Today's Workout: Billy Goat

On the bike at 8 am today for the full bike course. Humbling, very humbling. I was originally thinking I could post a 7 hour time for the bike which is slower than my half-Ironman bike time of 3 hours. My total goal time for the Ironman was 14-15 hours....was is the operative word.

The bike course here in Lake Placid is incredibly challenging and that is an understatement. You have to eat and hydrate very well on the bike, a mistake of too little food or too little drink will cost you the race. Today, I ate two bags of clif bloks, 4 gels, two peanut butter sandwiches, 10-12 salt tablets, 8 bottles of water and motor tabs. I had little energy today with the hard bike yesterday and probably a deficit in calories after my ride yesterday. I did pretty well with my nutrition on the bike but my legs were not fresh. This will not be the case on race day.

The challenge of the bike course is not to do the first lap too hard. It is tempting, but the key to completing the bike is staying reserved and this I learned from the pros at camp. Leaving Lake Placid you travel about 10 miles before you hit a 6 mile downhill on horrible roads. Some of my peers were going 55 mph, I was on the brakes trying to avoid the potholes. Once you get down the hill you are in Keene. From Keene to Jay is a beautiful stretch of road with little rollers up and down. This is one of my favorite spots, the road is really in great shape. You take a turn eventually toward Wilmington. This road is narrow and really eaten up by the hard winter. In addition, it is predominately uphill with a headwind. From there you turn down a road and go out and back for a total of 14 miles. We call this the finger. The finger is deceptive, if you take it too fast you can implode. It is hillier then it looks and you can burn your legs by taking it too hard but I like it because you are aero a lot. After you leave the finger you take a turn down Route 86 going by Whiteface Mountain to Lake Placid. I don't know the name of all of the hills, the last three are baby bear, mama bear, and papa bear and what makes them tough is that the entire 14 mile stretch of hills (including the bears) brings a strong headwind. Even coming off a hill you can grind to a halt by the force of the wind alone. Now imagine doing all of this times two because one lap is 56 miles.

Today, I seriously doubted that I could complete this race. I had to overcome the very loud voice in my head which I did shout to while riding. I did not want to go out for the second loop but I made myself do it because choosing the alternative would have set me up for failure. When I complete this goal at Lake Placid, and I do need to work on the 33% training that is mental, I will know that I have accomplished the M-dot the hard way. As I told my riding partner KR, whether you post a 9 hour time or a 16 hour time on this course you still are an Ironman. Mine will be the latter and likely longer than I anticipated and I will need a lot of help to get me there but it will be the sweetest victory ever.

BTW, I earned a camp nickname of Billy Goat. Some women were riding ahead of me today and they wouldn't wait for me because they feared I would pass them on the hill. Thus, the nickname.

Tomorrow, a 7 am swim followed by a half-marathon run on the very challenging run course. Then it is homeward bound and what I hope will be several days of rest. I have broken my body down in a way that I have never, ever experienced before. To move forward in my training this is a necessary evil but it has not come easily. If I had not come to this camp, I am certain that I would not stand a chance of being a finisher. I learned, I challenged my body, and I will take these lessons and create my race strategy over the course of the next 4 weeks.