GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 5 guest blogger Angie

Editor's note: Angie has been "steady Betty" all week long--solid on the rides, runs and swims, on time for everything, and always ready for whatever we handed out. She wins MVP today for being ready to go on all today's workouts. Congrats, Angie!

Day 5 by Angie...

Another cold and rainy day in Arizona. What’s up with that? I heard the rain all night drumming on the roof of our cabin. It did help make me sleep well, however, there was this prospect of swimming in the lake in the morning. Cold and wet, hmm, I only know that from the California 70.3. Certainly not from AZ.

So, sure enough, when we got started it was still raining. We drove to the lake, got into the wetsuits (which was actually nice as they were keeping as warm – at least for the moment) and then off into the lake. The water was definitely colder than Monday but still quite manageable.

I figured this wasn’t my day to drown in a lake so I opted out of the ~1.2 mile swim and instead worked on swimming straight for 30min. Felt pretty good. Once the others were done with their longer swim Owen and Bill decided to swim without wetsuits for a moment. Crazy Guys!

After that ”cool” swim session we made our way to Starbucks. Glorious warm coffee. So good!

The coffee was topped however by Bills’ excellent breakfast burritos that he decided to make for us once we were back at the cabin. Big thanks to Bill. Those were delicious.

Now, the last half day of camp will be tomorrow so after having all those culinary highlights we had to start packing. Wasn’t too hard for me as I did not have to take my bike apart. It fits very well into the Mini Cooper by just taking the front wheel off. So, I was done with that pretty quickly and hang out reading in my room waiting for our 2:00PM run to start. It had kinda stopped raining sometime between the swim and the burritos but sure enough it started just in time for the run again.

Bill, Luc and myself ran anyway to the Flagstaff Athletic Center . On the way there we encountered two vicious beasts. Well, actually, two Boxers not on a leash and the owner pretty far away. Fortunately, the dogs decided not to attack us after all but it was a bit sketchy there for a moment. The rest of the run was much more uneventful. Just a nice run, no issues.

We met the other guys at the gym to do our, get this, second swim workout of the day. This time in a pool. Let me just say, I enjoyed the run much more than the swim. Nice swim, no doubt, but, boy, I was hurting.

After the little swim session we got a short education in core and stability moves. Ok, so the last part of my body that wasn’t hurting yet, the abs, started burning as well. Nice job, coaches! No, seriously, very useful stuff. I’ll definitely change my core program now. First I have to get one of those funky balls, though.

Finally, we ended the day at Beaver Street Brewery for a delicious dinner. Well, not quite true. The rest of the gang is still at the Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream. Hmm, think I’ll have that tomorrow after our final run.

That’s all folks. Gotta go hit the sack!

Angie

GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 5

Guest Blogger: Shawn

After yesterday’s epic downpour, the campers were hoping for some better weather today. Since the lightning cut our big ride short yesterday, the call was to move a little extra bike volume today, rather than having it be a lighter day per the schedule. Unfortunately, the cool and cloudy weather was here to stay. The original plan was to swim early and ride from the swim venue, but the GEC staff made a game-time decision to ride early instead, in an attempt to beat the rain.

We loaded our bikes and run gear onto the truck and rolled out at 7. It was raining a bit and the temperature was about 50 degrees. That’s right, straight up Seattle weather, people. As we drove out of town, the temp continued to drop and the roads got wetter. Campers: skeptical.

Shortly we pulled into the visitor center at the Sunset Crater National Monument and got rolling. Within a mile of the parking lot, the roads were dry and the sky had lightened. The route was an out-and-back, approximately 30 miles each way. The ride started with some steep rollers by a moonscape of 1,000 year old lava flows (they didn’t look a day over 20, btw), then over 20 miles of steady decent down to the valley floor. A drop of well over 3,000 feet over that distance, but on almost perfectly smooth new blacktop and basically zero traffic.

Luc, Owen, and I knew not to pass this up and started rotating, doing well over 35mph for mile after mile down the shallow grade. Soon we discovered that Brian and Bill were attempting to catch us, which just wouldn’t do, so we picked it up a bit and kept our momentum. But each of us was thinking about what the return trip was going to be like after all that descending.

As always, Jill was out covering the route and picking just the right resupply points. We stopped to get more water and Brian and Bill linked up with us about 6 miles from the turn around. Polita rolled in shortly after as well, and Angie had turned back just a little before.

After 5 days of complaining about the altitude getting me down, I was starting to feel better today. One of the things Brian and Bill have been helping me work through is my ongoing saga of difficulty getting calories down on the bike. Bill had the good idea of lowering my sights a bit to 200 cals an hour to see how that went. Brian thought I should try to get more clean water down as well – versus just NUUN water from prior days. This was one of my big focuses today. So some adjustment to the altitude plus a better experience getting fuel in me really made a big difference in how I felt. The ride back up that grade was a lot of fun as we pacelined at 20-25mph into the wind, up a long hill. Awesome stuff, and the ride back went fast, with just one refuel stop.

Brian and I went off the front a bit in the last few miles, where the climbs got steeper. That guy can turn power out of the saddle for what seems like forever. Ouch. Not to be outdone, Luc managed to catch us just before the finish of the ride. What a machine that guy is.

We all made it back to the parking lot about the same time, and it was time to run. Jill had picked out a trail run for us that “started out uphill”. The plan was for an hour run. 25 minutes into it, we had gained 1000 feet on a road that had to be a 15-20% grade in some places, and run-walk was the only way to hold it together. Any energy we had left in us was left on that trail! So we headed back down and got the balance on the run out on the road. Mmmm, pavement.

A great workout and really great logistics on the part of the GEC staff on turning what could have been a rough day into an absolutely great training day in all aspects. Between training out to the Grand Canyon and today’s outstanding workout, we’ve had some great highlights.

This afternoon we went for a swim at the local pool. The pool ended up being an odd length 20ish yard pool, but we did a quick workout and then got a chance to have our swim videoed and analyzed by a truly top notch swimmer, which is a rare opportunity.

It was a great day in Flagstaff!

Shawn

GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 4...guest blogger Polita

I was the lucky winner of the 'best in the face of adversity' title today, so I'm today's guest blogger. Hello web-o-sphere!

Tuesday night in the Grand Canyon ended roughly for me; I had an upset stomach that kept me from getting any food down at dinner, and my sleep was interrupted by chills and fever in turn. Wednesday didn't start much better; I was still nauseated but I got a few calories down at breakfast. The plan was to ride from the Grand Canyon back to Flagstaff, possibly with an extra climb up Mt. Humphries for the most hardy of us.

We stopped at the general store on the way out, and Shawn bought more Gatorade than he could carry, but Sherpa Owen helped out. We rolled out of the Grand Canyon together after a quick group shot at the rim. I wasn't sure how I was going to do without much food, but I wanted to try, so I hung at the back of the pack. Our first bike leg was nearly exactly 30 miles to the gas station, and I mentally committed to at least getting there before waving the white flag. It was mostly downhill with some short climbs, so how bad could it be? Twenty miles in, I had lost sight of everyone else in the group and was struggling to make the pedals go around, when Brian returned to help me get in. The company was nice, but I could hear his freewheel spinning when he coasted and figured it probably wasn't that much fun for him. Ten impossibly long miles later, I called it a day at the gas station and loaded my bike onto the Suburban. The whole group was there, and everyone else headed out for the long flat stretch before the climb over the mountains back to Flagstaff.

Jill and I leapfrogged the riders in the truck, with quick stops to get some action shots as they went by. The weather was turning colder, but the grey clouds with smears stretching down to the mountains in front of us were more foreboding. About 20 miles past the gas station, Angie called it a day and climbed in the truck. Owen, Luc, and Shawn were making great progress in their paceline. Brian and Bill looked like twins in their matching kits and were moving quickly, but not quite fast enough to catch the other three guys.

The rain started coming down, drizzling at first, then picking up. A few cracks of thunder and some distant lightning later, and we went to pick up Shawn, Owen, and Luc. As Shawn said "it doesn't seem that bad", thunder boomed above and convinced the Seattleites to climb in the truck. Luc wasn't as easily convinced, and he rode off into the greyness. Five of us in the Suburban headed back for Brian and Bill, who were thoroughly soaked by then. Bill and Brian didn't put up a fight and soon we were seven. We all worried about leaving Luc, the one camper riding a metal bike frame, to ride through the lightning storm.

As we drove on, rain turned to torrents. After driving what seemed like miles without seeing Luc, we had just about decided we must have missed him when we finally spotted him ahead. We parked the truck at the turnoff for Mt. Humphries, ostensibly to help Luc, but really to make sure he didn't make the turn to head up the mountain. Wow, Luc is tough. Brian gave him directions through Flagstaff, and we marvelled at the standing water in all the city streets and the rain that turned into sleet, then hail. Sure enough, Luc pulled into camp not long after we did, and made a beeline for the hot shower. We all have more respect for Luc tonight.

After showers, lunch, and naps (for some of us) and easy runs (for others of us), Jill made yummy soup for dinner. We talked about recovery after dinner and plans for tomorrow. I'm hoping for a solid stomach tomorrow to get through our swim, bike, and run, while everyone else is keeping their fingers crossed for better weather.

Polita

GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 4

Today started out as a nice day--beautiful weather at the Grand Canyon made for a nice morning.



We took off toward Flagstaff, but the weather got worse as we got closer. Bill and I found ourselves playing catch up again (Ugh) but we worked well together. From the Grand Canyon, we drop 1000 feet, then climb 2000, before descending back to 7000. Lots of climbing makes for a tough day. Luc does a better job talking about the weather, so read his blog. Basically (except for Luc) this became our recovery day.

Overall, how are things going? Very well. We're having fun with a good group. Tomorrow will be a good day--we'll see how the weather holds, but we have some good stuff planned in all three sports.

Oh, the plugs...
- 6 people on PowerTaps in the rain...no problems.
- Zoot rain shell...awesome.
- GEC cycling gear...top notch.
- Cannondale System Six...fearless.
- Zipp 606...no problems with 200 miles in 3 days.
- Michelin Krylions...no flats.
- Dr Hoys pain relief gel...no sore muscles.
- Rudy Project Noyz and Actyum...solid.
Thanks!

GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 4...guest blogger Luc

Day 4: Guest Blogger Luc

Today started out as a nice day. We had a walk along the South Rim at sunrise – sunshine was unfortunately only for half of the day.
Shawn, Owen, and I headed out at a good pace from the Grand Canyon Village back towards Flagstaff. As we got closer to Flagstaff, the weather conditions gradually worsened. Up ahead, we could see a few lightning flashes over the mountains. Fortunately, it was only light rain and some wet roads, things were not so bad.

Eventually, Jill came with the van and suggested we call it a day. I really wanted to finish the ride, was in a good mood to finish and had fresh legs, so I decided to continue on alone for the remaining 30 miles of the ride. As I got closer to Flagstaff, the rain was getting much heavier, and the temperature was dropping, but it wasn’t too bad - I’ve ridden in worse before. In Germany and Switzerland, my wife and I did 10 days of rain riding in a row, so a little while in the rain didn’t bother me.

Things went fine until I got into Floodstaff, I mean Flagstaff, where riding through town was just about impossible. The heavy rains were creating rivers in the roads, and I was forced to ride on the sidewalks, and getting drenched by passing cars.

But finally I made it back to the cabins – wet and cold but having completed the full ride. We even managed a short run after the ride.