Ironman Camp Day 2

Before I cover all the days details I've got to give a little background. Before signing up for IM CDA last June I came up to watch my friend Carole do her first IM and ride and swim on the course.

Going into the ride last year I was in 1/2 Ironman shape and I rode 1 - 56 mile loop in 3:33 feeling pretty good so for me this weekend was really all about today's ride because they had changed the bike course over the winter.

Got all showered last night and headed to bed about 11pm. Slept really well and got up around 5:50am for the long day ahead :)

Got sunscreened, dressed, filled my bottles and ate a banana before heading to the group breakfast. Unfortunately the restaurant wasn't prepared for 40 triathletes so it took a little while to get us all fed. I had my usual bagel with PB & J and a few sips of coffee and water.

My awesome group headed out at 7:15am with Issac our ride leader from the local bike shop Vertical Earth.

We started by riding nearly 10 miles into CDA on the Centennial Trail (which is GOREGEOUS!!!). Once we arrived at City Park I took note of our time and away we went for our IM Course loop.

We went pretty slow through town pointing out various landmarks to our group members from out of town, once across Sherman I totally spaced the course and since I was riding at the front of the group I ended up going about 2 miles off course. Steve Katai (who you might remember as the winner of the Everyman to Ironman contest a few years ago) was riding with our group so he came and redirected me. We rode together for a while out towards Higgens Point until we got to the climb where we came upon the slowest rider in our group who had dropped back. Steve hung back with him and I continued up the climb to catch the rest of the group. Not much has changed on this section although I felt really good and was keeping my cadence high. Turned around at the point and headed back to town for the new part of the course.

Once back in town we headed up Northwest Blvd through the residential area onto Government Way. This was a good relatively flat, fast part of the course and will be great for spectating. After heading past all the businesses on Government Way we turned on Kathleen and again great road surfact, pretty easy spinning and mostly residential.

It wasn't too long before we start heading up the mountains. I won't really recall all the roads but we started up the hills and OMG these are some hills.

This course is so breathtakingly beautiful. We were riding through pine forests with Hayden Lake on our right and the most spectacular views. The first 2 climbs were medium length and steady with super fast technical descents including hard rights where I definitely had to get out of the aerobars to avoid crashing. EEEEKKKORAMA!!!!!!

I was riding at the front of our group 95% of the time except on the steepest climbs where most would catch me and then I'd pass them on the descents. I seriously cannot say enough about the views and the scenery. It was too die for. Almost made the hills worth it.

Notice I said *almost*.

To Be Continued (Nap-o-rama time is over and I need to get back to Camp)

I wasn't paying close enough attention for turn by turn detail but I can tell you a few key observations I had:

There are a lot of hills. Not rollers but hills. For the middle 20 miles it's all up and down, up and down. None of the hills were worse than anything I train on at home but there were a lot more of them (18 in all).

Descending and cornering is key here. I'm not a fast climber, in fact I was the slowest climber in my group but weight is a benefit to me on the descents and I flew down them. Issac, our ride leader who's 6'6 and I rode down the hills together and I was able to keep up with him for the most part :) I lost a good amount of speed braking into the corners and not gearing well enough from the bottom of the hills so I can definitely improve on that.

Pacing yourself up each hill will be invaluable. 75% of the hills are straight so you climb to the top and as you descend you can see the long hill that starts at the bottom. Using the speed you build up on the descent and again gearing properly will help save time and effort.

The hills ended around mile 40 and we headed back down a relatively flat fast stretch near the high school and then before you knew it I was back on Government Way headed for the home stretch.

My legs overall felt pretty good and I could probably have done a 2nd loop (if forced) albeit a lot slower.

56 miles
3:44
15 MPH Average Speed
41 MPH Max Speed

After finishing the loop we headed back to the trail and to a 25 minute transition run. My legs felt good but dang it was a lot hotter than the rest of the day.

I have to say even though this course is tougher, it's so beautiful and peaceful and challenging that it will be awesome to say I finished IM CDA.

After a shower and some lunch with Paul and Michael Lovato (both so super nice!), I checked in on my message boards and tried out some of the cool new Newton Running shoes.

Tapering and swimming discussion followed while people chowed down on bars, Gatorade and generally relaxed after a tough day.

Triathletes are just such cool people that it's so fun to be here with everyone, make friends, swap stories and mingle with such a wealth of knowledge of this great sport.

After a busy day I'm feeling good. I was right where I wanted to be today, my nutrition was dialed in, I ate and drank well and I felt like I could have at least started on a 2nd loop. Mastering the gearing and the descending will help me immensely over the next 5 weeks of training and I'm looking forward to heading out here Memorial Day weekend to give the course another look.

So now I'm off to get my run stuff prepared and a few things packed for tomorrow. I'll have to summarize Day 3 in a short post before I hit the road so I'll end tonight by saying Ironman Camp is awesome. I'm having a blast, learning a lot and most importantly feeling confident about where I am and where I need to be.

8 weeks from tomorrow, I'll be in the water of Lake Coeur d'Alene :)