The sore blasted in the room at around 5:30AM and I immediately took inventory of the damage done from the long ride the day before. To my surprise, my ability to walk to the bathroom was not hampered in any way. “Could I really not be sore at all from a 7 hour bike ride?” I thought to myself. My head was a foggy, most likely from the microbrews that we enjoyed at the camp dinner the night prior. I started working on that with a few large gulps of coconut water from the fridge. I enjoyed my typical breakfast of a banana, some granola and a bar of some sort and washed that down with some green tea. I had a few minutes so I grabbed my Canon 7d and headed out on the patio and took some pictures of the lake. It was a bit cool this morning and there was a nice fog rising from the lake(above). I snapped a few shots and headed back in the room. I put my suit on and grabbed my wetsuit and headed for the lobby to meet up with the crew. Everyone was ready to go chatting away when I got up there. Some people already put there wetsuits on in order to stay warm on this cool morning. Troy rounded us up and we headed down to Mirror Lake.
We all suited up and made our way out to the starting line at the end of the dock. Coach Troy informed us that today we were going to be swimming 15 minutes down the lake focusing on technique instead of pace and then at 15 minutes we would turn around and come back trying to reach the start in less than 15 minutes. Essentially doing a negative split. I meandered my way through the pack of swimmers to the front and outside so not to get hung up on the slower swimmers. He gave us the “Go” signal and we were off.
I started with a nice, easy pace. The first 7 minutes are always a little tough until you get warmed up and get into a good rhythm. After 15 minutes I made it about 0.51 miles out which is not as good as the first OWS swim, but still good for me. Now we had to take it up a notch and try to get back in less than 15 minutes. I increased my stroke rate just a bit, so that I knew I could maintain that the whole way back. Every so often I would bump it up a little from one buoy to the next and then slow back again for the next. Just to push it more. I ended up having someone drafting me most of the way back, which turned out to be Rich one of the guys I had become friendly with in the camp. All was going well until right near the end I ran up into some of the slower swimmers and it totally through off my pace. Rich ended up going past me and then I just followed him back in. I ended up completing the second half in 14:29 which cut 30 seconds off. I could have done better if I didn’t stop for the slower swimmers. I will need to work on that cause I will be running into many people in a race condition.
We finished up and Coach Troy informed us we had 30 minutes to get ready to run half the IMLP run course. It was a gorgeous day and I was looking forward to the 13.1 run. We met in the parking lot and jogged down to the IMLP transition area where Coach Troy debriefed us on the layout and goings on there on raceday. After that we headed down Main street and made a right onto Route 73/Sentinel Rd. Coach Troy and Rich lead the way and I tailed behind them by about 25-50 yds, although that eventually increased as we went. I settled into my pace while staying in HR Zone 2(<= 152 bpm). The sun was strong and the sweat began flowing very quickly. The stretch down to River Rd. was pretty nice as it was either flat or downhill. I was very familiar with the River Road portion since this is my normal running route when we come up to Lake Placid. There were a few A-hole drivers with redneck pickups on River Road that would not give us any room. Really pisses me off. Coach Troy dropped back a bit and ran with me for awhile and we chatted a bit. When I reached the typical turnaround there was nothing there to indicate it, but I saw Torrence and the SAG vehicle down at the intersection with Route 86, so I kept going. I needed to fill up my water bottle.
While filling my bottle I noticed a red stain running down my white shirt. I thought it was the electrolyte mix in my water, but it was actually blood from my HR monitor creating a sore on my stomach. Yuk! I stuffed down a handful of pretzels and started back to town. I met up with Robin, one of the girls in our camp. Robin used to live in Boulder, CO and now lives in Saratoga, NY. I was curious how those two towns compared. Although I would not want to be in CO right now with all the wildfires out there. I ended up getting a stone in my shoe so I stopped right at Dan & Wendy’s house which is where we typically stay when we are up in LP. The gate was closed and I didn’t see any signs of activity there so I kept on. I reached the end of River Road and then made the turn up the steep hill by the ski jumps. This one took some life out of me. I kept running but it really slowed me down. I eventually got back to pace again on the flat part into town. Then was the big hill up to the intersection with Route 86, another big climb. These two hills will be brutal, especially when you have to do them twice.
I headed back along the lake, but I only went as far as the Boat House since I added some extra distance on River Road. I finished in around 2:09 which is fine for a training run. My pace was 9:34 on the way out and 10:02 on the way back, mostly due to those hills. I managed to stay in Zone 2 most of the time too, so racing should speed things up a bit. Not a bad effort especially at the end of a weekend of constant training.
I headed back to the room, showered up and packed. It was 11:20am and I had to checkout by 12PM, so not much time to dilly-dally. I checked out and did some shopping down Main Street and then on my way home. I had a 6 hour drive home ahead of me yet and with the exhausting weekend I was hoping I could keep my eyes open. I stopped in Keene to have some lunch at the ADK Café. They were quite busy, but I managed to get a table. It took longer than usual, but it felt good to just chill. I had a bowl of Black Bean Jalapeno soup and a white bean spread with wilted spinach, tomato, and pesto grilled on cafe bread which came with sweet potato fries. Quite yummy! I also had about 5 iced teas, so I was hydrated and caffeinated too. I grabbed a cool T-shirt that said “locally grown” on the front and their logo on the back and a six pack of LP Brewery’s IPA for home.
I made good time driving home and only had to stop twice. I made it the whole way on one tank of gas too and averaged over 40 MPG in the Honda Fit. That car rocks. I made it home by 8:30PM and had the car unpacked in a half hour or so. It was nice to be home. All-in-all it was a really successful weekend and I have some confidence and experience on the course now. I think this will pay big dividends for me next year. I would like to do the camp again next year before the race if I can.
