I've always wanted to check out the Vineman course before the race in the past but never had the chance. Bay Club hosted a 2 days training camp so I thought I'd jump in! They were gracious enough to have me and put up with my odd jokes and comments.
Saturday: 74 mile ride, 5 mile brick run
The crew:
See this Instagram photo by @trainer_dave * 21 likes
The ride:
I don't know this course at all! I took the wrong turn so many times. Good thing I always had a decent gut feeling of what felt right and wrong and checked my phone.
Two of the crew, David and Vlad did the 120 miler. Hats off, Chapeau to them. They're warriors.
I never had the chance to really enjoy the course whenever I raced here because I had level 10 tunnel vision. Guernerville, Healdsburg, and Windsor are amazing. Beautiful back drop and endless roads with no stops and almost no cars. Love it.
The run: Bonk fest
I've been experimenting with fasting, and cutting down calories for certain work outs. Let's just say I miscalculated my dosage and got a huge under-dose of calories. All I could think about was sushi on this run.
Dinner
I guess none of us are foodies with foodie pictures but I regret deeply that I didn't take pictures of the taco we had on Saturday night. They were absolutely delightful. Chris is is the man making it happen. He made the best taco of all time. I'm not a big mexican-food person but I'm a fan now.
Sunday: 1.25 hour swim (4k open water), 51 min bike (16 miles), 1 hour run (10 miles!)
We started out the swim at 10 am. Classic Euro-style.
Did not take any pictures here. But had some major loner-training syndrome. Classic LTS.
Rest of the crew didn't want to swim anything longer which I completely understand. I didn't have a watch or anything and felt like I didn't go anywhere. But I'm glad I swam in the river and enjoyed the nature a little bit. Honestly I was just trying to convince myself it's so nice out there, so many times, that I eventually believed it.
The bike:
It was real nice chill ride. The riding here is amazing.
"Big Knife Coming Through..."
The run:
While cleaning the kitchen Sunday morning, Chris walked over to put a big knife away and he said "big knife coming through". It was a funny moment and we joked that instead of saying on your left, we should say big knife coming through.
And I had that stuck in my head during the run. Even though I didn't pass nobody out there, I was in big knife mode.
I have lost a lot of weight in the last couple of weeks after changing my diet and training routine. I haven't been this light since high school and I think my running legs are back and they've never been better. After 5-6 years of running on 147-152 lb body, my muscles are much stronger, and I retained that strength while propelling a 140-143 pound body. I was pretty hungry and tired but ran the first 20 min at 6:10 pace and didn't push it. I thought this could be good. Did the main set of intervals 8x3min at threshold with 1min rest and ended up the run at 6:05 pace! prolly my fastest run for this distance in a long long time.
The training was amazing. But the people from Bay Club that I trained with were more amazing.
Everyone had pretty great stories, triathlon related, and life in general, and I think all of us learned a lot from each other over the weekend. Jesse wins with his story telling for sure.
What I got most out of this camp was the positive energy and drive from the group. Though we all train at different levels, have different physical abilities, I felt that all of us all share one thing in common, incredible resilience and mental toughness.
Emily coming back from a freak-accident in Wildflower, and always smiling and encouraging others
Fiona training through pain this weekend with back troubles from recent injury
Julie having a bit of knee pain, but always having a smile on her face on the bike
Vlad told me a story about his first Ironman last year and how it was so hot the last aid stations on the bike ran out of water. He could barely pedal and made it to T2 not even knowing if he could run. He was under so much heat stress that his fingers on his left hand couldn't move and couldn't tie his shoes. But he told himself to just run 4 miles and see what happens. Long story short, he took it one step at a time and finished. It's incredible.
I'm very inspired and refreshed by the positive vibe and energy of everyone. to that i say,
woop woop!
until next time,
Yu