Ironman Lake Placid Race Report- 4th Pro

Lake Placid is a special place for quite a few reasons. It was my very first Ironman back in 2010. I have a spectacular experience, with family and great friends there to cheer me on (see commemorative photo, below), and ended up setting the amateur course record. Since that time, Chris and I have traveled to Lake Placid many times for vacation in winter and summer to visit family, train, enjoy the mountains, and cheer on friends for the Ironman. Most importantly, Chris and I will be getting married in Lake Placid in less than three weeks!

This has been an exciting, fast paced year. Despite the hectic schedule I have been super motivated to train, in large part due to some GREAT training partners and taking a FUN approach to racing this year- doing the races I WANT to do, not the ones that might get me the most points or have the largest prize purses. Granted, I’ve had to miss a workout here and there, but workouts in general had been going better than ever, always a good sign!

We headed up to Placid on Wednesday AM before the race, arriving at our little rental around 6pm. Since the race doesn't offer homestays, we decided to get a pretty affordable rental out in Jay, NY (30 mins from Placid) right along the Ironman bike course and decided to share it with my parents who were traveling up to support me at the race. We ended up with a cute little Adirondack-style apartment in a very quiet area nestled in a pine forest. Between my mom and I, we had brought enough food to feed a small army. Seriously, the fridge was PACKED. No one would starve.

Thursday we had a busy schedule, but not one race-related item was on the to-do list! Instead, we kicked off the day with an 8am meeting with the pastor who will marry us, followed by an appointment at the reception venue, then a few hours of work, followed by an appointment at the rehearsal dinner venue and then a quick bite to eat and more work calls for Chris. Thank goodness my mom had the foresight to pack us a picnic lunch. When 6pm came, we finally had time to jump in Mirror Lake for a little swim!! It was marvelous! I felt surprisingly fast in my wetsuit and felt like I had a good feel for the water. It was nice to head back to our peaceful spot in Jay to relax and eat a great dinner that my mom had prepared.

Friday morning I slept in and relaxed and read out on the porch for a bit with my coffee, before heading out for a little taper run with strides, then off to the noon pro meeting in Placid. I was determined to spend all day Friday gathering together the final race-related items and doing the final pre-race errands that typically plague me the day before the race. I wanted Saturday to be relaxed and worry- free. I mostly accomplished this, with the exception of actually packing my race bags!

I also spent some time writing down my detailed race nutrition and pacing plan. For my nutrition on the bike, I decided to go with two water bottles each containing 4 servings of First Endurance EFS liquid shot (gel) mixed with water for a total of 800 calories, something I’d never tried before. This turned out to be the best decision ever, as the mixture tasted sort of like a vanilla milk (minus the dairy taste) and went down quickly and easily with no GI issues and gave me sustained energy throughout the bike. I also added 5-6 bottles of on-course sports drink for another 800 or so calories, and at the halfway, I would have a Boathouse Farms mango protein smoothie for another 400 calories and a dose of protein. I also planned to eat a bar at some point for another 250 calories. On the run, during the first 13 miles I planned to take a gel every three miles, with sports drink and/or coke at the aid stations in between. During the second half of the run, I planned to take a gel every 2 miles with sports drink or coke at the intervening aid stations. 

Saturday we headed over to Placid and sought out the Active Release Therapy (ART) tent for my back, which had started to do its usual painful flare-up that happens every 3 months or so, particularly when I’m overly stressed or my shoes are worn down. After spending 30 mins with me, my ART lady (who was awesome) told me that my back was "really messed up" but that she was able to get a few of the trigger points out. Kind of reassuring, I guess??

Before I dropped off my bike, Chris drove me out to the Keene descent so I could practice going down it a few times. I still have a long way to go with my descending skills, but I do much better when I've ridden the course previously, ideally several times. So Chris dropped me off at the top, and I went down, then we loaded the bike back in the car and drove back up to the top, repeat. I will definitely say that riding the hill on race day is so much easier without cars zipping by, too closely in some cases. Also, interestingly, the hill wasn't as bad as I remembered from previous years!

On Saturday evening we went to the pre-race prayer service on Mirror Lake at the church where we’ll be getting married, which was pretty cool and a great way to spend a pre-race evening! We headed back to the apartment and had a gluten-free pasta dinner with cilantro pesto and shrimp. It was almost time for bed, but I was feeling a bit restless. Chris gave me a pre-race pep talk and reminded me that I wasn’t racing to put food on my table or for a paycheck- I was racing to glorify God and this requires an extremely different mindset. Some of my competitors would be racing scared, but I could race with confidence knowing that only positive things could come out of my day so long as I stayed focused on this goal. I so appreciated this reminder!

Saturday night was not the best night of sleep… my stomach hurt a bit which kept waking me up, and in the morning I woke up feeling a cold coming on. We had some Zicam on hand so I took some and popped a few in my pill bottle that I’d be carrying on the bike, and planned to take some every three hours. I tried to eat my planned pre-race breakfast, a gluten-free waffle sandwich with almond butter and jam, but my stomach still was not feeling great and one bite made me gag- I couldn’t even eat a single bite of it. (However, not to fear that this food would go to waste- Chris later found my discarded waffle sandwich in the car and finished it off!) I had also planned to take in a Boathouse Farms mango protein smoothie and thankfully that went down easily. 400 pre-race calories is not ideal but would have to do.

When we arrived at the race site, I was pretty quick to get my gear situated so I’d have plenty of time to sit and relax prior to the Ironman. For a race this long, I love having this bit of quiet time to just relax and contemplate what I’m about to do! Unfortunately, I ended up on the world’s longest port-o-potty line which cut into my relaxing time, but still had a little extra time prior to race start. By this time it had started raining a bit, which would continue for several hours and make for a wet descent on the bike course.

The pro women lined up and before long, we were off! I worked so hard to get on some fast feet and we had a nice paceline going for a bit, but after a little while I noticed that the feet in front of me had slowed down significantly and had lost the feet in front of them. I put in a surge to try to try to catch them, but despite going as hard as I could, I was barely getting just a hair closer and knew I could not sustain the effort long enough to catch up. About halfway through the first loop, the water started to get extremely choppy, almost like a storm was brewing. I exited the first loop in 29 minutes, definitely a good time for me. The second loop was a mixture of faster age groupers passing me, and trying to get past the slower age groupers who were still on their first lap. I tried to get on any feet that passed for as long as I could, per Chris’s pre-race advice. All in all, a great swim for me in 1 hour! Thanks to my swim training buddy Tommy and technique lessons from swim coach Mark Lisinsky for the improvements this year!

My goal on the bike was to take the descents as fast as possible (meaning no breaking…) take in a steady stream of nutrition, not go too easy on the bike (something that has plagued me during my last two Ironmans), and spin up the climbs at a high cadence. Overall I met these goals fairly well, and never once felt low-energy though I do think I could have gone a bit harder on the bike (but an improvement). I followed my nutrition plan perfectly, except for eating the bar- I just could not force it down- and I think this plan worked great, particularly the EFS liquid shot mixed with water. I’ve found that taking in as many calories as my body will allow on the bike and run is so essential to having a good Ironman race.

The only low point on the bike was this one large pack of age group guys that plagued me from about mile 80 onward. Not only did this group of men not seem to care that they were blatantly cheating, they also did not seem to care that they were sabatoging my race and that of other non-cheating athletes around them as it takes tremendous effort to pass a pack within the allotted timeframe, only to have them NOT drop back, draft off of me for several minutes and then re-pass, starting the whole process over again. I finally just gave up and hung back the legal limit, but at a slower pace than I would have liked to be going. It was truly appalling to see guys who most likely ended up qualifying for Kona getting away with this and acting like there is nothing wrong with it. The course was NOT crowded at all at this point- there was no excuse.

Overall, the weather could not have been better- overcast and/or a little rainy the whole ride, with highs in the low 70s. I even saw Chris out on the bike course TWICE- he rode the course in reverse to cheer me on!!! On each loop in the ascent back into town, I imagined myself jumping into the river that runs alongside the course post-race. Though it wasn’t that hot out, I the idea of it just sounded so great right then and I definitely planned to come back to do this. I just LOVE the Lake Placid bike course. It makes an immense difference to be riding on a beautiful and challenging Ironman course… when you are racing for 140.6 miles it needs to be worth it!

The marathon was by far my favorite part of the day. Not only were so many awesome friends racing out on the course, the support (from friends and family and even people I didn’t even know) was incredible. As I started the run, someone yelled to me that I was in 8^th place. My legs were feeling pretty beat up but I remembered this same feeling in my legs during the 2010 Lake Placid race—I told myself that this was a normal part of racing a hilly Ironman and that I just needed a mile or so to transition my legs. I saw Chris again and he told me that I needed to pick off 3 women on this loop. Chris’scousin Adam and his wife Anya had also travelled out to cheer me on, and were AWESOME cheerleaders! And of course, my parents were there taking photos and cheering for me in town on each lap. After about 2 miles, I started to feel great and my legs were feeling pretty good. I ran by feel, checking my Garmin every few miles but mainly running at what I felt was a good pace. The skies were still overcast which made for some pretty awesome run conditions! I followed my nutrition plan exactly. The other part of my run plan involved, shuffling, not running, up the two steepest hills on each loop, using mainly my glutes and hamstrings and using my quads as sparingly as possible. I had a couple of other athletes I was kind of pacing off of and I noticed that when I did this, I would fall back dramatically on the hills but would then catch them after the hill as I was able to resume a strong pace after the hill rather than having the hill take the life out of me.

I gradually started passing the other pro women and eventually moved into 4^th place. Typically in the latter portion of an Ironman marathon, I walk a few steps at each aid station to get and take in nutrition, but that was not needed in this race and I only stopped once when I missed a nutrition handoff. My quads started to really ache around mile 18. I tried so hard to catch 3^rd- people kept telling me she was just around the corner- but ultimately I missed 3^rd by 2 minutes. So many things go through your head during the last several miles of an Ironman. The pain in my quads was so acute (all the hills?) I remembered our friend Anthony telling me to enjoy every pedal stroke and step of the race, and despite the pain my body was in, I was truly LOVING every step of these last few miles! There’s nothing like nearing the Ironman finish line, and truly few things better than crossing that finish line when you’ve had a good race. I ended up with an Ironman swim PR (1:00) and marathon (3:11) PR finishing in 9:50. I also finished 11 minutes faster than in 2010 when I had an incredible race. This being my first time racing the same Ironman course twice, it was so cool to be able to compare the races and see improvements over those years, despite a drastically different training plan now vs. then- in particular, nowhere near as much time spent training!

During the first hour post-race I was not feeling so great, couldn’t take anything in, threw up, and was so sore I could barely walk. However, the miracle of the day is that my back didn’t bother me at all during the race, my cold symptoms stayed fully at bay (but came on full force post-race) and my stomach, which hadn’t let me eat anything pre-race and for about 8 hours post-race, was 100% fine during the race itself and I was able to take in my nutrition without a single moment of GI discomfort. God truly blessed me during this race and a big thanks to all of the wonderful friends who were praying for me during the day.

MANY thanks to the wonderful people and sponsors that allow me to both work full-time and race at the pro level- namely, Fast Forward Triathlon and coach Eric Bean, Inside Out Sports, CompuTrainer, First Endurance, Cervelo, and Rudy Project! And in a different sense of support, thanks to Chris and my parents for traveling to nearly all of my races this year and providing such great encouragement. (And finally, many thanks to Southwest Airlines for awarding Chris a companion pass so that we can enjoy two-for-one travel for the next 17 months!!! Definitely will be taking advantage of this in a big way).

Colorado Training Camp!

We decided to take a short 6 day trip out to Colorado, mainly because we had signed up to do the Triple Bypass ride, a 120-mile cycling event through the mountains. I thought the trip would be fun and a good training opportunity prior to IM Lake Placid but I didn't give it too much thought beyond that. It is safe to say the trip FAR exceeded my expectations! Being in such a beautiful place, seeing God's amazing creation everywhere you turn, is so amazing and inspiring. We can't wait to return!

Day 1-- Arrived in CO

We left DC around 4am and arrived at our accommodations- which included picking up the rental car, picking up our packets for the ride, and driving 2.5 hours- all by noon. The Triple Bypass Ride is a point-to-point 120 mile ride starting from Evergreen, CO (close to Denver) to Avon, CO (in the mountains close to ski areas such as Vail) so we decided to stay out in the mountains near Avon a the Beaver Creek ski resort. The resort offered to shuttle riders and their bikes to the start (2 hours away) if you booked there, so given that we had a group of 5 and could get a good deal on a condo since it's summertime and a ski resort, we were in! The condo turned out to be AMAZING- totally far surpassing our expectations! Rustic lodge-style decor with a gigantic stone fireplace and lots of space. The balcony overlooked the base of the chairlift and mountain- with spectacular trail running along the mountainside right outside our door, great cycling everywhere, an outdoor lap pool and jacuzzis, as well as firepits (with marshmallows and toasting sticks provided). Plus, the weather was PERFECT- at about 8,500ft, it was a high of 72 degrees every day with no humidity- and it actually got a bit chilly at night in the 50s! (Before that, I couldn't remember the last time I felt cold!)

With all the things to do and see (and bikes to put together and have serviced) and meals to be eaten, we didn't even get in any training the first day. However, we made up for that on day 2!

Day 2- the Triple Bypass Ride

We got up at 3:45 to catch the 4:30am shuttle to the ride start. This was a full size bus with only 6 of us and our bikes on it. Since there was so much space, we had plenty of time to eat, drink coffee, get our gear situated during the shuttle ride. We arrived to the ride start around 6:30 and were on our bikes before 7.

I figured the ride would be scenic, but the mountain views were STUNNING pretty much the entire way. This was by far the most scenic ride I've ever done. The ride included about 10,000 feet of climbing, but since the altitude varies from 7,000 to 12,000 feet, it seemed harder than that. This would be my 2nd time riding my new road bike (my first time riding or owning a road bike in 5 years!) but things worked out pretty well other than needing to adjust the seatpost height a few times.

The ride is aptly named traveling over three mountain passes. I kept my hearteate in the Ironman-to-tempo zone most of the ride, but my breathing was so heavy on the climbs (due to the altitude) that I felt like a newbie athlete! Chris didn't seem to have any trouble so he set the pace for me all day- I just tried to stay with him.

The last 26 miles are literally ALL downhill heading down some pretty awesomely scenic descents. That was a nice treat at the end of the ride.

All in all, we ended up spending 8 hours on the bike, plus a little 20 minute transition run after for good measure. we were exhausted by the end of the day- good thing we just had to head up the hill from the ride finish line, into the pool and hot tub!

We ended the day with a great dinner at the outdoor restaurant at the Ritz right outside our condo. They even put the heat lamps on for us since we were a bit chilly :-)

Day 3- Trail Run!

I had a longish run on the schedule for Sunday so we headed out our doorstep onto the mountainside trail that runs between the various mountain villages of Beaver Creek. This was one of THE most gorgeous runs I have ever done, running through aspen groves, past beautiful wildflowers and ferns, alongside exposed mountain slopes, with amazing full views of the valley below and mountains around. I could have run on that trail all day. I mentioned this to Chris and he looked a bit worried that I might actually be serious :-)

 

In the afternoon we grabbed lunch and headed to a huge art festival that featured lots of different types of artists- my favorites were the photographers who captured the amazing Colorado landscapes.

 

Toward dusk, we took a long evening hike from the condo. We saw lots of wildlife and the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen!

 

We ended the day by making a tasty dinner of grilled salmon, roasted potatoes, and grilled veggies on the grill on our balcony.

Day 4- Recovery Day!

We started the day with an easy morning recovery trail run through a beautiful mountainside trail with amazing wildflowers.

Later in the day, we did our first swim in the outdoor pool, but were thwarted by a passing thunderstorm and were kicked out of the pool. We took the opportunity to explore the spa at the Ritz Carlton where we had been swimming, which was free for guests. Since we had been told we could use the amenities at the Ritz, we assumed this also meant the spa too and had a great time! I tried the cold plunge, aromatherapy steam room, and grotto, and loved that they provided snacks and hot teas in the lounge. We finished up our swim a little later J

Day 5- Brick Workout

 

I had a long brick workout to do this day so we headed out on a great cycling course (same one as the upcoming US Pro Challenge) with lots of long climbs and little traffic. We even passed a ranch with a bunch of Alpacas! We then headed out for a trail run with intervals along the mountainside trail. We had switched condos since it was just Chris and I at this point and didn't need a three bedroom condo, and since we were at a bit lower elevation at this point, the trail run up the mountain to get to the running trails was about 2 miles now, at a fairly steep grade. But it was worth it once we got up there. Interval work on this trail was so much fun!! When we got back, we iced our legs in the mountain creek right outside the condo. Then we had a great, tasty dinner outdoors at the restaurant next door that overlooks the mountains.

Day 6- Headed home

We finished up our last day with a morning outdoor swim and drive back to the airport. We can't wait to go back, and already have plans for another training camp next summer, if anyone wants to join us!!

Next on the schedule is Ironman Lake Placid, this Sunday July 28th!

Eagleman 70.3 Race Recap

This was my 5th year in a row racing Eagleman- my favorite race of the year! While I didn't PR or bring home a giant eagle trophy, I dug fairly deep for a 7th place finish and will consider it a success. The highlight of the day for me was sharing it with so many people I love. My parents traveled from Long Island to cheer me on (and had to stay about 40 miles away due to lack of availability of hotels), Chris was there and biked all over the run course to cheer for me, my close friends Doria and Maureen were also racing- along with a host of other wonderful friends and training partners, including my best swim buddy, Tommy, and so many others! Every trip out to Cambridge is a special experience that I look forward to each year, especially staying with our wonderful homestay hosts Cindy and Judi (who have graciously hosted us four times now). The race is pretty much the sprinkles on the ice cream sundae.

The week leading up to the race had been exceptionally busy and stressful. In addition, the normal 1-hour 40 min drive out to Cambridge took a very painful 5.5 hours. We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived. Saturday we had a pretty chill day. As Doria noted, it didn't even feel like a race weekend- we were just having such a great time! I swam the course with Tommy, then did a short 20-min ride to make sure my bike was functioning properly. We then went out to eat at my FAVORITE Cambridge restaurant- Mantra (which even serves sushi, my favorite pre-race food)- both the view and the food are amazing!

RACE

I knew this race would have a huge pro field (25 pro women signed up) and some stiff competition. I prefer not to look at the race start list before races- works better for me as I don't start to subconsciously come to conclusions about how well (or not well) I might do-- but it's kind of hard when they send you a welcome email with a list of who is racing :-)

I did my usual pre-race routine- warming up on the trainer, etc.- with help from Chris who managed to somehow sneak into transition!!! I guess he had that look about him and the transition guards assumed he was racing?

The swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy! I had a good start and managed to stay on some feet, but unfortunately I lost them about 2/3 of the way through.

Heading out onto the bike, I felt pretty lackluster and my stomach felt really sour until mile 20ish. Throughout the ride, I just could not get my watts up to where they should have been -- though my bike time ended up being only 30 seconds slower than last year with drastically different watts- wondering if it was actually an issue with my power meter? At about mile 20, I saw my friend Beth up ahead and decided to use this as motivation to pick up the pace! Just as happened at NOLA 70.3, she and I traded places for the second half of the bike. I started having adductor cramps about midway which were pretty unpleasant and required pedaling for a couple minutes, then standing to stretch my adductors. It was such a blessing to have Beth out there for motivation. I know she is a strong cyclist and it helped to have the reassurance that even though my watts were looking crazy, I was still probably having a good ride if I could keep her in sight.

Transition basically became a huge mud pit, so running my bike in felt like I was doing the Tough Mudder rather than a triathlon. My feet were completely caked in mud when I went to put my shoes and socks on.

One thing triathlon truly reminds me of each and every race is how much we are NOT in control of. Though this should always be the case, racing in particular reminds me how much I truly need to rely on God. This should be the case just as much during other activities as well, but when I'm racing, I tend to focus on God and his power. Anything can happen during a race- a flat, sickness, a crash, etc. During the run, I tried to think of 2 attributes of God for every mile of the run- starting with each letter of the alphabet. Mile 1 was A and B, etc. It definitely gave me something better to focus on than how painful the run was! However, I did get kind of stuck when I got to about Q :-) 

The run was a nice consistent effort- the first and second half were right about the same pace- though of course, as is always to be expected at Eagleman, the run was hot and humid (honestly, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't!) I started the run in probably 11th place and ran to 7th. There were some fast ladies chasing me down so I knew I couldn't slack off! I paid attention to my salt intake, taking about 10 or so salt pills throughout the run. I felt totally spent at the line and know I put in a good effort.

Many thanks to Fast Forward Triathlon, Inside Out Sports, CompuTrainer, First Endurance, Cervelo, Skin Sake, Rudy Project, and TrainingPeaks for the amazing support and fantastic products that make it possible for me to train and race as a pro.

I'm looking forward to gearing up for & racing my last BIG race before our wedding-- Ironman Lake Placid-- in July!

Today's Mountain Biking Adventure

This post should really be a race report of New Orleans 70.3 (which is coming soon), but instead I'm going to recap today's mountain biking adventure.

I use the term mountain biking loosely, as we were really just riding up and down the C&O canal towpath on mountain bikes. While we frequently run on the towpath, we don't bike it very often but today reminded me that I need to do this more, especially at these perfect times of year when its just beautiful. Today was the perfect day for it- overcast with a slight intermittent drizzle, which means that not a lot of people would be out riding, running, or hiking. As a result, all of the animals were out! We saw baby geese, deer, blue herons, and ducks.  Of course, this also meant it would be a very wet, muddy ride.

Within the first 3 miles we passed by several families of geese. The babies were so tiny, and would scurry into the grass at the side of the canal as we came riding by, while both parents would simultaneously hiss at us. Most of the families had just 3-5 chicks, but one family had about 12!! Chris got a video of them as we rode by:

We then explored a fun side trail that was beautiful, though ultimately pretty short.

I think we hit the canal at peak bloom for the flowers. They were amazing! And everything was so green and the air smelled like spring.

I think we were out there about 2.5 hours and it went by in a flash. It was one of the most fun rides I've had in awhile (probably since last riding SkyMass!)

I still have not been able to get all the specks of mud out of my eyes... always the sign of a good ride!!