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 Smashfest - Days 1 and 2

Ahhhh so great to once again feel the tired soreness that can only come from a couple days of smashing yourself at camp!

Yesterday, we met the other campers (16 total) and went for an "easy" 1 hour run. Easy - haha. My heart rate was sky high but I kept a happy face and kept up with Linda (well, she waited for me). Later I found out from the other kids that their heart rates were all super high as well, so at least I wasn't alone. But at least we looked cute! Nearly every female camper showed up in a pink Lululemon top. Here's a few of us (with Grand Coachie in the middle).

The girls and I have been so excited for months to get our goodie bags - imagine the joy when fabulous brand new pink Tyr swim bags filled with amazing stuff appeared after our run! Linda's expression says it all:

Out to dinner at El Charro with all the campers to get to know each other a little better and eat a giant burrito:

Day 2! We met first thing in the morning to ride. Here's a shot of our coaches, Hillary and Maik, and our sag driver, Gail, getting ready for the ride:

And here's Doug Friman, also coaching us this year. Here's a pic of him on his size 63 Team Liquigas Cannondale holding Linda's tiny QR with 650 wheels. He was admiring her pink cables:

Today's ride was 90+ miles out to Madera Canyon and back. This involves a 3-mile Category 1 climb in the middle of the ride. Everyone handled themselves like rockstars and we were happy campers at the top! Here's a shot of Aixa and Linda (Linda crushed this climb today - Coachie says she grew balls today. Haha!)

It was a beautiful warm day without the gale force winds of last year, so I had a remarkable improvement over last year's ride - finished it almost an hour faster than last year, which allowed me to do this before our swim:

Eating food and hanging around in recovery boots for 2 hours after a ride like that is amazing. Last year Shelly and I arrived back at the hotel just in time to hop in the pool for the swim. So this was wonderful.

The swim! - Linda led the fast lane and Aixa and I shared lane 3 with Jeff, Kate (whose nickname is Kat which means we have to be friends), and Taryn (Taryn is also a stepmom and is super cool and I want to learn a lot from her this weekend!). We were coached by Doug and swam 3250 yards of mostly band-only (ugggg) and pull (yay!). It was a good swim and I led the lane which was cool and scary because I felt responsible to count for the whole lane and also to not fall too much off the pace.

Here's a pic of the set because I'm a crazy fan, so I saved it:

And I have to post the picture of us before the swim in our Captain America suits:

At the end of the swim, Hillary asked me how many hundreds I want to swim tomorrow, and I bellowed "ONE HUNDRED!" without showing any fear. And she said ok. So now I can think about that all night.

Only one negative for the day - Coachie crashed and has some pretty good road rash and a black eye. We are now Arizona-induced knee-scar twins, so that's kind of cool.

Ok. Time to get some shut eye and get ready 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!

Camp!!!!!

You haven't heard a lot from me in a few weeks because I've been working my way through the second build phase for IMTX while also having to use my brain a lot at work. This combination doesn't make using a computer at home very appealing! But now I'll make up for it in the next week, because I'm heading out to Hillary Biscay's epic Tucson tri camp and I intend to document it fully!

How much fun to see this on my training plan this week:

We're driving out to Tucson this morning - Coachie, Aixa, Linda, and Jeff. And Herb will be meeting us there for a week of smashfests that include 3 epic rides: Mt. Lemmon (longest continuous climb in the continental US), Gates Pass (Leanda Cave, Ironman World Champion, had a photoshoot on this route for Lava magazine), and Madera Canyon (includes the famous Shootout route). We'll do some trail running too, and the thing I'm most looking forward to - 100x100 in the pool! Yippie!

This is my second time to attend the camp and I am looking to see some big improvements over last year. I'm so excited! I'm sad that Shelly isn't joining me this year, but I'm psyched to get out there again and swim, bike, run (and make some new friends!) with some of the fastest AG athletes around. But for now, let's figure out how to pack 6 bikes in Coachie's Escalade before the 12-hour drive to Tucson.

Bike Focus Week

Every other Sunday, I find an email from Coachie that gives me my next two weeks of workouts. This time, I got an extra email telling me I have plenty of "volume in me to play around with" which meant I'd be getting a bike focus week. Bike focus week means that in addition to all the usual daily workouts, you get to ride your bike every day for 1.5-2 hours as well.

I love riding my bike. I will hands-down tell you that the bike is my favorite part of triathlon. But a bike focus week is pretty daunting just because a "regular" week leaves me pretty whooped!

Monday
Notes from Coachie - "ride strong for an hour and a half. You can even do this outside on your road bike!" Hooray! My favorite kind of ride, and permission to do it on the road bike too is just a dream come true. Shelly and I packed our bikes and happily brought them to work after our swim, then took 2 hours of vacation time for that afternoon especially for riding. (It didn't hurt that Monday was her birthday. Happy Birthday Shelly!)

Well, then the wind picked up and a wind advisory was in effect. Power lines were down in wind that was blowing at up to 52 mph. An email from Coachie read, "ride on the trainer today. It's too dangerous to ride outside." Ugh. We took advantage of the time off and got manicures (lovely!!) and then I headed home to do my ride on the trainer instead. At least I had pretty nails to look at while suffering on the trainer.

This is what the wind looked like; while I was sitting at the light, it blew out the power on these traffic lights.

Tuesday
Today called for a trainer ride, but after we got robbed on Monday, Shelly and I were determined to ride outside. We rode to Castroville and back (don't worry Coachie, I got in my intervals) and then did a 20 minute transition run. These are favorite workouts of mine too because I get to chat so much with Shelly. AND we had the added treat of wearing our Jenny Jerseys - hand-me-downs from one of the baddest ass cycling chicks we know, Jenny Park, who also happens to be a swim team friend of Linda's from high school. Jenny was going to donate some old jerseys and then decided to ask Linda if any of us would like to have them - of COURSE we would, wearing a jersey of an awesome Cat 1 cyclist that we totally look up to can only be good luck!

Here are Shelly and I sporting our Jenny Jerseys. They make us faster.

Wednesday
Oh, this was not a fun day. After a 7.5 mile crushing track workout in the morning, I didn't even understand how I'd get in an hour and a half on the bike after work. I was thinking maybe I'd fall asleep in my aerobars. I didn't pass out and I got it done, but it was a pretty lame effort and did not leave me excited for Thursday.

Thursday
Today we got to do the outdoor road bike ride. And oh my goodness, it was awesome. Shelly, Linda and I headed out from Helotes to ride around the 211 loop. This 25-mile route gives you 7 miles of hills followed by 7 miles of awesome, mostly downhill speeding. Shelly and I always play a game with the last part - we try to stay above 20 miles an hour the entire time. With a tailwind you can go way faster than that, and you just want to scream "woo hoo!" the whole way like a little kid.

It was one of those perfect rides. The weather was nice although chilly, and the three of us rolled along in a happy little pack, commenting on the beauty of the nature around us. This was Linda's first ride on the 211 loop and she crushed it! Shelly and I have never ridden this loop as fast as we did today. I can't believe how strong I felt at the end of this week full of bike rides.

And that's it! The bike focus week is in the bank; I get a day off riding tomorrow to "only" run and swim. Then we get to ride more hills on Saturday's 80 miler. I can't wait. Me and my Jenny Jersey are ready to go.

Ode to My Iron Sherpa

You start picking up lingo pretty quickly when training for Ironman. One of the phrases I heard early on was "Iron Sherpa." As in, "You're going to have to teach Robert what to do as your Iron Sherpa!" Sherpas are the guys who help people climb Mt. Everest by carrying all their gear and other crap up for them. I was told that the Iron Sherpa helps on race day by helping you to organize your stuff, maybe picks up your bike for you, maybe carries you home when you're too tired to walk.

Well, I'm proud to say that my husband Robert is the World's Greatest Iron Sherpa! On race day, he learns the course and figures out where to be so that I can see him during the race. He's awesome at cheering and shouting encouragement - and he knows what to say (you look great!) and what not to say (you're almost there!). Some of the best race photos of me and my friends are taken by my hunny bunny. He's never in any of the pictures, but he records the day for all of us and he looks really cute behind the camera. 

That's on race day. But what you don't learn until after you get into the training is that the Sherpa works year-round, not just on the big day(s). I feel so grateful for my Iron Sherpa, who daily listens to the tiny details of my workouts - he congratulates me on the days I do well and encourages me on the days that I'm feeling bad. He's a night owl by nature and doesn't complain (much) about my ridiculous bedtime of 9 pm. He understands my drive to do this even though it takes me away from our family for hours at a time, even on Christmas day. He knows who the pros are and which ones are my favorites and why. And oh my goodness, he cleans my bike for me! 

After driving all the way to Lubbock, TX, for Buffalo Springs last year, instead of hanging out and drinking beers with his dear friend from high school who lives up there, he drove an additional 56 miles so that I could check out the bike course, while Coachie shouted race day instructions at me through speakerphone. And then he stood out there on race day in the Texas summer heat for 6+ hours while we all played triathlete and raced. And then he drove me 6+ hours back to San Antonio while I regaled him with tales of the day; what I did well, what I should have done better, what I will do next time. And he never told me that any of this was ridiculous, which I will fully admit, some of it was.

And of course at Ironman Arizona last November, he hugged me tight and said all the right things while I cried like my heart was broken over a DNF. 

I love my Iron Sherpa hunny bunny husband! The Iron Sherpa does so much more than carry stuff around on race day. If you're lucky enough to have one, give them an extra hug and kiss today and let them know how much it means!

The only triathlon-related picture I could find of Robert.

Hard Hill or Easy Hill?

As Shelly and I headed out for our Wednesday morning hill repeats this week, we turned to each other during the warmup mile and simultaneously asked, "hard hill or easy hill?" We have two hills to choose from on these runs - a steep, short hill and a longer, less steep hill. This is the last week in the first build for Ironman Texas, and I'm exhausted. I'm walking around daily in an Iron Fog, forgetting to hit "send" on text messages and spending more time than usual staring into space trying to remember what I was just about to do. So the answer for me was easy - "EASY HILL!"

We arrived at the hill and started the 1/4 mile repeats - seven of them today. After the first one, Shelly complained that she was already "tingly." I told her I wanted to throw up. After the second one, we stopped talking. And then, somehow, we picked up the pace on each following repeat and crushed the workout. The "easy" hill wasn't that easy after all - we made it hard with speed and effort and determination. As we ran our 2-mile cooldown afterward, we congratulated ourselves on a job well done and confessed that we couldn't understand how it happened.

Throughout the rest of the day, we had another decision to make. "Swim or skip the swim?" I don't think either of us really considered skipping it. But the thought of going to the pool after work made me actually want to cry. We walked out of the office at 5 and agreed to meet at the pool. Then we both got stuck in horrible traffic on the way. Uggg! Delay means we'll be home after 7. Hate that. Should we just skip it? No! We both showed up and whined about it all the way up until sticking our toes in the water, and then guess what happened? We crushed the workout. It was the first time that Coachie had given us actual interval times to go off, and we made them all! So awesome! And at the end of a big build! Woo hoo! An "easy hill."

Today, I nonchalantly grabbed my bike and put it on the trainer, preparing to bang out a 2-hour trainer ride. No big deal, right? I mean, the efforts will be hard, but whatever. Well, the "hard hill" picked me today. I was totally useless on my trainer ride. I couldn't hit my zones, couldn't get anything out of my "efforts" today. Today, just completing the efforts was a victory, and I'll admit that I only did the first set.

Some days you get the hard hill and some days you get the easy hill. But as Coachie once said, there's no such thing as an easy Ironman. ("It's not called Easyman!") So come on hills, bring it. But maybe we can squeeze in a recovery week first.

*The photo at the top is of my running buddy Jenn, from the Reach the Beach Relay in 2008, when Shelly and I were fledgling runners and there really was no such thing as an easy hill.