Author: Brian

So…this is looong overdue. Work and family life have kept me incredibly busy recently, but I have managed to get a few training runs in for my last athletic event of 2014–the Trenton Half-Marathon on November 8.

On Sunday, October 26, I completed a 10-mile run in 1:35:51–a new personal best at that distance, eclipsing my 2014 Broad Street Run time of 1:36:21. Unfortunately, my Nike+ kept going for a bit after I stopped so it wound up recording a little more than 10 miles at 1:36:28. The week before (October 18), I ran 8 miles in 1:16:42.

I’m going to try to get in one more short training run before the half-marathon.

Oh, I also ran in the in the inaugural WXPN 5K Run for Musicians On Call on October 5 and completed that in a personal-best 5K time of 23:04 (although I’m 99.9% sure the course was not measured out right, as…

Well, I completed the Atlantic City International Triathlon yesterday and finished in just a tad more than three hours, which is pretty much what I expected.

Before I get into my exact time and splits, I just want to share my thoughts on my first–and likely my last–international triathlon experience. While the weather–clear and cool at around 60° F–was perfect for such strenuous activity, it was a bit on the windy side for the bike ride with winds out of the north at approximately 17 m.p.h. (with 20 m.p.h. gusts). While the Atlantic City Expressway–where we rode, for the most part–is considered an east-west roadway, the section near Atlantic City has more of a northwest-southeast tilt so we were getting a lot of that wind in our faces for when we were riding away from Atlantic City.

Also, at the second turn of the one-mile swim, I suddenly noticed I was going against…

I kind of promised in my last update that I would provide more detail regarding my performance in the Hightstown Triathlon on August 17, but thinking about it some more…there really wasn’t a lot more to say. I mean, I know the swim component of these triathlons are going to be the toughest for me to complete. My 10:24 time for the quarter-mile swim at Hightstown included a few breaks, but was probably a best-case scenario for me. My transition times were pretty terrible, but—as much as I wanted to—I didn’t really get a whole lot of time to practice that, especially going from swim to bike. If I can improve anywhere at this point, it’s during the transitions.

Also, the last two times I’ve taken off the wet suit after a swim, I have suffered a slight charley horse in both calf muscles while trying to get my feet out of…

I’ll go more in depth about my performance in this morning’s Hightstown Triathlon in my next update. For now, I just wanted to share the results. In a nutshell, my total time was about where I expected to be—maybe a little faster as the swim went better than I thought it would. I need to get my transition times lower, though. OK, here are my splits and total time from today’s sprint triathlon in Hightstown, N.J.

1/4-mile swim – 10:24
Transition 1 – 4:26
15.3-mile bike – 50:16
Transition 2 – 2:59
5K (3.1-mile) run – 26:01
TOTAL – 1:34:06

Results for the Hightstown Triathlon will supposedly be posted at http://www.dqtridu.com/. When I saw the total time on the results sheet posted at the finish line, it said 1:34:05, but that’s not what those times add up to so I added the extra second.

Up next for me is the Atlantic City Triathlon

Well, I’m about to go to bed since I have to be up REALLY early in the morning, but thought I would post this before I participate in tomorrow’s (Aug. 17)  Hightstown Triathlon. I’m not as prepared as I wanted to be, but I at least feel pretty good about getting through the bike and run components. I still have concerns about the swim, but hopefully I will do OK.

A reminder…the Hightstown Triathlon is a sprint tri, which consists of a quarter-mile swim in Peddie Lake, a 15.33-mile bike ride and a 5K run. In addition to being a competitive event in its own right, it is also a warm-up for the Atlantic City Triathlon next month.

The Atlantic City Triathlon is a longer, international (Olympic) tri–a one-mile bay swim, a 20-mile bike ride along the A.C. Expressway and a 10K run that is mostly on the boardwalk.

A new, 10-episode season of the “Technology and the Arts” webcast will make its debut at 10 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, and run weekly through Monday, Nov. 10, 2014, on its Web site (http://technologyandthearts.com) and on its YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/technologyandthearts).

Hosted by John LeMasney and Brian Kelley, “Technology and the Arts” explores the connections between technology and art. In 2014, each episode of Technology and the Arts will focus on a specific topic of discussion, such as cord-cutting, art as community service and the “greening” of art through technology. Please see the full schedule at the end of this press release for more information.

“We’ve enjoyed the live aspect of the webcast these past couple of years,” said LeMasney. “This year, instead of talking about several different issues and concepts each episode, we’re going to focus our discussions on a singular topic each…

Well, it’s less than a week until I participate in my first triathlon—the Hightstown (sprint) Triathlon on August 17—and I feel totally unprepared despite all these months of training.

Why do I feel this way? It’s because I finally got in a practice lake swim last Saturday—in the very lake I’ll be swimming next weekend—and it did not go well at all. Most of the problem was just freaking out at the difference between swimming in a pool and in a lake. I didn’t start flailing about or anything, but, mentally, it really wreaked havoc on my technique (which isn’t all that great to begin with) and—for want of a technical term—just flat out messed me up.

I did manage to do two practice loops, which amounted to approximately 600 yards. However, I did take an extended break between the two loops and rested often during my swim. I think I’ll…

So…it’s been close to a month since my last training update. Unfortunately, I haven’t really done much training in that time as I have been busy with life and work commitments—AND getting my ass kicked by a cold that stayed with me for close to three full weeks.

Actually, on July 8—the day I posted the last training update before this one—I got in a 10-mile bike ride (33:59) and 2-mile run (18:28). Other than that, I have only managed to complete three 20-mile bike rides and a handful of 5K-distance runs since then.

Of course, the troubling part is that my next big event is the Hightstown Triathlon just a couple of weeks away on August 17. That event is a sprint triathlon consisting of a 0.25-mile swim, a 14-mile bike ride and a 5K run. I would really love to get in either a pool or open-water swim before that, but…

New Jersey recently saw the debut of a new, online magazine covering the arts throughout the state.

New Jersey Stage contains features on and interviews with artists from the Garden State as well as with national artists performing in the area.

“Two things make the magazine unique,” said Gary Wien, who publishes the magazine through Wine Time Media, in a press release announcing the launch. “One is the way articles come alive with the help of audio and video clips. The other is the way the magazine can be read on any computer, tablet, or even a smart phone. In fact, it’s actually designed to look great for mobile users.”

The debut issue, available now for free at http://www.newjerseystage.com/magazine, includes interviews with:

• New Jersey musician Jack Skuller who recently was awarded the Holly Prize by the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Comedian Dom Irrera, who is performing at the Tropicana in Atlantic…