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12/18/2008 Snow & Back to BasicsI received a well needed phone call recently from a good friend/triathlon coach/mentor. IMJ put is simply for me this month...No Zeros. Sound familiar? It is back to basics to give me a solid foundation coming into the new year. This is more difficult than it sounds when I see other peers putting in sizeable volume already and testing already. Good practice for me to focus on me and my enjoyment, not the inevitable comparison complex of us Type A folks.
To top it off, we've got snow and below freezing temps to add to the mix. Yesterday's run though was fun and with my new digs, I'm able to walk to the University to swim. Pretty cool to walk up there on Sunday with no human being in sight. I just stopped and watched the snow fall and feel the wind blow. Pretty powerful to just sit there and observe nature doing its thing. 12/5/2008 I'm BackI'll save the details for another time. This year I posted my fastest Ironman time to date at Coeur d'Alene in late June. I followed by attempting Ironman Canada on 2 months later. Done with the intent of having no pressure while experimenting with things and as personal therapy it was a nightmare of a day that I'm not sure I'll ever quite fully understand. Nor do I believe I want to. It was a mental blow up of tsunami proportions.
Since the end of August I've maintained a regular running schedule and even ran the Belligham Bay 1/2 marathon a couple weeks after IMC on 4 runs. Today marked my 2nd swim since the end of August...yep you read that correctly. And I've maybe been on the bike a half dozen times.
So decision making time has come. Do I pad the added layers I've accumulated to my mid section or do we begin the trek towards IMCDA.
Easy decision.
Getting back into shape...not as easy.
Completely unrelated, but I love the following Mark Twain quote:
Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head. -- Mark Twain 6/30/2008 If I can walk by WednesdayWhat are you doing here with your stuff?
This and other similar questions greeted me at this past Sunday's Lake Padden triathlon as I entered transition.
Didn't you just race Ironman Couer d'Alene on Sunday?
Several weeks before IMCDA, I was on a ride with Erik DeRoche and Jeff Nyman. I made the comment that the only bad thing about racing CDA is that I'd have to miss the Lake Padden triathlon the following week. Erik then mentioned that he had a phenomenal shorter course race the week after an Ironman race once. That's all I needed to hear.
For those of you who don't know, Lake Padden is a great event with two distances...neither a true Sprint or Olympic distance, but just a fun well run deal. I signed up for the competitive race featuring a 1/2 mile swim, 21 mile hilly bike, and 5.2 miles on the groomed trail around the lake.
I told myself that if I could walk on Wednesday that I would race. So Saturday morning I strolled into transition still complete with Ironman stickers on my bike from Sunday.
It was great. I was relaxed, happy, and just enjoying the great weather that we were being blessed with.
A quick synopsis:
I entered the water in the first (seed yourself) wave because I wanted a good assessment of where I was from the beginning. With approximately 50 people per wave and being one of the slower swimmers in this wave, I found myself cruising comfortably without any interference from other neoprene clad competitors. What a nice change after last week's slugfest.
On to the bike you immediately encounter a longer grade probably around 4% and although my legs didn't hurt, I had to smile at the fact that there was very little life left in these sausages. I did what I could with what I had to work with, but generally felt alright with a slight twinge in the left calf coming into T2.
The run was my concern. I promised myself that if I felt anything "wrong" I would just quit. Easier said than done...I don't like quitting. The calf made it aware to my nervious system that it didn't like what I was doing and felt like it was borderline going to pull. I pressed on swearing at my "promise" to myself. Fortunately, I didn't have to lie to myself as it release about a half mile in and I began trudging along.
This is a two loop course and as I came through the first loop, the editors of Adventures NW magazine that recently published my first article yelled at me that Marti was just ahead. Marti is a local stud female athlete and became the carrot (cake) dangling in front of me. I told myself to practice race tactics and work myself up to her shoulder. This took me just over 1/2 the 2nd lap. As I neared her, I passed Kristy Youtsey on her first lap and knew that if she saw me she would yell out "Way to go Hack" or something of the sort. I didn't want Marti to know I was there (the grunting, groaning, and spitting may have tipped her off, but I thought I was being so stealth.), so as I went by Kristy I put my finger to my lips to let her know not to say anything.
Wherever Marti went on the path, I went directly behind her. She has a strong kick and I knew I had to pick my time well or this would be short lived. I have a hard time being patient so this was like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting the sun to come up. Marti looked back and I knew it was now or never. I just ran with what I had and finished strong.
My time was similar to last year on fresh legs (although last year involved a flat), but I was happy with the race. I really enjoyed being out there which is apparent by the big smile on my face coming down the finishing chute.
Yes, Hackney doesn't always race angry. I let smiles creep out every so often!
 Final time 1:53
27th OA
6th AG
6/26/2008 CDA Race ReportIronman CDA Race Report (Long w/Pictures) Arrived in CDA on Wednesday late afternoon. I rented out the same house I did in ’06 and this year was fortunate enough to share it with several of my Counterpart Coaching family members. Kevin (racing) & Kristen Stow (support phenom) – Chicago, IL Scott Greene – Seattle Mitch Gold – Yucca Valley, CA
Other CpC friends and family
Thursday morning we ventured down to the swim start armed with neoprene hoods and booties. Five strokes later we all bobbed up and with all joking aside didn’t think we could pull this off. It was piercing cold that just left your face and hands stinging intensely. We swam to the first bouy, still painful. By the 2nd buoy exposed skin began to numb so we managed about 20 minutes in the water. Left the water feeling somewhat encouraged that we knew we’d eventually numb up, but still skeptical about 2.4 miles of this. Later in the day Kevin Stow and I did a little recon on our bikes through a good chunk of the tougher course areas. Thursday night was our CpC BBQ which brought about 25 of us together from all over which is always a treat.
Friday morning I skipped swimming and opted to go to the coffee shop. We later rode easily out to the first turn around passing Desiree “Look at my Killer Abs” Ficker on her run. Most of the remainder of the day was off our feet lounging at the house.
Saturday was another adventure to the swim start. But I was happily greeted by warmer temps. Mitch did some last minute tuning on the bike before heading down to check everything in. The whole CpC family was there…pretty cool.
Race Morning: 3:45 a.m. alarm and the attempt to get 700-800 calories into this frame. Just after 5, Kristen drove us down to the race start for the normal parade through body marking, bags, tire pumping, and nervous laughter.
Swim: Around 2200 athletes shuffled down the walkway and onto the beach. It appeared to me like they spread us out more horizontally across the beach than normal. I lined up right in line with the buoys so I could go inside them for clean water. A minute before the gun went off I noticed my HR monitor was acting up, but nothing I could do but dive in as the cannon went off.
Let the melee begin. It was no where close to as cold as I thought it might be, but in short I have never been beat up that much on dry land, let alone horizontally in the water!! This continued for the entire first lap as I got kicked square in the chest, punched in the head, and kicked in the jaw. The groping and feeling were enough to make any mother blush, but so goes Ironman.
With my 4k time trials being in the 1:08-1:12 range, I was horribly shocked to hit the beach with a 1:22 showing on the clock. No panic though and just continued through transition and onto the bike.
Bike: It became apparent that I was the last CpCer out of the water. Not good for the ego, but I just started executing the game plan. Heart rate monitor was still registering on the bike, but that was it. I did a good job of getting it back down into the normal range for me and just cruised through town.
About an hour in I lost all watch functions and had to resort to old school Perceived Effort. This didn’t worry me on the bike though. I felt strong and executed as Mitch and I had discussed. Mitch had said that if I executed properly I would pass a lot of people starting around mile 75. He was right and it was funny to see guys with aero helmets and disk wheels sitting up on their pads struggling as I stayed aero. I knew I was making up a lot of ground on some of my comrades and as I came into T2 it was nearly deserted except for my best mate, Aussie Drew.
5:51 I believe with a 19mph average. Solid effort for me on this course.
(Side note: Aussie Drew is faster than me on paper and likes to talk. So he spotted me 45 minutes and loser was buying the other a lot of post race beer.)
Very rewarding to come out together onto the course. I wanted to run with him, but I know he’s a much stronger runner than I am and with no data to go off of, I just held back and kept him in sight. Some of our support crew was getting a kick out of how close I was and was wildly cheering me on in pursuit of my beer trophy.
Run: I felt great, but trusting myself this late in the game with no heart rate or splits took a lot out of me mentally. To see so many of us racing on the course (I believe there were a dozen of us racing together) was an unbelieveable experience.
I got HUNGRY. Calories were solid, but since I’m all liquid nutrition your belly still wants substance, so I dove into the pretzels and even took a couple cookies.
Passing the dreaded tree that I crumbled beneath in 2006 signaled the damn monkey jumping off my back and into the lake. That was a horrible experience and one I couldn’t help but smile about as I ran past.
I ran the aid stations and based on the distance from those that I knew, I was maintaining the same pace. What that pace was…who knows! Around mile 12 things got a little dark for me in terms of needing some sort of pick me up. At Special Needs I knew I had a Red Bull and some Pringles so that pushed me along.
Coming back into the final stretch I reminded myself to enjoy the final stretch down the main street in CDA. I typically forget to do this, but this time I slowed the pace and took it all in. Hard to put in all that training, see and hear all those people, and not get a little choked up. At first I thought I saw an 11:13 on the board and was happy with that effort. A change in the sun reflection showed the reality of an 11:32.
This was a personal best that I’m proud of. Things are never quite as cut and dry at the end of the day as they were on paper leading into the race, but other than the DNF I’ve never not PRd at this distance. This is a big change from my first attempt in 2004.
Oh yeah…12 minutes behind my Aussie mate and there were a lot of beers thrown down at his expense the following 2 days!!!
6/25/2008 Quick DebriefBack in Bellingham following Sunday's Ironman Couer d'Alene.
In a nutshell until I have time to write up an offical race report:
Slow swim (see above), but allowed me to pass somewhere in the range of 800 people on the bike course. Executed the bike as well as I think I could have. Ran alright...not great, but alright. Personal best time: 11:32 Yeeeaaaa BAAAABEEEE 6/15/2008 UnoOne week.
In fact, one week from right now I should be not too far out of transition and on the hoochie riding the beginning miles of the bike course.
Weather and temperatures are the bubbling topic lately. Who knows and it's out of our control anyway. Sure we all want our ideal conditions (which change a bit depending on where you are geographically located). Rains and cold water temps wouldn't be ideal but whatever...it is what it is.
The hay is in the barn as a old saying goes.
Right now sleep is on my agenda and I seem to be needing lots of it. I think it a combination of a busy work schedule right now and allergies hitting hard this past week. The cottonwood starts it's summer snow fall and my system goes on shut down feeling like I'm always barely awake and the eyes itch like mosquito bites. It's all good though cuz it's nearly time to rock and roll.
Doesn't look like people can get text message tracking during the day, but you can get individual coverage of the athletes on www.ironmanlive.com
6/11/2008 Celebration TimeThe usual mixed bag of emotions always come with "The Taper." You can be postal one moment, euphoric the next, and somewhere in between you worry. But so many, author included, tend to place so much emphasis on The Race. Easy to do, especially with Ironman as you typically train 6, 8, 10 months to race once or maybe twice in a season. But race day really boils down to a celebration. Yes Kona spots, personal records, and penis measuring are on the line, but when you sit back and realize what it takes to get to the sandy starting line healthy and fit enough to tackle a race of this stature, you realize that this is a hell of a way to Celebrate.
This is a celebration of our journey, along with those the have supported and endured our long hours in the saddle, chlorine induced snoring, and epic grocery bills. This race will be fun because the nature of the course design makes it not only spectator friendly, but athlete friendly. With such a large CpC contingent out there on race day it will be nice to see each other throughout the day, especially when it matters...on the run.
Think warm water cuz that's about all it's going to be is a thought! Water temps right now have it below the mid 50s which is chilly to say the least.
Sunday the 22nd is what we do this all for. 5/27/2008 The little things26 days.
Jones had a great post today on the CpC forum that reminded me of taking care of the little things. Jones' CpC forum Post.
Was reminded of some mental stuff from Burke's blog as well. I've fallen victim of letting other things cloud my mental race prep. Can't have that if I'm going to have my best Ironman ever on 6/22 Burke's Blog
dialing in the details... 5/18/2008 Camp TotalsHere's what I had from Thursday, May 8-17th of training volume approximately:
Bike: 494 miles 28 hours
Run: 48 miles, 6:58
Swim: 17.5k, 7 hours
Lots of elevation, heat, wind, H20, and FOOD! Many ThanksIf you've read my blog before, I'm always interested in the group dynamics of each training camp, the different personalities, and how it all comes together.
This was a very well rounded group of solid athletes. I was definitely pushed to become stronger because who was here.
Hard to believe that 5 weeks from right now we should have wrapped up our 2008 Ironman Couer d'Alene. You never feel completely ready, but I am looking forward to the timing of this training as it absorbs into my system for this final stretch of race prep.
Thanks again to everyone for pushing me through quitting points. You may not have even realized that you did, but you are all so incredibly talented it was fun to train with you.
It will be a CpC fest at Coeur d'Alene, with everyone (sans Knoxville Amy) there racing or supporting. What a wild ride that will be.
Attention to detail time. The clock is ticking down to the cannon.
Here we go....
CDA Camp Wrap UpFriday night up at Big Bear brought us home late with an early wake up so that we could ride Idyllwild and run before the temps got too tormenting. Mitch made a wonderful decision in allowing us to start from the fire station. We were all a bit frayed I think and the little bit of relief this brought the legs and bum were greatly appreciated.
The goal for each of us was a bit different on the day, but essentially worked out to be a 3-4 hour ride with anywhere from an hour to two hour run off the bike. As we made the little climb to Keen Summit (the "little" climb before entering Mountain Center and climbing to Idyllwild), Jeff, Scott, Mitch, and Shawn spit me a bit off the back and as we crested they were flying down the backside. Through Mountain Center, I could see the tail end of them two turns ahead, but then lost sight on the windy road.
As I entered Idyllwild, Mitch was headed back down the hill to escort the rest of the gang up. Through Idyllwild I continued climbing to Pine Cove by myself shaking out the mirage of a random person standing by the side of the road wanting to hand me a Coke. The climb to Pine Cove is no little roller either and was the site of last July's calorie deficient explosion as my rubber band snapped. I noticed nothing as I went through town and started the descent down the back side of the mountain.
As much as it felt good to descend, all I could think about was the fact that I had to climb back up to get back home. The turn around point was to be a little natural spring on the side of the road that is easy to miss and I had thought it was before a little lake. The further I descended the more anxious I got...had I missed it? I needed water to get back to Idyllwild. At the lake, I came upon a road worker with a stop sign. I asked if he had seen three other cyclists in front of me....he said no.
I proceeded to argue with him and begged him not to play games with me because I was sure those guys had set up a practical joke on me. He told me I was the only cyclist to come through. When I asked him where the natural spring was he indicated around the corner where the road was closed. I elaborated how I needed water in a bad way, and the guy was a rockstar, giving me full access to his water cooler. I quickly downed an entire bottle and filled two more for the not highly anticpated return trip.
A ways up the road I ran in to Linnea who told me those three yahoos had stopped in Pine Cove and were happily drinking coke and cold water! I never saw their bikes and was incredibly jealous that they did not have to do this last climb. A little ways further we ran into Mitch and Amy and proceeded back to Idyllwild for a Red Bull. I needed the Red Bull wings.
Mitch had pulled the van up to Lake Hemmit where we changed into our run gear. The ride was somewhere around 4 hours I believe and my mental muscles were screaming to just call it a day. I followed Mitch, Linnea, and Amy out on the run despite my best efforts to convince myself I had done enough. We ran a little loop and came back to the van around the 50 minute mark. Where Mitch thought is would be fun to climb back up to Keen Summit (remember the earlier portion of our ride?). I actually felt good running up there and we got to the top in about 15 minutes, leaving too much time to just turn around. So for kicks and giggles we then descended down into Mountain Center, grabbed some water, only to know have to run back uphill to get back to the van.
This was actually some of the best mental Ironman training I could have done because I was cooked...stick a fork in me, pull me out of the oven...I felt done, done, done. It was a mental battle that I am happy to report I won and will race CDA better for it.
Back at the park, everyone recounted their day and the tired smiles marked the conclusion of yet another fine week and a half of training camp.
Lunch before Waterman
5/16/2008 FridayIt's late and I'm a little shelled. Here's a quick rundown of the daily stats.
Ride: Big Bear
Distance: 107 miles (Knoxville Amy did a couple extra with a wrong turn...stud!)
Ride Time: 7 hours on the nose for me
Elevation gain: just shy of 12,000 vertical feet
Conditions: pretty damn hot and windy all day
More later though....
Ok, so when you are stupid tired these side by side headlines from this morning are fodder for a lot of bad and tasteless jokes.
Miller taking a photo of me taking photo of him at Onyx
The crew at Onyx before descending down to the Redlands, so that we could climb back up of course
Scott I think you're saddle is too low
Not too aero dynamic with elbows out
Burke..."Holy Crap we just rode from down there!!! and we're still not to the top! More PhotosMore photos of the past several days compliments of Jeff Miller:
Burke, Hack, Mitch
5/15/2008 ThursdaySo we changed training day plans this morning, postponing Idyllwild and leaving Island Jim to fret over it nervously in his sleep for another night or two.
 We did the three-fer back to back to back starting with a 5k swim. The swim set looked something like this:
300, 3x100, 6x50k, 6x50band, 6x50 free
2x(16 x 100 descending in sets of 4 by 5 seconds)
300 cooldown. We switched up the 2nd time through on how we organized the descending sets, but it made for one heck of a solid workout.
From the swimming pool we mounted our steeds and headed out to the Fish Hatchery out by Whitewater. You could tell the temps were heating up. As we got back onto the highway section, Linnea became our first casualty of camp. She's even a bit unsure exactly what happened but the end result was a superwoman flight over her handles bars onto the pavement. Nothing you ever want to see or have happen and thank goodness it's a wide shoulder to that highly trafficked road. I think I had just under 2:18 of ride time and around 38 miles.
At the van we changed and started off on our run. The mercury was ruthless and I thought my head would explode. We were supposed to run in the 50 minute to 1:10 range, but I think everyone was closer to the 40-50 minute mark. It was a good reminder to me that I've got to be smart at CDA with keeping my head and core body temp cool.
Come to find out, Palm Springs temps today broke the 102 mark.
 A Jamba Juice stop wrapped up the events before heading back to Yucca for pizza and a few beers.
Tomorrow and Saturday get interesting. Here is the plan right now.
Tomorrow: Drive to Big Bear and put in an epic ride of 6-7 hours in the mountains, then a visit to the local Sizzler.
Saturday: Ride to Idyllwild, return down part way to the valley section of the ride and wrap up camp with a 1.5-2 hour run.
 Jeff took some great pics today, that I'll try to steal from him later. Here are a couple I took early in the ride.
Jeff "I always have another gear" Miller and Scott "da Hammer" Greene
Shawn "the IronAnalyst" Burke & Island Jim Yano
Scott "the Wyoming terror" Bentzen 5/14/2008 Wedneday9 solid hours of sleep and some crazy dreams! The last one that I remember was trying to pay for gas at a convenience store and the enormous hilly billy owner/cashier set his 3 pitbulls lose on me. I was outside holding the doors closed with teeth bared and slobber ramming the other side trying to get to me. In one hand I called 911 and yelled "I can't hold on much longer" (sounds like riding Boxx Canyon). The cops came and left me to be a McDonald's happy meal for the pooches.
Oh...you wanted camp stuff...sorry.
You'd think after that much sleep you'd wake up refreshed, but I was one groggy, tired kid. This confused me because the other camps have involved less down time and I'm guessing more volume and I seemed to be far less fatigued. Mr. Miller agreed and proposed the following theory which whether right or wrong, makes sense to me. Jeff believes that at higher volumes and less down time camps/training our body gives up trying to repair/heal itself in between. Basically it just waits until we are done abusing our selves, allowing ourselves to maintain the training volume, then brings us to complete shutdown a couple days later. This time around we have just enough in between time for our body to attempt some repair/healing and thus the feeling of being more tired.
So training on the day, was a ride from the hotel into Joshua Tree where we ran on Sunday. We had to split into two groups for this "unofficial" ride. The park has tried to come down on Mitch for having a formal ride there, so we make it informal and apparently all is good. The ride from the hotel to Mitch's is an easy spin. Then from Mitch's is a fairly fast ride to the road that leads us up to the JT Park entrance. This portion become a good incline grade but with Mitch in front (hacking up a lung), me, Miller, Burke, and Greene it went by pretty quickly. We made good time up to Key's View with the assistance of a little tail wind. Descending into the wind was still pretty quick though. At Cap Rock, we took a right and headed past the Hall of Horrors (doesn't that just sound cool?), Sheep's Canyon (Mitch's favorite
 isn't this the same guy who took camp photos of sheep when he first arrived at Epic New Zealand? Interesting, but that's another blog on a more adult site I think), then we arrived at Skull Rock. Apparently this looks like a skull and as Mitch so eloquently pointed out, this is why they call it Skull Rock. Funny how that happens. We turned back and fractured quickly. Scott Greene and Mitch worked together, then Burke by his lonesome, then Jeff by his lonesome, and I was the cabose. It was a long ride into the winds back to the park entrance, but I believe we all arrived within a short span of each other. Back to Mitch's we headed for a 71 mile round trip ride in 3 hours 45 mintues for me which I believe is just shy of 19 mph.
A much better day in the saddle for me that the first two outings, but I find my self unable to find that extra gear in my legs and as a result am popping off the back. This is never enjoyable, but the end result was that I got stronger today.
An afternoon 1 hour run from the hotel. Dinner. My massage (thank the good Lord!). and we'll call it a day as we prep for tomorrow's climb to Idyllwild!!!!
P.S.
Thanks to all family and friends for the birthday wishes as well. That was a hard way to celebrate my bday. The only "box" I wanted was one with a gift inside...let's say an Power Meter....NOT Boxx Canyon! Good times though...my 8 year told me I'm a young handsome man still. Ok, really she did say that after I mentioned something about her allowance.
We were sad to see Commander Jones leave us today for Navy commitments back home. Top shelf person. It was good to spend a few days with you bro.
A record was set yesterday too! As of 10 pm last night the blog had 538 hits yesterday alone!!! That is crazy. I think it's AD, Stow, Mike M, and Aussie Eddie hitting refresh on their browser a bazillion times or something. Crazy, but keep it up. I'll try to keep it entertaining! Teresa is working on the tan post swim
Mitch & Scott G. taking a Key's View break
Hack, Miller, Green, Burke at the rock that supposed to look like a Skull (???)
Shawn B, Jeff M, Jim Y, Scott G heading out for evening run
Island Jim "Yano" smilin' pretty
Self Portrait
Mr. Miller
Another attempt 5/13/2008 Day 4 - TuesdayRest Day!
I think we all slept like babies waking up with some serious grogginess. Mitch has been able to work it so that our swims start at 8:30 and we have the pool completely to ourselves. This means we get to sleep in a bit, which is amazing bonus.
At the pool, Mitch was able to join us at least on deck after battling some chest congestion and coughing the past several days. Workout was anywhere from 4-4.5k depending on which lane. We got some band and kick work in then started the main set which progressively descended. Good set.
I felt much better today so the morning swim was encouraging after yesterday's schlacking of my confidence.
After a quick nibble, we set off to drive to our run start. An hour easy run and it was time to call it day!!!!
Back at our Yucca Inn headquarters laundry was in order and Burke, Greene, Jeff Miller, and I slammed down a couple pizzas, while Scott B and Island Jim got massages. Tennessee Amy took a nap. Burke did his online analysis of our age groups at CDA, then it was time for dinner at the Gold's. Teresa and Linnea have done a fantastic job all week preparing some great meals to keep us fueled and our tastebuds dancing. The usual post massage wet noodle stumble from the massage "shed" is starting to happen as Tawnya does her work on our abused bodies. Each person is always asked, "how was it?" with a babbled reply of drool and slobber on their chin.
Tomorrow is a JT bike ride and afternoon run.
The pictures today are compliments of Jeff Miller:
Day 3 - MondayIt's Tuesday morning and I've got a few minutes before the regime starts again. In a nutshell Monday was a 3k ish swim with Drill Sargent Jones on the deck yelling out instructions like "Hammer it Doll!"
Breakfast in the parking lot.
Then we set off for the ride out to Boxx Canyon. 5 hours and 40 minutes later we had logged a hard 105 miles into some healthy winds. The saddle sore walk is proof of a great day in the saddle. I cracked early but strong days for James Chriss, Scott Greene, and Shawn Burke. Amy rode exceptionally well and Jeff Miller is always a picture of consistency.
Dinner at a Mexican joint and a couple sips of a beer had Island Jim warming up to his comedic self. I'll post some of the Yano-isms later.
Today is a rest day and hopefully have time to get some laundry done.
5/11/2008 Day 2 --SundayA late wake up was a nice change of pace before our long run in Joshua Tree.
I couldn't be in a better place on Mother's Day. Just as a personal sidenote, the JT run has become probably my favorite run of all time. The first time I had the opportunity to run up there was actually the one year anniversary of my mom's passing. So you can imagine the personal link I now have to this place and it never fails to live up to my expectations. If I could be anywhere today, it would be in JT.
Everyone was shooting for a 2 hour run either to the Lost Horse mine or to Key's View. With the Jonser coached Burke exception who got the special gift of a 2:30 run.
Burke, Green, Linnea, Jeff, and I set out for Key's View. Scott B. also decided on that route, with Jones leading the way up to the Lost Horse mine for newbie Amy and Island Jim. We made it to the top in just over an hour and turned for the decent. I descended with Linnea and at the Lost Horse mine trail entrance continued on. Linnea turned back at the 1:45ish mark and I joined Burke and Green to finish back at our original start. For me it was 14.6 miles, in 2hrs 10min.
Jones rounded us up and we found Burke completing his 2 1/2 hours. He was walking back towards us on the road as we drove and Jones decided to pretend not seeing him and continued right past. The look on Shawn's face was priceless and wish I would have had a camera.
A huge breakfast awaited us back at the Gold residence. All of us proceeded to literally fill our bellies to bursting potential before we waddled back to the hotel for a quick nap before an afternoon spin.
Around 3 we clipped in for our easy spin. This will go on record as the easiest spin of any CpC camp I've been to and very welcomed. The point of this camp is to prep for CDA so no one had any issues with this. Towards the end of the out portion we went aero for a stretch and as I hammered I saw something sqirming across the the road in front of Jeff and in my line. I realized this was about a 2-3 foot snake so I took aim but missed. Not sure what I would have done had this damn thing wrapped up in my cranks or something. BTW...I freaking hate snakes!
We turned back and soft pedaled towards home. Towards the outside of Pioneer Town I decided to burn off a little testosterone and took off. Quickly followed by Mr. Jones. As we hit the big climb into Pioneer Town, Scott yelled to me to get in the right gear and jump on his wheel. "Hey now...I wanted the easy attack...not this uphill crap!!!" But what the hell. Scott sighted Jeff Miller trying to catch our wheel and so the three of us hammered hard down the mountain for a little boy time rush. Good stuff.
Dinner was again phenomenal. Mitch has been fighting off a little congestion and didn't workout today. We made a change to tomorrow's itinerary. So my birthday present (yeah, freaking 37) will be a morning swim followed by a 6+ hour Idyllwild loop ride. Life doesn't get much better in my book. As a side note to last night, Michelle surprised Mitch with a DVD photo montage of Mitch thanks to Jeff Miller....it was fliipin' awesome. Mitch's dad and uncle were also there and his dad put together a DVD photo album of Mitch. Great old school photos of Mr. Gold as a youngster. A birthday cake was then brought out to celebrate both his and my birthday. I didn't realize anybody even knew, but that was a great touch. Thank you.
Life is good...Happy Mother's Day. 5/10/2008 Official Day 1...Saturday4:30 a.m. comes early no matter how you shake it, but with some caffeine in our blood stream and a light breakfast in our bellies, we set off for Palm Springs.
It should be noted that a "first" occurred this morning. We arrived to the group early!!! I know...shocking, but take a deep breath and get this. We were the first riders there!!!! A half hour early to boot!!!
Palm Springs group ride starts off with a mellow soft pedal in a group of 100 or so. There is a break off point and usually the big group goes on the "A" ride, but this time it was a small group off us venturing off to hoots and hollars of "enjoy the wind and sand!" When the grade increased the group quickly fractured and I found myself once again wondering why they have a shortage of oxygen in Palm Springs. Lungs were blazing, heart rate soaring, and the pedal speed didn't coorelate! It was a hard, slow effort and once glance at my watch showed me blowing a 196 heart rate.
Thoughts of "how the hell will I do an Ironman in 6 weeks?" began pounding in my head. At the top we regroup with some others and had a nice effort going through the rollers. It felt good to breath again. Breathing oxygen is not overrated and is a really good thing to do.
We regrouped again at the store, then set off for the Salton Sea. This a flat nicely paved road with big shoulder. Mitch was at the front the entire way along with the arrival of Mr. James Chriss. He rode very well today. At approximately 2.5 hours of ride time we arrived at the little Mexican store to refuel and begin the trek back.
We made pretty short work of the ride back into P.S. and rode in the vincinty of 85 miles in 4 hours and change. Somewhere in the 20-21 mph range.
At the park we made the quick change into run gear and set out for a 40 minute run. It became apparent that the temps had jumped up and without the wind created from being on the bike, it sucked some life out of you.
5/9/2008 CDA Camp Cast of CharactersMitchell Gold...camp grand poobah. Just secured Kona slot at St. Croix. Says he will still race CDA. The rest of us call "bull oney"
Scott Jones...our field general and workmeister! The balancing act of all balancing acts with life, work(s), and high level triathlon performance. I hear he's kind of smitten too.
Scott Bentzen...Wyoming. 2nd camp...this will be his 4th IM CDA. Raced at Brazil with me last year and now we're roomies for the week.
Scott Greene...Seattle. 2nd camp...my shiny headed, fast footed friend will be toeing the sand at CDA. Raced Clearwater with him last November.
Shawn Burke...Seattle. 2nd camp. raced Arizona and Canada last year making huge strides in his first IM season. Racing CDA to kick ass and take names later at the bar (when Aussie Drew is buying me my dinner and drinks)
Jeff Miller...Boise. 2nd camp this year. One of Mitch's first athletes and is always a terror out there on the course. Coming back after taking a year off. Watch out.
Jim...Temecula. Affectionally known as Island Jim and was one of the original campers at the first camp I ever attended. Still raising gobs of money through Janus Charity Challenge will racing and running a highly successful dentistry practice.
Amy Midas...Knoxville. Our only first time camper! She's already fitting in nicely and is a racing Lake Placid. I could feel her wake in the pool from a lane over she's so fast!
Linnea Alvord...Portland. Just raced St. Croix, will race Honu, then cap it with CDA all in the coming month and a half. Now that's a packed race schedule.
Teresa Rider...Boulder. "The unfittest I've ever been" fit person I've ever been around! Pulled from CDA but will try to win the AG at Honu here in a couple weeks and secure her Kona slot.
James Chriss...yet to arrive.
Me...Bellingham. Da cabose of the week...chu chu Racing CDA as well and getting rid of the Idaho demon off my back.
Tomorrow is a big first day and Ironman Coeur d'Alene is 6 weeks out. This is always that period of time when you wonder "How will I ever be ready to race an Ironman in a couple weeks?"
Let the fun and the bleeding through your eyes begin!
Welcome home campers...welcome home.
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