swim time: about 30 min
bike time: about 1:35 min
run time: about 54 min
"Training Weekend" is when our team (and a few other CA teams) goes to Lake San Antonio in Central California and does the Wildflower Triathlon course over two days. We did the swim & bike on Saturday and the run on Sunday.
It was a lot of fun. Most folks are training for the Wildflower Triathlon, so it gave them a chance to see their course and really visualize race day. It helps you figure out what your "nutrition needs" are for race day (think: power bars, energy gels, and electrolyte drinks). Personally, I struggle with having anything in my stomach (food or water) when I'm running. So I need to do my eating & drinking early in the bike ride so that my stomach is empty by the time I start the run.
Lake San Antonio is out in the middle of nowhere, so everyone pretty much camps out for the Triathlon. (I think the closest hotel is 45 minutes away in King City). So "training weekend" is also a chance for folks to get used to camping right before their race. Those of you who know me well, know that I have fine-tuned car camping skills. Some of my teammates were envious of the VW Eurovan Westfalia "camper".Training weekend also gave us a chance to socialize a bit and get to know our teammates a little better. There's just not much time for chit-chat while swimming laps in a pool or riding single file down the road. So after 7 weeks of being on this team, I finally learned the names of a lot of familiar faces and got to know a few people. I even learned that one of my teammates works at Cisco.
The swim:
We did the swim at 10am Sat morning. The lake was pretty cold - maybe 60 degrees. I was wearing my wet suit, of course, as well as my neoprene thermal cap, gloves, and booties. It took the first 200 meters or so to get my breathing and hear rate to calm down and get into a rhythm. We started from a different spot than the true Wildflower course since the course starts at a boat ramp, which was being used by boaters. Also, instead of doing a typical triangle-shaped swim course, we swam an out & back course. The water was very murky with very little visibility. That freaked some people out. But, for me, it was just like swimming in Pocono Lake, which I've done my whole life, so I was in familiar territory. I was a little surprised when I got back to the shore to learn I did the swim in about 30 minutes. (I didn't have a watch, so I base that time on my estimate of what time it was when we jumped in and what time someone reported to me when I got out.)
The bike:
We were supposed to start the bike as a group at 11am. So, I had plenty of time to "transition", which meant hanging out in my van, drying off, changing clothes, putting on sunscreen, eating, hydrating, etc. Well, it turns out we didn't start the bike until closer to noon. The folks doing the half-iron triathlon had started their swim earlier than we did. Then they started their bike course around the time we started our swim. By the time us Olympic distance folks were ready for the bike, we learned that one of the half-iron riders had a pretty bad one-bike crash and they were waiting for a helicopter to come in to take her to a hospital. For obvious safety reasons, they didn't want us out on the bike course until after the helicopter had landed. So, we all milled around the parking lot with our bikes for good while. And then they had us start two-at-a-time giving a lot of space between groups. Since the bike course is the main road into the park and there's a lot of big-trucks-trailing-boats traffic on the road, they didn't want us bunched up. So, it was very unlike race day conditions since they close the roads for the race. And unlike race day, I had a good hour or so of recovery time between the swim and bike.
The Wildflower bike course is tough. It is quite hilly. The first mile is the steepest and hardest hill as you climb up and away from the lake. I'm pretty decent on hills and I passed a several people in that first mile! Don't get me wrong, there were some serious biker dudes that also passed me. And a couple of the people I passed in that first mile, passed me later on some of the down hills. I really pushed myself on the bike course. It's a lot of up & down hills and I really wanted to keep up my momentum for all those up-hills. There was one down-hill in the middle of the course where my odometer tells me I hit 37.2 miles/hr! We had one water stop at the 20K turn-around point. I stopped for about 5 minutes (which is probably more than I'd do on race day.) The scenery was beautiful with picture perfect oak trees dotting the grassy hills and plenty of wildflowers and birds.
After the bike:
After the bike, I wanted to experience the "brick" of going from biking to running, which I haven't done yet and I've heard is pretty tough on the legs. So, after doing some stretching and hydrating, Alexa and I took off to run for about 10 minutes. And yes, it feels very strange to go from biking to running.
After that, we decided to go get back into the lake (without wet suits) to cool off and help our muscles recover. My friend Kalindi who is a marathon runner taught me the "ice bath" recovery trick at an ultimate tournament a few years ago. It really does work. And the lake was cold enough and I soaked my lower half long enough that I think it helped.
Evening activities:
Most importantly, we learned that the woman who had gotten injured on the bike ride did not have any super severe injuries was being discharged from the hospital with a broken arm. We heard from several honorees (one from each team) which was very interesting, motivating, and emotional. Then the coaches of each team put on a little skit to entertain the crowd of about 200 or so people. The winner by far was the San Francisco team's "Baby Got Glutes" skit. In true ultimate-frisbee-cheer fashion they modified the words of a Sir Mix-a-lot song and even had a very well choreographed dance to go along with it. It's posted on Youtube, but I do warn you that it might be a "you had to be there" kind of thing and you can hear the words better on the "2nd half" video.
The run:
We ran at 9am Sunday morning. The first mile of the course if somewhat flat as it goes along the lake. We stopped as a group after the first mile to stretch, which was good considering we'd had all night to get stiff from the activities of the day before. The Wildflower run course is very hilly and in May when the Triathlon it is very hot. There's one section that is called "the pit" where you run down a fairly steep hill and then back out of "the pit". It was perfect running weather for us in late March, but I can see how it wouldn't be so great in early May, when it can get as hot as 90 degrees by mid day. The last mile of the run is a steep downhill (Lynch Hill) - the same hill that is the first mile of the bike. I really don't like running down steep hills. I would have much rather run up Lynch Hill.
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