We go up, we go down, all around town

The morning after our Mirror Lake swim five of us drove from the motel back to Lake Placid for a tour of the 1/2 Ironman bicycle course. I had biked the course a couple of times years ago with Jan and once by myself, the day before her Ironman race, but that was eight years ago. We have also ridden the course many times in our basement with Coach Troy and his dvd "On the Road: Lake Placid". These experiences didn't help my anxiety over the miles long steep downhill leading into Keene, NY.

I have several problems with going downhill fast on my bike.
1. Traffic. When training it's tough to trust cars and trucks will give you space, especially when the shoulder of the road may not be wide.
2. Road conditions. When you are riding on strange roads at 30+mph and don't know where potholes might be, it's tough to not be worried.
3. My bike. Will the brakes hold up? (I tend to pump them a lot going downhill, I think they were smoking and hot on the Keene descent). Will the front tire not wobble or fall off?
4. My bike handling skills. They are fair, not great, especially when I'm worried about the three items above, traffic being my number one worry.
5. I know that what goes down also eventually goes up. No race director puts in a downhill section on a bike course without making you pay for it with a tough climb. 

We survived the downhill, with crazy Lou who loves letting go and flying down, leading the way. I'm sure Lou and Mike W easily broke the 35mph speed limit. After that it was a fairly gentle ride to the small town of Jay, my favorite section of the course, before heading up to Wilmington and then "the notch" back to Lake Placid. The climb back to Lake Placid is tough, with many long inclines and rolling hills. It's not an easy course. When Lou saw our motel after biking 31 miles he called it a day. The rest of us kept cranking away back to Lake Placid, for a total of 42+ miles. We skipped one of the out and back sections due to a weather concern and figuring we had done enough.

I love the Lake Placid area, even when suffering on the bike, it's just so beautiful and different than the relative flat lands of western New York.

If I take one more stroke, it'll be the deepest lake I have ever swam around

Apologies to Samwise Gamgee for stealing/amending his quote about leaving the Shire with Frodo in "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring".

Six of us ventured to Lake Placid for three days of half-ironman triathlon training June 30-July 2. The weather was always on our minds as rain and thunder were forecast on and off throughout the weekend. We arrived Friday afternoon and before checking into our motel (The Hungry Trout - Wilmington) immediately began swimming in Mirror Lake. Jan was kind enough to kayak while four swam and one went shopping (she is "only" running the 13.1 mile leg as part of a relay team).

It's nice that the town sets up buoys for the IM swim course knowing that hundreds of people come there to train for the full IM or 1/2 IM. It's amazing how far away 800 yards looks across a lake. Many thoughts ran through my head while swimming;

1. I'm glad I have a wetsuit on. (bouyancy)
2. I'm glad Jan is nearby with the kayak.
3. This isn't Canandaigua Lake where I can stand up when swimming the buoys. Mirror Lake is up to 65 feet in depth, though its' average depth is much less. Still, if you get tired, there is no standing.
4. There are fish in this lake. Bass, trout, perch and more. I don't want to see fish, unless it's deep fried and surrounded by cole slaw, fries and buried in tartar sauce with an ubu beer nearby. Hopefully the noise of me swimming is scaring them away.
5. My sighting of buoys is poor. In part this is due to my goggles always fogging over, the buoys being small and me being scared of hitting another swimmer. This causes me to swim further than necessary.
6.  Lake Placid, the movie, wasn't based on fact, right? No crocodiles in this lake. Then why do I keep thinking about this possibility while swimming?
7. I hope Joanne, who is holding my wallet, cash and credit cards, isn't going on a major shopping spree while I'm in the water.
8. I'm swimming great! Fifty yards later.. I'm so slow, and back again. But I did get out of the water feeling pretty good, not overly tired. Something about training, maybe it does work?
9. I'm sorry Jan didn't get to swim (threatening clouds/rain moved in just after we finished). But at least she swam the course before (two loops) for her Ironman race a few years ago.
10. I'm really glad the rest of us had the chance to swim the course. My confidence has increased regarding the swim. I won't be fast, but hopefully will be steady and keep my breathing in check.