Training Report: Lake Placid Camp

(aka Team Rabbit Rocked!)

Friday morning bright and early I picked up Carol, then Pam, and we headed up to Lake Placid, New York for our own Ironman Lake Placid training camp weekend! We had a fairly uneventful drive up – other than all of our laughing – though traffic was a bit slow at times. We did get to LP in daylight hours at least! We had a room on the fourth floor at the Northwoods Inn but it didn’t have a fridge so we upgraded to a suite with not only a fridge but a microwave, too! Perfect and on the fifth floor which meant a little bit better view!

Friday night we had dinner down at Mr. Mikes where we had eaten on Friday night at training camp three years ago. I *heart* pizza...and Diet Coke! We did not have a particularly early night but we weren’t getting up too early, either.

Saturday morning: one loop of the run course! Our 13.14 mile run went pretty well! Did one loop though we weren’t 100% sure of the turn arounds as we never saw the ‘M-dots’ painted on the street like last time. I took a walk break at every mile and walked a bit of the big hill back into town. Halfway up that hill we stopped at Subway for more water. I practiced my nutrition, which was working great: Gu, salt stick tabs, and nuun seems to work for me on the run!

After recovering from our run we cleaned up and headed to lunch. On the way we dropped Carol’s bike off at High Peak's Cyclery to get some snazzy new PINK handle bar tape put on then went to the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery for lunch. No brew today though... We wandered around town for a bit and visited Placid Planet Bikes for some nutrition products; and then Pam went to church while Carol and I chilled out. For dinner we met up with Joanna (an old Z’er) and a few of her teammates from Terrier Tri out of NYC. We ate at Nicola's on Main Street. That was fun! 



Team Rabbit!



Sunday morning: two loops of the bike course! We rode a total of 112.7 miles – 2 x 56.35 loops; 4:06 and 4:10 for 8:16 total. That was pretty consistent, I think. This did not include the time we took for 'special needs' or the time it took for me to change my front flat at mile 85. Since I got a flat a camp I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will not get one on race day this time! I changed out the flat rather quickly and without issue, too!! Bonus! Anyway, on the first loop things went pretty well nutrition-wise but my legs got a bit crampy during the last 10 miles back into town. I was using nuun to hydrate with a little (what turned out to be nasty tasting) Gatorade, one Gu and a half a honey stinger waffle each hour with some cheese its mixed in. I used plain water to take the salt stick tabs. Before the start of the second loop I started with two salt tabs then took those about every 30 minutes instead of every 50-60 like the first loop. I continued with the Gus and the waffles until after the second out and back (Sunoco across from Haselton Road). There I got fresh Gatorade and a bunch of ‘food’: Chex Mix, Slim Jim, Payday! I shared the Payday with Carol and ate some of the Chex Mix and the entire Slim Jim before heading back out. The Chex Mix I continued to munch on during the last 13 miles.  

I have to say that for the most part I am familiar with the course, having done the loop 4 times back in 2009 – twice during camp, twice on race day. The new / additional out and back is a nice change from the old Haselton only out and back. The last 13 miles back to town are always tough but the second time was actually not as bad as the first. It may have been the extra salt tabs, or the crazy buffet of snack foods I’d eaten, but heading up the three bears hills (Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear) and the subsequent Goldilocks hill (which is what we named the turn on to Northwood Road at the top of Papa Bear) was not as bad. I was really motivated by this!

Anyway, we got back to the hotel, put our bikes away then ran for .95 miles in about 11 or so minutes – I really cannot remember and have not looked back at my watch.

Saturday night we opted to have dinner at the pub in our hotel. We were very tired and punchy and not up for going anywhere else. It turned out great though – we celebrated with a pitcher of beer and I had an amazing pulled pork sandwich...which funny enough, I’d had the same for lunch the day before! We were all tired and slept quite well!

Monday morning: We had agreed to swim in Mirror Lake today! The air temp was supposedly 46 but we’d talked to folks who had been in the lake, and Pam had been in twice up to her hips, and knew the water temp was in the low to mid 60s. Perfect for a wetsuit swim! I *finally* got a latte from Starbucks and we got ready in the room and headed down to the lake. It was quiet and so peaceful at 7:45AM! Not like race day! We swam maybe a mile in our wetsuits – about 15 minutes out then over and back. It was a very lovely swim! I only wish I'd put my Garmin in my swim cap so we would know exactly how far we went!!

After the swim we cleaned up and partly loaded the car (everything but the bikes). We went to a few stores and I had to have a bagel as I was starved. We checked out and got on the road...but not before stopping at the Adirondack chair store so I could order a couple of unfinished chairs to be shipped to my house! They told me what kind of stain to use on them which comes in a variety of colors so I’m going to try to match my cushions to my wrought iron furniture!

We finally got on our way and had a pleasant though a bit of a long drive home. Lots of pockets of traffic but otherwise uneventful! All in all it was a super successful training weekend with spectacular weather!

We had quite a few funny quotes from our weekend. I won’t put them all down but some that I can write are: 

• Some people call it free speed; I call it 6 miles of sheer terror
• Appreciate the scenery, dammit
• He’s going to die anyway; I mean we all are eventually...
• The ‘biker down’ hill

Next up:
REV3 Quassy Half (I hear it's hilly. Yikes!)
Celebrate P's birthday with the Baltimore 10 Miler!

Happy and Healthy Training!!

Race Reports: Rumpus in Bumpass Oly & GW Parkway Classic AND in other news...

On Saturday, April 14 (which seems like forEVER ago) I raced the Rumpus in Bumpass Oly. This was my third time for this event. This year was slightly different in that there was a last minute venue change. Still at / on Lake Anna but moved from the marina to private property about 4 miles away. This caused a slight change in the bike course in that it went in the reverse direction (which I thought made for a faster course) and it was maybe a mile shorter. Not really sure. Anyway, I had a really good day, despite having the slowest run split in my age group!

This year my age group actually had 18 finishers; last year only 10 but one of those was DQ’d; the first year 15. I’m not really sure how to interpret the actual rankings but I just know that this year overall I felt better. And I definitely performed better overall, aside from T1... So I am very happy about these results! Apparently this race (or the swim in particular) would come back to ‘haunt’ me...



On Sunday, April 22 I raced the GW Parkway Classic. I was supposed to do it for the first time last year but had a DNS because I did not think my foot was recovered enough from the plantar fasciitis to try it. This year I was ready! I had just done the Cherry Blossom 3 weeks before and got my third fastest 10 mile time ever. The day before the run I had gone on a 30-mile bike ride. It was supposed to be zone 1-2 but ended up more like zone 2-3. And I felt really good the entire time. I was amazed. The GW race was like perfect conditions, for me at least. Cool and a light drizzle. I carried nuun but tended to get Gatorade / water at the water stops and walked briskly through them. I ended up running my second fastest 10 mile race ever! I almost broke 1:30 and ended up with a 1:30:36. My prior best - from my first 10 miler ever - was 1:29:12. I was super happy with this result! Carol ran and had a PR! Carol's brother and his friend came down from Vermont to run it and Pam also ran and had a good race.


Finally, in other news, I got sick...


Tuesday, April 24 I ate lunch and felt ‘off’ afterwards. I skipped my workout that night though I had gone to swim that morning. Wednesday, April 25 I went to work and though did not feel like it, did a 15 mile bike ride after work. I ate dinner when I got home then later that night had the chills and realized I was running a fever. It was all pretty much downhill after that...


I was off on Thursday, April 26 and had planned to swim then do a long run with Carol - but that didn't happen because I still had a fever and felt awful that day. I went to work on Friday and didn't feel great but thought it was just a little stomach thing. :) Oh, and the diarrhea started on Friday. Then on Saturday, April 28 I had had plans to go to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit my son and go to a concert. I followed through on that. I didn't feel great but didn’t feel horrible, either. Then overnight things got worse. I had brought my bike along because on Sunday I was planning to meet Carol and Pam outside of Richmond for a 90 mile ride. However...I felt way to bad for that so just drove the 4 hours home and slept instead. Needless to say, on Monday, April 30 I was worse and missed work and went to the doctor that afternoon. He thought it was probably just a stomach virus, but if I was not better by Wednesday I was to get lab work done. I missed work on Tuesday, May 1 but went on Wednesday. Come Thursday morning I wasn't better so on my way to work I went to the lab to get the 'collection vials' (oh joy!) and then dropped them off on Friday. :-|

Over the weekend of May 5-6 I was feeling 'ok'... On Saturday I cut the grass and visited with a friend but was super tired that evening. Then on Sunday was the DC Boundary Stones tour. Again, felt 'ok' but was not eating or really drinking anything at this point. Now, I had a truly amazing and fantastic day doing the Boundary Stones tour. But...after I got home that night I was really bad off. On Monday morning, May 7 I had my first of two episodes of vomiting, though I had actually been nauseous for days. I called the doctor back and got an appointment that afternoon and ultimately we decided I should go to the ER to get checked out. After a long wait at the hospital I ended up with an IV and 2 bags of fluid for dehydration and they started me on a course of two antibiotics for a week. My white cell count was up and my potassium was low. I also got a couple doses of potassium as well as a bunch of things for the nausea. I went home and just slept a lot for several days. By Thursday I could sense a change for the better and by Friday, May 11 I felt like a new person. That afternoon my doctor finally called with the final lab results confirming that I had a parasite, Giardia!!  On Saturday, May 12 I was finally craving 'real food' and I think Sunday, May 13 I finally ate real food. Just in time for Mother's Day! Bonus: my son Patrick got home from college that night! I finally got back to workouts this past weekend, May 19-20 (a successful 5K with a friend doing her very first 5K ever (way to go, Heather!!) plus 5 miles afterwards on Saturday; and a 50 mile bike ride at Prince William Forest Park on Sunday with Pam and Carol.) All in all I missed 3 and a half weeks of workouts, about a week and a half of work, and lost a lot of weight (9 pounds in 7 days - not really the recommended way to lose weight!!). I had a couple people checking in on me and I talked to my boss every morning. It was awful. My dog was quite happy to have me home though. :)


This morning, May 22 I got back into the pool for the first time in 4 weeks and made it through 45 minutes and 2050 yards of a swim workout and was very happy about that! As I was about to get out of the pool I started talking to a teammate and found out that SHE also likely had giardia and quite possibly got it from swimming in the same lake that I did, at the Rumpus Oly!


Needless to say, I missed the Cap2Cap Century ride on May 12 as well as the 100 100's swim on May 13. Though Carol rocked, kicked @$$, and got them both done! And Pam completed the Century! I was so bummed! This weekend (May 25-28) the three of us are going to Lake Placid for Ironman Lake Placid training camp!! My plan is to complete one loop of the run course and try for two loops of the bike course, but taking the bike ride one loop at a time. If I'm not feeling up to the second loop I'll SAG for Carol and Pam. Though hopefully I’ll have a successful training weekend.


On June 3 I have the REV3 Quassy Half so hopefully by then I will truly be back to normal. So I missed a 90-mile and 100- mile ride but we have a 100 mile ride on June 9 and 120 mile ride on June 17... I think I'll be ok if I just get plenty of rest (which is so darned hard) and eat well. I also started taking a better kind of probiotics so hopefully that will also help!


Other fun: I *will* be running the Baltimore 10 Miler on June 16 to celebrate P’s b'day, for sure!


Happy and Very Healthy Training!