Finger Lakes Tri Camp & Race week AGAIN!

“You will never know your limits unless you push yourself to them”

Wow, I can’t believe it’s almost time to race again! Where has time gone – I’ll get to that in a second, first let me start with the Finger Lakes Triathlon Camp!

Last week I had the pleasure of partaking in some of the sessions in the first Finger Lakes Triathlon Camp – it also happened to be my biggest week of training ever! I wasn’t able to do everything – some of us still had to work (me!) but it was so awesome to have people to train with for a few days. They did some awesome workouts, including some swim analysis and a bike VO2 Max test.

I was able to join in the run workout – our local running club puts on monthly track meets – which was the big speed workout of the week. It was a slight last minute decision for my training but after some pre race nerves, it was worth it. I was to run the 3k and then about an hour later jump on a 4*8 team with Doug, Matt Curbeau and Damon (one of the campers). Doug and Matt were coaching the camp.

I won’t lie, I was a little intimidated by the 3k as it was one of my favorite events in college (probably one of my best) and to be honest – I was training for an Ironman. So I tried to relax and just come up with a plan – just take it one lap at a time and to not settle – I mean it was less than two miles. My other fear, some HS kid was going to crush me. Needless to say, I ran a lot faster than I seeded myself and I had quite a bit of fun. No top end speed, but I didn’t expect it to be there. I ended up being the first female and ran 11:03 for a 3k. Not too shabby if I say so myself. After some slogging to keep moving, a little down time to cheer the other campers, locals and kids, it was time to warm up again for the 4*800. Now, I haven’t ran the 800 since I was a freshman in college (I think). I was a little excited. After Matt led off (with a GREAT 400 leg ;)) it was my turn to go. I could hear some kid breathing down my neck and got a little competitive. One lap done – easy enough, a hard 200 and then close. I ended up running a 2:40. I’ll take that AND I held that kid off. We ended up second in the race. It was SO fun to do a track meet and I was happy to share the experience of a track meet with the camp as most of them had never competed in one before.

How I was feeling about racing a 3k (on my warm up)

Finishing it up

It was a long 100m.

After the meet it was time to head back and rest up for a hard swim the next day. Now, I had a great day the day before – obviously the track meet, but in the AM I had a great bike workout. I was really looking forward to having a good swim. However, my body wasn’t on the same page. I had to get out several times to rest before the next interval (supposed to for the workout if we couldn’t hit the goal). I tried to shake it off the poor swim workout and headed to work after I got pulled from the workout (or pulled myself?).

The next day (Saturday) was my next session with the camp, I was SO excited (all week I knew about the schedule – perks of dating the camp director). We were riding around the lake!!!! I’ve wanted to do this for SO LONG! We started off and maybe I was a little excited (I was still in zone) but I somehow lost all my riding partners. So I did my own thing and just focused on what I could control – mostly – drink, drink and drink some more. A few of Doug’s friends were in town and it was fun to hang out with them too. Beth and Tim rode by and then I was solo until about 2 hours into the ride where Doug and Matt came to fill bottles. This is also about the point when I realized how great I felt, how fast I was riding, how awesome the day was and then it hip me – that there nice was a tailwind. CRAP. I knew what that meant. I tried to stay positive and loving what I was doing, but there was a pretty dark time between Aurora and King’s ferry. I was not happy, there were no trees to block the wind, I was running out of water, I had to pee and I was alone. Not my happiest moment but I had to choice but to keep chugging along alone (well I had a choice, but I didn’t need to call a ride and be upset with myself for quitting). I ran out of water, I got nervous, I wondered if I was going the right way (again- solo, had never gone before but I knew how to get to ithaca). Then magically – Doug drove by! I was SO thankful. I had been 6 minutes with out water. Yes – I timed it because it would explain the run or the end of the ride. I was still in a bit of a dark spot when he pulled up, but we filled all my bottles – just in case – and I asked for a coke (never in my 27 years had I craved a coke.. ). It helped a lot. I regained focus and I was back in the groove to Ithaca and back out to Taughannock State Park for out TRun. Got off the bike (somewhat frustrated as I didn’t know where people were) and my HR wasn’t cooperating.. I was dehydrated on a windy, cool, cloudy day. It just reaffirmed what Doug wants me to drink, so I must be better about that.

As it was July 4th, the park was PACKED which just made me slightly annoyed. Tourists – you don’t need to take up the whole trail. I tried to keep my composure and I also waited to take a gel too long and started to get off. Slurped that down fast. The second part of my run I had company with Kamden and I hoped she would help me stay in control so we ran together. Unfortunately, I made her run too fast, but we got a pretty picture 🙂

Photo cred: Kamden/random dude

Sunday started off with an OWS. I’m pretty sure I hit every emotion during this swim. “Oooh the water is cold (64)..”, “hmm it’s not that bad..”, “ohh where did those waves come from …”, “yeah they can go away now”, “hahahahahhaha..” as I’m side stroking from frustration.. “ooh.. here are the tears of frustration (thanks goggles)..”, “I’m gunna kill this next swim start..”, “is it time to get out and run..”, “I really want to run..”, “My chest is so tight.. is it the cold water or frustration..”. Needless to say, I was really happy to be done.

Onto the run! Oh. I love running. We went out and took the campers on my FAVORITE roads in Ithaca. Up Gunderman, Left on Comfort, Right on Bald Hill (Hello – dirt roads and rolling hills), Left on Michigan Hollow and back to the start. Run was uneventful. I was just happy to be out there, there’s nothing like a good long run. This was the last training session and most of the group headed out afterwords. A few of us ended the week by heading to the brewery. It was a good way to finish off the weekend (prior to the 3+ hours I spent cleaning to get a jump start on the recovery week).

Out on my favorite road #keepingitreal #dontjudgemyformIwastired

If you’re thinking about a beautiful, fun, tough, challenging triathlon camp, I definitely would recommend the Finger Lakes Triathlon Camp. From the tough challenging workouts, to the informative speakers, to being able to use facilities at SUNY Cortland, Ithaca College, Cayuga Medical Center AND to be able to train in rolling, beautiful, gorges, wide shoulders and nice people, come join us next year! #ithacaisgorges #ilovewaterfalls

Aaaaaand that brings us to the recovery/race week. Well swimming still is sluggish – I finally started to feel a little normal yesterday. Biking has been ok, today I couldn’t get my HR up which was frustrating. Running has been ok. I’m just exhausted and praying the body turns around prior to this weekend. I’m trusting the training and the process that I’ll still have something in my body for sunday even if it doesn’t feel ‘perfect’. I’m looking forward to racing again – I’m doing a 70.3 in Geneva NY called Musselman. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about the race so I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s all about! 🙂

My hardware from IMCuse 70.3 finally arrived! Pretty proud of this guy! 🙂