Got The "F" Outa Town!!!

I was supposed to head down to DC this past weekend, until I got a call from a recently minted Ironman, who explained to me that it would be 100 degrees all weekend, and that it would be no fun to train in.

Agreed.

And staying put in good ole not awesome White Plains would be not nearly as hot, but still in the "this is not fun" category of hot.

DC Weather:

White Plains Weather:

Without realizing I was saying this, I said, "Let's go to Lake Placid!"

Then I checked the weather:

And that only just confirmed it.

On the drive up to Placid, suddenly twitter exploded with "THE END OF WORLD IS UPON US!!!!" DC got SLAMMED with a huge storm, and people to this day are still without power. Gross. Also, Skyline was unsafe to ride due to forest fires and bad air quality. Even grosser.

Something was telling us to escape to Placid!

And OMG are we lucky we did! The weather was PERFECT. Dry conditions. Not too hot. Mirror Lake was chilly (I only remember it as a bathtub last time I swam in it) and the ice cream was just as good :)

We stayed at the Golden Arrow with a room overlooking all of Mirror Lake. It was so great!

Sunrise day 1

sunrise day 2

First thing Saturday morning we did the entire out and back of the lake, 1.6 miles, in about 41 mins. I showed Beth how to "cheat" while swimming, aka, just swimming along the buoy line of Mirror Lake

You can tell who the "real" swimmer is (*hint, its NOT me!*)

Then we hopped onto the bikes, and rode! Since Beth just did CDA not even a week before, this was her self described "Lake Placid Recovery Camp."

She just did one loop of the course minus the out and backs while I did two loops minus the out and backs but with an out and back of the run course for a total of 90 miles in 5 hours flat. Learned that I need to learn how to pace myself better on these long rides again. I have forgotten how!

I learned from this ride that my body is really really good at going fast for about 2.5 hours, then it dies, telling me, "I only ride fast for 2.5 hours. WTF is this riding longer than 2.5 hour thing? I want to run now!"

Also going on this weekend was a horse show, skating show, AND! mini BBQ fest. Dinner was an easy choice.

Sunday was just a 2 hour run, but even though it wasn't temperature hot, the sun was already out full blaze. I did a long out and back of the run course, but with 30 mins left, and at the corner of River Road and 73, I was completely out of water and not going to make it back. Fortunately there was a guy there running a tri camp, Tri Training Camp of Lake Placid, with a fully stocked jeep with Infiit and cold cold cold water. Thank you sir for helping me out!!!! You saved my day!!!

Beth also came out and kept me company for a bit of the run while she biked the run course to see what it looked like. She successfully held the aero position @ 3 mph.

After a yummy lunch we set off for a 2 hour hike. Nothing like doing another 4.5 miles of hiking after an almost 14 mile run.

After some soft serve ice cream, we cooled our legs down with a quick spin of the legs on the paddle boat. Yes, Beth was able to preview the entire Lake Placid course by biking the bike, run AND swim courses! haha!

She pedaled. I steered

Our hotel

I was STARVING again by the time we finished "biking" the swim course, so we hit up Milano's and then one final ice cream stop @ Ben & Jerry's.

I was passed out by 9PM. Urf! Ironman training is going to kick my butt this time, again!

What an awesome weekend it was! Got in some great training in some great weather with some great company.

I am looking forward to my "recovery camp" in about 8 weeks when I am done for the season.

You can read about Beth's Ironman swim, bike, and run legs on her blog.