Norseman: Epic Race Calls for Epic Training

As we researched the Norseman course, Dawn and I quickly noticed that the first 25 miles of the bike is uphill. "Hey, that sounds just like Mt. Lemmon..." and the idea was born. Let's go to Tucson, AZ for some epic training for Norseman!

I've been to Tucson twice for grand coachie Hillary Biscay's awesome training camp, and while it's challenging, I loved climbing Mt. Lemmon both times. Starting in the desert among the saguaro cactus, the scenic Catalina Highway winds 25 miles up the mountain through beautiful rock formations and then through pine trees that smell delicious to a cute little town called Summerhaven, where cookies and pizza await you at the Cookie Cabin. I looked forward to two Mt. Lemmon climbs on this trip, plus some trail running and some swimming and pro triathlete star spotting at the University of Arizona pool.

We left on Thursday for our 4-day training adventure: 2 coaches (Dawn, of course, and Chris Aarhus - her former coach - an extremely knowledgeable guy and a GREAT teacher) and Tri-Belief teammate Trent (who will be crushing dreams at BSLT in a few weeks). I was certainly the weakest link in this group as far as riding and running go - and without the safety net of my girls and Shelly in particular, I was more than a little apprehensive about how the weekend's training would go. 

Of course it went great. It went better than great. It went so well that I can't even find words to describe it - so I'll just present a photo gallery of some of the fun. 

A trip to Arizona with Dawn would not have been complete without some car trouble. Flat tire changed in 21 minutes - of course we timed it.

And of course the trip would also not be complete without the use of fabulous recovery boots. We didn't use them in the car this time though...

We drove 12 hours to Tucson and then went for a ride that evening. Gates Pass/McCain Loop - omg still my favorite.

Day 1 on Mt. Lemmon - smiley smiley matchy matchy in new Smash Sunrise kit.

This guy taught me to ride my bike. I am not even joking.

A birthday cookie for Coachie!

Day 2, Mt. Lemmon: after a cold, rainy climb, we prepared thoroughly for the descent - plastic gloves held on with electrical tape to keep our hands warm - and plastic garbage bags down our shirts. 

...and then the sun immediately came out, so we stopped halfway down to take all that plastic stuff off and took some fun photos.

The next day we ran for a couple hours in Sabino Canyon - beautiful. And then Dawn and I looked back and realized we're both afraid of heights. Yes, there was a discussion of "look down there and see how far you've come," and yes, there may have been some tears.

I mean, look at this. Gorgeous! I have learned to love trail running. Yep, I just put that in writing.

Super fun pool shenanigans. We got to swim here twice. The most beautiful pool I've ever been to! Coachie put the hurt on us in the last workout of the trip - when we were done I couldn't move my legs and could barely drag myself out of the pool.

During one of the more challenging times on the mountain, as Dawn and I climbed for hours in cold rain and then screamed with joy in unison as the sun peeked out, Dawn mentioned something that she learned at Ironman Texas last week (while qualifying for Kona, no less). She said it's really important to have happy anchors to turn to during a long race like that (think Happy Gilmore's happy place), and that I needed to start building a library of them - maybe I could start with the feeling I was experiencing at that very moment? Yes! Mt. Lemmon climb - a happy thought to carry with me while racing Norseman (and beyond). And countless others from this trip. 

Thank you to Dawn for making this happen and to Dawn and Chris for the expert coaching and advice, and to Trent for the encouragement throughout the weekend. And after today's training ride I can say that I'm already feeling the gains made in Tucson! Best Trip Ever. :)

Smashed

Camp is officially over. All that is left is a celebratory evening and then a long drive home. I'm tired, exhausted, smashed, and I am proud to say that I left everything out there; I gave it everything I had.

We had a huge day yesterday - a technique focused swim in the morning, followed by a 60 mile ride to the top of Mt. Lemmon and back down, then a 30 minute transition run, and then a dinner at Hillary and Maik's house that ended with us raiding the Smashfest Queen closet (awesome!!!!)

The day was amazing. I took some instruction from Hillary on my swim stroke (still completely star struck, I mean how completely cool is it to get swim instruction from one of the top pro swimmers in Ironman?!) and I can't wait to try swimming again when I get home to incorporate the tweaks to my technique.

Swim buddies - conquered a 10K swim together! - me, Taryn, and Aixa. 

For the ride, Hillary would lead me, Aixa, Linda, Taryn, and Kate up the mountain. As we rolled out, I immediately noticed how much hotter than it was last year. Throughout the ride, I remembered the scenery pretty clearly from the year before, and I was thrilled to see the first sag stop at a point that seemed to appear way earlier than it should have. I think I got a little overexcited by this and I took off from that stop, rushing ahead of everyone up the climb. I wanted to prove that I could do better than last year. However, I didn't know how to calculate that, because all I knew was that it took just under 5 hours to do the entire ride last year, ascent and descent combined.

Linda followed and then we reached the second stop at Windy Point, about halfway up. By that time, I was a mess. I had stopped drinking, I felt nauseated, and I couldn't eat anything. This has pretty much been a standard between workouts this week, but during workouts I have been able to continue fueling, until this time. I just couldn't stand the thought of eating or drinking anything. Gail forced me to drink an entire bottle of sports drink and water and then refilled them both. As we pulled away again, Linda took off ahead and I couldn't even try to keep up with her. I just drank from my bottles (managed to drop one in the road, and watch it roll away from me downhill in slow motion) and tried pull myself out of the hole. I was miserable for at least an hour. Then, magically, everything came together and I started to feel better. Hillary appeared on my wheel and provided encouragement and distraction, and before I knew it, I made it to the top! Hillary guessed that we arrived 45 minutes earlier than I had climbed the previous year.

Snacks and drinks at the Cookie Cabin with the whole crew (we headed up in waves this year instead of starting all at the same time) and we headed back down. Just like last year, I asked Hillary if I could sit behind her and watch her descend, and I screamed at Linda to come up and get the same instruction. We are both chickens in descending and we both learned so much from Hillary in the hour+ that it took to get down the mountain. I hit 41 miles per hour without feeling like I was going to crash off my bike! When we returned to the car, I determined that I took over 30 minutes off my time from last year. So incredibly cool.

Then we ran. Again I felt shaky and terrible. But I said "I can do anything for 30 minutes" - the old mantra Shelly and I have always had. As I was finishing up the run and starting to feel better, Maik was running up the road the other way to check on everyone. He ran beside me for a moment or two, long enough to give me some instruction on my technique (loosen up those shoulders) and to tell me, and I quote, "You have improved so much from last year. It's amazing to watch you." (Again - completely star struck. One of the top pros in Ironman is telling me that it's amazing to watch me. I didn't even think that he even saw me at all last year, he was very busy leading the fast group, and did not spend much time with me and Shelly.) At that point I started to get emotional and I told him that he couldn't make me cry while I was running. He laughed and ran off to the next person and I was left alone to hyperventilate and try to breathe, run, and stop crying at the same time. I think this was my proudest moment of this whole experience.

From high highs to low lows - today's trail run on the Starr Pass trails was something else entirely. I had no more energy left. I couldn't eat another peanut butter and honey sandwich for breakfast, so I tried cheerios and I couldn't do it. So I showed up unfueled and unhappy to the run. I was distressed to hear that I'd be running with Hillary today and that Herb would not. The entire time that we've been signed up for camp, I've been looking forward to seeing Herb in his element and to have him teach me a thing or two (he had an awesome run today!). But I was not going to argue with Grand Coachie. Instead I tried to toughen up and figure out how I'd keep up with her on this run.

Well, I didn't. Within an hour, Linda had fallen and cut up her hands pretty well, and suffered a mini-meltdown in the process. I tried to talk her out of it but did a terrible job because I was a mess myself. Aixa cleaned Linda up at the car and we were off again for another hour...that turned into 2 and a half. Three and a half total hours on the trail, 11 something miles, and Linda and I walked/stumbled/jogged/grumbled most of it together, with Hillary running back to check on us every so often. We fantasized about being eaten by bears, dreamed about being rescued by helicopters, and joked about thowing hissy fits. Then we all ran out of water because it was taking so long to get back. This run was a total beatdown for the two of us, but Aixa kept up with Hillary and looked strong and steady every time we saw her - I was impressed!

Dr. Alvarez at work.

Linda and I in the 7th circle of hell.

Dawn is going to ask what I've learned from camp and I think it's this - I finally understand what people are talking about when they say that you can go through high highs and low lows within the same day. They're usually talking about the day of an Ironman race, but I experienced this on the bike yesterday and the run today. These things come and go, and I need to remember that when race day arrives.

Maybe after I've had some time to reflect, I'll have more to say about this experience. For the moment, I'll say I'm so glad I came back a second time to see what I can do compared to just a year ago. It's completely awesome. Now it's time to get home, get some sleep (AND SOME WHATABURGER) and get focused on the race prep phase for IMTX.

Camp Day 3 - Gates Pass/McCain Loop and 100x100 Swim

When Shelly and I came to camp last year, there were two things we didn't get to do - the McCain Loop section of the Gates Pass ride, and the full 100x100 swim (we only got to do 100x75, which was still my longest swim ever by a long shot). So this year there were two things I refused to leave here without doing - and we did them both today.

Doug led our group this morning for the ride (the Gold Group, the other groups were the A Group and Group 1 - haha). Here we are getting ready to roll out:

And the obligatory matchy matchy group shot:

This ride was beautiful. It was nicely overcast so we had a little reprieve from yesterday's blazing hot sun. Jeff, Aixa, Linda, Taryn, Kate and I rode up and over Gates Pass and then down to the end of the road. I still didn't know if we were going to be able to ride the McCain Loop until we all regrouped at the bottom and Doug said OK! Let's roll to McCain Loop! Yessssss!!!

I swear I smiled the whole time I was riding that section of beautiful rollers in the middle of miles and miles of saguaro cactus as far as you could see. I got a huge boost as well when Doug rolled up and told me that I was riding strong "like an ox." How cool is that?! He later told me and Linda and Aixa that we were riding really strong and that he had a hard time catching up with us, which made us all beam like crazy.

Then, we tackled the big hill on the way back home. This half-mile climb was difficult for me last year on my road bike with easier gears to climb in - I remember having to stand up for the whole climb and being afraid to topple over. I was really truly scared approaching it today. I was in front of Linda, and I started to panic and wanted to tell her that I needed her to back off in case I fell over on the climb. At that very moment, I realized that Linda was getting ready for a self-described "mini meltdown" and that her fear had her close to tears. I yelled at her and told her to remember that she grew balls yesterday and that she should use them. And with that exchange, we both HTFUed and climbed that hill. Here's proof (the scenic overlook at the top):

I was jubilant after the ride but then immediately began to feel nauseated and couldn't really eat anything once we got back to the condo. This would be a problem later during the swim.

Here's the before shot - more matchy matchy. Not sure what the other campers are thinking of us at this point, but it's still fun for us! 

At the pool, Hillary handed out the workouts and I was happy to see that mine was for 100x100. Aixa, Taryn and I would share a lane and Aixa and I were expected to take turns leading. 

I led the warmup and then Aixa took the next set. Somewhere along the way, I started to feel nauseated and tired and couldn't keep up with the pace. I apologized and asked Aixa to continue leading. And then I had to drop back and let Taryn go because I couldn't keep up the pace. And I wanted to cry and I wanted to quit and my shoulders hurt and I could barely move through the water and I was trying not to throw up in the pool and I hated my life. But I kept going! And I decided that today's swim was the check that my ego needed and a good reminder that I have lots to still learn. I spent about 5000 yards learning every detail of Taryn's feet, and I am thoroughly grateful to her for allowing me to do so. :)

Linda enjoyed a similar sufferfest with Hillary in Lane 1. So I'm in good company. Here they are happy and smiling and finished!

And because I'm a crazy fan, here's our workout again for posterity:

And our reward afterwards. I think I'm still in a calorie hole but I'm climbing out. Gotta gain some strength for tomorrow!

Tucson - We're Here!

We made it here to Tucson from San Antonio in one piece. Five people, six bikes, and a ton of luggage crammed into one Escalade driven by Coachie. Here we are at Jeff's house in Boerne, packing the bikes and stuff in tight. Note the cargo on top of the vehicle.

...about 2 hours later the wind ripped the thing off the top of the car, Aixa's suitcase tumbled out onto I-10, and the rest of it went swinging against the side of the vehicle. We salvaged our luggage and stuffed it all into the car and we were on our way again. Phew. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful (except when we stopped at the next gas station and learned that Jeff's bike was dangerously close to sliding off the back; we rearranged it all and drove to Tucson with our stuff intact. Dawn didn't even get a speeding ticket this time).

We don't have anything to do today until 4 pm when camp officially kicks off with a 1-hour run. We're staying in a condo at the JW Marriott, and it's really nice. Here's a view from our back porch (Starr Pass! It's right there!!!):

On our way out to get some coffee at Starbucks and stock up on groceries at Albertsons, we happened upon a famous Jumping Cactus (these things are real and they will hurt you - just ask Dawn!):

Here's Aixa, Herb, and Linda touristing it up at the JW:

And then we shopped our faces off at Albertsons. We have enough groceries for an army. Mostly chocolate milk and Gatorade!

On our way back from shopping we saw Hillary and Maik running on the side of the road. Can't wait to see them and run with them later today!