For the last 2 years, I have joined Team in Training with the ambition of crossing the finish line at the Wildflower Long Course race at Lake San Antonio. Wildflower is considered to be one of the most difficult half Ironman courses in the country. It is tradition that this course chew me up and spit me back out. I always manage to cross the finish line, but I walk away limping, nauseated, and relieved that it's over. Now that I'm on Ironteam, we do this course as a TRAINING DAY!
Once I climbed out of the water it was back to transition to strip off the wetsuit and get ready for the 56 mile bike ride. The Wildflower Long Course bike ride is legendary. It starts off with a very steep hill climb that lasts for about a mile. It's a rough way to start a long ride, but since I knew it was there, I just relaxed and settled in. It's a beautiful rolling hill course that takes you along pastures, farms, and vineyards. Somewhere around mile 34, the course lives up to it's reputation. It's the beginning of "Nasty Grade" a nearly 5 mile hill that climbs 1,000 ft from start to finish. If that weren't daunting enough, the hill has a fake summit. That's when you climb to what you think is the top, the road turns and there's more climbing. It's very cruel. But since I knew the top of the hill was not in sight, I paced myself for the challenge. I really felt great for most of the ride.
It is tradition for me to blow up on the run. My heartrate gets too high, my spirit gets low, and I suffer to the finish line. This time was different. By the time I got to the first water stop at mile 4, I was feeling good enough to eat pretzels, 1/4 banana, some pringles, and some orange slices. I stuck to my run 9 minutes and walk 1 minute strategy. When I got to the hills, I ran 20 steps and walked 20 steps. This worked well for me, both physically and mentally.
Condition: Feeling good and happy to be sleeping in a real bed
On Friday afternoon Tony pulled up to my place and we loaded all of my gear into his car. Did I mention that we have to camp for the training weekend? It's part of the Wildflower experience. We met up with Belilnda to begin our caravan down south. 4 hours later we pulled into the campground and greeted our teamates. At our team meeting that night Coach Dave gave us our timeline (wake up at 5 am, in the water by 7 am), outlined the course map (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run), and informed us that he brought us to training weekend fatigued for a reason, so we all had to make sure we had a Plan B & C. Plan B & C are your strategies for handling meltdown moments i.e. mechanical issues, dehydration, bonking, or mental fatigue aka "I'm so over this shit." I laid all of my things out the night before and hit the sack early to get as much sleep as possible. My mentor Joan offered to let me sleep in her Taj Mahal tent which had two airmatresses and could comfortably sleep 6. I was starting the weekend off right.
At 4:55 am I awoke to the sound of bagpipes. "Surely, this must be a dream," I thought. Joan woke up as well and noted that our alarm hadn't even gone off yet. The bagpipes then switched to the Rocky theme song and slowly got louder as it appeared that someone was walking through the campsite with a boombox. Apparently, this is one of the signature Ironteam traditions. No one appreciated the fact that they were woken up 5 minutes before their alarms went off, but no one over slept either. We all ate breakfast, packed up our gear, and drove down to the transition area in the dark. Our coaches wanted to simulate a race day, so we all had to register, get body marked, and pin race numbers.
At 4:55 am I awoke to the sound of bagpipes. "Surely, this must be a dream," I thought. Joan woke up as well and noted that our alarm hadn't even gone off yet. The bagpipes then switched to the Rocky theme song and slowly got louder as it appeared that someone was walking through the campsite with a boombox. Apparently, this is one of the signature Ironteam traditions. No one appreciated the fact that they were woken up 5 minutes before their alarms went off, but no one over slept either. We all ate breakfast, packed up our gear, and drove down to the transition area in the dark. Our coaches wanted to simulate a race day, so we all had to register, get body marked, and pin race numbers. At 7 am, we were in the lake waiting for the whistle. The swim was ok. The water temperature was about 62 degrees, and compared to last week's 56 degree water, it felt great. The only downside was the size of the buoys that marked the course, they were difficult to spot. I kept mistaking someone's red swim cap as a buoye in the distance. Aside from the occasional zig-zag in direction, the swim was ok.
Once I climbed out of the water it was back to transition to strip off the wetsuit and get ready for the 56 mile bike ride. The Wildflower Long Course bike ride is legendary. It starts off with a very steep hill climb that lasts for about a mile. It's a rough way to start a long ride, but since I knew it was there, I just relaxed and settled in. It's a beautiful rolling hill course that takes you along pastures, farms, and vineyards. Somewhere around mile 34, the course lives up to it's reputation. It's the beginning of "Nasty Grade" a nearly 5 mile hill that climbs 1,000 ft from start to finish. If that weren't daunting enough, the hill has a fake summit. That's when you climb to what you think is the top, the road turns and there's more climbing. It's very cruel. But since I knew the top of the hill was not in sight, I paced myself for the challenge. I really felt great for most of the ride.
It is tradition for me to blow up on the run. My heartrate gets too high, my spirit gets low, and I suffer to the finish line. This time was different. By the time I got to the first water stop at mile 4, I was feeling good enough to eat pretzels, 1/4 banana, some pringles, and some orange slices. I stuck to my run 9 minutes and walk 1 minute strategy. When I got to the hills, I ran 20 steps and walked 20 steps. This worked well for me, both physically and mentally.So what was different from the past 2 years? Well, other than a more intense training regimen, I think I finally figured out my nutrition and electrolyte balance. I was able to consume about 1,200 calories on the bike and probably around 600 calories on the run. Yes, I know that this is a normal person's recommended daily intake, and I consumed this all before 3 pm. According to my Garmin, I burned 2,920 calories while riding my bike and 1,380 calories during my run. One of the benefits of training is refueling, and when you're that depleted, food never tasted so good!
Ironteam completed the entire long course on Saturday, but the other teams (East Bay, SF, Redwood/Wine Country) split the training into two days. It's Ironteam tradition to throw a big party at camp on Saturday night and then get up early to host a water stop for the rest of the athletes. A really important part of Ironteam is our honoree group. Many of them have experienced the common side effect of chemo, hair loss. In honor of our honorees the theme of our bonfire party was "Shave Your Head for LLS." We had about 8 men line up to have their heads shaved, but the hero of the night was Moddie. She said she would shave her head for $1,500 towards her fundraising. It took us about 20 minutes to raise the money...Moddie is now a beautiful baldy :)
Condition: Feeling good and happy to be sleeping in a real bed
Fundraising Update: I'm 41% of the way there! Click here to donate to the cause: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/louisir09/thylton
2 comments:
Sounds like a fun weekend! I think you should shave your head too!!!
You amaze and inspire me, Trish! (But please, don't listen to Ron... keep your hair.)
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