IRONMAN CAMP

 

Last weekend I attended my first (unofficial) ironman camp, Amy Gluck style!  I headed to Kentucky with Amy (multi-time Kona Qualifier) and her friend Alan (multi-ironman finisher).  So to say that I was a bit intimidated was an understatement. My anxiety of traveling and training with these two people in an unknown area was extremely nerve racking.  I had visions of trying to stay with them on the bike course and getting lost and stranded in the horse farms of Louisville, nightmares of boinking and not being able to get back, concerns of ruining their training plans and never being invited to train with them again.  As a newbie to the Ironman distance, I really have no concept of what a REAL Ironman finisher does to make it to the race, and was feeling quit unprepared.  I have been putting in the time and effort, but being plagued with injuries and not training to the full potential that I feel I have, I was worried that it would really show, and would be considered very weak!             Friday came and Alan and Amy picked me up at work, with the car packed and bikes racked, we were off and driving! I’m not sure my nerves showed too much, but I can tell you, the chest pressure from envisioning the unknown was well in full force! But as the drive went on, I relaxed and really enjoyed their conversation and company, and took in all the stories, advice and tips that they had to offer. I laugh now to think that I must have looked like a little kid with my head tilted up with big bug eyes, wide with wonderment, with my mind reeling on how these too have done so many, and how I was going to learn to apply all their experiences to my race.             The hotel we stayed at was right off the highway, and was on the same road as the bike course for the race in August, so it was a perfect location. We headed to the bar after settling in, ordered up some important carb loading foods, 2 pitchers of beer with chips and salsa, and relaxed for a bit before we had to head to bed.  Our plans were made for a 90-100 mile ride in the am, followed by a 6 mile run. Cool, I could do this, after all, I heard the course had some rolling hills, and that didn’t seem to worry me too much.             Saturday morning rolled around, and we made our last minute preparations after eating a very large breakfast. Well some peoples' were larger than others. I have to say, seeing what they ate in the morning made me realize that my morning meals may not be sufficient. Not wanting to name names (cough, AMY!), someone had a Belgian Waffle, with two packets of maple syrup oatmeal placed on top of it, with a banana sliced on the very top for breakfast! This along with juice, coffee, and 2 enduralyte tablets. Wow, now that’s a breakfast of champions! Lol  It didn’t really compare to my bagel with peanut butter and coffee, maybe I was missing something here!             The weather was in the 80’s with extremely high humidity, which made the air feel so very thick. The sky had cloud cover, so I was thankful for the lack of blazing sun to add to the mix. We started our ride near the start of the ironman bike course and headed out of town to get this thing done. Alan led us, with Amy in the middle, and me heading up the rear. We started out with a comfortable pace around 19-20 mph on a relatively flat stretch of land. It was very scenic and allowed me to get into a comfortable pace, as well as helped flush out the mounting anxiety of not wanting to have to drop them too early in the ride. We started hitting the “rolling hills” which seemed easy to take on thanks to the draft of the two speedsters ahead of me.  As we reached the out and back section of the course, I was warned that I would encounter my first hill on the return stretch of the hill (and here I was thinking that I already had seen the hills). The first hill we encounter is a downhill, and they yell back, to be careful, it’s a long hill. YOU AREN’T KIDDING, this hill just twists and turns, and all you see are signs for “watch for falling rocks”!  As I’m speeding down the hill around 38-40 mph, there are riders heading up the hill, and they look like they are standing still! OMG, I have to go back up this thing, AAAAAHHHHHHHH! The hill was so fun to ride down; it almost trumped the feeling of dread about the return, almost! At the bottom of this monster hill, I was met with a pleasant uphill that Amy and Alan had no problem maneuvering up. Once at the top we had to continue on, and it was at this point that I realized that I needed a head start back up that hill if I was to stay with them, so I opted to turn around at the designated turnaround, while they rode further a little ways to help me make up time. The return climb seemed to come fast and furious after a fun descent, and I watched my speed go from 30mph (on a downhill) to a cool 6mph if I was lucky. The hill was maybe a half mile or more filled with dangerous blind turns, so I kept my eyes peeled on the yellow line looking for any crazy ass biker who may plummet down the road and cross the yellow line out of control.  In doing this, I just focused on my breathing trying to stay relaxed, increased my cadence (pedaling speed), and kept moving forward. Before I knew it, I was at the top and very excited to have tackled such a feat for me, wow, now that was cool. Amy and Alan found me, and we proceeded to make our way to the course’s 2 loop section of horse farm countryside.  As we begin the first loop, they tell me, that it’s here that I’m really going to hit the hills. WTF???? Didn’t I already do 30 miles of hills? What did I get myself into? So the anxiety of falling behind begins mounting in my chest again, and the thought of being left behind in the back hills of Kentucky was setting in as a real possibility. So I put my head down, stared at the wheel in front of me, and started my new chant of “don’t lose that wheel, don’t lose that wheel”. This seemed to help me until I was half way through the loop when I suddenly heard and felt rubbing on my front tire. I started fiddling with my front brakes thinking I could fix it while riding, but all I did was burn my fingers a little when I would hit the tire. By the time I knew I had to stop, I had fallen away so much that when I called out for them, they didn’t hear me. So there I am, stopped literally in the middle of horse farms by myself. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH It did come true.  I quickly assessed my tire, and thankfully it wasn’t flat, but my tire was bulging out in a spot and I had to let the air out some, push the tire side back in and fill it up with air, NO PROBLEM. I calmly started fixing the problem while saying hello to the nice black horse that stood watch over me by the nearby fence. I dug out my CO2 cartridge, and proceeded to fill the tire, well at least I tried. The darn connector was stuck, it has to slide backwards but it wouldn’t, it was stuck!!!!!!! So I tried letting some of the pressure off by unscrewing the cartridge, but no luck, it wouldn’t move. So I had to waste my whole CO2 cartridge, damn. As I grabbed for my second cartridge, I realized I had one with no threads so I couldn’t use it, and that meant I only had one left. One shot left to get it right and get out of here. OH SHIT. Quickly I started working on getting the adapter to slide backward to ensure it would work, and damn it was stuck. I couldn’t get it to loosen. WTF, I pushed, pulled, twisted, spit on it, cursed at it and then gave up. I even went so far as to try to call the bike store back in canton to see if they could give me any tips on how to make sure this last time would work, but I never got through. A biker came by, but didn’t even look at me or ask if I was ok! NOT COOL. A truck pulls up and wants to know if I need help. Seeing as how he’s a middle aged man alone in a large truck, I politely declined and he thankfully pulled away. So I gave one last try to get this thing to work, and what do you know, it started to move. YEAH I CAN DO THIS.  I attached my last cartridge, said a little prayer and proceeded to try to inflate the tire. HISSSSSSSSS, yes it’s working. The tire is inflated and I think to myself, “who was worried, not me I knew I had it all the time, well at least I hoped”. Lol  Just then Amy called me and said they were on their way back to get me, SIGH, what a relief! Once again we were on our way, enjoying the never ending shifting of the gears to accommodate the hills. We passed by the sharp turns, the gradual climbs and yes even the steep climbs without much fuss. As we started on the straight away, heading back to the beginning of the loop for our second go, I felt myself starting to fade in the heat under the pressure of the relentless hills, and resided with myself that it was ok if I let them go. I watched them get farther and farther away tackling the hills with the greatest of ease, while I struggled mentally to keep myself at a steady pace. Thankfully they waited for me at the beginning of the second loop, and we made our way in again to now tackle what I knew was going to be a lot of hard work. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss! We made a pit stop at the gas station, and I never knew how good a coke and a payday candy bar could taste. I downed the coke, downed more water, refilled Gatorade, and realized how thirsty I really was, and that I had no urge to pee, uh oh, must be getting dehydrated.  It was then that I started taking enduralyte tablets, and let me tell you, these are life savers. All the cramps I started getting in my feet, calves, hamstrings, started fading away, ahh why didn’t I think of this sooner. I managed to keep up with Amy and Alan for a short straight away, and then let them go as we headed into the land of the horse farms. There was no way I could maneuver those hills with the same speed and stamina that they had. How the hell are they capable of that? This was my never ending thought of the day! Lol I managed to find my way out and back to the main stretch of road that takes me back home. But I distinctly remember them saying “the worse part of the ride is the long ride home”. Well they were not lying. Those hills just keep rolling up and down with no flat stretch of land, and I think I was praying to the bike gods to just let me get out of this ride before I cried and gave up! I now was uncomfortable, having to sit straight up to stretch off and on, repositioning on my seat as I felt certain unmentionable areas really start to burn, felt the searing ache in my shoulders/neck from holding the aero position for so long. This ride could certainly not end soon enough.  As luck would have it, I managed to drop my chain, get stopped by a car blocking the road right in the middle of an uphill, and have to fix my bag on my bike all in this relatively short time span. OH HAVE MERCY ON ME! Lol When I made it back home, I saw Amy and Alan already a mile or so into their run, and a renewed interest in this whole insane endeavor came over me, YES I CAN DO THIS. I got off my bike, ate a banana, downed more enduralytes, cooled off in the air conditioning while changing clothes and headed out. I actually felt great. How quickly I forgot about the searing pain of a few moments ago. It was almost like labor, going through horrible pain, only to experience euphoria. My legs felt great, not heavy surprisingly, no foot pain, I was going to be able to complete my set mileage, or so I thought. What I didn’t anticipate was a cramping/burning like pain that would surround the front of my ribs and make breathing evenly very difficult. When I slowed to a walk, the pain would subside, but when I would start to run, the pain would return. So what do you think I decided to do????  Of course I kept running! lol  But as I got a mile out, I realized that my legs still were holding up, but the chest pain was getting worse, so I headed back. After only 2 miles I called it quits and joined the rest of the group to chat. What a great day! I know some of you after reading this might not understand how I can say that this was a great day. But the feeling of accomplishment, the euphoric feeling that washes over you when it’s done, is better than any drug you can get on the street. And the beauty is, it was created by me and no one can take away this feeling and accomplishment. It’s overwhelming and really leaves you wanting more! The next day was to be all about running, and a 20 mile run was planned followed by an easy bike ride. We woke bright and early to start our run by 6am. Again my legs felt great, light and very bouncy. I actually had to force myself to keep a slow pace so not to aggravate my nagging foot/leg. First 5 miles was nice, second 4 miles felt well too. But it was at the dreaded 9 mile marker that my foot and leg decided to begin to burn, OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! I made it to 10 miles and then did a pity dance in front of the hotel. After this was complete, I decided to continue to try to run and see how far I could get. After hobbling another quarter mile, I then began to do the DAMIT dance, and stomped on home with a body full of anger and anxiety. Here I iced my foot till complete numbness set in, and wallowed in my self pity. Once Amy an Alan returned, I was eager to get on the bike and flush out my tension. We decided to do an easy 20 mile bike, and it felt great. The rain came down on us the last 2 miles home, and I think I laughed the whole way home as I was constantly sprayed by the rooster tail of water coming off Amy’s bike. What a great weekend. I never knew training could be so hard and yet so fun. With this weekend behind me, a new sense of calmness has replaced my dreaded fear of the unknown. But I have to admit there is just a little bit of anxiety left now knowing what lays ahead of me on the bike course, but I have 5 more weeks to prepare, and I hope to make the most of it!

Last weekend I attended my first (unofficial) ironman camp, Amy Gluck style!  I headed to Kentucky with Amy (multi-time Kona Qualifier) and her friend Alan (multi-ironman finisher).  So to say that I was a bit intimidated was an understatement. My anxiety of traveling and training with these two people in an unknown area was extremely nerve racking.  I had visions of trying to stay with them on the bike course and getting lost and stranded in the horse farms of Louisville, nightmares of boinking and not being able to get back, concerns of ruining their training plans and never being invited to train with them again.  As a newbie to the Ironman distance, I really have no concept of what a REAL Ironman finisher does to make it to the race, and was feeling quit unprepared.  I have been putting in the time and effort, but being plagued with injuries and not training to the full potential that I feel I have, I was worried that it would really show, and would be considered very weak!             Friday came and Alan and Amy picked me up at work, with the car packed and bikes racked, we were off and driving! I’m not sure my nerves showed too much, but I can tell you, the chest pressure from envisioning the unknown was well in full force! But as the drive went on, I relaxed and really enjoyed their conversation and company, and took in all the stories, advice and tips that they had to offer. I laugh now to think that I must have looked like a little kid with my head tilted up with big bug eyes, wide with wonderment, with my mind reeling on how these too have done so many, and how I was going to learn to apply all their experiences to my race.             The hotel we stayed at was right off the highway, and was on the same road as the bike course for the race in August, so it was a perfect location. We headed to the bar after settling in, ordered up some important carb loading foods, 2 pitchers of beer with chips and salsa, and relaxed for a bit before we had to head to bed.  Our plans were made for a 90-100 mile ride in the am, followed by a 6 mile run. Cool, I could do this, after all, I heard the course had some rolling hills, and that didn’t seem to worry me too much.             Saturday morning rolled around, and we made our last minute preparations after eating a very large breakfast. Well some peoples' were larger than others. I have to say, seeing what they ate in the morning made me realize that my morning meals may not be sufficient. Not wanting to name names (cough, AMY!), someone had a Belgian Waffle, with two packets of maple syrup oatmeal placed on top of it, with a banana sliced on the very top for breakfast! This along with juice, coffee, and 2 enduralyte tablets. Wow, now that’s a breakfast of champions! Lol  It didn’t really compare to my bagel with peanut butter and coffee, maybe I was missing something here!             The weather was in the 80’s with extremely high humidity, which made the air feel so very thick. The sky had cloud cover, so I was thankful for the lack of blazing sun to add to the mix. We started our ride near the start of the ironman bike course and headed out of town to get this thing done. Alan led us, with Amy in the middle, and me heading up the rear. We started out with a comfortable pace around 19-20 mph on a relatively flat stretch of land. It was very scenic and allowed me to get into a comfortable pace, as well as helped flush out the mounting anxiety of not wanting to have to drop them too early in the ride. We started hitting the “rolling hills” which seemed easy to take on thanks to the draft of the two speedsters ahead of me.  As we reached the out and back section of the course, I was warned that I would encounter my first hill on the return stretch of the hill (and here I was thinking that I already had seen the hills). The first hill we encounter is a downhill, and they yell back, to be careful, it’s a long hill. YOU AREN’T KIDDING, this hill just twists and turns, and all you see are signs for “watch for falling rocks”!  As I’m speeding down the hill around 38-40 mph, there are riders heading up the hill, and they look like they are standing still! OMG, I have to go back up this thing, AAAAAHHHHHHHH! The hill was so fun to ride down; it almost trumped the feeling of dread about the return, almost! At the bottom of this monster hill, I was met with a pleasant uphill that Amy and Alan had no problem maneuvering up. Once at the top we had to continue on, and it was at this point that I realized that I needed a head start back up that hill if I was to stay with them, so I opted to turn around at the designated turnaround, while they rode further a little ways to help me make up time. The return climb seemed to come fast and furious after a fun descent, and I watched my speed go from 30mph (on a downhill) to a cool 6mph if I was lucky. The hill was maybe a half mile or more filled with dangerous blind turns, so I kept my eyes peeled on the yellow line looking for any crazy ass biker who may plummet down the road and cross the yellow line out of control.  In doing this, I just focused on my breathing trying to stay relaxed, increased my cadence (pedaling speed), and kept moving forward. Before I knew it, I was at the top and very excited to have tackled such a feat for me, wow, now that was cool. Amy and Alan found me, and we proceeded to make our way to the course’s 2 loop section of horse farm countryside.  As we begin the first loop, they tell me, that it’s here that I’m really going to hit the hills. WTF???? Didn’t I already do 30 miles of hills? What did I get myself into? So the anxiety of falling behind begins mounting in my chest again, and the thought of being left behind in the back hills of Kentucky was setting in as a real possibility. So I put my head down, stared at the wheel in front of me, and started my new chant of “don’t lose that wheel, don’t lose that wheel”. This seemed to help me until I was half way through the loop when I suddenly heard and felt rubbing on my front tire. I started fiddling with my front brakes thinking I could fix it while riding, but all I did was burn my fingers a little when I would hit the tire. By the time I knew I had to stop, I had fallen away so much that when I called out for them, they didn’t hear me. So there I am, stopped literally in the middle of horse farms by myself. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH It did come true.  I quickly assessed my tire, and thankfully it wasn’t flat, but my tire was bulging out in a spot and I had to let the air out some, push the tire side back in and fill it up with air, NO PROBLEM. I calmly started fixing the problem while saying hello to the nice black horse that stood watch over me by the nearby fence. I dug out my CO2 cartridge, and proceeded to fill the tire, well at least I tried. The darn connector was stuck, it has to slide backwards but it wouldn’t, it was stuck!!!!!!! So I tried letting some of the pressure off by unscrewing the cartridge, but no luck, it wouldn’t move. So I had to waste my whole CO2 cartridge, damn. As I grabbed for my second cartridge, I realized I had one with no threads so I couldn’t use it, and that meant I only had one left. One shot left to get it right and get out of here. OH SHIT. Quickly I started working on getting the adapter to slide backward to ensure it would work, and damn it was stuck. I couldn’t get it to loosen. WTF, I pushed, pulled, twisted, spit on it, cursed at it and then gave up. I even went so far as to try to call the bike store back in canton to see if they could give me any tips on how to make sure this last time would work, but I never got through. A biker came by, but didn’t even look at me or ask if I was ok! NOT COOL. A truck pulls up and wants to know if I need help. Seeing as how he’s a middle aged man alone in a large truck, I politely declined and he thankfully pulled away. So I gave one last try to get this thing to work, and what do you know, it started to move. YEAH I CAN DO THIS.  I attached my last cartridge, said a little prayer and proceeded to try to inflate the tire. HISSSSSSSSS, yes it’s working. The tire is inflated and I think to myself, “who was worried, not me I knew I had it all the time, well at least I hoped”. Lol  Just then Amy called me and said they were on their way back to get me, SIGH, what a relief! Once again we were on our way, enjoying the never ending shifting of the gears to accommodate the hills. We passed by the sharp turns, the gradual climbs and yes even the steep climbs without much fuss. As we started on the straight away, heading back to the beginning of the loop for our second go, I felt myself starting to fade in the heat under the pressure of the relentless hills, and resided with myself that it was ok if I let them go. I watched them get farther and farther away tackling the hills with the greatest of ease, while I struggled mentally to keep myself at a steady pace. Thankfully they waited for me at the beginning of the second loop, and we made our way in again to now tackle what I knew was going to be a lot of hard work. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss! We made a pit stop at the gas station, and I never knew how good a coke and a payday candy bar could taste. I downed the coke, downed more water, refilled Gatorade, and realized how thirsty I really was, and that I had no urge to pee, uh oh, must be getting dehydrated.  It was then that I started taking enduralyte tablets, and let me tell you, these are life savers. All the cramps I started getting in my feet, calves, hamstrings, started fading away, ahh why didn’t I think of this sooner. I managed to keep up with Amy and Alan for a short straight away, and then let them go as we headed into the land of the horse farms. There was no way I could maneuver those hills with the same speed and stamina that they had. How the hell are they capable of that? This was my never ending thought of the day! Lol I managed to find my way out and back to the main stretch of road that takes me back home. But I distinctly remember them saying “the worse part of the ride is the long ride home”. Well they were not lying. Those hills just keep rolling up and down with no flat stretch of land, and I think I was praying to the bike gods to just let me get out of this ride before I cried and gave up! I now was uncomfortable, having to sit straight up to stretch off and on, repositioning on my seat as I felt certain unmentionable areas really start to burn, felt the searing ache in my shoulders/neck from holding the aero position for so long. This ride could certainly not end soon enough.  As luck would have it, I managed to drop my chain, get stopped by a car blocking the road right in the middle of an uphill, and have to fix my bag on my bike all in this relatively short time span. OH HAVE MERCY ON ME! Lol When I made it back home, I saw Amy and Alan already a mile or so into their run, and a renewed interest in this whole insane endeavor came over me, YES I CAN DO THIS. I got off my bike, ate a banana, downed more enduralytes, cooled off in the air conditioning while changing clothes and headed out. I actually felt great. How quickly I forgot about the searing pain of a few moments ago. It was almost like labor, going through horrible pain, only to experience euphoria. My legs felt great, not heavy surprisingly, no foot pain, I was going to be able to complete my set mileage, or so I thought. What I didn’t anticipate was a cramping/burning like pain that would surround the front of my ribs and make breathing evenly very difficult. When I slowed to a walk, the pain would subside, but when I would start to run, the pain would return. So what do you think I decided to do????  Of course I kept running! lol  But as I got a mile out, I realized that my legs still were holding up, but the chest pain was getting worse, so I headed back. After only 2 miles I called it quits and joined the rest of the group to chat. What a great day! I know some of you after reading this might not understand how I can say that this was a great day. But the feeling of accomplishment, the euphoric feeling that washes over you when it’s done, is better than any drug you can get on the street. And the beauty is, it was created by me and no one can take away this feeling and accomplishment. It’s overwhelming and really leaves you wanting more! The next day was to be all about running, and a 20 mile run was planned followed by an easy bike ride. We woke bright and early to start our run by 6am. Again my legs felt great, light and very bouncy. I actually had to force myself to keep a slow pace so not to aggravate my nagging foot/leg. First 5 miles was nice, second 4 miles felt well too. But it was at the dreaded 9 mile marker that my foot and leg decided to begin to burn, OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! I made it to 10 miles and then did a pity dance in front of the hotel. After this was complete, I decided to continue to try to run and see how far I could get. After hobbling another quarter mile, I then began to do the DAMIT dance, and stomped on home with a body full of anger and anxiety. Here I iced my foot till complete numbness set in, and wallowed in my self pity. Once Amy an Alan returned, I was eager to get on the bike and flush out my tension. We decided to do an easy 20 mile bike, and it felt great. The rain came down on us the last 2 miles home, and I think I laughed the whole way home as I was constantly sprayed by the rooster tail of water coming off Amy’s bike. What a great weekend. I never knew training could be so hard and yet so fun. With this weekend behind me, a new sense of calmness has replaced my dreaded fear of the unknown. But I have to admit there is just a little bit of anxiety left now knowing what lays ahead of me on the bike course, but I have 5 more weeks to prepare, and I hope to make the most of it!

Last weekend I attended my first (unofficial) ironman camp, Amy Gluck style!  I headed to Kentucky with Amy (multi-time Kona Qualifier) and her friend Alan (multi-ironman finisher).  So to say that I was a bit intimidated was an understatement. My anxiety of traveling and training with these two people in an unknown area was extremely nerve racking.  I had visions of trying to stay with them on the bike course and getting lost and stranded in the horse farms of Louisville, nightmares of boinking and not being able to get back, concerns of ruining their training plans and never being invited to train with them again.  As a newbie to the Ironman distance, I really have no concept of what a REAL Ironman finisher does to make it to the race, and was feeling quit unprepared.  I have been putting in the time and effort, but being plagued with injuries and not training to the full potential that I feel I have, I was worried that it would really show, and would be considered very weak!             Friday came and Alan and Amy picked me up at work, with the car packed and bikes racked, we were off and driving! I’m not sure my nerves showed too much, but I can tell you, the chest pressure from envisioning the unknown was well in full force! But as the drive went on, I relaxed and really enjoyed their conversation and company, and took in all the stories, advice and tips that they had to offer. I laugh now to think that I must have looked like a little kid with my head tilted up with big bug eyes, wide with wonderment, with my mind reeling on how these too have done so many, and how I was going to learn to apply all their experiences to my race.             The hotel we stayed at was right off the highway, and was on the same road as the bike course for the race in August, so it was a perfect location. We headed to the bar after settling in, ordered up some important carb loading foods, 2 pitchers of beer with chips and salsa, and relaxed for a bit before we had to head to bed.  Our plans were made for a 90-100 mile ride in the am, followed by a 6 mile run. Cool, I could do this, after all, I heard the course had some rolling hills, and that didn’t seem to worry me too much.             Saturday morning rolled around, and we made our last minute preparations after eating a very large breakfast. Well some peoples' were larger than others. I have to say, seeing what they ate in the morning made me realize that my morning meals may not be sufficient. Not wanting to name names (cough, AMY!), someone had a Belgian Waffle, with two packets of maple syrup oatmeal placed on top of it, with a banana sliced on the very top for breakfast! This along with juice, coffee, and 2 enduralyte tablets. Wow, now that’s a breakfast of champions! Lol  It didn’t really compare to my bagel with peanut butter and coffee, maybe I was missing something here!             The weather was in the 80’s with extremely high humidity, which made the air feel so very thick. The sky had cloud cover, so I was thankful for the lack of blazing sun to add to the mix. We started our ride near the start of the ironman bike course and headed out of town to get this thing done. Alan led us, with Amy in the middle, and me heading up the rear. We started out with a comfortable pace around 19-20 mph on a relatively flat stretch of land. It was very scenic and allowed me to get into a comfortable pace, as well as helped flush out the mounting anxiety of not wanting to have to drop them too early in the ride. We started hitting the “rolling hills” which seemed easy to take on thanks to the draft of the two speedsters ahead of me.  As we reached the out and back section of the course, I was warned that I would encounter my first hill on the return stretch of the hill (and here I was thinking that I already had seen the hills). The first hill we encounter is a downhill, and they yell back, to be careful, it’s a long hill. YOU AREN’T KIDDING, this hill just twists and turns, and all you see are signs for “watch for falling rocks”!  As I’m speeding down the hill around 38-40 mph, there are riders heading up the hill, and they look like they are standing still! OMG, I have to go back up this thing, AAAAAHHHHHHHH! The hill was so fun to ride down; it almost trumped the feeling of dread about the return, almost! At the bottom of this monster hill, I was met with a pleasant uphill that Amy and Alan had no problem maneuvering up. Once at the top we had to continue on, and it was at this point that I realized that I needed a head start back up that hill if I was to stay with them, so I opted to turn around at the designated turnaround, while they rode further a little ways to help me make up time. The return climb seemed to come fast and furious after a fun descent, and I watched my speed go from 30mph (on a downhill) to a cool 6mph if I was lucky. The hill was maybe a half mile or more filled with dangerous blind turns, so I kept my eyes peeled on the yellow line looking for any crazy ass biker who may plummet down the road and cross the yellow line out of control.  In doing this, I just focused on my breathing trying to stay relaxed, increased my cadence (pedaling speed), and kept moving forward. Before I knew it, I was at the top and very excited to have tackled such a feat for me, wow, now that was cool. Amy and Alan found me, and we proceeded to make our way to the course’s 2 loop section of horse farm countryside.  As we begin the first loop, they tell me, that it’s here that I’m really going to hit the hills. WTF???? Didn’t I already do 30 miles of hills? What did I get myself into? So the anxiety of falling behind begins mounting in my chest again, and the thought of being left behind in the back hills of Kentucky was setting in as a real possibility. So I put my head down, stared at the wheel in front of me, and started my new chant of “don’t lose that wheel, don’t lose that wheel”. This seemed to help me until I was half way through the loop when I suddenly heard and felt rubbing on my front tire. I started fiddling with my front brakes thinking I could fix it while riding, but all I did was burn my fingers a little when I would hit the tire. By the time I knew I had to stop, I had fallen away so much that when I called out for them, they didn’t hear me. So there I am, stopped literally in the middle of horse farms by myself. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH It did come true.  I quickly assessed my tire, and thankfully it wasn’t flat, but my tire was bulging out in a spot and I had to let the air out some, push the tire side back in and fill it up with air, NO PROBLEM. I calmly started fixing the problem while saying hello to the nice black horse that stood watch over me by the nearby fence. I dug out my CO2 cartridge, and proceeded to fill the tire, well at least I tried. The darn connector was stuck, it has to slide backwards but it wouldn’t, it was stuck!!!!!!! So I tried letting some of the pressure off by unscrewing the cartridge, but no luck, it wouldn’t move. So I had to waste my whole CO2 cartridge, damn. As I grabbed for my second cartridge, I realized I had one with no threads so I couldn’t use it, and that meant I only had one left. One shot left to get it right and get out of here. OH SHIT. Quickly I started working on getting the adapter to slide backward to ensure it would work, and damn it was stuck. I couldn’t get it to loosen. WTF, I pushed, pulled, twisted, spit on it, cursed at it and then gave up. I even went so far as to try to call the bike store back in canton to see if they could give me any tips on how to make sure this last time would work, but I never got through. A biker came by, but didn’t even look at me or ask if I was ok! NOT COOL. A truck pulls up and wants to know if I need help. Seeing as how he’s a middle aged man alone in a large truck, I politely declined and he thankfully pulled away. So I gave one last try to get this thing to work, and what do you know, it started to move. YEAH I CAN DO THIS.  I attached my last cartridge, said a little prayer and proceeded to try to inflate the tire. HISSSSSSSSS, yes it’s working. The tire is inflated and I think to myself, “who was worried, not me I knew I had it all the time, well at least I hoped”. Lol  Just then Amy called me and said they were on their way back to get me, SIGH, what a relief! Once again we were on our way, enjoying the never ending shifting of the gears to accommodate the hills. We passed by the sharp turns, the gradual climbs and yes even the steep climbs without much fuss. As we started on the straight away, heading back to the beginning of the loop for our second go, I felt myself starting to fade in the heat under the pressure of the relentless hills, and resided with myself that it was ok if I let them go. I watched them get farther and farther away tackling the hills with the greatest of ease, while I struggled mentally to keep myself at a steady pace. Thankfully they waited for me at the beginning of the second loop, and we made our way in again to now tackle what I knew was going to be a lot of hard work. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss! We made a pit stop at the gas station, and I never knew how good a coke and a payday candy bar could taste. I downed the coke, downed more water, refilled Gatorade, and realized how thirsty I really was, and that I had no urge to pee, uh oh, must be getting dehydrated.  It was then that I started taking enduralyte tablets, and let me tell you, these are life savers. All the cramps I started getting in my feet, calves, hamstrings, started fading away, ahh why didn’t I think of this sooner. I managed to keep up with Amy and Alan for a short straight away, and then let them go as we headed into the land of the horse farms. There was no way I could maneuver those hills with the same speed and stamina that they had. How the hell are they capable of that? This was my never ending thought of the day! Lol I managed to find my way out and back to the main stretch of road that takes me back home. But I distinctly remember them saying “the worse part of the ride is the long ride home”. Well they were not lying. Those hills just keep rolling up and down with no flat stretch of land, and I think I was praying to the bike gods to just let me get out of this ride before I cried and gave up! I now was uncomfortable, having to sit straight up to stretch off and on, repositioning on my seat as I felt certain unmentionable areas really start to burn, felt the searing ache in my shoulders/neck from holding the aero position for so long. This ride could certainly not end soon enough.  As luck would have it, I managed to drop my chain, get stopped by a car blocking the road right in the middle of an uphill, and have to fix my bag on my bike all in this relatively short time span. OH HAVE MERCY ON ME! Lol When I made it back home, I saw Amy and Alan already a mile or so into their run, and a renewed interest in this whole insane endeavor came over me, YES I CAN DO THIS. I got off my bike, ate a banana, downed more enduralytes, cooled off in the air conditioning while changing clothes and headed out. I actually felt great. How quickly I forgot about the searing pain of a few moments ago. It was almost like labor, going through horrible pain, only to experience euphoria. My legs felt great, not heavy surprisingly, no foot pain, I was going to be able to complete my set mileage, or so I thought. What I didn’t anticipate was a cramping/burning like pain that would surround the front of my ribs and make breathing evenly very difficult. When I slowed to a walk, the pain would subside, but when I would start to run, the pain would return. So what do you think I decided to do????  Of course I kept running! lol  But as I got a mile out, I realized that my legs still were holding up, but the chest pain was getting worse, so I headed back. After only 2 miles I called it quits and joined the rest of the group to chat. What a great day! I know some of you after reading this might not understand how I can say that this was a great day. But the feeling of accomplishment, the euphoric feeling that washes over you when it’s done, is better than any drug you can get on the street. And the beauty is, it was created by me and no one can take away this feeling and accomplishment. It’s overwhelming and really leaves you wanting more! The next day was to be all about running, and a 20 mile run was planned followed by an easy bike ride. We woke bright and early to start our run by 6am. Again my legs felt great, light and very bouncy. I actually had to force myself to keep a slow pace so not to aggravate my nagging foot/leg. First 5 miles was nice, second 4 miles felt well too. But it was at the dreaded 9 mile marker that my foot and leg decided to begin to burn, OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! I made it to 10 miles and then did a pity dance in front of the hotel. After this was complete, I decided to continue to try to run and see how far I could get. After hobbling another quarter mile, I then began to do the DAMIT dance, and stomped on home with a body full of anger and anxiety. Here I iced my foot till complete numbness set in, and wallowed in my self pity. Once Amy an Alan returned, I was eager to get on the bike and flush out my tension. We decided to do an easy 20 mile bike, and it felt great. The rain came down on us the last 2 miles home, and I think I laughed the whole way home as I was constantly sprayed by the rooster tail of water coming off Amy’s bike. What a great weekend. I never knew training could be so hard and yet so fun. With this weekend behind me, a new sense of calmness has replaced my dreaded fear of the unknown. But I have to admit there is just a little bit of anxiety left now knowing what lays ahead of me on the bike course, but I have 5 more weeks to prepare, and I hope to make the most of it!

Last weekend I attended my first (unofficial) ironman camp, Amy Gluck style!  I headed to Kentucky with Amy (multi-time Kona Qualifier) and her friend Alan (multi-ironman finisher).  So to say that I was a bit intimidated was an understatement. My anxiety of traveling and training with these two people in an unknown area was extremely nerve racking.  I had visions of trying to stay with them on the bike course and getting lost and stranded in the horse farms of Louisville, nightmares of boinking and not being able to get back, concerns of ruining their training plans and never being invited to train with them again.  As a newbie to the Ironman distance, I really have no concept of what a REAL Ironman finisher does to make it to the race, and was feeling quit unprepared.  I have been putting in the time and effort, but being plagued with injuries and not training to the full potential that I feel I have, I was worried that it would really show, and would be considered very weak!             Friday came and Alan and Amy picked me up at work, with the car packed and bikes racked, we were off and driving! I’m not sure my nerves showed too much, but I can tell you, the chest pressure from envisioning the unknown was well in full force! But as the drive went on, I relaxed and really enjoyed their conversation and company, and took in all the stories, advice and tips that they had to offer. I laugh now to think that I must have looked like a little kid with my head tilted up with big bug eyes, wide with wonderment, with my mind reeling on how these too have done so many, and how I was going to learn to apply all their experiences to my race.             The hotel we stayed at was right off the highway, and was on the same road as the bike course for the race in August, so it was a perfect location. We headed to the bar after settling in, ordered up some important carb loading foods, 2 pitchers of beer with chips and salsa, and relaxed for a bit before we had to head to bed.  Our plans were made for a 90-100 mile ride in the am, followed by a 6 mile run. Cool, I could do this, after all, I heard the course had some rolling hills, and that didn’t seem to worry me too much.             Saturday morning rolled around, and we made our last minute preparations after eating a very large breakfast. Well some peoples' were larger than others. I have to say, seeing what they ate in the morning made me realize that my morning meals may not be sufficient. Not wanting to name names (cough, AMY!), someone had a Belgian Waffle, with two packets of maple syrup oatmeal placed on top of it, with a banana sliced on the very top for breakfast! This along with juice, coffee, and 2 enduralyte tablets. Wow, now that’s a breakfast of champions! Lol  It didn’t really compare to my bagel with peanut butter and coffee, maybe I was missing something here!             The weather was in the 80’s with extremely high humidity, which made the air feel so very thick. The sky had cloud cover, so I was thankful for the lack of blazing sun to add to the mix. We started our ride near the start of the ironman bike course and headed out of town to get this thing done. Alan led us, with Amy in the middle, and me heading up the rear. We started out with a comfortable pace around 19-20 mph on a relatively flat stretch of land. It was very scenic and allowed me to get into a comfortable pace, as well as helped flush out the mounting anxiety of not wanting to have to drop them too early in the ride. We started hitting the “rolling hills” which seemed easy to take on thanks to the draft of the two speedsters ahead of me.  As we reached the out and back section of the course, I was warned that I would encounter my first hill on the return stretch of the hill (and here I was thinking that I already had seen the hills). The first hill we encounter is a downhill, and they yell back, to be careful, it’s a long hill. YOU AREN’T KIDDING, this hill just twists and turns, and all you see are signs for “watch for falling rocks”!  As I’m speeding down the hill around 38-40 mph, there are riders heading up the hill, and they look like they are standing still! OMG, I have to go back up this thing, AAAAAHHHHHHHH! The hill was so fun to ride down; it almost trumped the feeling of dread about the return, almost! At the bottom of this monster hill, I was met with a pleasant uphill that Amy and Alan had no problem maneuvering up. Once at the top we had to continue on, and it was at this point that I realized that I needed a head start back up that hill if I was to stay with them, so I opted to turn around at the designated turnaround, while they rode further a little ways to help me make up time. The return climb seemed to come fast and furious after a fun descent, and I watched my speed go from 30mph (on a downhill) to a cool 6mph if I was lucky. The hill was maybe a half mile or more filled with dangerous blind turns, so I kept my eyes peeled on the yellow line looking for any crazy ass biker who may plummet down the road and cross the yellow line out of control.  In doing this, I just focused on my breathing trying to stay relaxed, increased my cadence (pedaling speed), and kept moving forward. Before I knew it, I was at the top and very excited to have tackled such a feat for me, wow, now that was cool. Amy and Alan found me, and we proceeded to make our way to the course’s 2 loop section of horse farm countryside.  As we begin the first loop, they tell me, that it’s here that I’m really going to hit the hills. WTF???? Didn’t I already do 30 miles of hills? What did I get myself into? So the anxiety of falling behind begins mounting in my chest again, and the thought of being left behind in the back hills of Kentucky was setting in as a real possibility. So I put my head down, stared at the wheel in front of me, and started my new chant of “don’t lose that wheel, don’t lose that wheel”. This seemed to help me until I was half way through the loop when I suddenly heard and felt rubbing on my front tire. I started fiddling with my front brakes thinking I could fix it while riding, but all I did was burn my fingers a little when I would hit the tire. By the time I knew I had to stop, I had fallen away so much that when I called out for them, they didn’t hear me. So there I am, stopped literally in the middle of horse farms by myself. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH It did come true.  I quickly assessed my tire, and thankfully it wasn’t flat, but my tire was bulging out in a spot and I had to let the air out some, push the tire side back in and fill it up with air, NO PROBLEM. I calmly started fixing the problem while saying hello to the nice black horse that stood watch over me by the nearby fence. I dug out my CO2 cartridge, and proceeded to fill the tire, well at least I tried. The darn connector was stuck, it has to slide backwards but it wouldn’t, it was stuck!!!!!!! So I tried letting some of the pressure off by unscrewing the cartridge, but no luck, it wouldn’t move. So I had to waste my whole CO2 cartridge, damn. As I grabbed for my second cartridge, I realized I had one with no threads so I couldn’t use it, and that meant I only had one left. One shot left to get it right and get out of here. OH SHIT. Quickly I started working on getting the adapter to slide backward to ensure it would work, and damn it was stuck. I couldn’t get it to loosen. WTF, I pushed, pulled, twisted, spit on it, cursed at it and then gave up. I even went so far as to try to call the bike store back in canton to see if they could give me any tips on how to make sure this last time would work, but I never got through. A biker came by, but didn’t even look at me or ask if I was ok! NOT COOL. A truck pulls up and wants to know if I need help. Seeing as how he’s a middle aged man alone in a large truck, I politely declined and he thankfully pulled away. So I gave one last try to get this thing to work, and what do you know, it started to move. YEAH I CAN DO THIS.  I attached my last cartridge, said a little prayer and proceeded to try to inflate the tire. HISSSSSSSSS, yes it’s working. The tire is inflated and I think to myself, “who was worried, not me I knew I had it all the time, well at least I hoped”. Lol  Just then Amy called me and said they were on their way back to get me, SIGH, what a relief! Once again we were on our way, enjoying the never ending shifting of the gears to accommodate the hills. We passed by the sharp turns, the gradual climbs and yes even the steep climbs without much fuss. As we started on the straight away, heading back to the beginning of the loop for our second go, I felt myself starting to fade in the heat under the pressure of the relentless hills, and resided with myself that it was ok if I let them go. I watched them get farther and farther away tackling the hills with the greatest of ease, while I struggled mentally to keep myself at a steady pace. Thankfully they waited for me at the beginning of the second loop, and we made our way in again to now tackle what I knew was going to be a lot of hard work. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss! We made a pit stop at the gas station, and I never knew how good a coke and a payday candy bar could taste. I downed the coke, downed more water, refilled Gatorade, and realized how thirsty I really was, and that I had no urge to pee, uh oh, must be getting dehydrated.  It was then that I started taking enduralyte tablets, and let me tell you, these are life savers. All the cramps I started getting in my feet, calves, hamstrings, started fading away, ahh why didn’t I think of this sooner. I managed to keep up with Amy and Alan for a short straight away, and then let them go as we headed into the land of the horse farms. There was no way I could maneuver those hills with the same speed and stamina that they had. How the hell are they capable of that? This was my never ending thought of the day! Lol I managed to find my way out and back to the main stretch of road that takes me back home. But I distinctly remember them saying “the worse part of the ride is the long ride home”. Well they were not lying. Those hills just keep rolling up and down with no flat stretch of land, and I think I was praying to the bike gods to just let me get out of this ride before I cried and gave up! I now was uncomfortable, having to sit straight up to stretch off and on, repositioning on my seat as I felt certain unmentionable areas really start to burn, felt the searing ache in my shoulders/neck from holding the aero position for so long. This ride could certainly not end soon enough.  As luck would have it, I managed to drop my chain, get stopped by a car blocking the road right in the middle of an uphill, and have to fix my bag on my bike all in this relatively short time span. OH HAVE MERCY ON ME! Lol When I made it back home, I saw Amy and Alan already a mile or so into their run, and a renewed interest in this whole insane endeavor came over me, YES I CAN DO THIS. I got off my bike, ate a banana, downed more enduralytes, cooled off in the air conditioning while changing clothes and headed out. I actually felt great. How quickly I forgot about the searing pain of a few moments ago. It was almost like labor, going through horrible pain, only to experience euphoria. My legs felt great, not heavy surprisingly, no foot pain, I was going to be able to complete my set mileage, or so I thought. What I didn’t anticipate was a cramping/burning like pain that would surround the front of my ribs and make breathing evenly very difficult. When I slowed to a walk, the pain would subside, but when I would start to run, the pain would return. So what do you think I decided to do????  Of course I kept running! lol  But as I got a mile out, I realized that my legs still were holding up, but the chest pain was getting worse, so I headed back. After only 2 miles I called it quits and joined the rest of the group to chat. What a great day! I know some of you after reading this might not understand how I can say that this was a great day. But the feeling of accomplishment, the euphoric feeling that washes over you when it’s done, is better than any drug you can get on the street. And the beauty is, it was created by me and no one can take away this feeling and accomplishment. It’s overwhelming and really leaves you wanting more! The next day was to be all about running, and a 20 mile run was planned followed by an easy bike ride. We woke bright and early to start our run by 6am. Again my legs felt great, light and very bouncy. I actually had to force myself to keep a slow pace so not to aggravate my nagging foot/leg. First 5 miles was nice, second 4 miles felt well too. But it was at the dreaded 9 mile marker that my foot and leg decided to begin to burn, OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! I made it to 10 miles and then did a pity dance in front of the hotel. After this was complete, I decided to continue to try to run and see how far I could get. After hobbling another quarter mile, I then began to do the DAMIT dance, and stomped on home with a body full of anger and anxiety. Here I iced my foot till complete numbness set in, and wallowed in my self pity. Once Amy an Alan returned, I was eager to get on the bike and flush out my tension. We decided to do an easy 20 mile bike, and it felt great. The rain came down on us the last 2 miles home, and I think I laughed the whole way home as I was constantly sprayed by the rooster tail of water coming off Amy’s bike. What a great weekend. I never knew training could be so hard and yet so fun. With this weekend behind me, a new sense of calmness has replaced my dreaded fear of the unknown. But I have to admit there is just a little bit of anxiety left now knowing what lays ahead of me on the bike course, but I have 5 more weeks to prepare, and I hope to make the most of it!