Today's Workout: Tales from camp

Up at 6 am today. A nice slow start to the morning entertained by 18 month old Ms. C. In the car by 10:30 heading north, a stop for lunch with C in Albany then on to Lake Placid. I arrived a bit after three and felt a little rushed to check in, register with the camp, and get my swim stuff together for the 4 pm swim.

The "campers" gathered in the lobby and headed over to Mirror Lake. Not a lot of body fat on this crowd which is rather intimidating. We all slipped into our wetsuits. The air temperature was 70 but it was a bit breezy by the water. We were told the water temperature was high 60's by Troy Jacobson who is running the camp. He made us enter the water by a rocky shore.

I was certainly nervous and not looking forward to the swim. Were it not for my riding partner KR, I may have slipped away back to the hotel. KR wanted to swim 2 miles, Troy Jacobson had other plans for us. We did some drill work which was a nice way to warm up to the swim.

The course here is completely marked because it is where the Olympic rowers train. If you position yourself well, and have great eyes, there is a rope 4-6 feet below the surface that extends the entire length of the course. This can help you swim the course tightly which I will need to do. After our swim, I was pleased that I had made the effort to participate in the optional swim.

We had an orientation to help setup the next three days. Trust me, I'm going to be burning some calories. Tomorrow, a trifecta. We start with a 56 mile swim--one loop on the bike course but backwards. There are many hills but one section is 9 kilometers long, that's nearly 6 miles. Trust me, my car was straining coming out of Keene up this hill. After the bike we are doing a little run around the lake followed by what will likely be a 2.4 mile swim. Off to get some rest.