Ironteam Wildflower Training Weekend

I spent the weekend in beautiful Lake San Antonio in Monterey County, about an hour from Paso Robles, CA. It was a 4.5 to 5 hour drive from LA. I drove up Friday morning with my Ironteammate Edmund. Having a carpool buddy makes the drive less monotonous and we talked about work, training, fundraising, and families. We had great weather with daytime temp in 70's and 40's at night. Food was OK as well. A group from our LA Ironteam cooked the meals as a fundraiser. $55 was well worth it. I appreciated not having to deal with the extra stress and headache of meal preparation and clean-up. The weekend was also a chance to talk to the other teammates and mentors. Just hanging out by the campfire in the afternoon and evenings was enjoyable.

We shared our campsite and training activities with a few other Team in Training groups from California. Some groups were training for the Wildflower Olympic distance race, and others for the Wildflower Long Course (Half-Ironman). We had groups from LA, Silicon Valley, Central Cali, Sacramento, and Monterey County. I believe the Silicon Valley group did the entire Long Course on Saturday. They were partying all night Saturday. That's where the ear plugs came in handy. Our LA Ironteam did the swim and 56 mile bike on Saturday. We ran 13.1 miles on Sunday.

Now to the specifics: the swim started early Saturday morning. There was a nice mist hanging over the Lake. It was a beautiful sight and I would have appreciated it more if I was in my hiking outfit. Instead I was stripped down bare-chested with just my tri shorts and trying to climb into my wetsuit. I remembered Body Glide this time and I applied it liberally. Some of my teammates forgot and suffered rubber burns on their neck afterwards. I learned my lesson. ( See my earlier post about rubber burns and other misadventures...)
Jumping into a cold lake was no fun. I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was with my first tri at the Desert Triathlon earlier this month. We had a warmup swim to the first buoy and back. I could feel my heart beating fast and my breathing pattern was rushed. I told myself to relax, but I still didn't feel entirely comfortable. Then after the warmup, it was a quick pep talk from the coaches and we were off. I swam a little bit aways from the other swimmers. I found my own rhythm and just followed the other swim caps ahead of me. It worked great. Before I knew it, I was at the first buoy, passed the second, and then the third. I pictured myself as a fish during the swim and concentrated on pulling water. The return to the pier was much quicker than the swim out. I only swallowed water towards the end as I was trying to avoid another group of swimmers swimming out from the pier. (They were from a different Team in Training group.)

The bike was a relief. Anything out of the water is a relief for me. I just settled into a rhythm. The coaches had scared me with their description of the Wildflower Long Course the evening before. It is a back-end loaded course. The race really begins after mile 41, with "Nasty Grade".
So during the first portion of the ride, I tried to save my legs. I didn't go all out, especially since this is a training weekend. I tried to remember the different sections of the course. Dealing with traffic on the roads was no fun, but at least on race day the roads will be closed. Some of the roads were very rough. My forearms were rattling. From about mile 20 to 30, I spent most of the time on my aero-bars. I finally started to get more comfortable with breathing in this position. I definitely picked up a couple mph in the aero position. I saw wildlife, including 3 vultures over a headless carcass of a boar. I saw some pretty orange wildflowers. We passed by several vineyards. Finally I hit "Nasty Grade". It was steep, very steep. I was going at 4 mph. I kept the legs churning. It kept going and going, but the words of encouragement that some of the coaches and mentors had written on the road with chalk inspired me to keep going. Coach Paul was riding down the hill and giving me words of encouragement as I was going uphill. ( I learned that he rode up and down Nasty Grade numerous times to support the team) At this point in the day it was getting hot. I had sweat pouring down my face. I ride with a Camel-bak and my fluids were getting low. I had 1 water bottle left on my bike. It was a great relief to get to the top and see the aid station. This was the only station I stopped at during the ride. I refilled my Camel-bak with water and that water tasted so good! That short 2 to 3 minute break gave me the energy to power through for another hour to complete the ride. I was happy with my 3 hr 53min time.

Sunday morning run: Again a beautiful mist hung over the lake. It was a bit chilly at the start, but once I started running my body started to heat up. The run course was mostly off road on dirt trails through rolling terrain. There was a steep grade early in the run. Many people walked it, but I just kept chugging along. I live in a hilly area, so I've trained for hills. I enjoyed the run the most. I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. On the bike it's difficult to do that, since you're looking at the road ahead and watching out for traffic. There were no mile markers, so it was hard to pace myself. I just treated this as a training run and went by feel. I wanted to run faster than easy long run pace, but not at race pace. I tried to run a negative split, but I didn't know where the halfway mark was. I think I did pick up the pace towards the end. I finished in 1 hr 45 min for 12 miles; this included one restroom break and 1 waterstop to refill my water bottle at an aid station. ( I started my stopwatch after the first mile, which was a warmup mile with the entire team.)

I skipped the optional swim session after the run. I had to pack my camping gear, load the car, take a quick shower, and head back to LA. All in all, an action-packed weekend.