Reaching New Heights

While I'm on my Ironman journey, reaching new milestones everyday, Simon is literally reaching new heights by training for his pilot's license!

Captain Simon

This works out really well because when I'm spending hours slogging away on my bike or running or swimming... Simon is hitting the skies!  Last Sunday, I got a chance to fly in a tiny, tiny Cessna 3500 feet above ground, with my Captain (ahem... and his instructor!)

A slightly nervous passenger pre-takeoff

We were *only* at 3500 feet due to low cloud cover.  Normally Simon flys at 6500 feet.  That's pretty high.... especially when you have an overactive imagination like myself.  "Is there really only a thin piece of metal between me and the ground 3500 feet below???" "What if I fall through?"  Yeah, I'm nuts.

Yes, this is the ORIGINAL Batman Helicopter from the TV series

Simon started up his old girl, the plane not ME people, and we were off!  The takeoff was actually a lot smoother than I thought it would be.  There wasn't much turbulence and after about 20 minutes of going over "What If" scenarios in my head, I finally started to relax.

The ridges of North Jersey

We flew from Caldwell Airport, NJ to Wilkes-Barre PA airport. It took about 45 minutes each way - which is pretty fast for a little plane!

Lake Hopatcong

About 35 minutes in, I was so relaxed I actually fell asleep for a couple of minutes!  It also wasn't entirely my fault... I did run for two hours prior to our flight and I was a little sleepy.  Leave it to an Ironman-in-training to fall asleep during a Cessna ride!

My view of the low clouds from the back seat

So while we were flying I got to wear a fancy headset.  It was really cool to hear Simon communicate with the air traffic controllers.  I tried to figure out what all the codes meant and I also realized that the PA air traffic controllers are WAY nicer than the NY/NJ ones.  The NY/NJ laid the smack down on some of the other pilots - it was kind of funny to listen in on. 

My Captain

The flight was a success! (obviously, since I'm still here and writing this!)  I enjoyed being part of Simon's hobby for an afternoon.  He's going to make a great pilot and I can't wait to plan some weekend trips around this!


Landed!

This past holiday weekend was my last huge weekend of training.  Saturday I had a 6 hour ride + 1 hour run on the schedule.  I decided I wanted to tackle Bear Mountain one last time before Lake Placid.  I had a feeling it would take a bit longer than 3 hours to get to Bear given all the climbing I had to do to even get there... plus the 4 mile actual climb but I really wanted to get 'er done!  I rode with my friend who's also training for Placid so it was great to have the company.  I think we made it up to the top of Bear in about 3:25ish.  Not bad considering it took forever to spin up Bear.  We refueled at the vending machines and enjoyed the 4 mile descent - weeeeee!  It's good Keene descent practice, even though Keene is steeper, faster & longer - good times! 

I felt stronger on this ride than the last time I rode up Bear and stronger than the previous weekend's 80 mile ride to the Orchards.  By the time we got back to the city, my Garmin read 96 miles so we did a shortened loop around Central Park to make it a full 100.  Then came the run.  I actually nailed my nutrition spot on and was feeling great.  So what was the only thing that did not feel so great?  The freakin' heat!  It was high 80's and sunny.  I headed out for my run up to Central Park and surprisingly my legs felt awesome!  At two points during the run, my heart rate skyrocketed to 200 bpm - um, what's going on??? I honestly didn't feel like I was working THAT hard so I stopped and walked twice to bring it on down.  I got in about 6.4 miles in one hour.  I felt really hot and tired, but really proud of my solid workout.

Sunday brought a nice 3 hour run.  I didn't leave myself much time to recover from the long brick as I finished my brick 430pm Saturday then I was up at 6am Sunday and running by 720am.  So only 15 hours between workouts.  In hindsight, this was not the smartest idea but I had plans to head out of town at 1130am for some BBQ, pool, fireworks craziness and I was not gonna miss that! 

I won't go into details about the run, so here's a little bulletpoint list
- I ran in a thunderstorm with a downpour, which I loved!!!
- I ran verrrrrrrrrrry slow.  Probably one of my slowest 3 hour runs in a very long time. 
- I covered 18.4 miles.
- My legs were tired.  They hurt.  They yelled at me on the hills.  They yelled at me on the downhills.
- I ignored the yelling and was determined to complete 3 hours
- I LOVED the rain
- I wasn't so in love with three loops of Central Park
- I finished my last long run before Lake Placid!!!

So if you made it this far through this super long post... THANKS!  and you get a prize.... a photo of my dog Olive wrapped up like a taco!!!


Olive Taco