Training Camp

Deanne and I set off at the crack of dawn Friday morning for our training camp weekend in Lake Placid. The plan was to run one 13.1 mile loop of the course that afternoon, do the entire bike course plus a 6-mile run Saturday morning, and then do one 1.2 mile loop of the swim course Sunday morning before we left.

The training camp is run by Deanne's coach Jeff from Breakthrough Performance. There were about 20 of us all together, and Deanne and I shared a condo with the only 2 other women at the camp. It was a beautiful place and I got my own room in a queen-sized bed! That in itself was worth all of the anxiety this weekend caused, but I digress....

On the Lake Placid run course.

Once we got there, we had time to eat lunch, check in at the condo, stake our claim on sleeping arrangements, and then we set out to see where each of us will be staying during race week. Once we got back, we got ready for our run, which didn't end up starting till almost 4pm. I really liked the run course. The best part is that it's an out and back that will go by one section of the lake 4 times, so it's a great route for spectators. There is one nasty hill that I managed to run up during this one loop, but I can imagine there will be quite a bit of walking on race-day.

After we got back, we quickly showered and headed over to Coach Jeff's condo for a catered dinner with the rest of the campers and a seminar on the race course. By the time it was over, it was 10pm and I was TOAST. I had some trouble getting to sleep that night thinking about the monster day we were going to have, but once I was asleep, I slept like a rock. It's amazing how well you can sleep without 2 small feet in your face or someone peeing in your bed.

The alarm went off at 5am the next morning and we quickly ate, got all of our water bottles, Gu's, tubes and all of the other gazillion things we needed for the bike ride. I was so nervous I could barely get down my bagel. It seemed like forever before we finally set off, and almost immediately we were greeted with a gigantic uphill. I wasn't bothered by going up so much as I was fretting about the descent to Keene, which has kept me up at night for months. Coach Jeff had said in his seminar the night before that it was totally doable to descend that hill in aero-position without ever hitting the brakes. Ha! I'm surprised my brakes didn't melt before I got to the bottom of that thing. It was one scary-ass hill. I did what Marty at Fitwerx told me to do and feathered the brakes, sat up nice and tall to make myself into a human parachute, and I still was going over 30 mph. But I did it. Once. Now I had to finish the loop and do it again.

There was a good stretch of the route after getting into Keene that was just super-fast and fun. I was going 20 mph without even trying and it felt great! But that feeling was short-lived once we took the turn onto rte 86 towards Wilmington. There we were greeted with an uphill that just seemed to go on for miles. I dropped my chain on this hill which wasn't such a big deal, just annoying. And from then on it was just hill after hill and it seemed like I was never going over 10 mph. At one point the clouds started rolling in and we got a little bit of rain, but it cleared up pretty quickly before I hit the last few hills: Baby Bear (piece of cake), Mama Bear (eh, could be worse), and Papa Bear (holy shit!!). And then the loop was done and I quickly stopped at the condo to use the bathroom and refill my bottles before heading back out.

Deanne was at the condo already and waited for me so we could start out together. She was having some gearing problems and she also dropped her chain on the hill heading out of town, but once she was back in the groove, she hit the turbo button and was gone. I was definitely the slowest biker of the bunch, but I was more concerned about survival than worrying about trying to keep up with anyone.

Once we got to the Keene descent again I realized one of my worst nightmares had come true. It had just rained and we would be descending on wet roads. I wouldn't let myself go over 20 mph and I was so terrified every time I hit the brakes thinking I might skid out and end up on the pavement. My hands were both cramping from the death-grip I had on my brakes. I was SO relieved once I made it to the bottom. But relief soon turned to dismay when I noticed the black clouds and heard the rumbles of thunder.

By the time I got back to that turn towards Wilmington, the skies had opened up, and I was slogging up that giant hill in a heavy downpour, wind and lightning. I was convinced the wind was going to blow me into the ditch on the side of the road. I couldn't see anything. I was freezing, and why in God's name did the rain HURT so much??? I found out afterwards that it was actually hail. Of course it was. The rain let up for just long enough to dry off a little before the next downpours started, and then a third thunderstorm hit. It was ridiculous. Between the wind and the rain, I was at one point pedaling downhill and only going 10 mph.

But I finished! It took me 7 1/2 hours, but I finished. And despite the misery of the last loop, I'm kind of glad it happened. Now I know I can do that bike route in any kind of weather. I just hope I don't have to do that again!

Deanne was back at the condo getting ready to run by the time I got back. I quickly dried off and changed so I could go with her. Now Deanne is one strong runner, and has more than enough endurance for the both of us, but she was having a bad running week. I think she was just tired after a killer training week, but she was having her doubts when we set off for this 6 mile run and I persuaded her to set out with me and just see how she felt.

The thing that's great about having Deanne for a training partner is that we've been doing this together for SO long and we're both fully aware of what the other is capable of. She's dragged me through workouts probably more than I've dragged her. But we both know that when the other says "You can DO this!", that we really mean it. I knew she could, and she did. Sometimes you just need that other person to drown out the little voice in your head.

Getting our wetsuits on takes longer than the actual swim.

So on to Sunday, which I thought would be such a nice, relaxing swim, until for whatever reason I totally panicked and hyperventilated for the first 10 minutes. No idea why. There were a bunch of us in the water at once, and even though it wasn't a race, it kind of felt like the start of a triathlon, and it just triggered something. I hate that feeling. Even though I know it's going to go away, at the time you get so caught up in it and start wondering if you'll even get through it, and then all of a sudden something clicks, you catch your breath, and you just SWIM. And then all is ok. But those first few minutes are a doozy. And I know it's not just me, but I'm hoping I can keep myself relaxed enough on race day to head off that panic before it starts. But otherwise the swim was great.

And so ends our adventure at training camp. It was definitely a confidence-builder, and I feel like I learned a lot about the course.

Perspective

I had a post half-written, mainly kvetching about how tired I've been this week and worrying about a couple of missed workouts. As I was writing, that little voice inside my head (which seems to give me nothing but grief lately, BTW), chimed in and said, "But you GET to do this!" And that little voice is right. I get to do this. I am lucky. I am lucky to be able to worry about how I'm going to fit in that run before my kids' end-of-the year show. I'm lucky that I got to make the choice to take an extra rest day this week and make board-books with my kids instead. I'm lucky that I get to get up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other and kiss my kids and head out the door.

I've been thinking a lot this week about my friend Deanne and her family, who suffered a heartbreaking loss last week after a close family member passed away. He endured a long, tragic illness and left behind his wife and young son. 

While I had never met him, I saw firsthand how this has affected Deanne and it really put things in perspective. I am lucky. Stop whining and fretting about missing your Masters swim and just enjoy the ride. My problems are small and I'm blessed to have them. 

So while I mostly try and squash that voice inside my head, because she's usually such a bitch, this time I listened. I'm not going to write about how tired I am (even though I am). I'm just going to say how much fun I had having some extra family time this week. Enough said.  

Are We There Yet???

One of my favorite quotes from my good friend Deanne's blog that sums up this weekend is: "Put on your big girl panties and shut the f*** up!" Because that was pretty much what I've had to do for the last 48 hours.

For Saturday, we both had a 5-hour bike ride scheduled, and my plan called for a 45 min. run afterwards. Problem is, the weather forecast said torrential rain for the next 5 days. Deanne and I decided to take a chance and head out at first light Sat. morning and try and beat the rain. It didn't work out so well. It was already very windy and sometimes hard to control our bikes, and after about an hour and a 1/2, we started feeling the first drops. We kept going further and further away thinking we'd be ok before the hard rain hit.

At one point before the rain started we stopped at the Ipswich Y and I tried to multi-task by eating my energy bar and using the bathroom at the same time. Unfortunately I got one bite before I dropped the thing on the bathroom floor and had to throw it away. I guess that was my punishment for being disgusting.

It wasn't long after that that the downpours started. We were riding in such heavy rain and wind it was hard to see the road. We were drenched and freezing, and the puddles in the road hid all of the potholes and made the ride even more treacherous. And to add insult to injury, to get back home, we had to cross the Beverly Bridge, which is fairly steep going up and down, and no fun at all on windy days. Because of the wind, rain and slick roads, we stopped before the start of the bridge and debated whether we should just take off our shoes and walk our bikes barefoot over the bridge rather than risk the ride. The thought of that was so depressing, that we decided to chance it. It was the most terrifying biking experience I've ever had. By the time we got to the top, the winds were threatening to blow us into traffic, we were both white-knuckled holding our handlebars, and we unclipped one foot to catch ourselves if we went down. I kept my brakes on and yelled "OHMYGOD!OHMYGOD!" the whole way down the hill.

But! We made it. And, because we are so badass, we both went to our respective houses, dried off, and got on our trainers for the remaining hour and a 1/2. I quickly put on my running clothes and opened the door to rain coming down in sheets. It was awful. I was completely soaked within 10 seconds and my shoes filled up with so much water that it felt like I had 5 lb. weights on each foot. I could barely see anything and that 45-minute run felt like two hours. But I did it.

I passed out in my daughter's bed at 8pm that night completely exhausted and woke up before my alarm at 3:30am (I had it set for 4am). I needed to do a 45-minute bike ride and then meet Deanne for a 2-hour run at 5:15, and THEN get picked up by my friend Cindy to go swim at 7:45.  I got up and tried to eat a 1/2 bagel with peanut butter right away, but my stomach unfortunately wasn't awake yet. After about 35 minutes on the bike my stomach started churning. I got off the bike, ran upstairs, and promptly threw up my bagel w/ peanut butter. End of bike ride! I had about 15 minutes to get myself together and go meet Deanne. As soon as I started running I could tell that it wasn't going to go well. My stomach was still off and I was SO tired. I told Deanne she was going to have to drag me through this run, and thankfully, she did!

We had a couple of walk breaks, but overall, I feel like we did pretty well considering I wanted to quit the entire time. And I was totally ready to bail on the swim, but we never see Cindy and I had been  looking forward to catching up. I figured if I really felt that bad I could just float on my back while they swam.  Though once we got there and got in the water (at which point it started raining..AGAIN...) I felt pretty good and we managed a decent swim across the pond which was a little over 1.2 miles.

I am so relieved that I made it through this weekend because it was definitely the most physically and mentally draining training weekend I've had so far. I know I wouldn't have done it had it not been for Deanne being with me on that run. I really don't think I could train for an Ironman on my own. Even when we just run together in complete silence, there's something about having a partner there suffering with you that makes it slightly easier to stick it out. And thankfully we never seem to have our worst days at the same time, so one of us can always pull the other along.