Truly Epic

Well, as I continue to get through the backlog, I am going to share one workout in particular that has me mentally, if not physically, prepared for the race. I did this 2 weeks ago - it's scary to think that between then and now, half the time to race day has passed!

I mentioned earlier the "big day" training I had been doing on Saturdays. This was the biggest of them all. I began by swimming with the Vortex Masters swimming group at CSU, which is a great group to swim with. If you want to get your ass kicked in the water for an hour and a half, this is the place to go. In all honesty though, I have probably made more progress in swimming this past year than in the prior few, which I think I can attribute to a few things but having to keep up with a lane of good swimmers is definitely one of them. Anyway, this particular day we had a swim set of 4000 yards, just shy of the ironman distance - a nice warmup for...

...Cameron Pass. This was truly an epic ride, 133 miles, which is 19 miles longer than my previous longest ride (from the week before), and 21 miles longer than the race distance! It was also one of the most scenic rides I could do from Fort Collins, hitting the mouth of the Poudre Canyon in the first 10 miles and then progressing up very gradually from 5000 ft to 10,300 at the top (1,000 ft higher than I had ever been on a bike before). The first 20 miles in the canyon had some light traffic, but not as bad as I'd imagined for Memorial Day - perhaps there is some truth to the notion that driving is being cut back due to gas costs. Most of the traffic was from buses full of kayakers out to enjoy the rapids produced by the fresh snowmelt from the Rockies. As a progressed onward, I passed the small town of Rustic, which is more of a getaway spot than anything else. At about this time I began to face an increasing stiff headwind blowing down the canyon, which slowed my progress even more than the gradual uphill grade. About 50 miles in, at about 8000 ft, the real fun began. The wind let up ever so slightly, but the gentle, barely noticeable uphill was replaced by a more serious climb of about 5%. To make matters worse, a series of graupel (hard snow pellets) showers began to sting my face and legs. Fortunately, I had brought a long sleeved jersey, so I was able to stay warm on the way up. Once above 9000 ft, though, the lack of air began to really cut into my climbing, and I had to keep reminding myself that I did not come over 60 miles just to turn away less than 500 feet from the top. So I pressed on, and thankfully, the last few miles are a return to the more gently slopes, although it was quite chilly by this point and my hands were getting numb. But once I saw the sign at the top, I knew it had all been worth it.


On the way down, I faced a new dilemma - the graupel/snow showers had intensified enough behind me to make the roads entirely wet. Combined with an air temperature that was probably on the low side of 40 degrees, I knew my failure to bring gloves and knee warmers was a miscalculation, to put it mildly. All I knew, as I touched my brakes without any feeling in my fingers, was that I had to make it down to 8000 feet, and things would start to get better. Although it only took about 25 minutes, I was generating almost no heat the whole time as I sped down at 40 mph on the wet pavement. I survived, however, and had the benefit of a tailwind the whole way down the canyon. I made a short stop in Rustic for some Mountain Dew and chocolate to supplement the granola bars I'd been eating the whole ride up to that point. The bone-chilling initial descent didn't totally wear off for another hour, though, but it felt great to navigate the twists and turns of the lower Poudre canyon with the wind at my back. What went up in 4:22 came back down in 2:28 - at an average speed of 27 mph! In fact, the first 56 miles of the descent took just under 2 hours - which is what some of the top pro triathletes do without the wind at their back or 5000 ft of elevation drop in a half ironman!

The day wasn't over yet, though - I still had to run. After a short break, essentially to get changed and take in a little food, I went out on the trails and did 8.8 miles, or about 1/3 of a marathon. The legs actually felt pretty good, and I had to remind myself to keep it under control. I ended up on pace for about a 3:10 marathon, so being able to do that after the ironman distance swim and a longer, tougher bike was a huge confidence boost. The only difference on race day will be that I won't have quite as luxurious breaks between each event, and there is the small matter of having to run another 17+ miles. Oh well - that's what the taper is for.