At sea level

Landing in San Diego on Sunday was heavenly...it was 72 degrees and breezy.  As soon as I stepped outside I noticed my headache of 9 days was gone...totally gone. Not masked with ibuprofin but gone.  They say when you are suffering from altitude sickness that really the only way to get better is to go lower....well hard to do then in Colorado.  

Nice that JD was there to pick me up and I was really excited to go home....10 days is a long time away.  I was worried that Mako would have forgotten me after all that time, but he greeted me with such elation, full body wiggle, peed all over the floor and was whining and whining.   It was so heartwarming...he followed me about giving me kisses off and on.   Hard to top that but John was there with open arms and a clean house - he is a good guy! 

Plan was to rest and relax....but we decided to go to Kristen's get together for the Nytro Team- so it was shower, change, walk the dogs, make a salad and off we went.  Was fun to see most of the team....they all raced San Diego Intl, which I missed due to the fact I was sucking wind and struggling through a race in Loveland, CO killing it at my race in CO.   Fun times and I was ready to head home...

Accomodations in Boulder were superb at my sis's house...but nothing like being home in our bed with Mako snuggled up next to me.  Slept better than I had all week.  No alarm, not place to be and I was up at 6:30 and was elated to put on a sweatshirt to walk the dogs.  Back in our routine...coffee, long walk and then settled into work.  Monday was a planned day off of training, but I could not forget what Julie Dibbens said- 25K a week was eager to swim so I headed to the pool for an unstructured swim and felt surprisingly good.  

So far this week has been relaxing...work is mellow, enjoyed and AM at Ventura Cove doing some Open Water Swim Lessons- truly an amazing way to start the day.  Easing back into training with ride with Noko Tuesday and a solid Ironman swim workout today. I am feeling great..not wrecked from the camp and eager to nail another block of training before it's taper time. 

Enjoying some great time with JD and RM...hanging out, shopping and prepping for R's 16th birthday. Tomorrow is her party - we have a bungalow at the Paradise Point and her 6 besties will join us for a day at the pool/beach and a night at the resort-  the girls will spend the day chilling, tanning and having fun.  I'll come back with dinner, cake and then we will do a bonfire with s'mores....they can have the bungalow but I will be next door.   Family party is Friday.... fun week in store for us!!!!

EC Camp Day 5 and 6

Day 5 started with a mishap.... we were rolling at 8 from Flatirons and  on my way there (via car) I realized I forgot my cycling shoes.  When you shoes smell like a rotting carcass flowers they  have to be kept outside and well I forgot them.  U-turn and back to get them which made me late. One thing I like about EC is that when they say roll at 8, they roll at 8- no matter.  Thankfully Gordo waited for me and we boogied our way to try and catch some of the group.  But I missed the fun of climbing with the group- maybe a good thing.

Ride on deck today was Flagstaff Mountain- short ride but a respectable climb. With great surprise my legs responded well today. HR was in check and power was there when I reached for it.  There is a section of 14% at mile 3 and ooof that was a beast- HR 191- yeah baby.   Reached the summit, chilled for 30 seconds and went screaming down.  Done! 

Immediately following was the Masters Swim with Jane Scott, previously detailed and we were done by noon.  Free afternoon and free night.  Hammered out some work, a nap and then started prepping for the "race" on Saturday.  Why in italics....well the idea of racing on these sorry legs is amusing, at best.

With the race starting at 6:30 and Loveland 1 hour away the alarm was set for 4am.  Highs for the day forecasted over 100- so early start is good.

Easy drive and relatively small race and I was registered and set up with time to spare.  Swim was in a lake, 74 degrees and was warm.  Off we went and within 200 meters I knew the goal was getting enough O2- I was gasping for air.   The goal of focusing on new technique went out the window.... I was trying to survive.

.25 mile run up hill to T1 and I was gassed...

Found my bike and was on my way.... legs were burning and cramping.  Within a few miles I could tell this would be another training day - no power and HR (after being high all week) was mid 150's and I could not get it higher.  Low HR + No Power = fatigue...so I enjoyed the ride, was passed a lot and tried to have fun.  Onto the run and that was when my legs said  WTF?  So I turned off the pace and just rolled... focused on form and ran along.  The smoke smell from the fires was strong a bothersome... People were flying by and well I just trotted along.  Was pass in the final 1/2 mile by a chick who I thought was younger but no she was in my AG and beat me by 11 seconds.  Oh well.... I manged a 3rd place at altitude after a rockin camp- Splits are embarrassing but as Chuckie V says...what did you learn?  I learned I am tired but can still have fun when not feeling great. 

 Award in hand and yes in ice cold beer!

With camp over, except for dinner, I was off to spend some time with the family..... 3-4 espresso's later and I was ready to rally. We grabbed lunch, hung out and returned to Boom Yogurt for more delicious treats.   Closing dinner at Foolish Craig's in Boulder and it was good..... beers were flowing tonight.   Excellent food and lots of reminiscing about the week of camp.   Made some new great friends and hope to see them out racing throughout the year. 

Glad to be heading home....the 99+ degrees is overwhelming, the air is thin and I miss my family.  10 days is a long time....looking forward to seeing everyone and of course my baby Mako

 

EC Camp Day 4 (part 2)

We had the pleasure of doing a Q&A in the afternoon with Julie Dibbens.... first off she is a very cool cat.  She swam at LSU 10+ years later than I and swam for one of my former teammates.  She is laid back, humble and quite funny.

Gordo T'd up some great questions and history about her as an athlete- Many world titles at varied distances...From ITU to XTERRA and the only one missing is Ironman Kona, which I suspect, she will be going after in 2013.

When she is in IM training she swims 5-6 times/week - 25K.  That is a lot!  So many say to me "swimming is your strength, you don't need to swim much"  But I am hearing the opposite both from EC Coaches, my coach and hearing what some of the top swimmers in IM lay down each week.  The goal is not necessarily to get faster but to swim 54- 55 minutes and come out of the water 100% fresh- that is what the agonizing years of swimming gift of a swimming background can give you in Ironman.  As Gordo said in his "talk" what really challenged him when he was elite was when Dave Scott have him sets he hated... that is what takes you to the next level.  So I need to come to terms with the simple fact- swim more Julie.  A pro can swim 5-6 x a week, I run out of time, but I can swim more.

Since we are on swimming I will move to today's swim session at Flatirons with Jane Scott, as in Dave Scott's sister.  I have to digress as we did have some triathlon celerity spotting.... Crowie (3x Ironman World Champion) and then part way through the workout Dave Scott hopped in the open swimming lane. I was impressed.... holy cow!  One of my lane mates told me to stop staring and get moving... I told him he was just jealous. 

In any case... I don't seek out swim instruction, not because I don't need it, but I just don't. It was great to work on some drills and practice a new technique.  I had Gordo really take a look at my stroke and he gave me 2 major nuggets of feedback.  1- apparently I lift my head as if I am sighting nearly every 3rd stroke- loss of speed. Once he pointed it out, I felt it and was able to correct- will need to focus on this in the future.  2-  too much reach...whoa, is there such a thing? yes (according to Gordo) I am reaching so much forward that I am compromising the power phase of my stroke.  He asked me to drive my forearm down (sounds nuts I know) and I did.... I know from coaching that what I felt and what I was really doing would not mesh up - so I felt like I was driving my hand to the bottom of the pool where as I was not.  Anyway could feel the work in my arms... so I am really excited to have a few things to focus on - good thing since my swim volume is going up!

EC Camp Day 4

Back to the the Boulder Res for another 4400K swim in the OW- it was much cooler today but great to swim on a nice long course.  Another 1100 TT on deck at 7am and it was long, painful and a fight...but good to drop in the middle of a long swim.  Lost Justin and Tom immediately -  but held on for a solid effort and a 45 sec improvement over Tuesday...but I suspect the course may have been a tad shorter- but I'll take it either way.

Next on deck was the long run of the week- 2 hours and we had some guidelines for efforts but my plan was lock in IM HR (+ 10 for altitude) and click off the miles- I needed a solid run -  and I pulled it off. Moderately hilly but nothing crazy and warm but not blistering hot-  pace was slow ( I looked) but got it done and now 4 1/2 weeks out from IMLP that was the goal. 

Few hours of down time and took Jame and Willa to Matty Reed's Yogurt place here in Boulder,  BOOM Yogurt Bar All the fro yo and granola toppings are locally made. It was delicious and a great treat....7 and 9 year old girls and less expensive a self serve yogurt than my 15 and 17 yo kids! 

Next we had a chat with EC Coach Alan Couzens who is wicked smart and has a few advanced degrees in exercise science and physio. He is dialed into Training Peaks WkO and is so knowledgeable.  Really insightful as to what all the acronyms and grasp mean, how to use them and understand your fitness now and in the past, how a big camp affects you etc. I am really excited to delve into this a bit further and learn more about myself and how to better coach my athletes.  Also exciting new update from Garmin- Normalized Power can now be seen on the 500 and other cycling computers.  This is key for me!! NP is the number that counts.... so going try it out today as we struggle  climb Flagstaff Mountain here in Boulder.

Reasonable ride on deck followed by Masters Swim at Flatirons with Jane Scott. 

EC CampDay 3

We are definitly going in the right direction....woke up feeling much better, HR was 15 beats lower and the headache was low grade versus complete domination. 

Jene and I looking for more O2

We rolled out at 7:30 on the St Vrain bike loop- 60ish miles, 5500ft of elevation and back up to 9700 feet (we did not have the bonus of Brainard Lake to get to 10k)  Weather was much cooler,,,, 20 degrees cooler at least-  chilly and I was wishing I had socks- why is that I don't think of socks and cycling unless is really freezing...oh well clearly I survived no foot amputations.  My gloves would have been helpful as well but they too sat at the house.  My plan for the day was conservative and I stuck to it for most of the climb.  Great group of chix riding together and we chatted up the mountains hills just like at home.  We had a SAG about 8 miles from the top and after that I picked it up a bit and it felt good to see my tired legs respond.  And then the same wicked descent...I had done most of it day 1 in my aero bars, but after the unfortunate accident with one of our fellow campers who went down on Sunshine Canyon on a tight turn and broke is collar bone, I was a more cautions.

But let me tell you there are some really fast boys..... impressive to see them take off and the efforts they are laying out-  no dropping boys around here.

The run for the day was again at 4:30 but I had a work call and really wanted to run off the bike.  So I backed up the 4 hour ride with a 1 hour run...all uphill on the way out and was steady and was really able to finish strong.  My first decent run at altitude- looking at the pace, it was not stellar, but I felt good and my HR was not pushing 180. 

Relaxing afternoon, work done and back to Gordo's for dinner.  Justin Daerr gave a great talk on perspective..well thought out.  And he touched on the the steps to success. Considering his first IM was over 13 hours and he recently went 8:22 at IMTX for a 2nd place finish,,,he is getting it- taking longer than he hoped but well- that is true for most.   He replaced the work "hard" with "fast" So instead of hard efforts, they are fast efforts, moderately- hard are moderately fast.. I like that!  Fast = positive and hard = hard and well not so positive all the time.  He also shared some thoughts about racing and dealing with " I want to quit"  For him only 2 reasons 1- mechanical that cannot be fixed and 2- major GI Issues that cause you to shut down.  Any other reasons..suck it up and finish.  Chuckie V added- you should ALWAYS learn from a race and always run across the finish line.  Then at the finish line evaluate your race...this is when we are most honest with ourselves.  Good stuff from some really talented guys!

Early to bed....somewhat of a restless night (argh)  but off to the Boulder Res for another long swim and a 1K TT and then a long run....

EC Camp Day 2

Well Day 1 was all rosy and fun....okay not really.  I thought about posting about another epic day of killer training and fun, but that would be fake blogging..... time to be truthful.  Yesterdays ride was great fun but I did not feel great.... headache, really high HR and low power but I was excited for camp so I was a good faker. 

The PM run was a disaster.... major GI issues and again HR in the high 170's and pace was 2+ minutes slower.   Survived but a raging headache lingered....I was convinced it was dehydration and fatigue.

Really restless night, tossed and turned.  Woke up with headache and feeling queasy.  With a big swim, run and ride on deck I forced some Oatmeal down and skipped the coffee for fear of the queasy stomach.  Downed 3 Ibuprofen and grabbed some water and headed to Boulder Res.

Every Tue and Thur in the summer BAM (boulder aquatic masters) sets up a 1000 course in the res 6:15-7:45 am with legit buoys.  It was great.  The water was 70 degrees, a bit murky, but really nice to swim in. No waves, no sea life and nice easy swimming.  We swam 2200 and then stopped for an 1100m timed swim- all out around the buoys.  Ouch- I started on Justin's feet but was soon dropped and just hung on.  One more lap easy and 4400 meters done.

Onto the run- it was 96 and hot!   And not pretty- my HR was well over 170 and my pace was again 10:30 and I was not feeling well....at 180 I stopped to get it down and slowly finished.  Crushing headache and not a good feeling.  Forced down water, could not eat and onto the bike.

Short bike ride- 14 miles with a 5 mile climb up Sunshine Canyon - close to 3000ft in 5 miles.  Shortly into the climb something was not right- this feeling has hit me twice before once in Kona 2009 and in Ocotillo last summer - dizzy, seeing spots and that overwhelming feeling to sleep (on the bike) I pulled over and chilled for a bit and that was it - lost all the water I had forced down after my run.   Had to make a really hard call and call it a day....after puking and seeing my HR remain at 180 it did not seem smart to push on.   I am trying to be smart eenthough I feel like a complete loser and a wimp and keep my health and the big picutre in mind - IM Lake Placid!

I rolled home feeling terrible and demoralized- how can everyone else do it?  I fell into bed and tried to deal with the crushing headache- I could not sleep and was really nauseous.  I knew I had to eat so forced some yogurt and almond butter more ibuprofen and still no luck.

My sis and I headed to Tonic for some O2.... it was wild - 20 minutes later I cannot say I felt any better but did not feel any worse.  And I was definitely hungry... I may seem a bit food obsessed but we have a few more big days of training (at least I hope I do) and I don't want to add bonking to my list of issues!

So with that we went home and chilled out.... I did not sleep but did get a lot of work done and had a relaxing afternoon. No camp dinner so ate with the family and called it a night early-

Tomorrow....long ride and we shall see how it plays out....hoping for good recovery, no headache and some fun in Boulder.  The weather is supposed to break-  high of 82 vs 98. That should help for sure...

Wish me luck!

EC Camp Day 1

On the bike 6:45 and rolling to Lee High Road for the meeting spot to begin the ride....we were warned there was no warm up as we started climbing within .5 miles so I did a 40 minute warm up to the meeting spot.  I rode with the "friendly" group which took off before the "peppy" group and off we went.

No lies...serious climbing within .5 miles and sustained that for 90+ minutes to the funky town of Ward - rolled by and found the SAG set up -  it was great to have cold water and Power Bar products but I was really looking for an O2 tank...thin air and tough to breath.  From there we kept going up to Brainard Lake

Really stunning at over 10,000 feet- gasp.  We made it and it was chilly....jackets on and enjoyed the view (still no O2) and we began the wicked descent back to home.... Similar to GWL all the climbing up front and quick final 22 miles. 

Did a bit of an out and back on the 36 for some good aero time + wanted to have some more fun battling the cross wind.  It was howling out there.

 Solid ride all said and done...over 5 hours with 6550ft of elevation and up to 10k.   It was well over 90 at the bottom and I could tell quickly I had not hydrated well nor did I do a good job with the salt. 

Came home, ate big, showered and took a much needed nap!  Oh I love camp...banged out some work and off to Gordo's for a run at 4:30 in the hot sun, This did not go so well....reminder of running on the QueenK, hot slow and I had to make a few emergency stops- my body and the heat.  Tough, tough run....

Another sensational meal and a motivating talk from Gordo...lights out 8:30 and off to Boulder Res for an early swim with 1000TT inserted in the middle....Should be fun!