Lake Placid Training Trip – Day 2
Alternative title: “He Gets Knocked Down, But He Gets Up Again“
After yesterday’s fall, I was pretty worried that I might be pretty sore today or that some injury I didn’t notice would start bothering me. Thankfully, I slept soundly and woke up this morning feeling pretty good. The areas on my body where my skin is torn off (hands, shoulder, elbow) hurt, but there’s no muscular or bone damage that affected today’s training. Also, the bike is fine. I was a pretty lucky guy. That could have been so much worse.
I was up this morning a few minutes before my 6 A.M. alarm went off. I had some cereal and an apple and half a Clif Bar and got my stuff together to load into the car. I wanted to give my breakfast time to digest, so I definitely didn’t rush things. I got to the lake, put on the wetsuit and dove right in. It was around 7:30. The swim went great. The air temperature was colder this morning than yesterday afternoon (duh), but the water temp felt about the same – refreshing and brisk, but not really cold. There were a few other people there getting ready to swim.
I got out of the lake after one loop and walked over to the car. I didn’t see any reason to rush through the transition – and I had to get the bike out of the car, put bandages on my hands. I was on the bike after about 18 minutes. The ride was nice – it was cool out, but the sky was clear and the sun was out and I figured it would heat up soon enough. I rode right past the spot where I fell yesterday and couldn’t see any loose sand or anything else to explain it. Now, I couldn’t remember exactly where it happened and it did rain last night, so it’s possible that either I missed it or it washed away. I was more careful today about riding in the road or right on the very inside of the shoulder to avoid any other sandy patches. The descent down to Keene is pretty sweet – it’s a long, fast descent and I topped out at just over 40 mph. After that descent, at about 20 miles in, the rolling hills start and then about 40 miles in, the real hills start. The last 14 or 16 miles are pretty sick. It’s a tough course:
There were a ton of people out on the bike course. It was pretty fun to be a part of that group – I have to assume that nearly everyone riding that loop is going to be at the starting line in six weeks. Good for all of us!
I finished the first loop in about 2:53. I had planned on taking it easy on the first loop. And I did. But obviously not easy enough, because the second loop pretty much kicked my ass. Each hill on the second loop felt steeper and longer than it had felt the first time around. I guess that makes sense given that by the time the real hills started for the second time, I was nearly 100 miles in!
When I finished the second loop, I tossed the bike into the car and changed into running shoes. Again I didn’t blaze through this transition, but I didn’t take my time either – I took about 6 minutes. The run was great. I was a little nervous about how my legs would react, but I didn’t push the run and after I checked how far I ran, I saw that I was running about 8:15 minute miles. That’s slow for a normal run, but pretty fast considering what how much time I’d just spent on the bike!
I finished the run and was so happy to be done, I nearly started crying. Instead, I sucked it up and stood in the lake for a few minutes, hoping that the cold lake water would help with my recovery. I spent this evening eating, walking around Main Street and sleeping.
I was out there for about seven and a half hours today. That includes 24 minutes of transition and about five minutes between the bike loops to re-fill water and change my bandages. On race-day, I’ll add 1.2 miles of swimming and nearly 23 of running. Since the swim is first, I know I can do the extra swim. I have enough confidence in my run that, I can finish the marathon (it might hurt a lot, but I can do it). I have now proven to myself that I can do this race… the question remains, though, why do I want to???
Training Day – June 9
Swim:
Distance: 1.2 miles
Time: 34:33
Average heart rate: 129
Bike:
Distance: 114.7 miles
Time: 6:05
Average heart rate: 120
Run:
Distance: 3.7 miles
Time: 30:27
Average heart rate: 150
Course: Lake Placid race course
Conditions: Beautiful, sunny, awesome