The last epic training weekend

This past weekend was the last big block before the taper was to begin. Instead of enduring it alone, several of my QT2 teammates joined me in New Hampshire at my parents' lake house, which they so generously let us use. Last weekend it was in the 80's, and just Wednesday I was a bit annoyed that the fluid in my water bottle was warm on my bike ride. Well, this is why I never become complacent with nice weather in early April (or really late April, May and sometimes most of June, for that matter) We got up on Friday morning to rain and temperatures in the lower 40's. We were scheduled to ride for seven hours. Let's just say that we were not in a big rush to hit the road.

We set off at about 8:30. It was me, teammate Mark who had driven up that morning to avoid riding the trainer at home alone for 7 hours (not sure if he later regretted that decision) and coaches Jesse, Cait, Michelle and Pat. It was one of those days where less than ten minutes in your clothes were saturated. It wasn't raining particularly hard, but it was definitely enough to get us soaked quick.

The very beginning of the ride was uneventful enough. One of my rear cages chose that morning to snap and launch, so one of my bottles spent the rest of the ride stuffed in the back of my shorts. We stayed together for the first 15 miles or so before hitting some hills and breaking up a bit. I had to stop about an hour in to tighten my aero bars, and thankfully Mark had wrenches with him. Cait and Jesse were up ahead of us doing a little out-and-back, and as I was tightening my bolts Michelle and Pat rolled up and expressed in no uncertain terms that there was no way they were going to make it 7 hours under those conditions. Pat was nearly frozen and Michelle was way out of her heart rate zone trying to keep up, so they decided to head back to the house and ride on their trainers, which fortunately they had brought with them. Cait and Jesse didn't bring theirs, so they had no choice. Mark didn't have his, but I had brought mine and I was warm enough (due to an extra layer addition literally about 30 seconds before we finally headed out the door, plus the fleece winter gloves I had opted to wear... not to mention my excessive body fat, but let's just go with the clothes thing) so Mark went back with them to ride my trainer since he was also pretty cold.

I sent them on the shortest way home and went to catch up with Jesse and Cait, who were also warm enough, so we could continue on. The route took us further north, and what had started out as being warm enough started to deteriorate to not-so-warm-enough. With the exception of my feet, which were saturated with water and not aided with the warmth of the booties I had left at home, I was still doing ok. But we found ourselves needing to stop to eat anything because fingers weren't working so well, and it was apparent that everyone was getting colder. Jesse and Cait's gloves were not nearly warm enough, and Cait didn't seem to be layered nearly enough and also had some exposed skin between her incredibly short socks and her tights. So it was decided that once we got to Lincoln - about half-an-hour later and the home of Loon Mountain - there would be a stop at the first ski shop to get some suitable apparel.

I had no idea we'd be spending so much time in Lincoln. We arrived at a big ski shop just in town and Cait and Jesse immediately went inside to check out the inventory while I went across the street to use the bathroom at a McDonalds. I never go in those anymore, with the exception of the occasional bathroom stop, but I must say that this particular one was awfully nice. It was only when I had to peel off a few of those soaked-through layers of clothes that I truly realized just how soaking wet I was. Until then I was sort of numb to it.

Upon my return to the ski shop, I walked inside to see Jesse and Cait still wandering pretty aimlessly around the store. I figured by then they'd have their new gloves all picked out and we'd be ready to go. Well, that was not the case. In fact, I'd say we were in there for at least half an hour, if not closer to 45 minutes or so. Jesse had some trouble trying on gloves because his pinkie finger wouldn't straighten, so his hand would just keep getting stuck in the glove and none of his fingers ended up where they were supposed to. Eventually we did get his whole hand in there. Cait got a nice new half-zip top to wear under her bike stuff and prevent her from freezing to death, as well as her new gloves and some long wool socks that she cut the toes off of and slipped over her shoes and tights to make it look like she was biking in her socks. Jesse made a last minute decision to purchase a new warm hat to wear under his helmet, and we were finally ready to move on.

We didn't move far though. We went about a tenth of a mile and then spent 20 minutes or so sipping on green tea - or really just enjoying holding a cup of warm fluid - at a Dunkin' Donuts just down the road. We might have wound up staying there forever if it wasn't for the fact that for whatever reason the inside of that Dunkin' Donuts didn't seem to be all that much warmer than the air outside.

After some lusting after the picture of the giant Boston creme donut advertisement behind the counter, we finally set off to climb up to the top of the Kancamagus Highway. This road goes up over the Kancamagus pass, a little over 2800' in elevation and 35 miles without a sign of civilization. It's probably about 15 miles from Lincoln to the peak before you get to descend for nearly 20 miles. At that point I think we were actually happy that we would be climbing for an hour or so for the mere fact that it would keep us warm. I was nervous about the descent both because of the rain and how much colder we'd get. Not to mention the fact that it had certainly crossed my mind that once we climbed in elevation there was a pretty solid chance it could be snowing up there.

After passing Loon Mountain and seeing some skiers who for some reason had paid money to ski on that slushy, rainy day, we passed the sign that read "No Gas Next 34 Miles" and headed upward. I'm not sure why, but for some reason this actually seemed to go by faster than you'd think. It starts as a much more gradual climb and then just gets steeper and steeper toward the top when you get to spend a considerable amount of time spinning at a very low cadence. As we went up, the snow on the side of the road became more abundant, but fortunately the rain remained as rain. At the very top it was foggy enough that I could hardly see Jesse and Cait in front of me, but fortunately found them in the mist.



Then it was time to descend. We got pretty lucky here, because this was one of the few times during the ride that it had stopped raining completely. The roads were wet, but since I wasn't wearing any glasses I very much appreciated not having to squint through rain drops pelting me in the face at 45mph. It actually got sort of bright on the way down and showed some evidence that the sun might actually exist, but that didn't last. At least I didn't feel like I was going to freeze to death. It really wasn't incredibly cold out (I know I've ridden in much worse, which is why maybe it didn't seem that bad) it was just the combination of that and being wet that made it rough.

Once we got closer to the end of the Kanc, I must say that I started to feel a little woozy, like I needed calories - bad. All that descending and the inability to get to anything without stopping made the time between feedings a lot longer than normal. Fortunately, we found a nice little store soon after reentering civilization and spent a good deal of time in there. I ate a Powerbar-and-a-half in about 45 seconds, got some Gatorade, Jesse downed some incredible amount of calories while Cait and I inspected the nutrition labels on things like Funny Bones and those orange Hostess Cupcakes.

After stopping there for so long, I found myself teeth-chattering shivering, so we really needed to get going again. Right about the minute I got warm enough I sensed something not right with my bike. Yep, flat tire. Great. I haven't flatted on a training ride in I think years. Fortunately I was able to yell just loud enough not to get left behind forever (I was the only one who knew the way home though) and for once it was actually the front tire, which is a bit easier to change. So that stop didn't take too long and we were off once again before the shivering had a chance to return.

Finally, the rest of the ride became uneventful. No more clothes shopping, no more tea, no more convenience store stops. Jesse had to stop to pee about 10 times on the side of the road, but aside from that, we just kept rolling along, cruising at a pretty good speed on the much flatter section of the route. I guess one good thing about the weather that day was that there wasn't the slightest hint of wind. Unfortunately, I mapped our route and aside from climbing to 2800', the last 20 miles were by far the hilliest of the day, but at least on the quietest roads.

The rain decided to pick up toward the end, and while up to that point I hadn't quite felt like I was going to kill someone (most likely me) if I didn't get off my bike very soon, once the rain picked up again and I stared to feel colder I felt like finally I had had enough for the day. My gloves had been removed because they were each about 20 pounds of sopping wet fleece and I found myself trying to drink a lot since I realized how little I had taken in under the conditions. Perhaps I was hydrated enough my osmosis as the rain water was absorbed through my skin.

Anyway, only 7 miles from home and we had to climb a wall of a hill that isn't quite as bad as "The Beast" in St. Croix, but is fairly close and certainly far more painful when it comes 6 hours and 40 minutes into your rain-soaked bike ride. I've climbed that hill dozens of times and I'm not sure I've ever come so close to hitting a cadence that nearly bottomed out to a level that was low enough to make me just stop moving forward and tip over. But I reached the top, and knew we were finally close.

The best part was that we timed the ride pretty well and only had to do a short out-and-back to hit the 7 hours. Somehow, mercifully, the ride was finally over. I walked into the house, dripping wet, straight to the washing machine and left most of my clothes there. Tim had arrived by then, joining us a bit late since he had to work on Friday, and you could tell he was quite amused by my appearance walking in the door at that point. I looked more like I had done a swim workout in my bike gear, then rolled around in sand before coming inside. We had been gone for nearly 9 hours with all of the stops.

So you'd think the day would've been done by then. It wasn't. We heard the trainers still going in the basement, so they weren't done yet either. But we still had to go out in the rain again and run for 30 minutes. At that point though, what's another 30 minutes? And at least I got to change out of my bike clothes. I didn't waste much time, but a few others spent some extra time grabbing handfuls of Honey Nut Cheerios just to make sure they would survive the rest. My numb feet started to feel hot after about 5 minutes of running, and somehow that run wasn't really that painful. According to my Garmin I ran 27 miles in the first 90 seconds. I can't wait to see where it thinks I ran during that time. So I finished with an average speed of less than 1 minute per mile. Perhaps I should consider getting in on the Boston Marathon. There's a lot more money in marathon than triathlon.

Finally, finally, I was done. There is a hot tub at the house, but at that point, in spite of the warmth it would give me, the thought of being wet for any more time that day seemed completely unappealing. So I took a hot but brief shower and then thoroughly enjoyed the feel of some dry clothes. We somehow managed to remain upright enough to go out to dinner, although the alternative, which would've been actually cooking something, seemed even more difficult.

So the longest day was out of the way, but we were far from done. Day two was to begin with an easy bike ride. For whatever reason, I only had to ride an hour and forty minutes while the rest of my teammates had to ride for 3 hours. Except Tim, who had his 7 hour ride to do all by himself. So first thing that morning, Jesse, Pat, Michelle, Cait and Tim set off (Mark had gone home after the ride the day before)

That morning it wasn't raining, which had made us all happy. We knew that it was pretty cold though, in the 30's. Great. I mentioned it wasn't raining, right? Well, instead, just as they got on the bikes, it started to snow. Yep, Wednesday it was like a hot summer's day and Saturday morning it was snowing. They set off and I decided not to wait too long for fear of not riding at all and went out for my shorter ride not long after they did.

It wasn't just that it was snowing. It was also really, really windy. And the snow wasn't light and fluffy. It was like little ice balls pelting me in the face. I immediately started wondering to myself which weather was worse for riding: Friday's or Saturdays. Pretty cold and pouring rain with no wind, or super windy, pretty darn cold and snowing? I still don't think I can decide. The only good thing was that my out-and-back route was a headwind literally the entire time on the way out and therefore a nice tailwind the entire way back. I averaged about 14.8mph just spinning the pedals.

Then it was time to run. Oh, great. Given the fact that the run the day before wasn't too bad, I figured this one wouldn't be either. Also, just that morning when I'd gotten up I thought to myself that my legs didn't feel so bad. Once again, I was wrong. The second I started running it was like my quads were screaming at me, "What do you think you're doing?" It was pretty awful. Jesse and Cait apparently felt the same and Jesse thinks maybe it was all of that low cadence riding.

Day over yet? Nope. Not that I had any right to care that much given that everyone else had ridden twice as long as I did, but we had to quickly change and drive over to the pool for an epic swim workout. You know, we would've done open water, but water temperatures in the lower 40's might be a bit much even for our awesome Blue Seventy suits. So we were off to Laconia, and only showed up 30 minutes late for our rented pool time. Fortunately, they didn't kick us out when our time was up and we were able to get the whole workout in. Actually, I'm not sure I would've minded if they'd kicked us out.

Anyway, it was a pretty nice pool and our 5600 or whatever it was yards went by a whole lot faster than you might expect, especially for someone so used to swimming alone. Then we were finally done for the day. 3:30 instead of 6:00 was much nicer. Apparently Tim got to ride through some serious snow on the Kanc, which included slushy roads and trucks out sanding and plowing. I think I'm glad we rode the day before.

We had bit of time to relax before going out to dinner once again, this time a bit more awake and coherent. But wait, it's not over yet! Sunday morning came quick, and then it was time for more biking to start. I don't know why, but I wasted no time getting out on my bike. Almost everyone else rode the trainers. This was by far the nicest morning of riding. It looked like it had just stopped raining when I woke up, so the roads were wet, but it had cleared up and the sun was out and there was no wind. It was only about 40 degrees out, but not being soaked, blown around or pelted by snow made it almost pleasant. It was one of those rides where I think I zoned out enough to not remember riding long sections of it.

Unfortunately, upon my return, it was time to go out and run for 2 and a half hours. The marathon course for Utah is supposed to be incredibly hilly, so Jesse requested that I choose a good, hilly route. Well, all of the routes around here are hilly, but I picked the worst one. It is actually the bike course of a local triathlon, and I'd never run on it before, but it was incredibly tough for a run. I set off to run by myself because my teammates would probably have to run on their hands in order to go as slow as I do. But the sun was out, the temperature was pleasant, and I knew that once this run was over, the worst of the training would be over.

Yep, that was a pretty darn tough run. The downhills were almost as bad as the uphills due to the pounding. In an odd twist, I seemed to have fueled well so I didn't think I was going to die at the end, so that was a nice change of pace. And really, just like that, the run was over. I couldn't have been happier.

I showered quick and went out in the car to drive the route backwards because I was more than a little concerned that my teammates might have gotten lost. Michelle returned not long after I did, having gone on a route she figured she couldn't get lost on - which she was right about. I found Cait first and rode up and she told me she wasn't going to make it. First I thought she needed fuel or something, but it was just that she had overshot the route and wasn't going to make it back to the house before the time was up. So she told me she had 30 minutes left and I told her I'd come back out and get her.

I continued on the route and never saw Tim, Jesse or Pat which got me more than a little concerned, but I had no idea where to start looking. So I figured I'd just wait and go get Cait and if there was still no sign of them then maybe I'd go out and look again. Cait wound up only being about half-a-mile shy of the house once her time was up, but we all know that having to walk the last bit at the end of a run is never fun. Fortunately, by then I saw the guys coming back too. They had taken a wrong turn and turned the route into an out-and-back rather than risk further wrong turns... and also making their route a lot hillier than it otherwise could've been since they didn't get to run the last stretch of the loop - the flattest part.

But either way, we all survived the weekend. The weather could've been better, but we got through it and there's not a whole lot left to do between now and the race that can make things better. And the last time we had one of these I was sidelined with a stress fracture, so I guess I should be glad that I didn't have to spend 20 hours on my bike over the weekend like I did before Kona. Only three weeks to go...