City Coach | Nathanael Horne's Blog

Italy in the Summer

Gloria and I went to Italy for a wedding recently, and we stayed in Rome for about 4 days which is about enough time to see the major sights and attend a wedding. Running was the mainstay of training in Rome, which ment a lot of cobblesone running, even on the Tiber-front run/cycle path, which was interesting, but hard on the toes. Running around the Circus Maximus was a highlight.
We then went to southern Italy to see some realtives and stayted in Frigento, a small town of about 1200 in the mountains about an hour east of Naples, very rural. I brought my bike and Glo borrowed a Mtn bike from a local relative. Riding was great, low car volume and long, long climbs, up to an hour in duration. Staged the attached photo w/o a helmet bombing around a turn, but don't try that at home kids, I wear my helmet 99.999999 of the rest of time.

Ready or Not

Coach Cane recently reminded me that the Brooklyn Biathlon is only two weeks away- eeek!  Time to start sharpening up (and to begin blogging again- base training doesn't make for fascinating reading).  He prescribed a brick this weekend.  It is also time to make sure all the race gear is together and working.  I got a pair of the Zoot "sockless" running shoes from Jackrabbit and to my relief they performed admirably during my brick- very comfortable.  I am not sure how easy to get into and out of they are, though.  I just registered for the Westchester tri, sealing my decision not to go to olympic-distance nationals in Portland this year, as it is the same weekend. I had enough race travel on my plate with worlds in Vancouver.

My swim class with video analysis is over- I think I am swimming better, but most of all I am aware of how ugly my underwater form is.  I am super psyched to work on improvements over the next month or so and then goto the City Coach training camp to work on the swim with Robert and Lauren.

I am undecided about doing the Brooklyn half at this point.  I had been excited about a rumor that I had heard that the course was going to be run backward, but it appears that was just rumor.  I will have to see how my run fitness feels like it has been coming along over the next month.  In addition I feel as if I broke my toe or really inflamed the joint doing some fast intervals. I can run, but every hard run seems to aggravate the injury.

Tour De Syringe

Yesterday I went for a 'cross bike exploration of Northern Manhattan in Inwood and Highbridge Park with JP Partland.  We found tons of fun terrain, and explored the legal mtn bike park at Highbridge, rode the BMX pumptrack, and didn't quite have guts enough to go down the trail that was marked with double black diamonds and a sign that said "body armor and full-face helmet strongly recommended".  We also had fun avoiding the homeless encampments, broken glass and the other, best-left-nameless debris that one finds in urban parks.

Continued Crosstraining

On Sunday I did part of the Staten Island Half-Marathon with Terrence Gertchberg and George Robertson, as well as many other Nike and City Coach Runners- both are looking like their prep for the NY Marathon is coming along well.   I am almost sorry I am not doing it this year.

Then to continue my cross-training, I played kickball for the first time since... well I don't even remember when.  I was disappointed my City Coach teammates didn't make it to Central Park, as even JP Partland of Kissena Cycling Club made it and showed that he has some fast-twitch muscles to go with his cycling legs.  I guess y'all were afeared of my mighty kicking leg.  Suffice it to say, it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and we plan on doing it again soon, some of you guys will have to make it next time.  Judging by how sore I am today, all the sprinting and throwing made for good training.

'Cross Practice

I went to Cunningham park in Queens today with a bunch of Kissena 'cross guys to shake out the cobwebs and refresh my handling skills on dirt.  There is a legal mtn bike trail in the park, but it is a bit of a hike to get there from Manhattan.  I got a ride from former Kissena president Eric Ragot.  I had a blast, swooping through the woods like an Ewok on a hijacked storm trooper airbike.  There were also a bunch of legitimate mtn bikers there- (Killer, was that you with your new bike?)  not sure what they thought of us with our skinny tires, lycra and drop bars.  After some drills and a few spills, we made a dirt crit course in a meadow, with two runups per lap and we did 2 separate mini races, 10 minutes plus 1 lap each.  Fun!  It's amazing how fast you can go when competition is in the air.  Next step is to renew my USAC license and sign up for a race. Unsure what cyclocross is about? its kind of like steeplechase on a bicycle, you can see some the action on the following YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkOhzvv-4vA

New Studio

Did a shakedown Computrainer run in the awesome new 8 person studio with Geoff, Mordy and Shane last Sunday.  We were treated to a punchy and challenging course (15% gradient anyone?).  The old studio was cool, but the new one is great!  Y'all are in for a treat when the classes officially start.

Time To Get Over My Tubular Phobia

I am racing the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon this weekend and Westchester the following.  Both are Olympic Distance.  Westchester is a "A" race and I am thinking it will my last multisport event of the season- I am then going to do some cyclocross and focus on running some PR's and coached swimming over the winter (so I can improve my notoriously weak swim).

Anyway, Westchester is a formidably hilly bike course for those that haven't seen it before- I did a preview 2 weekends ago.  I didn't know what wheels to use, until Coach Cane busted out these superfly/superlight LEW tubulars.  I have never ridden a tubular before- I am scared of anything that is held on by glue- but I figured "why not" and "it's time to learn", so now I find myself trying to crash-course the process of gluing and changing a tubular in case I flat.  I also have to get a spare.  Not sure why I am really bothering- as the race is over if I flat anyway- but I might as well be able to ride back to the start/finish if it happens.  We'll see how it goes, but all of a sudden I find myself looking at tubulars with new interest...

In other news, the 24 year-old pup (Ben Collins) that crushed the field at USAT Nationals went on to win the World Championship by a minute over #2 from New Zealand.  Now I don't feel so bad.