Month: June 2010

Pie Day

The payout of this training. On my birthday I get to have pie. And not just any pie but pie from pie gourmet. R and fatima got 2 large pies. Oh and they tasted so good

D.C Heat

Another weekend and we are traveling again. This ti,e it is to dc to see my family. I have to take the bike along because it is another training weekend . I start off on sat around 12 and it is hot hot. Around 97 . I bike the wo&d loop by the time I have done the loop from regan to Vienna I am cooking. I start to try to cool down by throwing water on myself . That only helps a little. Get to dulles and I have to take a 2 min break because of the heat. I ride back to vienna and get to the car. Kamil meets me outside. I grab a water bottle throw it on my face and then grab the last of the infinit and start to run. After 70mi I meant to do a 4 mi run. The run around the park is enough to do me in. Stop at mariam’s house to grab more water.
My cousins are there, considering my state I think they wanted to stay well away. I was sweating buckets. I sit down for a while and then go back to fatimas’s house to take a shower and come back for a late lunch. Nothing better than a diet of nihari and haleem after a hard days workout.

Slow Week

The week after training camp I am low on energy. I manage to get 2 workouts in for the entire week. The trip to dc won’t help. Some days you have to take what you have.

The straw that broke the camels back

Everyone has a breaking point. You find different breaking points while training. Your breaking point on the run, the bike at work, and then your mental breaking point. My breaking point was a $100 training watch which broke during my swim in placid. Who would have thought. I felt naked without a training watch. I drove R insane talking about. I wanted a new watch asap, I needed a watch.
I was debating a watch that would work with a power meter . Also after rich mentioned he would kick our ass if we had race wheels and no power meter , I figured I didn’t want to make that mistake. I finally gave in and bought a polar watch just to keep my sanity. It would get delivered before I left for dc.

13mi of fun

Last day of camp. A couple of decided to run the course. We set out from the tennis courts. We running at the same time as the placid marathon. A couple of team members are doing the 1/2 marathon. I run out of town and quickly find out I will be running with the leaders in the 1/2 marathon, a bunch of kids from the Olympic training center. I decide to give them a run for their money and for 2mi pick up the pace to run with them I figure I can always slow it down later. After that i slow it down. Keith runs by me he is doing the 1/2 . I was debating pacing him but decided against it. Run past the turn around of the race and continue on river road till the pink rock which is the turn around of the IM course.
On the way back I run with the rest of the people in the race. It gives me a good bulls eye to catch up wih people and pass them. I run back up the nose bleed hill into town and boy is that painful. Get back to the hotel and it is time to leave.

Ride in the rain

The 2nd day of the camp and it is raining. Quite the downpour. I think we were all debating whether to do the ride. The plan was to do a 100 mi epic ride. I rode down to the cyclery met up with a couple of other people. Atleast now I know I am not the only insane person. We decide to do to skip the 100mi ride and do 1 loop of the course.
Heading out of town by the time we get 10 mi into the ride I am soaked, my shoes are soaked, and so is every other place I can think of. I have to make pitstop because I keep hearing a wires noise from the bike. And the gears keep skipping. I check the regular things and they are fine. We start to head down. And You wonder the sanity of riding 40 mph downhill on wheels of 3cm with a piece of rubber for breaking which 8cm long. Give that some thought. Luckily everyone in the group makes it down fine. We continue to jay and then willmington by the time I pass whiteface the rain stop. So for the final 1/2hr no rain. I get into town and head straight for the hotel. The bike needs a clean so do I and both need to dry off.

Amount of food

I am amazed at what athletes can eat while training. Including myself. At training camp I calculated I ate 7500 cal in 2 days. That is over 3 days of food in 2 days. And it wasn’t just me, I was joined by over 40 other athletes that were eating as if we were starved. I saw athletes eat a large snickers bar, 2 bottles of pepsi just for a snack during the ride. I managed to eat 3 plates of pasta in 1 meal and was hungry 2 hrs afterwards. Boy the food we eat

Race Rehersal

First day of camp and a bunch of us have to do a race rehearsal. We meet up at high peaks cyclery and weather gods are having a laugh at us. It is slightly colder and most of us need an extra layer. We head out of town and do the modified bike course. I do a 3:10 on e first loop. Get back into town take a break for 10 min and then head out again. The next loop I am somehow with a faster group of riders ( don’t know how that happened) . On the 2nd loop I decide to skip the 2nd outback. On the way back from Wilmington the sun is out and I am cooking in e extra layer that I have on. I get back into town and I stow the bike . The second loop was slower around 3:29. I curse myself for riding a 6:30 split I was meant to do an even 6:00.
Either way I have done 109 miles and just want to get off the bike. I would have been willing to sell my bike for $1 if I didn’t need it for the race. I start off on the run with Keith . We are doing a nice 9min/mi after 3 miles I pick it up to race speed. Run down the hill flip it around and run back into town