My reunion with Lake Placid

Probably my favourite sign of the day...after the swim exit!

I had another good week of training!  This time I logged about 23hrs of swimming, biking, and running!  I am also quite happy with how my running is coming along.  Had a tough but good run interval session at Queens Park again on Tuesday, did a brick on Wednesday which was a 90km bike followed by a 10km run, and a tempo 17km run on Thursday!  On Friday I headed down to Lake Placid to train and cheer! 

I love going to Lake Placid.  It is the site of my first Ironman!  It is an absolutely gorgeous place to train and quite tough!  It keeps you very honest!  Lots and lots of climbing is involved!  So on Saturday, I ventured out with some friends to do the 180km IM bike course.  Only Roger and I had planned on completing the two loops while the other two were only going to do one loop.  We went out and I was quickly reminded at how challenging this course can be.  I was faced with sun, wind, rain, heat, and humidity but I did the whole thing, mostly on my own as Roger is a bit too fast for me to draft off! lol!  And I finished feeling great with a smile on my face!  Again, I wasn't trashed or spent and that made me feel good!  I think I am getting better at this endurance stuff!  During the ride I had 2 packages of Powerbar blasts, 1 pack of Clif shot bloks, 2 Powerbars, 1 coke, 1 carbopro/eload, 1 eload, 2 powerades, 5 bottles of water, and an unknown number of salt pills!  That night we refueled at Milano restaurant on Main St where I enjoyed a woodoven thin crust pizza- yummmm!!!!!!

Sunday was race day and it was so much fun spectating.  I did do some more training as well!  I jumped in the water after the swim course closed and swam 2km.  Then I headed out for my long run.  I had planned to run 30km but I didn't quite get there.  Maneuvering around Lake Placid was a little tricky with the crowds and the race going on.  I started off by running some of the run course and then headed to run the last part of the bike course which involved some of the harder climbs.  So I ran up Little and Big Cherry as well as Mama, baby, and Papa bear!  So needless to say...this was a sloooow run for me!  At the end of this past week, my legs were tired.  But I did get to see lots of the racers and cheer them on while I was running.  I wish I had a cowbell while running, it would have been more effective.  During my run, I did have to stop several times to cross sections of the course and had to do quite a bit of walking to get around people.  I was out there for just under 3hrs (total time) and ran 26km and I took one gel and a flask of water.  Ah well!  Not the best but it is my longest run this year.  After my run, I showered, refueled, and then headed out to the course and cheer on the racers!  At one point, I was enjoying an ice cream cone while sitting on a bench and cheering the runners on.  Maybe a little cruel to the runners but I enjoyed my ice cream! :-P

Up next: Steelhead 70.3!!!