Yellow Lake Shmellow Lake

I did it! I finally got out and rode the rest of the ironman bike course! I had ridden Richter Pass a few times, a 9-10k climb out of Osoyoos that intimidated the hell out of me at first. I had ridden the rollers a few times, a set of 7 hills that you cruise up and over, nothing too crazy but a challenge if you don't like hills. I had never ridden the Yellow Lake climb, the second of two "mountain passes" on the Ironman course. I use parentheses here because after my ride Wednesday...I have no fear anymore!

I rode 110k/68m from Osoyoos back to Penticton following the bike course for Ironman. 4 hours. 2 Cliff bars. 4 gels. 4 bottles of Endurox. 0 problems.

This was a huge milestone for me in my training. I always had this part of the ride built up in my head as a killer. An ugly beast waiting to kick me between the legs and knock me down before the marathon starts. Now I am not saying the ride is going to be easy, but I will say I am ready now. I have seen it, ridden it, got to the top and literally said out loud "That was it!?" Again I am not getting cocky, although I feel a little fired up about it, but I know it is more the placement of Yellow Lake on the course, not necessarily the climb itself. It shows up after 140-150k on the bike. Your butt is sore, your legs are sore, your feet hurt, your thighs burn, salty sweat drips to your lips, your hands are sticky from lemon lime Gatorade and strawberry banana gels mixed together, its hot....really hot, the bugs are stuck in the vents of your bike helmet, your sunglasses are glazed over with a mix of sweat and tears, did I mention your legs hurt, and then....Yellow Lake shows up. I know it is going to be hard, but I now know I can do it. And truthfully, that is the most important part.

I also figured out my nutrition for the bike ride. I drink Endurox, a carb/protein mix, every 15 minutes or more (my alarm is set to go off every 15 minutes to remind me). It's fruit punch flavour and is actually quite tasty. Then on the half hours, I eat a half a Cliff bar, and at the top of the hour I eat one gel (I am loving the Carb Boom and Hammer Gels at the moment).



I tried this system out a few times and have felt so strong even after long rides. This past ride, the 110k-4:00:00 ride, finished and I felt incredible. Even with the climbing my legs felt strong and loose. I went out last week and accidentally abandoned my nutrition. Needless to say, the end of that ride sucked. No gas going in means no energy going out. Lesson learned and I am a slave to my food now, and it is working!

31 days and we are feeling more and more ready!

34 Days...

I have been a blog slacker and haven't written for awhile. Part I have been private, part lazy, part guilty and feeling like I needed to update this will EVERYTHING I had been doing to do justice to the blog world. Finally I had to say screw it and just get going again. And with less than 7 weeks to go, it is about time.

We are leaving on our "Not Road Trip 2009" tomorrow to spend some time in Regina and I will get to Duluth to see family as well. Of course there will be some training along the way. Tomorrow will be another stop to swim in Okanagan Lake and then Wednesday I will be doing the second half of the Ironman course, the ugly section from Osoyoos back up to Penticton. I have climbed Richter Pass a couple times before, but I have yet to ride the Yellow Lake climb which I have heard can be pretty ugly. Nothing like throwing another mountain at you after 140k on the bike. It shouldn't be too bad this week since I am skipping a bit, but I want to know what I am getting myself into before the big day. I will be back in two weeks to do the whole thing. I am so excited to climb the pass and also pretty fired up to see what the downhill is like on the other side. I have heard people get up to 90kph/55mph....white knuckles here I come!

Training has been going fairly well as of late. Great swimming, good biking and I am finally getting over a knee/IT Band funk that happened a couple weeks back. I have been attacking it with physio (Rob Hasagawa is a god!), massage therapy (Ian and Cook St. something or other is also pretty damn impressive), and I have a new daily routine of stretches and moves to keep everything rocking and in the right place. So far so good. A week ago I couldn't run 15 minutes without a bit of pain; yesterday was up to an hour so we are doing something right.

All in all I have been learning some very valuable lessons in nutrition (gotta feed the machine regularly to keep it running), pacing (I am now realizing I want to finish the marathon section strong. I had been planning for the swim, realizing what the bike would take, and then just hoping I would have the strength to finish the run. Bad plan. I have re framed it all so that the last grain of sand falls through the hourglass hopefully nearer the finish line and less at the halfway point of the marathon.) and fun (everyone I talk to says "Remember to have fun!" as advice to a first timer. I am a pretty up person anyway so this could be quite the epic day!).

Thanks to all of you on the support crew and especially to all of you who I have been neglecting with phone calls, emails, and most other forms of communication. Just because I haven't contacted you doesn't mean I am not thinking of you often...these rides are nearing 6 hours long, that's a long time to think and all of you get some air time on the "Georgesen's mental riding Rolodex".

Please drop me a line during the next couple weeks. I am looking for as many of the "Wow, I am so excited for you. You are going to do soooo well!" types and less of the "Holy Sh*# man I can't believe you are doing this! Good luck out there and don't die" type. As much as I appreciate the concern for my continued existence on the planet, the freakishly positive confident "of course you are going to rock it" support goes much further!

34 days.... off to Penticton in the morning!

Penticton... Oliver HIM prep

Just went out for a ride as a warm up for the race tomorrow. Rode half of the marathon course for Ironman and couldn't believe how beautiful it is here. We are currently staying at the same hotel we will be for Ironman, getting the lay of the land for Ironman, kind of do a dress run for the big show. It feels amazing.

The ride this morning was amazing. Went out just to "spin the legs", but before I knew it was cruising at 50 kph without really working. Feels pretty amazing to be moving that fast without having to work. I know my legs are getting stronger, I am faster now, but I just didn't realize the massive tailwind I had....didn't realize it I had to turn around. The way back had a wall of wind slapping me in the face and I had to work a bit to get back. Even with the wind though, I pulled off a 30 kph average and a 91 rpm average cadence. Exactly where I want to be for tomorrow.

The rest of the day has been filled with checking out the bike course (it's going to be fast, real fast), a little wine tasting (smelling on my part, Jenn got to enjoy some of the great Okanagan wine), geeking out setting up my spot in transition and attending the race meeting. There are over 1,100 athletes racing tomorrow and the transition area could be a photo shot for a bike porn magazine. So many beautiful bikes. So much carbon fibre. Rediculous amounts of Zipp race wheels. But, for the first time I feel like I can hold my own with my bike. My bike might not be the centerfold, but it's close :)

The race tomorrow should be a blast. Here's the goal:

Swim: 40:00
T1: 5:00 (there is literally a .5k run from the lake through to the other side of transition...this is going to be crazy!)
Bike: 3:00:00 (it's a great fairly flat course with some really smooth roads. It's going to be fast)
T2: 4:00
Run: 2:00:00 (where going to let it all hang out!)
Total: 5:49:00

I want it in under 5:50:00 so hopefully that one minute to spare can give me some wiggle room. I feel good. I feel fast. I feel ready. It's 9:45, so it's time to go to bed.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Allergies.. sick... who knows

Unghhhh

Been 5 days without working out. A combo of sore throat, allergy nose, pretty tired, and few other random no name symptoms. It is frustrating as hell!

Last week was phenominal. I had some incredible workouts and was really peaking! I biked back out to Camp Thunderbird and saw my students. They had a ton of stories to tell about their ride and "the hill". They did great and I am sooo proud of the students and the staff who took part. Very cool experience. On the bike home, I thought it would take forever, but I FLEW home in just over an hour. My computer went of the fritz so I don't have stats, but easily was averaging over 30k, possibly 32k an hour! That's where I need to be. Felt like a rockstar and had no pain the next day. Went for a long run and was flying. Even got in my first open water swim out at Thetis Lake. Something about swimming uninterupted for 20-30 minutes that is so meditational. No wall to push off of, no close up view of someone else's butt as you swim past. Just you and the lake. It felt amazing...

Then this week showed up. I am trying to be smart about it and just let my body heal so I don't wear myself more than I need to, but we are going on a week now and I my races start NEXT week! This first one in Shawnigan is a "B" race, one I am planning to do as training for Oliver, but I still want to be in good shape to do it. I know, I know, I am in good shape, it's all relative, but I want to be in good shape to get my next goal at Oliver. To do that, I need to be healthy. To do that I need to be out training and preparing. To do that, what the hell do I need to be doing right now?

Allergy drugs... check
Cough syrup... on the way (Buckley's is probably the worst substance ever created by the way)
Trip to the clinic for peace of mind... a possibility
Training this week... please let it happen!!

Keep your fingers crossed and send healthy fast vibes my way!

Camp Thunderbird

Well another week has come and gone... but this one was AWESOME!! I had a great week with some really big workouts. A great 1:30 run on Thursday, a 2.5k swim on Friday, a hand full of shorter workouts, some Bikram yoga, and one hell of a ride to Camp Thunderbird!

On Wednesday all the grade 7 students at my school are biking from Victoria to Camp Thunderbird. Its a 30+ kilometre ride and I LOVE the fact that they are doing this as a group. I am hoping to go crash their party on Thursday so, in preparation, I decided to go and check it out for myself...

Video Journal #2

The trip up to Camp Thunderbird left me pretty fired up and so I continued on riding for another hour and a half. I found another ugly stretch of hills and finished the day having ridden 90k, and climbing 720m (almost 8 football fields strait up!). Pretty freaking fantastic if I do say so myself!

BRING ON THE CANADIAN ROCKIES!