June Update and Final Month countdown

The countdown to Lake Placid has started with the final four weeks of training. One more really hard training week and then I taper for the last three weeks leading up to the Lake Placid Ironman.

June was another productive month for me, although I encountered a minor setback as I injured my Achilles tendon on a WPR run in Mt. Moriah cemetery. I'm not exactly sure how it happened but all of a sudden I got very gimpy and simply couldn't continue running and could barely walk. I don't think it was an over-use injury, just kind of a freakish event. That's why I don't do trail running. The worst part was that it happened the day before I went to Lake Placid for my Ironman training camp. The beauty of triathlon training is when you can't do one activity, you can focus harder on the other two until you recover. I was able to have my largest training volume months in biking and swimming and was able to squeeze in 100 miles of running despite taking a week off to rest the injury and starting back slowly to avoid re-injuring it. I like that my training volume has been steadily increasing each month with swimming and biking and I've already biked and swam more in six months this year than I did last year.

Here are my training volume numbers since the beginning of the year and compared to last year:
 

	January	February	March	April	May	June
Running (Miles)
2013	115.25	103.89	100.01	99.41	89.81	112.71
2014	112.52	117.22	138.07	102.58	135.44	100.88
Biking (Miles)
2013	201.40	190.26	104.19	217.89	216.29	298.91
2014	309.80	281.37	355.29	410.49	524.37	601.93
Swimming (Km)
2013	13.20	14.20	10.00	14.90	16.10	15.50
2014	22.20	19.70	25.30	27.00	30.40	34.40

I did two races in June, the Black Bear Half Iron Distance (which I posted about last month), the ODDyssey half marathon and also went to a training camp in Lake Placid.  Here is a summary of those events.

ODDyssey Half Marathon (June 8)
This was the third straight year that I have ran the ODDyssey half marathon. The race is held late May/early June where the weather is hard to predict. The last two years the race had very hot and  humid conditions. Luckily this year, we had a very sunny day, but with low humidity and the temperature was favorable this time. The course has a lot of shade which also helps keep the sun off. I started out pretty fast this year (as usual) and was averaging sub-7 minute miles for the first four miles, mostly because the first part of the course is downhill. As I started up the ramp to the Strawberry Mansion bridge and the hill after crossing the bridge, my pace definitely slowed up but was still pretty solid on the uphills (7:28). After coming back down to Kelly Drive and over the Falls Bridge to West River Drive, which were fairly level, I maintained a pace of 7:12 from miles 8 - 12. The last mile of the course features the trek back up the Lansdowne hill to the Finish line. I have definitely struggled on this hill in the past and was trying to save something for it. I was able to keep a good pace up the hill, although it was my slowest paced mile of the race (7:42), which was expected. I finished the half-marathon in my second fastest half-marathon time at 1:34:30 (7:10 pace). A solid finish to the great Spring race season and a nice medal that can be mounted to my wall as a bottle opener.

Lake Placid Training Camp (June 19-22) 
The Lake Placid training camp was run by ETA Coach, Jason Kilderry and something that I signed up for when the registration first opened up. There were 18 people that attended the camp and we stayed in two houses right near one another. The camp and training are so great that you don't even have to be participating in the Ironman Lake Placid to go. Lake Placid is a great location and provides a good challenge to train regardless of whatever triathlon you are planning to do. We had some athletes that were training for Half-Ironmans and some that were doing full Ironmans in other locations. We were definitely treated extremely well at the camp as the houses were well stocked with food and beverages and if something was missing, all you had to do was tell someone and they would go get it for you. There were two bike mechanics on hand that tuned up everyone's bikes, a massage therapist that gave everyone a 10-15 minute massages, and a physical therapist that helped me with my Achilles injury. The staff provided SAG support while we were on the bike course and carried water and Gatorade during the other workouts. There were also clinics about bike maintenance, open water swimming tips, and nutrition strategies during the Ironman.

As I mentioned, I got to Lake Placid with an injured Achilles tendon which put me on the sidelines for all running activities during the camp. I did get 3 swims in Mirror Lake and I rode the full Ironman bike course (2 loops) and got another loop in on Sunday morning while the other athletes were out on their long run. I'm excited for the swim portion of the Ironman as the lake was very clear and features an underwater tow rope for the buoys. I don't think that I will use the underwater tow line to guide me during the swim as I've heard it gets pretty crowded near the rope since it eliminates the need to site the buoys. The water temperature was in the high 60's while we were there and it felt great in a wetsuit. The bike course preview was one of my main goals for the camp to get a feel on the elevation changes, especially the Keane descent and the climbs from Jay back to Lake Placid. My first time on the course, I was able to complete 109 miles in 6:20 in some windy conditions. I noted my 100 mile time which was 5:45 which was the fastest time that I've ever done a century ride. I left the training camp feeling a lot more confident about a good biking time in the Ironman now that I have ridden the course a couple of times.

Based on what I did at the training camp and my training plan, I think that I should finish the Lake Placid Ironman in 12 to 12:30 hours. I figure a 1:15 minute swim, 15 minutes of total transition time, and a 6:30 bike. I feel like if I have a good day my marathon time should be between 4 and 4:30 hours, hopefully closer to 4 hours if everything goes right.

I'm hoping that my next blog entry will be about how I had a great race and achieved all of my goals at the Lake Placid Ironman. Good luck with training and have a great race to everyone that is doing the Ironman Lake Placid. I hope to see the many people that I've met during this adventure and wish everyone the best race possible. It's been a great journey.