I sometimes loose myself in my work and when that happens, I typically don't sleep enough, eat particularly well, etc, etc. To prevent this from happening before my race, I took the week off before my race and headed to Lake Placid. I figured it would be the perfect place to relax (my hubby and I go there regularly for short vacations) and do the last bits of my training. So Sunday we packed up my father-in-law's trailer and headed out.
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| Our home-away-from-home the last week before IMLP. |
Monday
I had an hour-long run scheduled. During it, I had to go to the bathroom something fierce. While scoping out some bushes to duck behind, I rolled my ankle off the shoulder of the road. I stopped immediately and dropped a few choice curse words. I took a few tentative steps. Seemed ok. Took a few tentative running strides. Phew. It still seemed ok so, I finished my run.
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| Ready for my first swim in Mirror Lake. Gah! Look at those huge flipper feet! |
Today was my last full distance swim. I was to do two full loops of the swim course (essentially what I would be doing on race day). This was my first time in Mirror Lake and my first time checking out this "cable" everyone talks about.
The "cable" is just that, a cable that runs about 3 feet under the water and holds all the buoys along the course. Everyone talks about "swimming the cable" meaning swimming close enough to see the cable to whole time so you never have to sight, you just follow the cable. This saves time. That day, when I swam the cable, I shaved 15 minutes off my average 3.8km time. I was blown away.
Wednesday
I had an hour-long ride scheduled. I headed for the flat section of the course for some intervals and then ended by doing the Wilmington hill just to remind myself what it would feel like. There was quite a strong head wind on the flats but I powered through and going up Wilmington felt the same as it had before (just dropped to my low gears and spun it out), so some of my pent up worry over loosing those earlier three weeks of training started to ebb. Somewhere on the ride though I lost my bike computer. Grrr!
Thursday
Worst day ever. In a nut shell, my hubby had an allergic reaction to something (we still don't know what) and swelled up like a balloon. I was in town, having just completed my Athlete Check-in (getting my swag bag, athlete bracelet, signing waivers, getting weighed) when I got a call from my husband asking if I could please pick up some Benadryl and head back to the campsite because he's swelling up and having a little trouble breathing. WHAT?! I wasn't scheduled for a workout that day but I definitely got my heart rate up x1000. Turned out the nice people at the KOA took care of him and he was looking (and breathing) normal again by the time I skidded into the parking lot.
Friday
I headed back into town to attend some seminars arranged for the athletes. The most significant one was about the new swim start.
In previous years, the swim at LP was a mass start (i.e. the gun goes off, everyone's time starts and, unless you're cool with waiting five minutes for the masses to clear, you have to fight for a line of swim). I had heard more than a few horror stories of people getting kicked or hit in the face, swum over, etc. etc. You can imagine this caused a lot of athletes some anxiety. So the good people at IRONMAN had thought up a new way of starting the swim and were testing it out at a few specific races this year. IMLP was one of those races.
The new swim start would be a rolling start based on expected swim time. Athletes that expected to finish under an hour would enter the water first, then those that expected to finish between 1h and 1h10 would enter next, etc, etc. Three key benefits are (1) you enter the water with less people (2) you enter the water with people that are similar in pace so you shouldn't really be swum over (3) your timing chip is only activated when you pass a timing mat at the entrance to the water.
For the whole thing to work out though, athletes really needed to seed themselves honestly. And that's what the race directors were trying to stress the whole time. There were a few IM vets that didn't like the change though. Something about not knowing where your competition is. But meh, it didn't bother me. I wasn't vying for a spot at KONA.
Saturday
After checking my bike and gear bags into transition, I went back to the site to relax and spend some time with friends who had come up to watch the race. I got a pleasant surprise in the afternoon when everyone showed up wearing custom t-shirts. So sweet!!!
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| My support crew, minus three crucial members (Brenda, Joan & Vickie) |
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