Monday, June 25, 2012

Lake Placid Camp Report

It's been a while since I blogged and I really do have to get better about it, but often times there is just nothing exciting happening.  Not that any of it is all that exciting, but I'd rather have at least a little something to say.  Anyway, finally I do.  This past weekend we had the first of what should become an annual QT2 training camp up in Lake Placid, home of the awesome Ironman race.  From the first time I went up there in 2004 to race for the first time I absolutely loved it, and every time I go back I feel exactly the same.  Seriously, I could live there. 

Anyway, I went up on Wednesday, hitching a ride with my friend Trent who conveniently lives nearby and was also attending.  It was about 97 degrees while I was packing that morning and before that I barely completed a 35-minute easy run because I was so wiped out.  I took several breaks in the midst of packing from sweating so profusely.  The drive up was painless and uneventful and we had excellent timing on the ferry and arrived in town after four-and-a-half hours of travel.  Had a quick dinner and checked into the hotel. 

Tara was the first of my awesome roommates of the weekend to arrive, with her dog Marley who would serve as room 10 mascot.  He is not to be confused with my sister's Marley who we lost last September and who outweighed this Marley by a good seventy pounds.  We had some time to settle in before Mary and Jennie finally arrived at like 10:30, so we could finally go to sleep to prepare for the first day.

Thursday morning we woke up in time for some breakfast and to meet up with the other campers before heading down to the water for our first workout of camp: a one-loop time trial swim.  Not so luckily, the swim course is currently set up for rowing, which extended a "loop" about another 550 yards, or somewhere around there.  The water was fantastic and I wished I had brought one of my now-illegal skinsuits instead of my wetsuit since the wetsuit is starting to show its age and I didn't really need it to keep warm, and all of that on/off is not going to help it from a longevity standpoint. 

Anyway, we all lined up in the water ready to take off in a mass start of about 29 of us and then it was time for some good, hard swimming.  Coming off Ironman Texas last month I am not exactly in prime shape, and as usual, going as hard as I possibly can isn't really my specialty, so it was certainly a challenge, though a good one.  I stayed on someone's feet, finding out at the turn that it was Trent, which I decided were good feet because we've raced together a lot and I am pretty sure he has always beat me out of the water, so I pretty much followed him the rest of the way.  Thanks, Trent!  I finished three seconds behind him, about seventh I think among all of the swimmers in our group.  Also, toward the end I did, in fact, feel like I might throw up, so I decided I definitely paced it correctly. 

After that we all headed back to change into bike gear for another hard ride, a time trial on the old out and back.  We rode back down the back side of the bike course, which I'd never done before.  Certainly it is downhill but nothing like the infamous descent on the course itself.  Also, the road was in pretty terrible condition for this stretch, so we had to be careful.  It was incredibly warm out during this ride, so I was not upset to find out that the time trial was only 4.1 miles and not entirely uphill.

We lined up in the order we'd finished the swim and took off in intervals based on where we finished the swim.  So if you finished ten seconds behind the person in front of you, you took off ten seconds after they did.  That was kind of fun.  It started off pretty painlessly with some downhill and then flattened out before moving up.  Did I mention I'm not good at all-out efforts?  I reached a point of maximum oxygen deprivation and just felt like I was almost hyperventilating and couldn't go any harder toward the end, so that was not my best performance, but still fun in that weird sort of way that we all find training like this "fun."  Then all we had to do was ride back and then hit the roads for some running.

I was feeling pretty beat up and given the heat I didn't think I'd get much out of an actual run, so instead I ran to the lake and then hopped in the water with Mary and Charlie to do some water running.  Charlie is forced to water run due to injury and Mary and I were simply there for moral support.  If you've ever been forced to water run it is possibly the most boring activity on the face of the planet.  But water running with a couple of friends in Mirror Lake on a beautiful day isn't such a bad thing. 

We had a tiny bit of time to get ourselves together before our pizza dinner that night to load up for our big ride the next day.  There was a sports nutrition talk that night but a few of us headed back early to get some work done and get in bed early since we are pretty well versed on the Core Diet.  I'm pretty sure I slept well that night, having gotten used to sharing the bed with Marley curled up near my legs. 

Friday morning we were up, well, as late as we could get up while still making it in time to grab something to eat before our easy one-loop swim in the lake.  It was much more pleasant without the feeling like I was going to throw up thing going on.  Then it was time to hop on the bikes to ride the course.  I opted to ride with the middle of three groups given that my super-speediness on the bike in Texas had all but completely vanished, so I knew I was not going to be keeping up with the big guns.  The loop was even slower than I expected and I had to skip a bit the second time around in order to not wind up riding way longer than planned.  Given that I pulled into the hotel parking lot after exactly six hours of riding, I'd say I did a pretty good job. 

I had ridden with people off and on, stopping often to fuel up thanks to Courtney and her wonderful QT2 van with Marley riding shotgun.  The weather was mostly nice, although the second time down the descent it was raining which is sort of painful when you're moving 45mph, but it didn't last too long and the sun came out again later.  The day was topped off with a little run and finally I was able to relax... for a very brief period of time before we had to head to dinner.

I guess I should mention that Friday also happened to be my birthday.  Now, I don't make a big deal about my birthday.  I think in the past ten years I've had a birthday cake twice, maybe.  A couple of times I may have literally not seen anybody.  Or sometimes I'll meet friends to swim or something and they have no clue, which is fine.  Four years ago I did the exact same thing on my birthday, riding the course in Placid when I was up training with friends.  The thing is, somehow people always find out.  That time it was because my cousin called me to say happy birthday while we were eating lunch and someone heard just enough to be able to figure it out.  This time, while my birthday isn't listed on facebook, all it takes is one person to say it and for that person to be friends with a lot of the people who happen to be up at camp with you and the word spreads. 

Mostly I wasn't even thinking about it being my birthday.  I forgot about it myself most of the time.  It was only the second birthday I've had without my dad, and if I skim the calls my cell phone has received I can still see the time he called me on my birthday in 2010.  I thought of him a lot when I was up there.  He watched me race all seven times and might have loved the town even more than I did.  The last time he was there he and my mom were talking about maybe coming up for a winter getaway.  It's just too bad they didn't get to do it.

Anyway, upon finishing the run, Courtney was the first one to mention the birthday since she had spent much of the day on social media since she didn't have much to do aside from wait for a lot of tired and thirsty athletes to refuel before moving up the road another twenty miles or so.  And then as we were walking to dinner Trent, thanks to having seen my mom and a few other people post on my facebook wall, told my roommates as we walked down to dinner.  So, the secret was out.  Oh, well.  I'm just not the kind of person who wakes up on my birthday and walks around screaming it to the world.

Dinner was up the road at the Dancing Bears, a restaurant at the High Peaks resort.  Fajitas never tasted so good.  Afterward I was surprised with a birthday, um, bowl of fruit with a candle embedded in the strawberry.  Yes, it's QT2.  To be honest, having been so stuffed with fajitas I'm not sure I would've been able to handle cake at the time, anyway.  I'm also pretty sure that's the first time I've been sung happy birthday since I turned 18.

So then it was time to head back for the general Q&A with the coaches before going back and getting into bed.  I think it was difficult to even hold my head up at that point.  Oh, but I did get to use our awesome Norma-Tech recovery boots and those felt great.  I'd just need a bigger pair for my freakishly long legs.  Fortunately, Saturday was a much lower key day.  In fact, workouts didn't even start until 9:30.  Our standard morning routine was for Mary to get up way before any of us and Marley to bark a bit at her and get all riled up before leaving his spot between me and Tara on the bed to go lie on Mary's pillow next to Jennie.  The rest of us would stay in bed until the last possible moment.  I am sure I was up pretty late.

First up Saturday was two loops in Mirror Lake.  Again, these were long loops so it was more like 5600 yards than 2.4 miles.  But I could practically swim all day in that lake, so I had no issues with it and the hour and twenty six minutes didn't feel like it was that long.  I did feel exceedingly hungry afterward, though.  We had a bit of a break after that where we got some lunch and got to wonder when it was going to rain, because it was definitely going to rain.  I had a little bike fitting with Jesse and we moved my saddle forward just a tad, but that was it.  There wasn't much reason to change anything else.  That's always a good thing.  

It was pouring rain and thundering at that point, at which time we were supposed to be doing our ride.  I also had two athletes racing the next day who I had to get in touch with so I had to make sure I was available until we finally connected, so that made the afternoon a bit sketchy.  I'll be honest and say that I didn't ride.  In the grand scheme of things, me missing one recovery bike ride, my strongest sport, five months out from my next A race is probably not a huge deal.  So I chose not to worry about it.  I got my work done, kept Marley company, had my phone calls, and then went out for the run, which is always the thing I need to spend more time on.  Running around Mirror Lake is pretty pleasant.

It's funny though because many times throughout the weekend I also thought of racing there in 2006.  There are definitely a lot of vivid memories in my head from that day.  The marathon on the out and back, coming to the top of Papa Bear with all of the spectators, seeing my dad when I got off the bike in T2, running out of transition and taking the lead.  I really need to figure out how to get somewhere near that again!  Not necessarily winning races, just maybe actually having a reliable run again. 

Anyway, after that it was once again time to get cleaned up and I got a great deal on a new swimsuit before it was time for my pre-dinner massage.  Courtney made me want to cry, but she just casually talks to you while inflicting the pain as you try and pretend you're fine.  It was probably a good thing, though.  Dinner was some delicious chicken, veggies, salad, sweet potatoes and some other random stuff.  And that night was our mental fitness talk.  I really, really almost fell asleep during that.  Not because it's a bad talk, but simply because I was exhausted!  That night we didn't talk much before going to sleep while Tara stayed up working a ton. 

Then it was time for the last day.  No swim, but easy bike and long run.  It was a chilly morning and I opted to run first.  I did that because I felt as though I'd be better off surviving the run first rather than trying to get through it as the last thing of the whole weekend.  That, and frankly it is not really enjoyable to me to run on the same course at the same time as a whole bunch of people running way, way faster than I am.  This leaves me with approximately zero running partners but maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to run with some people again. 

But, it was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning in Lake Placid and I could run around the lake a few times without too many people in town, although the lake was crowded with tons of swimmers.  There were definitely a lot of camps in town.  I finished up in time to pack up my stuff and move out of the room since we had to be out by 11:00 thanks to a horse show. 

Once packed and ready I hit the road for my easy ride which was quite nice, especially since I could just ride with some of our runners and chat with everyone.  Before we knew it, camp was over and we had some time for lunch before hitting the road.  But not before one last little stop at Starbucks with my roommates and Trent who designated himself as an honorary member of room 10 and we parted ways about 3:30.  We made it to the ferry with good timing and it was as crowded as I've ever seen it.  I actually was worried we wouldn't get on, but thankfully we did.  Then just the rest of the super boring ride down 89 and I was home at 8:15.  Not too bad. 

Somehow I had a hard time sleeping last night, but I did manage to get up this morning to meet some people to swim at Glen Lake.  It is definitely not Mirror Lake but at least it was warm and I didn't need my wetsuit and the bacteria levels warning had been lifted.  It was a good day for some rest because not long after the swim it started raining and pretty much didn't stop the rest of the day. 

So it was an awesome time with some great friends and a good way to kick off the real training for the second half of my 2012 season.  I am officially confirmed for Ironman Arizona in November.  I recall hating that race, but I do know I can race well there and I know the course and the timing is right, so, there aren't a lot of good reasons not to do it.  I'm sure I'll be okay with the fact that the bike course is the most boring on the Ironman circuit as long as I remind myself how fast it is and that the last time I raced there I won my age group by an hour.  Not a bad precedent. 

Okay, almost time for bed because it's another big training week ahead!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Mooseman Spectator Report and What Happens Next

This past weekend was what I often feel is the official kick-off to summer triathlon season in New Hampshire: Mooseman.  After the original Mooseman in 2004 this race moved to Wellington State Park in Bristol where it has been held every year since 2005.  I raced the half in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and last year and the Olympic distance in 2010 since it was a tad too soon after Ironman St. George.  The point is, this was my first time not racing.  Not once during the weekend did I wish I was. 

No, that is not because I don't like racing and don't want to do another triathlon.  That is definitely not the case.  Two weeks after Ironman Texas I certainly was not in racing mode yet again and the weather was... less than desirable.  The weather in New Hampshire in June is sometimes quite pleasant.  But there is something about this race that attracts either incredible heat and humidity or torrential rain and cold.  It's very rarely anything in between.  2005 was blazing hot, 2006 was really cold, 2008 I think the pavement was on fire, in 2010 you would've been better off keeping your wetsuit on the entire race. 

So this year as race weekend approached, while the weather was absolutely gorgeous in the days leading up, just in time for registration the rains moved in along with awesomely cold temperatures.  Nothing like having to wear a heavy jacket in June.  I wisely opted to skip spectating on Saturday at the Olympic.  It rained all day long.  My friend Trent came up to stay at the Zahr lake house and we went over to the QT2 dinner in Bristol with an exceptional amount of athletes.  The team has expanded so much I feel as though there are more people I don't know than do know at this point.  Being a non-racer I was just about the only one without a plate of pasta and chicken in front of me. 

The other nice part about not racing?  I didn't set an alarm that night.  I knew I was going to watch but under the circumstances I figured there was no reason for me to be there to sit in the rain and watch people come out of the water.  I woke up a little after 6 and fortunately Trent was already long gone so no worries about him missing his start or anything.  The good news was that it actually wasn't raining.  The even better news was that a quick look at the weather radar showed that it really wasn't going to be all that rainy that day.  The temperatures weren't going to get out of the 50s, but cold and dry is a hundred times better than cold and wet.  So I took my time getting ready and then hit the road. 

Given that I had some extra time I stopped off for some breakfast at a little local diner I've always loved and had a really good veggie omelet and arrived at the race site about 8:15.  There was some drizzle as I pedaled my bike in from my really-far-away parked car, but other than that, it was basically fine.  Oddly, it took me a very long time to run into anyone I knew.  I watched some people heading out on the bike before heading over to see some of the slower swimmers come out of the water.  Given that there was nothing else to watch really at that point, I opted to stay and watch the final swimmers come out.  It's sort of amazing to see the circuitous routes some of these people take.  Not that I haven't been one of them in the past.  It's also pretty cool to see how immensely thrilled some of these people are just to get through the swim.  Two guys came in together (note that every single one of those slower swimmers I saw were men!) and just made the cutoff and a couple of minutes later one last soul came in and unfortunately had to be told that his day was over.  But the guy would take like ten swim strokes and then stop and "rest" by treading water in place for like ten seconds before continuing forward.  If that was his entire swim strategy then he might want to consider at least doggie paddling in a general forward direction while he "rests" so he's at least continually making progress.

Anyway, after that I just kind of wandered around some, looked at the expo and stuff, because the bikers wouldn't be back for a while.  And even after the first biker came back it was like ten more minutes before the second one came in.  That bike course is so challenging that everyone is really pretty spread out, but slowly people started to come in, including plenty of QT2 jerseys right up front.  I don't think I saw anything particularly exciting.  I will say that transition was basically a swamp, so that was kind of amusing.  And actually watching people come out of T1 quite a few of them would walk out and put their shoes on after they were out of transition and there was even a person with a hose standing there to spray people's feet off.  Yes, things were messy.  But again, at least it wasn't raining!

I think at some point there in spite of the lack of rain it actually got colder outside.  Great running weather, though not so great for biking.  Eventually I went over toward the finish line to watch people come through which is always fun.  Lots of very solid performances there including by two athletes I coach, which is always nice to see.  Especially since this was the first race I'd coached them through.  Trent had a good race in spite of having been stopped on the bike course for a bit due to an ambulance and a bike accident.  I hope nothing too terrible happened there.  Then it was just watching more and more friends come through. 

Sometimes I can't believe how long I've been racing and I remember my first few years not knowing anyone when I'd go to a race.  I think I'd have to go race in Switzerland or something at this point if I didn't want to run into anybody.  It's always fun though to run into people at races.  And eventually it was time to get out of there.  That is of course another perk to not racing and certainly not getting awards, you can leave whenever you want!

Last year this race was basically the end of my season.  I had had a disappointing race in Oceanside, a really bad race in Florida including a foot that kept hurting and I didn't know why, and then I went out at Mooseman knowing things weren't going to go well.  It was the second race I'd ever had to drop out of, although the first one I knew going in I'd have to stop before the run because I already knew I had a stress fracture.  After a terrible bike ride I ran three miles and finally said to myself, something is definitely wrong with that foot.  So I stopped.  And an x-ray some days later told me that I was not imagining things and I was sentenced to the boot for the entire summer.  So, anyway, let's just say I'm in a better spot this year. 

All right, so, what's next for me?  For the first time ever, I didn't have a whole line-up of races planned out.  After IMTX I had no plans.  Zip.  Zero.  Honestly, a couple of months ago I was wondering if I'd even wind up racing at all again afterward.  My USAT membership needed renewing in March and I usually renew it for two years just to delay the hassle a bit, but I opted for one because, well, I wasn't sure if I was going to need it beyond that.  Who knew what was going to happen? 

The best possible outcome was another trip to Kona.  That obviously didn't happen, and that's ok.  I finally had to start thinking though about what I might want to do next.  Right away I went into overdrive thinking up a few crazy ideas.  Mooseman had 25 slots to Lake Placid.  Maybe I could get through that and get a Placid slot and qualify for Kona and race there again.  I knew that entire plan was ridiculous, but it was hard not to at least consider it briefly.  Jesse would certainly never let me do that. 

Another thing I discovered was that Ironman Louisville was still open.  In the past I felt as though you'd have to pay me to do that race, run in that weather and, most importantly, swim in that disgusting water.  But suddenly it all sounded like a great idea.  Three months.  I can be ready in three months, right?  Well, Jesse didn't like that idea either, really.  And the more I thought about it, the worse it seemed.  I mean, not only is it turning around and doing another Ironman pretty quickly, but if the whole point was simply to get to Kona again, I'd then have to turn around and do yet another Ironman six weeks later.  Yes, maybe that's not the best idea. 

So, I'm trying something new.  Being patient.  I'm not going to lie and say it's really easy.  A big part of me is still sitting here thinking, but if you just get your act together you can do it now.  Okay, that may be true, but at what cost?  Where is that going to leave me for 2013 and beyond?  Admittedly we all have a finite amount of time to be elite athletes.  I can't pretend that there will always be enough time because unfortunately, that's not actually true.  But at my age another year is not going to make or break me.  Craig Alexander and I share the same birthday... except he's six years older than I am and he seems to still be doing pretty well. 

So instead of scrambling to try and barely make it through the season and maybe or maybe not make it to race Kona for 2012, I will be ending my season with an Ironman, it just won't be in Hawaii.  Where has not been 100% finalized, but it will be at a point in time in which I can perform to my own standards.  Those standards are pretty high, but given another five months or so it will be amazing what I can do.  I'm sure in October I'm going to feel a little sad that I am once again not racing on the Big Island.  It was 2009 when I last toed the start line and 2007 the last time I finished the thing, so you can see why it might be tough for me to be patient.  But being patient now will pay off a whole lot more in the long run. 

Given the late season plans there is a lot of room for some racing over the summer and I am quite happy to say that it appears that every race I do between now and October will be in my home state and involve me waking up in my own bed.  Not bad.  Next up is Black Fly in Waterville Valley, an international distance and a race that I've always wanted to do but it never quite fit the schedule.  After that most likely I'll be doing a small, independent half ironman at the end of July in Enfield.  How small?  Well, last year there were 49 people who raced.  But hey, maybe I can finally get my elusive half ironman win.  I've won a sprint, Olympic and an ironman but haven't quite nailed one of these, yet.  If things go well and only about nine women show up maybe I can finally hit for the cycle.  After that I get to finally race Timberman again.  Yay!  I raced it eight years in a row and it was my first half TEN years ago, so it will be nice to go back after my little hiatus for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  Then there is yet another small, new half ironman over by Sunapee in Semptember.  I don't know how or why so many of these races have sprouted up in my tiny state, but I'm not complaining and am taking advantage. 

So, a busy but fun schedule I'm certainly looking forward to.  Entry fees on some of these smaller races are certainly kinder and gentler.  As is the lack of flying.  It is really nice to be excited about racing again instead of sitting around worrying just how bad the next personal worst is going to be.  Very pleasant change of pace.