2011 Year End Summary

I had a great 2011.  Most importantly, Marlene and I spent a ton of quality time with our daughters Mikayla (5) and Kaiya (3).  They are getting big!  Mikayla started kindergarten at PS 199 in August and is thriving.  Kaiya continues to attend the Tender Care program at the West Side YMCA and she loves it too!  They love their gymnastics classes at Chelsea Piers (Mikayla is in a hot shots program and Kaiya seems to be on the same path), love to dance (as much as they can, Mikayla is currently taking a hip hop dancing class), movie night (usually Fridays), enjoy playing catch, and enjoy playing games (currently Go Fish and War).  Mikayla loves the monkey bars (see the video below) and Kaiya loves to go swimming and looking at the "big" pool with her daddy everyday before and after school.

Mikayla on the monkey bars (November 2011)


Kaiya Dancing (aka "Club Kaiya")




My 2011 Health and Fitness accomplishments

• Completed my first Ironman race on August 28, 2011 - Ironman Canada
• Completed two half Ironman races (Rev 3 Quassy and Bassman)
• Completed two marathons (New York on 11/6/11 and Las Vegas on 12/4/11)
• Completed my 9+1 requirement for automatic entry into the 2012 New York City Marathon
• Completed 14 other races (13 running, 1 swimming)
• Began following a plant based (Vegan) diet on 9/5/11 - immediately felt better and lost 22 pounds in about 8 weeks.  Other benefits that I have experienced from changing my diet (including the complete elimination of high fructose corn syrup, all sodas, and all caffeine):
• My recovery from hard/speed workouts is noticeably better.  I can run hard today and recover quickly so I can run hard (or even harder) the next day without getting injured
• I'm more relaxed
• I sleep better
• I'm a much faster runner at the same effort level as before changing my diet
• I feel lean
• I really enjoy what I eat; the key is to find what you love to eat and do it!
• My recent blood work results were fantastic - the best they have ever been
• I eat a ton to maintain my weight, easioy
• My belt size is currently a 32, which hasn't happened since high school
• Year end weight - 177.  Started the year with my weight at 201 (a loss of 24 pounds)
• When I left Goldman Sachs in November 2008 I weighed approximately 225 pounds, so I'm down about 48 pounds from then (21%)
• For the first time in my life, I feel like I have the proper balance between diet and exercise
• Set personal records (PRs) in the following distances in 2011:
• 5-K (3.1 mile race) - 7:07 pace (after running a 9 mile warm up)
• 3.5 mile race - 6:57 pace
• Half Marathon - 1:40 (first half of the Las Vegas marathon on 12/4), a 7:38 per mile pace
• Marathon  - 3:33 - Las Vegas 12/4/11, an 8:09 per mile pace (a 9 minute PR over the NYC marathon on 11/6/11 and a 23 minute PR over my 3:56 2010 Chicago Marathon time)
• Half Ironman
• Ironman - 13 hours 15 minutes
• I'm in the best shape of my life and have never felt better.  Being lean rules!
• Ended the year healthy after starting the year hurt (had to take 6-8 weeks off from running in early 2011)
• I don't focus on how many miles I exercise anymore.  Rather, I'm much more focused on the time I exercise with a focus on quality over quantity. Having said this, I thought it would be interesting to look at my 2011 mileage totals:
• Running
• Total 2011 miles run - 1,460 miles (28 miles per week)
• Peak day - 26.2 miles (3 times)
• Peak week - 54 miles
• Cycling
• Total 2011 miles cycled - 2,665 miles (51 miles per week)
• Peak day - 112 miles (Ironman Canada); 102 miles (17 loops of Central Park)
• Swimming
• Total 2011 miles swam - 88 miles (1.7 miles per week)
• Peak day - 2.4 miles (Ironman Canada)
• Total 2011 miles = 4,213 miles
• Average number of workouts per week I did in 2011 was 7.67, by far the highest I have ever achieved (2010 was 4.89 workouts per week, my previous best). 
• Frequently, during my Ironman training, I exercised twice a day. 
• I've been tracking this stat since 2001.  Previous results:
• 2011 - 7.67
• 2010 - 4.89
• 2009  - 4.38
• 2008 - 3.69
• 2007 - 4.29
• 2006 - 3.0
• 2005 - 3.21
• 2004 - 3.23
• 2003 - 3.13
• 2002 - 4.44
• 2001 - 3.11

2012 goals

• Stay healthy
• Enjoy exercising
• Continue my plant based (vegan) diet with the goal of reversing my coronary artery disease.  Get calcium score test to check progress at the end of 2012 or sometime in 2013
• Set a personal record (PR) in every distance I race in 2012
• Do my 9+1 New York Road Runners races for automatic qualification for the 2013 New York City Marathon
• Focus on quality over quantity for all workouts/training
• Complete Ironman New York - August 2011
• Complete the New York Marathon in November 2011

2011 Completed Races

16. December 4, 2011 - Las Vegas Marathon - 3:33 (8:09 per mile)
15. November 6, 2011 - New York City Marathon - 3:42 (8:30 per mile)
14. November 5, 2011 - Dash to the Finish Line 5-K (8:03 per mile)
13. September 17, 2011 - Run for Central Park - 4 miles (7:50 per mile)
12. August 28, 2011 - Ironman Canada - 2.4 mile swim (1:33), 112 mile bike (6:44), Marathon (26.2 mile) run - (4:32). Overall time 13 hours 15 minutes.
11. July 16, 2011 - Central Park Conservancy Run for Central Park - 4 miles (8:16 per mile)
10. July 9, 2011 - Boomer's Run to Breath - 10-K - Central Park (8:23 per mile pace)
9. June 25, 2011 - Front Runners 2011 Gay Pride Race - Central Park - 5 mile run (7:38 per mile pace)
8. June 15, 2011 - JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge - 3.5 mile race (6:57 per mile, a PR)
7. June 5, 2011 - Rev 3 Quassy Half Ironman (Middlebury, CT) - 1.2 mile swim (55 minutes), 56 mile bike (3 hours 20 minutes, 16.8 mph), 13.1 mile run (1 hour 57 minutes, 8:59 per mile pace) - 6 hours, 21 minutes
6. May 21, 2011 - Magic Shoe 5-K race - Newport Beach, California. 22:08 (7:07 per mile).
5. May 7, 2011 - 2.4 mile open water "Ironswim" in Clinton, New Jersey - 1 hour 45 minutes.
4. May 1, 2011 - Bassman (New Jersey) Half Ironman - 5:54:23 - (1.2 mile swim, 58 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) - 5 hours 54 minutes (50 minute swim, 3:03 bike (19.0 mph), 1:53 half marathon (8:41 pace)
3. April 17, 2011 - Run for the Parks 4 mile race - 7:16 per mile
2. April 10, 2011 - Nautica South Beach Triathlon - Miami Beach, Florida - Olympic Distance (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) - 3 hours, 13 minutes
1. January 8, 2011 - NYRR Fred Lebow Classic - 5 Miles - 7:43 pace

2011 Las Vegas Marathon - No bug juice! - Marathon #6

Date:  12/4/11
Race:  2011 Las Vegas Marathon
Distance:  26.2 miles
Time: 3 hours 33 minutes (a PR by 9 minutes) - 8:09 pace per the race; my Garmin Watch had me at 26.45 miles / 8:05 pace

Race start time:  Marathon  - 4 PM (run in the evening so that runners could run down the strip in the dark to see lights); half marathon 5:30 PM
Participants:  44,000 (6,000 marathoners, 38,000 half marathoners)
Weather:  low 50s at start of Marathon, low 40s at the end.  Perfect.
Course:  Marathoners - first 13 miles off the strip, last 13 miles on the strip, merging with the half marathoners during mile 14

• Course was sold as flat and fast but the first 13 miles had some long, gradual hills as well as a few large hills (over the highways). My Garmin watch showed 442 feet of elevation gain.  Overall most of the race was flat, but certainly not all of it.

Nutrition: 

• 2 powerbar gels prior to the race (45 and 15 minutes before the race), 5 gels during the race (3 in the first 10 miles, a 4th during mile 15, the 5th during mile 19.  All gels without caffeine.
• 1 banana at mile 15
• 1/3 of a bottle of Gatorade during miles 15 and 16
• No other electrolytes ingested during the race.  Cytomax was the electrolyte beverage served on the course, which is not a Vegan beverage, so I didn't drink it on the course.  Feel like I would have done even better if I could have had more electrolyte drink.  At the expo, when I asked if Cytomax was vegan, a guy working the booth said "almost, but technically no, as there is a little juice from a bug in the drink".  No bug juice for me!!!
  

Race goal:  sub 3:40

• Prior to the race, I felt like I was in shape to run in the low 3:30s if I had a great race, but also knew that the race would slow down after the first half marathon due to the large number of half marathon runners
• I had a great first half marathon, running a 1:40 (7:38 per mile pace).  I felt great and felt like I could hold a sub 8 minute per mile pace for a while longer, but when we merged with the half marathon runners, it was complete mayhem!  They had cones up asking the marathon runners to stay to the left and the half marathoners to the right, but nobody was following the signs and many of the half marathoners I came up on were walking or running much slower.  I had to work hard to run 8:15-8:30 minute miles for miles 15  - the end of the race.  I was OK with it, although I know I could have been faster if not so crowded.  Many of the marathon runners were getting frustrated, even bumping into me/throwing elbows.  Not worth getting worked up, if you ask me.  I enjoyed the rest of the race, knowing that I was going to PR.  Maybe next time I can break 3:30.
• The mayhem continued after the race, where 44,000 people merged together in the Mandalay Bay hotel to big up bags and get back to their hotels.  At the same time, a show let out at the hotel, so it was so packed that people were stuffed together like a Tokyo subway.  I got lucky to catch the tram to Excalibur, where I took a cab back to Vdara where we were staying.  The tram was so crowded that I felt like I was going to pass out.  Luckily I didn't, but many runners got sick at the hotel and the paramedics had to attend to a lot of people.  Also heard that a lot of runners got sick on the course from drinking the water on the course, which is rumored to have come from fire hydrants.

Splits:
Mile 1 - 7:52
Mile 2 - 7:42 (uphill)
Mile 3- 7:34
Mile 4 - 7:18 (downhill)
Mile 5 - 7:38 (long, noticeable, gradual uphill)
Mile 6 - 7:35
Mile 7 - 7:25
Mile 8 - 7:37
Mile 9 - 7:53 (big uphill up a bridge over the highway)
Mile 10 - 7:42 (uphill)
Mile 11 - 7:47
Mile 12 - 7:47
Mile 13 - 7:38 (getting close to the strip)
Mile 14 - 7:46
Mile 15 - 8:23 (mayhem, couldn't run faster than 8:15 without having to work hard to pass people, not worth going to war.  Picked up Gatorade, banana, and 2 gels from Marlene)
Mile 16 - 8:20
Mile 17 - 8:14 (trying to tuck myself behind other faster runners)
Mile 18 - 8:18
Mile 19 - 8:30 (frequently ran on the sidewalks during miles 18-22 to avoid the crowds, but then the spectators wouldn't move!  Was also tough for me to go up and down curbs, as my ankle was still bothering me from spraining it during the NYC Marathon a month ago.  After the race, it was very swollen)
Mile 20 - 8:11
Mile 21 - 8:50
Mile 22 - 8:46
Mile 23 - 8:52 (feeling the gradual uphill during the last 3-4 miles, trying to stay under 9:00 per mile.  At the time, I couldn't figure out why it was harder for me to run a faster pace.  Now I understand why - my  Garmin file shows a long, gradual uphill from miles 20-26)
Mile 24 - 8:51
Mile 25 - 8:51
Mile 26 - 8:47
Last 0.45 - 8:03 (ran sub 7:00 for the last quarter mile and was passing everybody.  I saw the 3:33:02 clock in the distance and wanted to record a 3:33, so I pushed at the end)

Average heart rate 166

Click here for my Garmin File


Overall:  Very happy with my time given that it was my second marathon in less than a month and despite the crowded conditions.  I figured out that I enjoy running in the sun more than in the dark.
Here is a link to my brightroom finishing video and pictures.  Take a look at how crowded the finish was for the half marathoners (on the left).  I decided not to buy this video and the pictures in protest of them not having a camera set up for the marathoners as well as because they don't have a picture of me crossing the finish line (they had 16,000 lost and found pictures to look through - I looked through a bunch but found it too frustrating to look).  I finish at 3:33:49 on the video, in a black shirt with a white bib all the way on the right side of the screen (I run right through the finish line without raising my arms).

Brightroom Finishing Video and Pictures

Very cool medal!!!!!  I like that there were different medals for the marathoners vs the half marathoners (although I heard that they ran out of medals!!)

2011 Las Vegas Marathon Finisher Certificate