killed it

Jay Z fucking killed it at Glastonbury.

Vintage Henry Harden

Lake Placid Recon

Around 1 on Friday, Dan, Jeremy and I headed up to Lake Placid for the Fireman Ironman Training Camp weekend. We got in around 6, checked out Mirror Lake and checked in to the Northway Motel. It was like the Four Seasons of Lake Placid. Saturday morning, we got up early to meet the campers in the Olympic Oval to start the ride. We also met up with Joe who got in late the night before. The IMLP bike course has always scared me so I was terrified to ride. The 20 minute talk beforehand about the "7 mile downhill where you can hit 50 mph" and the "you don't want to crash or you will die" warning didn't help the situation. I left to go out on the course not feeling confident. The bike course was awesome once I got myself started. The course profile on ironman.com makes it seem like you climb a steep mountain twice, but in reality, the climbs are ladder type climbs long but not so steep. I sat back and spun up the hills. The downhill was insane, in a good way. I didn't have my computer on, thank god. I don't want to know how fast I went down that hill.

It started to pour a few miles into my second loop and I made the call not to ride it in the rain. It's not my race, it was a training weekend and I couldn't face that mountain again in the rain. I was disappointed but OK with it. I went back to the hotel, picked up my wetsuit and swam what I thought was the Ironman course. I did one loop, got out, checked my time. 59 minutes for one loop. Hum...Then some girl tells me I did a 2 mile canoe course and not the IM course. So not a bad time!

Dan and Jeremy killed 112 miles and then ran after. I think Dan rode the course in 5:40. The man is a machine and is going to kill IMLP. Then we lounged outside of our 4 star cabin room at the Northway in some lawn chairs.

Sunday morning, we got up and swam the real Ironman course with the Fireman campers. There were about 75 of us out there swimming. I did the 2 loops in 1:25, ten minutes faster than Wisconsin. We'll see how I do at KY. Mirror Lake is gorgeous, flat and you can see the bottom and the famous cord that connects all the buoys. There's no need to sight if you can stay with the cord.

After the swim, Jeremy and Dan ate breakfast burritos (smart) and we went to a Chi Running Clinic by Sherru Fraiser, a million time Ironman from Canada. She gave some great tips for running up the hills on the run course and I really tried to think about them. Then we headed out for about 16 miles. 13 of the actual run course and 3 miles to get there and back. For all the talk of the LP bike course, I think its the run course that is the killer. It's soul destroying and hard. Tons of hills, and a windy, rolling out and back where I'm sure there will be no spectators at 9 PM. The hills back into town are just brutal.

The weekend ruled. I would reccomend that camp to anyone doing IMLP. It was low-key but organized. They had great sponsors, tons of aid and lots of booze after a hard day of training!

sightings!

Amber Tamblyn sitting an outside table on Greenwich St last night, eating chicken wings!Then an hour later, Lisa Loeb walking down 7th ave. on her cell phone.

I should be a paparazzi.

Long Island Gold Coast Tri

On Sunday, Jeremy, Minty, Heather and I went all the way to Port Washington, Long Island to race the Gold Coast Sprint. We got up super early and took the LIRR out there. We had to ride about 4 miles from the train station to the race site. It was a long uphill and then a fast downhill with all our gear on our backs. Not fun.

Swim: .5 mile
The swim was an ocean swim in the Sound. It was a run in start and the salt water was a little shocking when it got in my mouth. I was really thinking I was pushing it and getting a good draft to the first buoy. It was such a short swim so I was really trying...I stood up at the beach and my watch said 16:45. I was psyched. Then there was a long pavement run to T1. They added it into the swim time so my overall time was 17:54. Jeremy effing beat me in the swim! The same Jeremy who's ass I hand to him every morning in the pool beat me in a half mile swim. Godddddddddddddd.

Bike: 12 miles
The bike was 6 mile loop with 2 hairpin turns. It was...cute. There were 2 long straightaways, a little bunny hill (I saw someone get off their bike on it) and it was mostly in an office park area. You could go pretty fast but there were some scary idiots out there on Huffys and some people in aero helmets thinking they were going pro. It was fun to try and bang it out. 38:52 overall, average mph 20.1. Not too bad for someone who is a pussy on the bike.

Run: 3 miles
The run was another 2 loops of randomness. It did go out on to the boardwalk which was pretty cool. I was still trying to push it but couldn't really tell what I was doing. There was one aid station on the run that you passed twice and I walked through them. I think I did 2 rounds of 4:30 running, 30 seconds walking and ran the rest. Time, 23:47, pace 7:37 miles. I think the clock was wrong. I don't think I can run that fast. Usually, I'm dragging ass and not caring.

Overall time: 1:23:47

I don't have much to say about the race. It was really fun. It was my second sprint ever and I don't think I love to try and push it. Plus, I'm bitter that Jeremy beat me in the swim and overall. Just kidding, I'm proud of him. He's gotten really fast and he's going to do awesome at IMLP. Minty and Heather had great times as well. It was Minty's second triathlon ever and I think she is slowly coming around to loving triathlon again after her torture half IM experience.

Next up...Fireman Ironman Training Weekend. 3 full days of torture, IM style.

Bay Swim equivalent of a Jem and The Rockers Barbie

Special order on Etsy.com
I can't wait for it to come

I don't know what my deal is with the cute stuff lately

But this is killing me...I love him.

awwwwwwwww

I'm all about babies and puppies.

Bay Swim...BFD

JK.

Actually it was a BFD. And I'm glad it's over.

Race Report:

I knew I needed a lot of food on Saturday night and a good night's sleep. Check. Done.

Sunday morning, I had my favorite pre-race breakfast. Gluten free bagel with butter and 2 eggs. Stopped at Starbucks, got a large coffee and drove across the bridge.

I was seriously terrified but trying to be cool about it. I stood next to 2 old men who had done the race 18 years in a row or something and eavesdropped on them giving people advice. I parked at the park and ride across the bridge and took the shuttle bus back across. Found Gary and Sandi and sat around for an hour and a half, getting nervous. I put sunscreen all over my face and neck and ears but really didn't think about anywhere else because I was wearing a full sleeve wetsuit. Bad idea. I thought I hit up the Body Glide enough, but obviously didn't.

So, the swim start. You can start anywhere along the beach, so the mass start was really a non-issue. You can enter the bridge anywhere you want once you get past the jetty. I caught a good draft off a girl and made it to the bridge pretty fast. Swimming under the bridge and coming up in the middle is so amazing. Sighting the bridges is just so cool and swimming underneath those bridges that I've driven across hundreds of times is so surreal. The weather was way too hot, so there were seriously hot patches of water and then if you got in the shade, the water was cool.

I made it to the first buoy with no problem in about 35 minutes. I was drafting as much as possible. And thanking Joe the whole time for the major draft practice that we did. The current really picked up in the second mile. I had a good draft going off this man but I kept hitting his feet. He finally turned around and yelled something and I backed off. Then we passed the 2 mile buoy and came up the first aid boat. I swam to the other side of the boat and hid because that dude was pissed about the drafting and I was afraid he was going to punch me in the face. The aid boats had water, pieces of banana, saltines and vanilla wafers. So basically, I was screwed. I ate a piece of a banana and had 2 cups of water and went on. I wish there was gatorade or gus. My second mile was so slow that when I got the buoy, I thought maybe I missed the second one and I was actually at the 3rd. Ha. No. It was about 50 minutes.

Third mile, I started counting the bridge pile-ons and trying to talk myself into swimming pile-on to pile-on. I was really starting to lose my mind and feel extremely tired. I don't think I thought one positive thought at Nanticoke and it really affected my performance so I really tried to keep my mind in check. I was repeating all my swim techniques in my mind and trying to do them. I think the 3rd mile was around 40-45 minutes. We were supposed to get a slack tide in the middle of the swim, but I never really felt the current let up. It was fight the whole time pretty much.

The 4th mile and last .4 were completely mind over body. I really struggled. I knew I wasn't going fast but I knew I was going to finish. All I really wanted out of the day was to finish and not come in last place or get pulled. Check.

A few things I learned from the Bay Swim:

1. I can swim. I've proven it. But, I am not a fast swimmer or a strong swimmer. I think the 2.4 Ironman swim is about my limit to be able to make any sort of decent time.
2. I've never been the biggest fan of water. My earliest swimming memory is my mom begging me to jump off the diving board at Worthington Valley Swim Club. I said hell no for pretty much the whole summer until she offered a Jem and the Rockers Barbie for jumping off it. I threw myself off that shit, swam to the side, everyone was cheering and I said, "get my shoes, we're going to Toys R Us." My mom said, "don't you want to do it again? Wasn't it fun?" I said, "yeah, yeah, fun, whatever. I'll jump again tomorrow. I want that Barbie." I went to Toys R Us wrapped in a towel, dripping wet. That sort of sums up how I feel about swimming. Get it done to get what I want.

The event was totally organized though. And it had maybe the best race shirt ever. I've done a lot of OWS where I felt like I could die out there and no one would see for hours. But this event was so organized, you were never alone, there was tons of kayakers and boats everywhere. The whole thing was very cool.

But, I'm never doing it again.