.  Obviously this Thanksgiving was different than years past given this alternate universe we seem to be living in, but different doesn’t mean bad.  As a matter of fact there was a lot of good to come out of this weekend and November in general.  Fortunately the weather has been unseasonably warm thus far which I love, I am not now and never was a fan of the cold weather.  Remember, I was a golfer growing up! I had made Jordan a promise this summer that I would continue taking him to the driving range and getting him lessons through the winter so he could develop the skills and fundamentals necessary to make him a better golfer.  We are at the stage now where most 11 year olds, and Jordan is no different, tend to get bored and annoyed because his lessons and range time mainly consist of “building”.  We start with a good position at address and a...

 I have found over the course of this journey that in order to really be successful in all aspects of life you need a person or persons to hold you accountable.  These accountability partners can sometimes be the difference between getting a workout done or not.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very type A personality, driven by success and goals, but having accountability partners is just another layer in the secret sauce of success.  First and foremost I have Lori and Jordan at home.  Lori occasionally thinks I’m crazy, but supports my craziness.  Whether it’s a “you’re going to be pissed if you don’t get up and do this” or “I think a tattoo is sexy”, Lori is always in my corner.  Jordan has always been my biggest fan and inspiration, from the sweaty hugs, to the “come on dad, you are going to be an Ironman” he is part of my “why”.  I want him to always know that if he works hard there is nothing he can’t do.  Then there’s my coach and past coach...

   We are definitely living in strange times to say the least.  Being out in public and seeing all of the masked faces, trying to identify friends by the way they walk, their body language or even their eyes, it is all very surreal yet it seems to be the new normal.  A lot has changed in a year in all facets of my life.  When races and life in general seemed to get canceled and the world seemed darkest is when I started to shift my focus.  After the initial disappointment I realized that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  A chance to spend more time with my family, more father son time on the golf course, watching Jordan develop a love and passion for a game that was and still is a big part of who I am.  Today with me working from home and Jordan’s hybrid schedule we get to go for a walk everyday at lunchtime, more family dinners on weekends, these are the things that I am thankful for in a time of uncertainty.  Last week also brough...

Those of you who know me know that I have been nothing but optimistic since my journey started in December of 2012.  Double vision and can’t play golf, no big deal I’ll start running.  May need brain surgery a second time, no big deal, control what I can control.  Actually need second brain surgery, no big deal, set big goal and focus and attack it.  Brain aneurysm, no big deal, start training for a full Ironman. Even when this pandemic began almost 6 weeks ago, I stayed laser focused.  When the country basically shut down through the end of April I knew in the back of my mind that my first 2 races of the season were likely in jeopardy and I was ok with that because they were not my “A” races so when I got the email last week that Connecticut 70.3 was canceled, I was ok with it.  After all, it wasn’t my goal race.  No, my goal race is not until the end of August.  However, that may now be in jeopardy as a Montreal newspaper reported late last wee...

Here we are, 3 weeks working from home, 2 weeks of my son being home schooled and I don’t know when I’ve been busier.  At first I thought, working from home would make it easier to get workouts done, less travel time to the pool, the gym, my bike trainer.......boy was I wrong!  Instead I actually find myself working harder than usual to get it all in.  However, it is getting done, except the pool of course.  Gyms have been closed for 2 weeks, my last swim was March 13th and I can honestly say I miss it! The other thing that has been happening on an almost daily basis is race cancellations.  Now, I can’t speak for all endurance athletes, but for me the race is the celebration of all the training.  When you think about it, the race distance and time it takes to complete it pales in comparison to the miles and hours of training.  Last weekend I was supposed to run the Fallen Comrades Half Marathon at West Point and like all other races it was canceled. ...

Worry about what you CAN control and not what you can’t!  This is a mantra that I lived by from 2015 when I found out that I “might” need a second surgery until early 2017 when I found out I would in fact have a second surgery.  I truly believe that I had I waited for the other shoe to drop and not lived my life to the fullest, I would have wound up losing my mind! Here we are in March of 2020 and the country, actually the world is in the grips of a pandemic unlike anything most people have experienced in their lifetime.  The last time I remember witnessing something even remotely like this were the days following 9/11.  Long lines at the grocery stores, desolate parking lots at usually peak hours in town, even the gym parking lot was noticeably less crowded on this gorgeous Sunday morning.  Schools being closed, cities shutting down and what may seem minor to most in the grand scheme of things........races being cancelled. People, myself included, spend a tre...

So, it’s been an interesting week full of highs and lows.  Since I started running 7 years ago I have been keenly aware that the path to race day isn’t linear.  There are ups and downs like any other journey, it’s just a matter of making sure to remain as even keeled as possible.  This was one of those weeks.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will test in all 3 disciplines regularly so that my coach can monitor my progress.  This week was my swim test.  Each coach has a different method for conducting these tests, mine prefers a 1000 yard test.  The last time I performed this I swam my 1000 yards in 18:53.  Of all the disciplines, swimming has been the one that I’ve been seeing the biggest gains in lately so I was looking forward to this.  After completing my warm up I began the test.  I was cruising along and felt really good, but I also felt like I was swimming slowly, more on that in a minute.  As I got to the last 50 yards I...