MGCC Ladies Take on the Adirondacks

I had this post almost all ready to last week but was waiting on pics from our guide.  Sadly I have only gotten a couple of shots from the 5 days we were there.  So once those come, you can expect a "Wordless Wednesday" post, ha ha.

I've been to two training camps, both led by coaches that were coaching me.  They are an excellent way to hone your skills as well as socialize with like minded people.  Both times I've gone with G so I've known someone.  When I signed up for the Morning Glory Ladies Camp, my friend was going so I knew I'd know at least one person.  When my friend had to cancel a couple of weeks out, I thought about cancelling as well.  But then I thought, "No, this year is all about putting myself out there."  So that was that.  I was going to spend 5 days riding my bike with people I'd never met before.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous but as the emails went around the week before the camp, it became apparent that a few people were in the same boat as me.  YAY!

My friend cancelling also meant that I now needed a way to get out to Lake Placid.  I thought about driving but didn't really like the idea of driving all that way by myself.  So I reached out to Sharon (the trip coordinator) to see if I could get a lift with someone.  She put me in touch with Elaine who was also taking one other girl, Liz, out to the camp.  She had more than enough room for me and my bike so last Wednesday morning, G dropped me off at Elaine's place.  I knocked on her front door as G unloaded my bike and was greeted by a wee Australian woman who introduced herself as Liz and brought me inside.  I met Elaine and then we all went out into the back to load up the car.

On the Road / Day One

We started chatting and didn't really stop for the entire ride.  Nothing like a 6 hour drive to get to know people!  I felt 100% comfortable by the time we got to Lake Placid.  When we got to High Peaks Cyclery we met up with a few of the other ladies and then Karen and Brian came out to greet us.  Elaine was staying in the High Peaks house and Liz and I were going to be sharing a room in the Base Camp house.  The last time I shared a room with someone other than my husband was at summer camp when I was 13 years old.  G is used to all my quirks (I like to sleep in the cold and I like to have a fan on when I sleep) so being in a room with a total stranger is a little stressful.  What if they don't like to sleep with the window open?  I run hot at night and I don't sleep well if I overheat so I was praying that Liz wouldn't mind sleeping with the window open.

We were the last group to arrive so we ended up in the most claustrophobic room.  It had 3 bunk beds jammed in it and no dresser or closet.  Since we had it to ourselves we used the top bunks as make shift dressers.  It was a bit messy but it worked.  We got ourselves sorted and then got changed to get out on our bikes.  We were going to do a short shake out ride so Brian could give us some pointers and evaluate the groups skill level.  We practiced group riding, cornering and descending as well as riding through sand as there was a lot of it on the roads we were on.  It was an excellent way to open up the camp.

Getting ready to roll out on Day One!

Dinners were happening in High Peaks house as that was where the big kitchen was.  Karen and Margie were our cooks and they had dinner on the table when we got back.  We were all so hungry that we didn't bother showering and just sat down for dinner.  Conversation was easy and we all got to know each other.   It was dark by the time we made our way back to our house.  I had a shower and collapsed into bed.   Liz asked if it was ok if she put the fan on and I said absolutely and I asked if she wouldn't mind opening the window and she said absolutely.   I said WHEW - I was a little worried you didn't want to get cold.  She said she can only sleep in the cold.   I said me too!  Good score in the roommate department!

Day Two:  Northern Mountain Loop Ride

We had a later start to the day due to the very brisk temps in the morning so Erica offered to lead a yoga class to start the day.  I didn't go to the class as I was on the slow to wake up boat, ha ha.  None the less, a lot of the girls took advantage of it.

This ride was going to be a mixed bag of climbing and flats over 85km or so.  We were going to be doing the climb up Whiteface to the toll road.  I hadn't been up that climb in over 10 years.   We weren't going to descend it but there was going to be another big descent later in the ride.  I was looking forward to exploring some new roads.

This is the elevation for the ride.  Yup, there was over 1000m of climbing!

This ride definitely showed me that my descending skills have improved immensely.  I had said that one of the things I wanted to work on was descending.  I had even gone so far as to say that I was a nervous descender.  It's funny how old habits and perceptions can stay ingrained in your brain until someone tells you other wise.  When we got to the bottom of our big descent, Liz rode up beside me and said I was a much better descender than I give myself credit for.  I was definitely feeling a lot more confident, so much so that I got into a tuck even around the wide sweeping corners.  That is something I never would have done a few years ago.  I finished the second day ride feeling pretty good.  Liz and I thought it would be a good idea to dip our legs in the lake the help with recovery so we wandered over to Mirror Lake and waded in.  It was frigid but once your legs got used to it, it wasn't that bad.

We were on our own for dinner and I had offered to look into restaurants for us.  After presenting the group a bunch of options, we decided to walk over to the local brew pub.

Good food, good company and good beer!  What more could you ask for!  Definitely a fun night.

Day Three:  Saranac Lake / Western Lakes Region

This was supposed to be our Saturday long ride but the weather wasn't looking awesome for Saturday so we opted to switch this ride to Friday.  We were blessed with sunshine and warmer temps which was absolutely fantastic.  I had never ridden around Saranac Lake so this was a treat.  There were some incredible roads on this ride, including a newly paved stretch of rolling hills that wound through the trees like a smooth black ribbon.  It was spectacular.

We got back to Saranac Lake just shy of 100km so we had Brian take us around on a tour of the town to make up some of the distance.  Even then, a few of us had to ride around in circles to hit the 100km mark, ha ha.

Best bike gang ever!

Day Four:  Ausable River & THE descent into Keene

We woke to overcast skies and cooler temps and there was also rain in the forecast for the afternoon so we opted to start this ride early.  I was so glad to have a SAG wagon because dressing for these rides was a bit of a challenge so it was nice to know you could bring everything and then drop it in the van if you didn't want to wear it anymore.    Today was the day I was a bit nervous about.  The last time I went down Keene in 2013, it was a bit rainy and I was totally petrified.  I rode the brakes for most of the descent and started crying about half way down.  So I didn't have very fond memories of it.  The plan was to go down it, ride around and then climb back UP it into Lake Placid.  I'm not sure what I was more worried about - the descent or the climb back up with just over 250km in my legs already.

We took it easy on the climb out of Lake Placid and practiced our echelon skills.  I had forgotten how darn hilly that first bit of the course is.  When we got to the top of the descent, Brian coached us through it and reminded us of the things we learned on day one.  Then we were off.   I had butterflies in my stomach.  As my speed started to pick up, I actually started to relax.  I felt in control of my bike.  I put it into my hardest gear in the big chain ring.  I wanted my legs to be able to keep up.  The first part of the descent is rolling and it actually flattens out a bit and then you get to the real meat of the descent when the grade changes and the road starts to turn.  The pavement at the top isn't awesome but they've repaved the bigger part of the descent which is great.  Once we got to that part, Brian pulled back and let us go.  Myself, Elizabeth and Jennifer started pedalling like mad.  I got into a tuck.  I felt ZERO fear.  None.  Nada.  I started grinning and I actually got a little emotional.  This was HUGE.  All I could think about was telling Gary.  I continued bombing down the hill, barely touching my brakes.  WHO AM I??? I marvelled at the difference 4 years makes.   We rolled into Keene just before the turn into Jay and waited for the group.  Apparently we were supposed to turn off earlier as Brian had to come and find us.  We had a bit of a pit stop and then we headed out on the tour of Jay and Upper Jay.

Brian took us to this beautiful river with a covered bridge and then we went along some backroads that featured a lot of short steep climbs.  My legs were really starting to feel the miles.  We came to a stop sign and Brian gave us the option to do another "wicked climb".  I was out.  I wanted to be able to make it up Keene so I opted to go with the other group while he took Liz, Marilyn and Erica to this crazy climb.  I didn't realize just how much climbing we had done until we started to descend.   This was descent was pretty much straight down with a somewhat tight left turn at the bottom.  I let it rip and whipped around the turn.  I was actually quite chilly by the time I got to the bottom, so much so that when we met up with the SAG wagon I put my leg warmers back on.  I knew that I wanted my legs to be warm when I was climbing.  I think part of my issue was that my legs were cold so they felt a bit fatigued.   We made it back to the meeting point in Keene and stopped to refuel, change etc.  Heather and I started to feel a little chilly so we opted to go ahead and start the climb.  One of the guys in SAG wagon said he'd come check on us to see how we were doing so I knew I had an out if I didn't think my legs were going to get me to the top.   Heather and I started out.  I immediately flipped into the small chain ring and just spun my legs.  The climb starts out at about 4% and then jumps to 8-9% for the next little while.  It's a grind.   I was chugging along when I heard my Garmin buzz.  Not the normal buzz of me hitting another 5km, nope, it was the buzz of my Garmin powering down.  ARRGGGG.  I had forgotten to turn it on as we left the rest stop.  I have no idea how long it was off for, probably about 5 minutes, which meant that I didn't get the start of the climb recorded.  GRR.  I quickly hit start and settled back into my pace.   I got through the steep part of the climb and picked up some speed through the rollers.  I had gotten quite warm and had to take my gloves off.  My legs were actually feeling pretty good.  The climb itself is a bit hairy in places due to the road.  Some of it has a beautiful shoulder and then that shoulder pretty much disappears.  It's not a heavily traveled road but none the less, there are cars on it.  The pavement in some spots is also pretty dodgy so you have to be mindful.  It's not a smooth ride through the rollers, that's for sure.

I got through the rollers and zipped up the remainder of the climb, my legs not feeling too bad.  I knew the remainder of the ride was mostly downhill so I was going to burn every single last match I had and let it rip.  To say I had a blast through this last section would be an understatement.  I hammered every downhill and pushed the pace as much as I could.  It was exhilarating.  By the time I got back to High Peaks, I was pretty much spent.  I looked at my Garmin and saw almost 93km.  No way I couldn't find another 7km to ride so instead of turning into High Peaks, I turned left and rode up Main Street to Mirror Lake Road.  I knew that was flat so I rode around the lake until I got to the top of Main Street then turned around and made my way back.  I knew the lake was roughly 5km around so I'd have to find a bit more road.  I turned down a side street and rode to the Lake Placid marina and did a loop in the parking lot.   I came back out along Mirror Lake and then turned right onto Parkside drive, did another loop there and then crossed the street to continue on Parkside, past High Peaks and over to Morningside Drive which looped around to Main Street.  As I got here, I heard my Garmin finally beep.  WHEW.  I was tired.  I cruised back to High Peaks to see that pretty much everyone was back.  It had also started raining so Liz and I opted to skip our post ride dip in the Lake.  We were all starving so a handful of us didn't even bother showering, got changed and went straight to the pub.  I'm not sure I even tasted my burger I was so hungry.

Saturday Night / Sunday Morning / Day Five

Saturday night was our last big group dinner so Brian, Karen and one of their sons, Matt, joined us.   We also had a little awards ceremony which was hilarious.   This was my award.

We chatted about what we liked (all the climbing), what didn't like (too much stopping) and talked about other potential places we could look at for next year.   There was talk of Mont Tremblant or the Gatineaus.  And of course, Lake Placid again.  The set up there is great in terms of location and providing a great group training space.  In terms of comfort, it was lacking a bit (bunk beds and very firm mattresses, not the best when you're an "older athlete").  The wifi was also sub par.  If you had any work to do, you had to be close to the source of the signal, which was the store itself.  I eventually gave up trying to log on to my laptop because it just wouldn't pick up the signal.  First world problems for sure, ha ha.  It ended up being nice to be somewhat unplugged.

Our last day was going to feature some yoga followed by an easy spin.  We had two groups, one that was going to be heading home a bit later and the other that was leaving earlier.  I was in the latter group.  I wanted to get out and at least spin my legs a bit before I had to sit in the car for 6 hours.  As soon as I started pedalling my legs felt heavy.  Good thing it was an easy ride.  We toured around some back roads of Lake Placid and got a history lesson from Brian.   I really enjoyed his snippets of info as we rode along.  He's been in Lake Placid for a long time and he knows pretty much everyone.  Someone would drive by us and wave and he's say "Oh that's so and so and they do this...."  It was hilarious.  That's country life though I suppose!

It was a fantastic 5 days of cycling and the company was exceptional.  We had such a great group of women and that can make or break a camp.  We all seemed to get along really well and everyone was so nice.   Sharon was hoping that this trip would become a yearly event again.  It happened a few years ago for a couple of years in a row but then interest / organization petered out and it fell by the wayside.  So here's hoping that we get another group of ladies interested for next year.  The best part was, that you didn't have to be a member of Morning Glory to go.  So female readers / riders in the GTA, if you're looking for a fun camp, I'd definitely recommend considering this one!  I know I'll be back next year.

Have you ever gone to a training camp?  What would your ideal training camp look like?

Monday Musings: Short and Sweet

Have you ever gone on a trip that seemed to be longer than it was but also went by too fast?  I know that sounds weird but I can't think of any other way to explain this past "long weekend".   I went to Lake Placid and spent 5 days with 12 other likeminded women that I had never met before.   In fact most of the women there didn't know each other.  Groups like that can go two ways, either everyone gets along or, you have a group of opposites that just don't mesh.  I can safely say that this group got along really well - it was like we'd all known each other for years.  There were different levels of ability but that didn't matter.  We all supported each other and learned from each other.  I am so glad I decided to go to this, even after my girlfriend canceled.  I feel like I've gained a new network of ladies who love to ride.  Not to mention our awesome hosts in Lake Placid, Brian & Karen from High Peaks Cyclery.  I'm so excited to go back there in September to race the 70.3 and see them again, along with my new pal, Liz who is also racing and turned out to be the best roommate ever.  Brian will be racing as will one of the other guides, Karen (we had 3 Karen's in the group!) so it's going to be a big reunion, ha ha.  I had forgotten just how beautiful Lake Placid is.  It's changed a lot since I was there last in 2013 but the rugged beauty remains.

I will probably do a separate post on the camp itself and what to expect when going to a training camp but for now I will just say that it was a super fun experience!

Suffice to say this week was all about the bike.  I knew I wasn't going to get much swimming in and I had hoped that I might get at least one run in while I was in Lake Placid but sadly that didn't happen and it was probably for the best.  It's been a long time since I had done back to back to back days of riding and I think had I thrown a run in the mix, my legs wouldn't have made it to the end of the week.

Since I'm going to save the camp details for another post, I'll get right down to the nitty gritty and fill you in on how my week rolled out.  Literally, ha.

Monday:  2900m swim.  I knew I wasn't going to get any other swims in this week so it was off to the pool on Monday morning.

Tuesday:  FTP Test (30.2km on the trainer).  It had been over a year since I buckled down and did one of these and holy crap, I had forgotten just how much they hurt.  Thankfully I was rewarded with a shiny new FTP.  I'm chalking it up to all the riding I did in Florida.

Wednesday:  This was our first ride in LP and it was an easy spin to have Brian, our guide assess our skill levels.  I had forgotten to turn my watch to outdoor mode until about halfway through the ride so I missed a fair bit of the distance.   I think we covered about 30km or so but I only captured 18km of it.  Grr.

Thursday:  86.3km This was the climb up Whiteface and around some of the back end of Wilmington and Lake Placid.  The last time I climbed Whiteface was probably in 2005 and I remember suffering through it.  This time it hurt but definitely not as much.  I was very happy with how I climbed it.  I used to surge and fall back, surge and fall back, now I am a much steadier climber.  I get into a groove and I just chug along.  It also helps to have the right cassette on your bike!

Friday:  100km on the nose.  This was a ride around Saranac Lake which is somewhere I've never ridden before.  It was an "easier" ride in terms of elevation so we managed a nice steady pace.  We practiced pace line work both two up and single file, which was so much fun.   We pulled into the parking lot with about 700m left to cover so myself and two other ladies rode in circles around the parking lot until we hit 100km.  Yes, we have a problem.   This was followed up by an hour long yoga class led by one of the girls came to the camp.

Saturday:  101km +  This was supposed to be a shorter harder ride but I think our guides got us a bit lost.  This ride featured my nemesis, the descent into Keene.  It's an 11km descent that has some wide sweeping turns and I have white knuckled it every single time I've gone down it.  We were also going to climb it on the way back into Lake Placid.  My legs weren't feeling terribly fresh at the start so I was happy to just spin them out as we climbed out of Lake Placid.  We climbed a lot that day and I was concerned about climbing back up Keene.  But as usual, my body was capable of so much more than my mind led me to believe.  I crushed the descent with NO tears or fear or panic and I ate the climb back for lunch.  Steady effort all the way up and I felt strong the entire time.  If I had actually remembered to start my Garmin when I started the climb, I would have known how long the climb took me.  But alas, I didn't.  UGH. I think I missed about 2-3km of it.  So annoying.  So really I probably rode closer to 105km on the Saturday.  I was smart about the climb back.  So much so that I had enough energy to hammer it back into Lake Placid and spin around the lake to make it to 100km.  This was the best ride of the camp for me.  I burned every single match I had left on the way back in to Lake Placid and had a blast doing it.   This was the elevation for the day.  Yup.  All the climbs.

Sunday:  12km easy spin.  I had hoped to do a bit more than this and had I looked at my mileage for the week, I would have found I way to ride the extra two km to take me to 350km for the week, ha ha.  This was a very easy spin around the Lake and into the back areas of Lake Placid.  My legs didn't feel great but they were happy to be moving.  If I hadn't done this, I'm pretty sure they would have been super stiff after the drive home.

Totals for the week:

Swim:  2900m
Bike:  348km
Run:  ZERO

Total time:  15 hours and 2 minutes.

So, this week will be a bit easier.  I really want to get back on my bike tomorrow but I think I should probably give myself another day and go for a bit of a longer run instead.  Last week's TSS was pretty high so I need to dial things back a bit.

Have you ever gone to a training camp?  If so, where?  

What are your goals for the week? Whatever they are, tackle them at 150%!

Happy Monday peeps!

~ Coach PK

Lake Placid Training Vacation

Ok when did it get to be the 3rd week of August?  Wasn't I just on vacation?  Seriously this month is just flying by.  I promised I'd give you a little vacation re-cap but things have been so busy since we got back that I really haven't had a minute to sit down and collect my thoughts.

Since G and I both really enjoy being active, we wanted to go somewhere that we could have an active vacation yet still kick back and relax afterwards.  We wanted to go somewhere that we knew had good riding and swimming.  Early in the year we talked about doing a training weekend in Lake Placid so when it came time to plan our summer vacation, we figured it would be nice to go back there.  We hadn't been back since we did Ironman in 2006 so we were long overdue for a visit.

We hit the road Saturday morning at around 10:00 am, which, on the Saturday of a long weekend, was a huge mistake.  Normally when we have a long drive ahead of us, we get up really early and get going but because we wouldn't be able to check in until 3:00 pm, we figured we'd leave later.  Seems like the rest of southern Ontario had the same idea.  We sat in traffic along the 401 for what seemed like ages.  Then we sat in traffic at the border for a good hour.  At least it was sunny and warm enough to have the top down so I looked at it as a good opportunity to work on my tan.

We were staying at a new place right in the middle of town called The Haus.  If you're ever planning on going to Lake Placid, I highly recommend looking into staying here.  It was a great little one bedroom apartment with a full kitchen, living room and dining area as well as a great little deck that looked out over Mirror Lake.  The only downside was the very steep set up stairs we had to take to get to our unit as we were on the top floor.  Everything else was fantastic.

Sunday:  Since we arrived late on Saturday, we took that as our day off.  Sunday morning we were right back at it.  We did a swim followed by a long run.  My swim totally sucked but I had one of the best runs I've had in a long time that day.  I felt like I was flying.  Sunday workouts:  1500m swim, 17.54km run.  Gotta ease into the week, ha ha.

Monday:  Our plan was to try and ride the Ironman course loop but it would all depend on how I felt.  My bike position had changed so I wasn't sure how comfortable or efficient I'd be or how much power I had lost and / or gained.  I quickly found out once we started riding.  Hills were a challenge.  Not the best thing given we were riding in the mountains.  But whatever, I sucked it up and did my best.  I also think my 17km run the day before didn't help my legs much.  The hills sucked but on the flats I found that I had more power and I felt like I was pedaling much more efficiently.  When we did the climb into Wilmington my back started to spasm which was incredibly painful so I had to stop and stretch.  Further evidence that I was using muscles that I don't normally use.  On a tri bike, you are in a much more forward (aggressive) position so you generally use more of your quad muscles.  The thought process here is that it makes it easier to transition to running afterwards as you haven't completely fatigued your hamstrings out.  With my new fit, I was engaging a bit more of my hamstrings and lot more of my glutes.  This resulted in a much more fluid pedal stroke all around but a loss of power on the climbs (I am very quad dominant).  Normally I can power up hills but not anymore.  In the long run, I think this will be a good change for me as it will force me to build strength in those muscles but for now, it's a bit frustrating.   Because of the glute / hamstring engagement, my back was also doing more work that it was used to, thus the tight back muscles that went into spasm.  By the time we made the climb into Wilmington my legs were not happy so we decided to skip doing the out and back which adds another 20km to the route.  By the time we finished we had covered roughly 70km.  I have to say even though the cycling is tough out there, you can't beat the scenery.  It's stunning.
Monday Mileage:  69km bike

Happy Campers

Tuesday:  Triathlon day.  G had wanted to go and do the reverse loop of the course but my legs were trashed so I opted to ride part of the run course instead.  I knew it was going to be a really short ride but I couldn't face going back out again and killing my legs.  Once again we started our day with a swim and once again I was having major panic issues.  I could only get to about 600m or so before I started to feel really panicky.  So I'd turn around and swim back and then spend my time swimming back and forth near the shore.  Not what I had wanted to do but at least I was swimming.  After the swim we grabbed a quick bite and then got on our bikes.  We rode down to the bottom of the run course and I turned to go back to town and G went on his way to see how far he could get around the course before he caved.  The end of the run course dumps you out on highway 86 just before you start climbing the 3 Bears.  The Bears are the last 3 major climbs before you get back into Lake Placid.   They don't seem to tough on the first loop but on the second, they suck big time.  I did Papa Bear twice because I missed the shot the first time around, ha ha.  By the time I got back to the apartment I had covered 23km.  It was a nice little recovery ride.

The 3 Bears

After I loaded my bike back into the apartment, I threw on a tank top and went right back out to do a 5km run.  My legs felt horrible so I didn't push it.  Nothing like a little triathlon in the middle of the week, ha ha.  Tuesday mileage:  1725m swim, 23km bike, 5km run. 

Wednesday:  Both of us were pretty punched by Wednesday so we opted to take an "easy day" and just swim so our legs would be recovered for our "Big Day" on Thursday.  G being the crazy man that he is did 2 loops of the swim for a total of 4100m.  I managed to do just over 2km.  Still couldn't face going out to do the full loop so I did a whole bunch of smaller loops.  I decided that it wasn't worth beating myself up over and I would just do whatever I could.  I finally felt pretty good on this swim.  We were going to do some stand up paddle boarding that afternoon but it got really windy so we opted to go to the top of Whiteface Mountain instead.  Because that's what you do on a really windy day, ha.  We had talked about doing the climb up here but once I saw the condition of the road, I was totally out.  It was super bumpy.  Going up wouldn't be too bad but descending would be a total nightmare.  I'd only go up if someone drove me back down, ha ha.

Wednesday mileage:  2020m swim

Thursday:  This was the day we were going to tackle the entire Ironman course loop.  The day didn't start off well.  G got a flat about 5km in.  While he was changing it, it started to rain lightly.   Not good.  The first 1/3 of the course involves some climbing and a whole lot of descending.  It seemed to let up just as we got back on the road.  It stopped for a bit and started again.  Of course it started to rain harder as we approached the insane 10km descent into Keene.  I am a horrible descender at the best of times.  Add rain into the mix and it gets ugly.  I rode the brakes pretty much the entire way down.  I never hit more than 45 kph going down this hill whereas G probably easily hit about 75 kph - that's how hard I was riding the brakes.  My hands were so sore by the time I got to the bottom I had to stretch them out.  And of course when I got to the bottom of the descent, it stopped raining.  Or rather, I rode out of the rain cloud that was hovering over the descent.  Because that's the way things work in the mountains.  One minute you're in the rain, the next you're in the sun.  We busted it through Jay and Upper Jay.  My legs felt pretty good and I really noticed the difference in my new bike fit.  I was averaging between 36-42 kph on the flats with minimal effort.  I was loving it.  Until we hit Wilmington.  Once again that was a struggle.  My back started to bother me again.  Not as bad as that first day but enough that I had to stop and stretch before we hit the out and back.  I had forgotten how nice the out and back portion of the loop was.  First you ride through some rural houses and then you get into a forest.  There are a couple of good little climbs in there too.  I was doing ok until we hit about 70km, then my left foot started to bug me and my girlie bits just plain hurt.  I couldn't get comfortable on my saddle anymore.   I stuck it out for another 12km or so but then we had to stop.  I had to take my shoe off to stretch my foot out and I wanted to get off my bike before I had a complete meltdown and opted to throw it into the river.  The little break helped and I got through the last 10km without too much issue.  As we pulled up to the apartment my Garmin registered just under 91km.  Normally I will keep going to make it an even number but that was enough for me.  That was my longest and most challenging ride this year.   I was thankful that I had the foresight to buy a new foam roller the day before.  After we ate, we headed off to the Olympic Centre to go watch the Canadian Juniors play.  Yup, I went to a hockey game on my vacation in August.  You don't get more Canadian than that!! 

Thursday mileage:  90.86km in 3h:23 min and change. 

Friday:  Departure day.  Our plan was to do a decent swim before we left but we woke up to a steady rain.  We watched the lake for any sign of it letting up.  Surprisingly there were a few hardy souls who opted to get their swim in.  G and I couldn't face it so we packed everything up and made our way home.  I was honestly really sad to be leaving.  It was the perfect little vacation for us.  We got some good solid training in, we had the time and energy to do a little shopping and sight seeing and we slept in every day!   I don't think we'll be waiting another 7 years before we decide to head back to Lake Placid for another visit. 

Total mileage for the week:

Swim:  5245m
Bike:  182.86km
Run:  22.54km

That's a pretty solid week of training.  The smart thing to do would have been allow myself to have some rest on the weekend but instead, I raced.  I don't recommend that at. all.  But that's another blog post. 

Have you ever done a "training vacation?"

When you go away on vacation do you stick with your routine or do you take a break?

Where DID The Time Go?

I'm BA-AACK!!!

We got back from our vacation late last Friday and I had all sorts of ideas running through my head but nothing ever materialized into a blog post because life took over.  So where do I even begin?  I'll give you the Coles Notes version (I'm TOTALLY dating myself with that gem).

Bike Fit: took just over 3 hours.  I have a whole boatload of data I haven't even looked at.  My seat got raised a bit and my saddle adjusted back slightly.  My cleats got adjusted so I'm pedaling more efficiently and my aerobars have been adjusted.

Do I feel better on the bike?  Yes and No.  How's that for vague?  I feel like I have a lot more power on the flats but I'm struggling a bit more on the hills.  I feel a bit more aero (he dropped my stem a bit).  I'm STILL having saddle issues though.  The adjustments he made seemed ok on the trainer but on the open road, it was an entirely different story.  So there is still work to be done there.

Vacation:  Those of you that follow me on Instagram got a wee taste of what my week entailed.  Lots of cycling, some swimming and a whole lot of beer sampling.   I had a couple of really solid rides even with the new fit.  What I didn't have was a solid swim.  My old demons came back to haunt me.  I couldn't make it out to the middle of Mirror Lake without freaking out and having to turn around.  That frustrated the hell out of me for the first few days.  I eventually got over it and figured it wasn't important.  I didn't need to beat myself up over it.  I do need to deal with it though.  I'll do a whole post on what went down while we were away.  For now here are a few pics to tide you over.

Mirror Lake - our apartment was just off to the left in this picture

This was the view from our balcony.  I could get used to this!

On our "easy" day we decided to go up Whiteface Mountain - this was from about 4600 ft.

Weekend:  We came back from our vacation on the Friday because we were racing on the Saturday.  I don't ever recommend that.  When our alarm went off on Saturday morning, I just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep.  I didn't.  I had a very rocky start to my day but I was very happy with the end result.  Race report to come at some point soon. 


Does anyone else feel like August is flying by?