Nick stepping in for Day 160 of the 365 Challenge. Out in Ithaca, NY for the weekend as my brother has a big race this weekend against Princeton and Yale for the Carnegie Cup Crew Race. Nice to be back on the East Coast and excited to continue my training in this near summer east coast weather. Also, after a great San Diego trip with the Cornell Crew team (picture below after a volleyball game), I was ready to be back with the guys for another race weekend on their home course.

Friday proved to be a big day in terms of my training. While Alex and his team paddled the course in preparation for the race on Saturday, I went for an 11.5 mile run on the outskirts of Ithaca. First mile was down to the brand new Boat house. 2nd mile was next to the railroad tracks along the river. The third was behind home depot and towards the highway before I ventured off into the woods, found a path that led me to a park with a very steep hill. The 6:15 min per mile pace that I was hitting came to an immediate decrease as I climbed the almost 2 mile hill. Pace dropped to about 7:40 per mile until I was able to get cruising again at the crest. Turn around after a few incredible views overlooking the farmland country of Ithaca, NY and headed back down the hill at sub 5 minute pace.

Returned to the boat house as the team was docking. Got a good dead lift leg workout in with one legged pushups to strengthen the core in between sets. Was very exhausted since that was my longest run since mid December. Feeling great and excited for this weeks’ workouts in all the different cities with different friends and family members.

Keep up the training. It will pay dividends.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

This week seemed to have flown by faster than many other weeks in a while. It’s officially spring time so that means my traveling season is well on its way. With Portland, Nashville, San Diego and Florida already under my belt, I’m looking forward to the next few weeks spread out in upstate New York, Philadelphia, Boston and New Hampshire. My workouts as of late have been going really well. I have logged almost 40 miles per week for the past two weeks. Been getting into a regular lifting routine while incorporating urging workouts and biking to keep the heart rate up in between reps and sets. All in all, pretty happy with how my training has been progressing.

I warmed up with some of my Santa Monica teammates before their race today at UCLA. They raced the mile. Tony, my training partner, won it in 4:04. It was a relatively windy day and this week of training was very demanding. Now I know 4:04 sounds fast and don’t get me wrong, it is, however, we were hoping to see some results under 4 minutes today. Another big race next weekend.

Hope everyone is getting more devoted to their spring training in whatever activity you chose to do. Beach season, that 4th of July road race, summer softball leagues…whatever it is. I wish you all the best of luck and remember to use WAO and myself as a resource and guide for any and all activities.

Be sure to pick your day and make the pledge on the site. Challenges, city wide and teams/days, are in the making so be sure to join.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

I have strung together 6 days of consecutive runs which is the most since December 24th (the last time I raced/ran). Injuries are healing up and feeling much stronger. Not sure what this means in terms of racing this season but its nice to be able to go out on a run with no pain.

I’m down in Naples, Florida for the holiday weekend with my grandparents. Great to be able to spend some quality time with them before they head back to Wisconsin for the Summer.

Today was one of the longer runs I have done in a while. I don’t really have a plan when I go out for runs right now because I do it all based on feel and level of pain in the groin/ab area. Most of the runs have been between 6:30 and 7:15 per mile. I logged a total of 35 miles this week which is a great way to get back into the running routine. I went out towards the beach/resort area today. Took my WAO365 dry fit off as I stepped outside because it was in the mid 80’s. Started my watch but didn’t look at it for what I thought was about 30 minutes. When I finally looked down at it, I was almost at 6 miles. I had about a mile and a half to go before I got back to the house. So a little over 7 miles total in about 48 minutes with one of the miles at sub 6:20. Felt really good to get back to some actual mileage. Still have some kinks to work out with my form but the fitness is not terrible which is a positive.

Been lifting a lot of legs, single leg squats for balance and core, ab workouts and stretching to strengthen the lower body muscles.

Hope all you 365-ers are having an awesome Easter/Passover weekend.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Another Tuesday alarm going off @ 5:30am.  How can it be morning already…..I swear I just closed my eyes 5 minutes ago! Time to shake my brain & get motivated! The twice a week session has been dubbed “Body by Scotty” by my workout buddy Jay Zimmerman. We meet @ the Merrimack YMCA & spend a half hour session with Scott Prunier. He is incredibly well-educated with the workings of every muscle & knows just how to make us “good hurt” until the pain starts to fade Wednesday evening….just in time for another round on Thursday. We love our time with Scott cuz he makes it fun!

Tonight my arms & my core are talking to me from various exercises with the machines & the stability ball. The one-legged curls on our backs with the stability ball will be good for some sore glutes but he spared us the pleasure of any squats!  I have a love hate relationship with squats! I hate doing them but love how i slip those just washed jeans on without too much effort! We topped off our workout with 20 minutes on the elliptical….always a good sweat and fun to chat about anything that keeps us laughing!  It’s particularly amusing to workout at the Y over the past 6 years because people think Jay & I are an item……the Zimmeroskis! Steve Vail’s creation!

Thanks to all those men & women in all branches of the military who wake up early & never complain about the hurt their bodies go through….. And it’s more than twice a week…..and I’m sure there isn’t anyone preparing a routine to keep them smiling! I am very thankful for the freedoms they give me! I won’t complain come Thursday!

Dk signing off for the granite girls xoxo

I took a trip down to San Diego to visit my brother and the Cornell Crew Team for the San Diego Classic. The last time they competed in this race was over 30 years ago so it was definitely a big race filled with lots of good rivalries and competitors.

Day 139: Thursday was all about getting their boat set up. Obviously they didn’t travel across the country with their 65 ft boats and 13 foot oars so they had to borrow some from teams/clubs here (not sure exactly where from). After adjusting the foot straps, oar handles and sliders, they had a practice out on the water doing a few heavy pieces (3 x 10 hard strokes, etc) and got the feel for rowing in salt water. A good solid sweat after a long flight across the country. Great seeing Alex and all of his teammates.

Day 140: Team Friday posted two posts last week so they were excused (and traveling). I seemed to have designated very popular and in high demand team leaders for each day since they all seem to travel so much. Anyways, the fellas had a morning workout on the water again to get used to the new boat and prepare for the next days race. After a bite to eat, we had a pretty good game of volleyball on Mission Beach. Spotted: WAO dry fits.

Day 141: Today was a pretty good day for Cornell Crew. They had their first race this morning against schools from all over the country (including Harvard, Stanford, Navy, Oklahoma and tons/ if not all the UC-something schools). They needed to come in top three of their heat in order to move onto the finals for tomorrow. Harvard is a strong team this year but Cornell put up a good fight and only lost by less than 6 seconds. Navy had a powerful last 500 meter surge and put about 3 seconds on Cornell as well. But they qualified and that was all that really mattered. I think they are ready for tomorrow after an excellent steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Downtown San Diego.

Best of luck to my brother and all of the Cornell Varsity and JV team. Go Red. BMA.

I can’t wait to hear about the days’ festivities of the We Are One Event in Baltimore. I’m sure it was an awesome turnout.

Lots of pictures from this weekend will be posted next weekend (or perhaps on Wednesday when Alex posts). I didn’t bring the connecting USB camera cord to upload the pictures from this weekend. My bad.

Lastly, be sure to sign up and pledge a particular day to work out on the website. The WAO365 team has some breakdown of the challenge to explain in more detail but pledging a day is a piece of cake on the website thanks to Marena. Can’t wait to see what team gets the most members.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Down in Nashville for my soon to be brother-in-law’s bachelor party. Gotta say, this city is pretty sweet. Definitely not lacking on the music side. Weather has been crazy with Tornado warnings to 80 degrees and sunny so thats definitely been an interesting part of the trip. In between one of the rain spouts, two of the groomsmen and myself got a 6.5 mile run in around the city. We checked out downtown then went over to the Vanderbilt area. Great to get out for one of my longer runs in a while. Short but sweet today. Hope you’re all having an awesome weekend.

Be sure to Make the Pledge, join a team and sign up for the day that you want to take part of the challenge.

AR. NF. NR.

NIck

Happy St. Paddys Day to all the 365ers out there for Day 127 of the 365 day challenge. Before the days festivities got on their way, I went down to Newport Beach to celebrate the day and Matt Edgars’ last weekend in the Los Angeles area.

It was pouring rain but not too chilly out so we ran to the coast, made our descent down the cliffs and continued for 3 miles along the beach. Only my third run since December so nothing too crazy but like Derek mentioned in his post on Monday, I’m definitely getting that runners high feeling back.

I did 3 sets of 30 pushups while watching my bold bracket picks get x-ed out. Lehigh? Really?! Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed some green beer along with great company and fun.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

For Day 120, I was down in Newport about an hour south of where I live in Santa Monica. Stayed with Edgar at a friends place. He was pumping iron and I did some combination.

6 sets of 3 quarter mile hill climbs on a bike. Basically a beach cruiser.

3 sets of 15 pushups. 2 of them T-pushups with 20 pound weights. In between bike sets.

3 sets of 30 reps of tri’s, shoulders, and lats

20 min elliptical to cool down

Pretty solid makeshift workout.

And I forgot to mention…..I went for a 5 minute run before all that. Boom. I’m coming back.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

My little (emphasize little) brother is going on a bit of sleep deprivation, midterm studying, and crew practice so I told him I would fill in for him for Day 117 of the challenge. He still managed to get a heck of a workout in.

The team had a double row session today. On the water in the morning and another practice in the afternoon. Afterwards, then were on the ergs (rowing machine) and did a 1300m piece at their 2000m pace (roughly 6:05-6:15, translates to 1:32 per 500m). Then they paddled for 400m (which means an easy row to keep the body moving) followed by a sprint piece. The sprint was 300m with a partner on another machine. The catch (which is also a crew term for when the blade enters the water and the powerful start of the stroke begins) was that if either member of the two person team didn’t hit their target time, they had to do another 300m sprint.

Nick: “So did you hit your time?”

Alex: “Is that a serious question?”

He averaged 1:29.3 for the 1300 piece (which is a per 500m average) and 1:24.4 for the last 300 sprint (which is fast).

(Way back in the day)

I challenge all of you to try and erg a 500m piece at the gym tomorrow. If you can break 1:45 at any stroke rating, that would be legit.

Good work Al.

(what a stud)

(and just to embarrass him for having to do his post)

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Sorry its late folks but we just finished our workout. For Day 116 of the 365 Day Challenge, Matt Edgar, Josh Edgar and Nick Karwoski went down to the Santa Monica Beach late on Tuesday evening after a busy day in Laguna. A good hike/rock jumping through the tide pools, driving range and 9 holes of golf where the loser had to buy margaritas for the winner. So after enjoying my margarita paid for by Matt and dinner in Newport Beach, we drove back to Santa Monica and headed to the outdoor jungle gym at the beach with pull up, balance, and climbing bars. 30 pull ups, 100 triceps dips, 25 chin ups, 110 push ups, 5 one-handed pull ups, pole climbing. Feeling very swollen. Hopefully be able to move our arms tomorrow.

Granite girls were both traveling today. We will get some xoxo love next week.

Get ready for the new team joining challenge experience. We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick