Lake Placid Training

Annette and I set off with our friends John and Sarah to Lake Placid for our last BIG training weekend. We arrived on Friday afternoon anxious to hit the road and experience one loop of the bike course; 90 kms, followed by a short run off the bike. Coach John set out a good schedule for us over the weekend which he had used in his previous years training for Ironman.

The town was buzzing with fellow triathletes all down to train on the course as well. Saturday our game plan was to swim one loop of the course; 2 kms, and then cycle the full 180 kms on the bike. Down at Mirror lake we suited up for the swim and took a nice pace along a marked course. There were other people we knew down training for the weekend as well and would periodically see them and could chat about training stories. As we were getting ready to set out for the bike and I was checking that I had all my food and supplies I realized that I had left my water bottles with eload and fly back at the hotel. For those of you who do not know what eload or fly are, they are very important calories that are part of the fuel I need to get through the distance. I opted to get bottles of Gatorade instead of going all the way back to the hotel which at the time seemed like a better idea. One of our fellow cyclist Mark very graciously offered me his bottles of eload and took the Gatorade I bought...thanks so much Mark! He was cycling that day out of pure pleasure and insisted since I was prepping for the race that I should take his bottles. Off we went, everyone at their own pace. It was good to break it up into sections so I could anticipate how far everything was....and it was far! The weather was on and off rainy and warm so it was hard to know what to wear, first I had my rain slicker on then I took it off and then I needed to put it back on again. Hopefully I will not waste so much time in the actual race. On the second loop I began to eat one of my cliff bars when I hit a bump and it bounced out of my hand. Bye bye to my cliff bar, I thought about going back and getting but I just wanted to keep my focus ahead. The descent down Keane is very steep however with the rain I held on tight and made many promises to the man upstairs for a safe trip to the bottom. In the next area known as Jay I began to feel sluggish. I had eaten my bagel, gels, and a cliff bar (the one I had not dropped), plus hydrated with water and the eload drink. I never thought it was possible to fall asleep on your bike, although I came very close, my energy level was going down. This must be what I've heard people refer to as "bonking". Luckily there was a gas station up ahead and I had enough money with me to buy some Gatorade and 2 more protein bars. Once I ate a bar I felt much better...phew, that was close! Well, at least I'm learning and I know what NOT to do on race day. Finished the full 180 kms on the bike and went for a little run to get the legs moving. Back at the hotel we had snacks and prepared dinner, the day was pretty much complete. We still had enough energy to hit Ben and Jerry's for some ice cream before heading to bed. What a day!

Sunday we were back at it again with the full swim of 4 kms down at Mirror Lake. The swim is definitely something I feel comfortable with and is doable. What I do wonder, is how do you mentally prepare to swim with 2500 other people??? I contemplated whether I should tread water for 20 minutes and let everyone else battle it out first. On the other hand, maybe I can round up everyone I know over the next 4 weeks to swim with me down at Cherry Beach. My cousin Melanie has graciously offered to paddle along side of me in a boat and beat me every so often with an ore. It is so nice that no matter what, everyone is so helpful...lol! When we finished the swim I managed a long run of an hour and a half. Things are feeling better with my hamstring and I'm managing to run more comfortably. The key is to not aggravate it again and not increase my time too quickly at this point. Homeward bound to Toronto after a nice big lunch at the Tail o Pub.

We accomplished a lot this weekend and thankful to have a recovery week ahead of us. The next month will move into tapering before the big race. Not long now!