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April 10, 2006

Training Weekend Recap & Thank You

WOW...I can't believe race day is in 27 days. This past weekend we all went down to Lake San Antonio for training weekend. If I haven't already told you Lake San Antonio is a campground so there are no nice comfy warm hotels to stay in. Those are about an hour or so away :o( We headed out on Friday around 12pm and go to Lake San Antonio around 4. Of course it had been such a nice day and as soon as we hit the campground it started to rain...urrgghhh. We had to scramble to put up all our camping gear before there was a down pour. It only rained for a few hours but it was freezing cold all night. I am not much of a camper so being comfortable and getting a good nights rest isn't something that usually happens. I also hadn't slept much on Thursday night because the anxiety of training weekend starting hitting me. Here is how the training weekend went. Oh and it did clear up for us on Saturday and Sunday which was great. It turned out to be perfect training weather.

Saturday Swim
The Olympic Distance group swim started at 10am. Cathy, Natalie and I headed down there a little early to listen to the clinic for those of us who felt a little nervous or needed extra help. Before we left the camp site we made sure to get all our bike gear gathered up which also meant getting tires pumped. I was helping Cathy get air in her tire and broke off the stem :o( that was not good, it meant we needed to change her tire. We decided to head down to the swim clinic and do it there. By the time we got there the clinic was almost done (I think they started early because we weren't late) and the people in that group were getting ready to go on their swim. So we fixed the tire and then got ready so that we'd just swim with our group. Got the wetsuits on and in the water we went around 10:15. The water was freezing and it took me a really long time to get used to it. I really need to work on this because if it's this cold on race day there is no way I can spend 10 minutes trying to get used to the cold water. I need to just get in and get going. My swim back was much better and I was able to get a good swim in without really stopping. I think I stopped once or twice and that was mainly because I was swimming crooked :o( and needed to get back on course.

Saturday Bike
From the water we headed back to the car and got all our bike gear. I got to try out my new tri outfit so there was no need to change out of a swim suit. I just needed to get my socks, shoes, helmet and gloves although somehow I still managed to take my time. We took off on our bikes for a 25 mile bike ride. As soon as you leave the trasition area you climb a very steep hill to get out of the campground. I managed to get through it and ge the heck out of there. Thank god for Power Gels :o) is what I thought til I got to mile 15. There are quite a few hills on the bike course although Lynch Hill (the hill coming out of transition) is the worst. I felt pretty good by the time I made it to the turnaround at 12.5 miles. This feeling good didn't last very long though. When I got to mile 14.5 I started feeling pretty icky, kind of light headed and felt like I was going to throw up :o( I stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath for a few minutes and then I started off again. It wasn't long before I had to stop again :o( and get a ride back from the SAG vehicle. I was pretty sad about that. I was able to get 15 miles in before feeling sick. I've had this feeling before during a marathon and new right away that it was the new gels I tried. The new gels added to the lack of sleep, dehydration and bad eating on Thursday I think contributed to why I wasn't feeling good. Oh and of course it had warmed up on Saturday. Note to self....no more trying out new gels. I will stick to my Power Gels. Glad I tried the new ones now and not on race day.

Sunday Run
Sunday we did the run course, it was 6.2 miles. I had a GREAT run and was pretty happy with my time. I ran with another mentor, Anthea, we chit chatted, powered through those darn hills and finished happy and strong. It was a great come back from the bad bike ride on Saturday.

The rest of the time was spent getting to know our other teammates. We even got invited to party with the Iron Team on Saturday night. It was a fun weekend but it was also a hard training weekend. It gave us an idea of what areas we need to work harder at. For me it will be the swim and bike. I also need to go back to watching what I eat because I've been a bad girl and eating all the stuff that is yummy but not always good for me :o( and I know my body, in the end it all affects me on race day. My 8 hours of sleep will also be very important although I see no problem with that...hee, hee.


All of my mentees did an awesome job as well. WAY TO GO TEAM!!! Brenda, Natalie, Cathy & Helen...you guys ROCKED!!!

Rocky, Olivia and Phil THANK YOU
The fact that I have some amazing friends and BF is no secret. All of my friends have always been very supportive during my training and on event weekend no matter what race I do and where it's at. Olivia has only missed one of my races so far. There is no way that I can do it without them. That is what get's me to the finish line. That is what got me to the darn turnaround on the bike course on Saturday. Rocky, Olivia and Phil took time off of work on Friday to come to training weekend with us and volunteer for the water stops. They did an awesome job and everyone loved them. Phil isn't much of a camper, acutally not a camper at all, but he was such a good sport and came out anyway. It think he had a good time and we might be able to convince him to camp with us again. Olivia of course already knew a lot of the people and is a pro at this and Rocky also stuck it out considering he was sick. He did have to come home a day early but I think he manged to have a good time on Friday night getting to know everyone and mingling with those on the team he is already friends with. THANK YOU so much for being there you guys are the best. I can't wait til race weekend.

water stop volunteers hard at work :o)

3 comments:

Phil said...

Great training work Cappy! Camping was so much better than I anticipated. Thanks for having me and can't wait for the next trip!

Rock said...

You did an awesome job out there! We got tired just DRIVING through that hilly terrain!

Natalie said...

Like the Iron Team said (sang), If we can make it there we can make it ANYWHERE! We can and we will!