Fireman Ironman May Camp

I don't want to be in the real world right now, I want my tri camp world back!
This week has been busy with work, working out… and *gasp* a semi-social life! So here’s a little recap of the Fireman Ironman Training Camp weekend... (or kinda a long recap)

Friday night I drove up with two Asphalt Green Tri Club dudes. They were super great and I was so happy to have someone to carpool with. Due to typical NYC traffic, we didn’t get up there til after midnight. Our ride was at 730am… yikes. I got to my motel unpacked a bit and hit the hay. Of course, I did not sleep at all. My stomach was acting funny (I had a terrible, terrible stomach flu from Onday night into Tuesday and hadn’t been eating much all week), and all the things I had to do in the morning were racing through my mind.

View from my motel - awesome!



Olympic Ski Jumps

My alarm goes off at 6am, I get up, eat, dress and set up my bike. As I’m about to leave I noticed my rear brake is rubbing on my tire and I can’t fix it. UGH. This was mechanical problem #1 of the day. Luckily the local bike shop had a 630am bike class so they were open! I brought Roo there and the awesome dudes figited with her rear brake and fixed her up.
We met at the famous Olympic Oval and split up into pace groups. I went with the 16mph group which was a good fit. Once we started riding I noticed Mechanical Fail #2 and #3. The hear rate monitor wasn’t working. I just changed the battery the night before… UGH. Then my cadence sensor wasn’t working! It might have gotten knocked around a bit on the car rack but by the time I realized I was already riding and didn't want to stop. So I basically rode and ran by feel the whole weekend.

112 BIKE:
I felt really really good on the bike. The hills of the Zof definitely helped my confidence riding the Placid course. There's basically two sections I need to worry about. The first one is the climb out of town. One the first loop it's no problem, I felt good and strong. On the second loop, you really start to feel the hills there. Everyone said at the camp to take the 1st loop verrrrry easy, since the second loop you really start to feel all the climbing. After the hills out of town there's a 10k descent which is awesome! I hit a record high of 40 mph! The second part, I have to worry about is at the end of the course... there's about 15-17 miles of climbing to get back into town. There's one section that I absolutely hate! It’s just a long very gradual climb that’s hard enough you have to be in small ring and it lasts literally for over 3 miles. I would rather have a shorter steeper hill than that! So on my first loop right when I hit the gradual climb, I grabbed my bottle to drink some calories and I hit a bump as I was putting it back on my frame (the roads were crap up there!). Of course it fell and as I slowed down to go back to pick it up, I tried to unclip, struggled and fell hard on my right side. I was going pretty slow but I definitely fell harder than I would have liked! I scraped up my arm, shin and butt but my bike seemed fine. The rear derailleur was making a funny noise in certain small gears but it was rideable so I pressed on.

The second loop was harder than the first! The climbs out of town felt much tougher and then on the nice long descent there was a headwind - doh! So I still had to pedal a bit to get down it. There is a nice long flat(ish) section between the two climbs where you can stay in aero most of the time... I got tired on this section and was actually craving a hill just to sit up! I got my wishes and started the long climb back into town. I was definitely slower on the hills but I just focused on spinning up them. I got through the long gradual climb without falling over - hooray. BUT.... when I was less than 10 miles from finishing, I was climbing a steeper hill and I shifted to my easiest gear and my chain fell off in the back. I got off, fixed it then it fell off in the front. I was like WTF? I fixed that, got back on and I couldn't pedal AT ALL! My rear derailler was literally against the spokes of my wheel. Ughhhhh.... I had no idea how to fix it. I tried pulling, which is probably bad, I tried shifting... it wasn't moving. My riding day was over :( I was so angry that I couldn't finish the measly 10 miles left!! So I called the camp organizer, thank goodness I had cell service, and he sent someone to pick me up. The two dudes I was riding with then dropped (heh) found me and I was cursing up a storm! I could not believe I was less than 10 miles from finishing my first 112 mile ride!! I’m still angry about it.

So, me and my busted Roo got a ride back to town and I brought her right to the same bike shop to get fixed. The bike shop up there was super, super great and they said she'd be done by noon on Sunday- perfect!

As far as my nutrition went... I think I did pretty well. I had 3 Mojo bars with me, gu chomps and gu's. I ate all 3 bars (1 1/2 per loop), almost the whole package of chomps and about 4 gu's. I also had 2 bottles of perform, plus a bottle or two of hammer drink that the camp provided at rest stops. I think I could have drank more the 1st loop but it was cold and rainy so I wasn't feeling it. But when the sun came out of the 2nd loop, I drank more and more. That was another positive about this ride, we rode through every piece of weather you could think of. At the start it was cold, wet and foggy. Then it got humid. Then it rained again. Then the sun came out. Then the wind started…. Good practice for race day!

After I dropped Roo off, I did my transition run... so it wasn't exactly a brick run but I was angry and needed to run it off. By then, it was about 415pm, sunny and HOT. I pushed my pace a little harder and ran 3 miles on the run course, including the biggest hill on the course. That hill slowed me down and I power walked part of it. My legs felt ok, I was just fatigued a bit and my nutrition was off since I waited a while to run.

Saturday night we had a camp dinner at the Crowne Plaza. There were guest speakers, tons of food and prizes. It was great to sit down and chat with people who have done Placid before. I learned lots of invaluable tips! Plus, you should see what over 100 triathletes eat after a 112 bike/run session… the piles upon piles of food was incredible! This was actually my biggest meal of the week and I was happy my stomach flu was finally gone!

Sunday was the long run at a leisurely 9am. I did over 16 miles in 2 and half hours and I felt really, really good. I also got to run with my blogger buddy Jon!


me and Jon post run! He took a Mirror Lake ice bath... I took a shower!

He has a great blog going, you should check it out. It was so awesome to meet him in person and we got to know each other by the best way… running 16 miles together! We wound up being the same “easy” pace since we both wanted to take it easy on our legs after the long bike/run the day before. The first 6 miles of the run it was sunny and hot again. We were both feeling it and took our time at the aid stations to drink water, Gatorade and gels. Then it got cloudy and that felt soooo much better. My body isn't used to hot conditions yet so that was challenging. This run course isn't easy as pie either. There are two major hills coming back into town and a couple of rollers on one out and back section. We did one full loop of the course then looped back down one of the hills just so we could run up it again :) I was happy that I ran up the hills both times without stopping. I was amazed at how great my legs felt despite the long ride and run the day before!
Mirror Lake was still pretty cold... around 50 degrees so they canceled the swim on Sunday afternoon. My carpool buddy, Jerome, was one of two people to actually swim it! I opted not to... and I don't feel bad about it :) I hung out on the grass and talked with the other athletes including pro Logan Franks. He just happens to be on the cover of Lava Magazine right now and he was super, super cool! Down to earth, friendly and answered all of our amateur questions.



the gorgeous Mirror Lake

It was a kick ass training weekend and I loved every minute of it. I could seriously spend the rest of my life doing that day in and day out, maybe an occasional rest day, but I haven’t figured out quite how to fund it yet. Lottery anyone?? I’ll be heading up for the June Fireman Ironman Camp as well and I’m so excited!
This weekend is a doozy…. 4 ½ hour ride on Saturday, 2.4 open water swim race down the shore Sunday morning, then a 3 hour run Sunday afternoon. Monday is a complete rest day. No work. No training. What am I going to do with myself??