Epic Training Weekend in the Mountains

Holly (me) and Beth arriving in Blowing Rock NC

This past weekend was our team's Epic Training Weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Blowing Rock NC. What an experience - there was laughter, there were tears, there was exhaustion and self doubt and yes, there was wine but no whine (a team rule for the weekend). Beth (in the purple) was my roommate for the weekend and was a good sport about wearing the Hello Kitty gear my daughter Brooke picked out for us. I really had so much fun with Beth over the weekend, THANK YOU for being a great roomie, co-pilot in the car and just partner in crime in general. I've got lots of pictures for you on this entry from the weekend.

We drove from Atlanta to Blowing Rock on Thursday afternoon. Grabbed a nice mountain top dinner on the porch with Beth, Chris H and our Coach Mike prior to check in. Off to a great start! Settled into our 'rustic' accommodations thursday night, good night sleep and up and at 'em to ride at 7:30 Friday morning. 

My riding partners- Wendy, Beth, me, Dori, Rachel, Sally and Amy

Wendy and me

We rode from our hotel to the Blue Ridge Parkway for our 6.5 hour ride. No mile expectation, just time. On my GPS, I got up to 41mph on some of the downhills and crawled up the mountains like a turtle. I can't pull up my account but I remember something like a 6500ft elevation gain from the ride. It felt great though it took me all of that time to just get 80 miles. Yes, that's how tough the ride was - 80 miles in 6.5 hours. Dori and I took a wrong turn on the way back to the hotel and ended up downtown Blowing Rock. We were definitely lost. Mike came and picked us up thankfully otherwise Dori and I would still be out there saying, 'I think this is right'. 

Dori and Me

We got back, had some lunch around 2:15p, couple of hours off and then to the pool for an hour swim practice/drills. Dinner and to bed.

Yep, I'm hiding in the back!

Saturday morning started with a return to the Blue Ridge Mountains for 3 hours of trail running. Again, no mile goal really, just 3 hours on the mountain trails. You can tell from the group picture above how excited we were... It was absolutely breathtaking I have to say, same as the ride. Hardest thing ever but the scenery keeps you going. 

My Pre-run curtsey- water and gel, check!

We ran about 4 trails I think, some looped into others so we started on one of the easier trails and ended on one of the shorter but harder ones. The great thing about our last trail was that it was a good incline to the top (we walked a good bit) but when you turned around it was a beautiful downhill for about 3 miles. Well worth it to end the 3 hours on a 3 mile downhill. 

After our trail run, we went back to camp and had an hour stretch clinic, lunch and then break time. About 4p we headed back to the pool for an hour of swim drills and land based exercises. Back to the camp, dinner and then visualization techniques from 7:30-8:30p. 

Regina, Beth, Karen and Me (my FAB midtown ATL running partners)

After our visualization time, we all just grouped up and laughed, drank wine/beer, took pictures and just bonded. This weekend was great for bonding and amazing team spirit. Such a cool, cool thing to be a part of let me tell you. I got to know some teammates that I didn't really know well and the ones that I did, well we got even closer. In the famous words of John Dapper, Proud to be your teammate!

Sunday we got up and were supposed to catch another 1.5 hour ride in the mountains but the winds from Hurricane Irene were too strong so we skipped it and packed up to head to TN for an open water swim. We drove for about an hour and then got to the Lake. This was great, I got to try out my new full wetsuit so thankfully the water was a little cold. I definitely got warm in it but was determined to leave it on to make sure it would work for a good long swim.

Me and Abby

We jumped in the lake and swam out and around the island, just doing that loop for an hour and a half to an hour 45. I felt pretty strong during the swim. The first loop I sighted horribly but did better on the next 2 loops. I heard it was around 2 miles if you did the 3 loops so I felt good about that. 

 Me, Amy and Jane post swim

After that, we jumped in our cars, grabbed lunch and drove 6 hours home. Got home Sunday around 6p or so and then back to work monday morning. Needless to say, it's been a bit of a sleepy week. We're now on recovery week and will ramp back up next week. We're definitely getting close!

Thanks to all for reading, donations and support. This team has raised over $200,000 for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society but we're still trying to get to our goal of $250,000. Please consider helping us with a donation - you can click the tab on my page to donate!

I was setting my bike up on the Trainer for my Saturday ride and in typical mini me fashion, she had to have her bike set up too. It was very, very cute. She lasted about 5 minutes but it was a great 5 minutes no doubt.

My husband Brad is in full swing with tennis season so this week it has been really hard to get to the group training. Ended up that I did all of the workouts on my own this week since our schedules are just opposite right now (and through the end of April really). I sent our coaches an 'I'm still alive and on schedule though you're not seeing me much' email. This was still an intensity week so more speed work and distance. Here's what my schedule was:

Monday: 3000yards in the am. It was a looooooong swim needless to say. I definitely felt the time pressure of getting the workout done, getting ready at the gym and getting to work. I'm going to have to get to the gym at 5am from now on when we've got this distance. Usually I'm at the gym by 5:15 but I need that extra 15 minutes on these long days. Either that or go to work with my hair wet... Working 9+ hours after swimming 3000yards isn't fun just in case you were toying with the idea of it.

Tuesday: 6 mile Fartlek run. Warmup of 2 miles, 6 x 2' tempo pace 3' recovery jog, 3-min steady run, 4 x 1' hard pace 3' recovery jog, Cool down remainder of miles. Had a smuckers pb & j sandwich before this run and had a much better run than last week on the empty stomach. I should know this after running 5 marathons but for some reason I just forgot the importance of eating apparently.

Wednesday: 2500 yards on my own - missed the group training, boo!

Thursday: 22miles on the trainer. I liked this workout, lots of spinups followed by good steady state cadence times. My heart rate definitely got in the zone by the end.

Friday: 2400 yard swim. Lots of drills, but really spent time 'feeling the water' and trying to focus on keeping my elbow high and knocking off doing the s pull. Also working on bilateral breathing and the catch up drill so I glide a bit more. I must say, keeping my brain cooking on these things while I'm swimming definitely makes the time go faster.

Saturday: 55 miles -See picture above, haha! Couldn't make the group ride since brad had a tournament this weekend so I rode on the trainer in our family room. Watched the episode of Celebrity Apprentice I had dvr'd and real housewives of the OC. Followed it with a 20 minute run.

Sunday: Beautiful day here - 8 miles running around Piedmont Park and Midtown. Just absolutely gorgeous. Went to watch Brad's team play with Brooke around noon. His team did really well so we have a happy, yet tired, household. So not looking forward to getting up at the 'new' 4:45am - which lets face it, is really 3:45am - tomorrow morning.

Til next week! This upcoming week is a recovery week so the miles will be reduced, woohoo!! Thanks for the donations - please forward my page around to anyone you think would like to read about my training and/or make a donation to LLS. http://pages.teamintraining.org/ga/ironaz11/hiftner