An Ironman Cooks!: 72 hour Wisconsin Training Trip

This past weekend is a whirlwind. I took Friday off work and left my house at 5am to head to Reston where I met up with three other people to drive to Wisconsin. Why you ask? To preview the Ironman course so that we will be familiar with it come race day. We left Reston at 6:30am and 15 hours later (after stopping at several rest stops and cracker barrel, of course) we were in Madison, WI. It was a long road trip, but I realized after spending 8 hours on the weekend biking all day, 15 hours in a car isn't so bad. By the time we got there, it was time to head for bed.

I was staying with two other people away from the rest of the team who stayed in downtown madison at the race hotel. Thanks to my job, I got a discount at the same hotel I will be staying at for the race so it was a good opportunity to figure out where that was in relation to the race (~20 minutes away) and to become familiar with its amenities (kitchen!) for race day. We got up at 5:30am, prepped for a LONG day in the heat, and headed over to the hotel to meet the team at 7am for a 100 mile bike ride.

The Ironman Course is called a "lollipop." It is 16 miles out (the stick), two 40 mile loops, and 16 miles back. There is some construction which prevented us from previewing the full loop, but for the most part we got to see a significant portion of the course. From the team hotel, we drove along the stick until we got to the start of the loop. Our plan was to do the loop twice (adjusted for a detour around the construction), and then a portion of the stick until we got to 100 miles. We finally got started around 8:30am and it was already HOT.

I started off a bit too fast and after 5 miles, I decided to stop and wait for the next group behind me (~8 or so people). Once they caught up, we completed the first loop in about a total of 3 hours, chatting and enjoying ourselves. For the most part, I think the consensus was that the loop wasn't as bad as we imagined. It was gorgeous, and rather than non-stop hills, there were a few rollers (probably 5-10) and then 3-5 "big" climbs (which compared to last week's gran fondo were pretty small). In between, there were several somewhat flat stretches that we could have fun on. Overall, I think most of us enjoyed the loop and after the first loop, we were ready to head off again in good spirits.

The second loop is where we ran into trouble. First off, it was starting to get HOT and it only got worse as the day went on. Then around mile 5 of the second loop, our group passed a woman walking her bike on the side of the road and one of the riders, Janet, bumped wheels (i think) with the person in front of her and went down hard. She had a pretty nasty bump/cut on her arm but said she felt fine. However, when she saw the cut/bump, she freaked out thinking her bone was broken and almost feinted. Luckily, we had a first aid person with us and she got all patched up. After about 10 minutes we were ready to ride again.

The next bit of trouble happened about 5 miles later (around mile 50). Chris and I were in front of the rest of the group and had started to distance ourselves a little bit on the hills. All of a sudden we heard the rest of the group stop behind us and heard "keep going" shouted at us, so we did. Both of us assumed that Janet had started not feeling well and the rest of the group was stopping with her until she could get picked up by our coach (Alexis). About 20 minutes later, we saw the Alexis drive by with Janet in the car and somebody else's bike on his rack. We met up with them at the local bike shop that served as our rest stop and found out that Janet was feeling fine, but some ASSHOLEs had dropped a whole bunch of TACS in the road because they were pissed off at the cyclists in the area (we assume) so several of our riders got flats. Poor Janet got flats in BOTH of her tires and had to go to the bike shop in order to fix them. Being a total rockstar, she finished the rest of the ride.

This really pisses me off. I realize that people get annoyed with cyclists, but to do something that could really harm someone seems like an incredible overreaction (especially in Wisconsin where the roads are pretty open and it is easy to get around a cyclist). It turns out I got a tac in my tire (and was riding with it the last half of my ride as a slow leak rather than a full on flat). If the tac had shifted, causing me to get a flat on a downhill, I could have crashed and been seriously injured. I don't know what these assholes were thinking (they probably weren't with their imbecile brains), but I don't see how one minute of inconvenience a cyclist caused them was worth potentially taking someone's life.

Anyways, the last 50 miles of the bike ride is basically a blur, fighting the heat (it was about as hot as DC was this weekend), and just trying to survive. I was just focusing on getting to the next rest stop(s) and the second loop definitely felt harder in the heat. The last 22 miles of the ride (the stick) was rough with a few huge rollers and some wind. After almost 8 hours of riding, I finished the longest bike ride I have ever done (100.1 miles!), longer than any bike and build ride I did. I immediately headed inside the bar we were parked at and ordered fries and a beer. While I definitely was struggling in the heat, I think the addition of salt tablets to my nutrition really helped. Typically the last thing I want after a ride is a beer so the fact that my stomach was willing to have one is a good sign. Overall, I enjoyed the course. It's beautiful and not too boring. I think it will be manageable for race day. I am a little concerned about the time cutoff (5:30pm), but I think I will make it (especially without taking breaks with a big group).

That night, we met up at the hotel, walked through the transistion area, and went to dinner. It was then back to bed because Sunday morning we met at 7am to run the run course. Unfortunately, there was some construction that took us off course somewhat, but we had some random people join us who had done the course before so they were able to help us find our way. There are a few bad hills, but other than that I think I will enjoy the course. It goes through downtown and the University of Wisconsin campus and is very pretty.

I finished the run around 10, grabbed a frappucino and chocolate milk from Starbucks as well as some salted caramel ice cream from a street vendor (oh my goodness so good!) to recover, showered, and was on the road by 12 to head home. Three of the four of us in the car were decked out in compression socks to aid in the recovery so we looked super cool at the rest stops. We stopped in Chicago for some deep dish pizza with another car (leaving me full til 3pm the next day), and arrived home at 3am Monday morning. I finally got back to my house around 4am, exhausted. This was the longest 72 hours of my life, but it was definitely worth it. I feel much better about the course and feel prepared for race day. I also enjoyed getting to know other people on the team. In order to recover from my "vacation," I took Monday and Tuesday off of work and have barely left my couch.

Overall lessons learned from this weekend (both personal observations & tips from others):
1) Salt tabs are a lifesaver, a tic tac box makes a great container for them
2) If I take the bike course slow initially, I should be more than okay with the course
3) Don't try to eat something during the transition from the swim to the bike
4) Take off the glow-stick they give you to run in the dark before crossing the finish line as it messes with photos
5) Walk up the big hill in the run
6) Take my time through the finishing chute (potentially even walk) to soak up the fantastic atmosphere
7) Some people are assholes, but luckily there are a ton of other good people in the world to make up for it
8) September 9th is going to be awesome

And now some pictures -