Lake Placid Camp Weekend Review

There is some background to Lake Placid that makes it so special to me. Its where I ran my first half marathon and Full Marathon in 2006 and 2007. But most of all it was where my honey and I went on our first big trip together. In 2007 We stayed there a week and we had the best memories and good times in Lake Placid. We stayed at Northwoods Inn Back then right on Main street and woke up and went to the Coffee Bean Coffee shop right across the street every morning and sat on the balcony over looking Mirror Lake with all the Triathletes Swimming in the lake. So beautiful to see that at 7am!

4 Years ago I remember getting into my wetsuit there and freaking out about 100 yrds from shore and swimming back. A swimmer asked if we were doing Lake Placid Ironman- I said yeah 2020 to my honey! Now look, I was there and did a pretty decent job over the weekend! 9 years sooner!!! But Im not doing Lake Placid. Nor will I ever do Lake Placid. Here are the details of the weekend.......

He looks so Enthused!!! Ha ha!

Day 1- We got on the road a little before 9am. We wanted to be up there to Bike with the whole group. Its a 4 hour drive from our house so it would give us some time to eat and get there before the 3:30 bike. The previous day I had to get new tires because the ones I had on my Car were almost bald. As we were pulling out of Breakfast in Pulaski onto 81 to go to Watertown, my car starts rattling BIG time. I was scared thinking the worst. The tire was going to come flying off, the car was going to flip, etc, etc, etc. We pulled into a Midas in Watertown (Think Fort Drum Area) And the guy inspected the car, said I almost needed new brakes and that the Lug nuts on the right front tire had not been properly tightened. GREAT!! So they fixed our car up and we were on our way. Let me tell you from then on the scenery wasn't great. Nothing to look at. We went through 10 different radio stations. Started singing our own tunes,  you name it. Finally We arrive at 2:30pm. We get un packed, say hi to everyone, get dressed and out the door we go for a recovery ride. Although I felt we were flying for a recovery ride, my HR pretty much was ok for the ride. We took the first road out of Placid and onto the last few miles of the Run course, then back up to Main street on a Nice hill and back to the Hotel.

Our Little Room

The Hotel was a little ways from Main street but close enough that you could get there pretty quickly by foot or car. Our next trip would be down to Mirror Lake for a 30 min Swim. I felt pretty good in the water and the best part was I didn't have to sight too much because there were buoys out for a Kayak event every 15-20 yrds! I swam out 15 min and back 12 min. The current just took me back, so I meandered and waited for everyone else to come to shore.

Next was getting washed up and Milanos for dinner. The place was above Starbucks on Main Street. I didn't like that we couldn't all sit together. We are a team and I think It would have been better if we all could have sat together to get to know each other. I had a great Stuffed Chicken and Mashed potatoes while My honey feasted on a Stuffed Trout! They were both pretty good.

We ended up meeting up with Deb who is a fellow Train-this team mate. She is from Ottowa. She told me I had a Accent. Really?! Me?! To funny! Im a New Yorker I guess!! ha ha! We hung out for a bit played with her 2 dogs. They were staying in Wilmington because the Motel we were at wasn't dog friendly.

Onto Ben and Jerrys for some good 'ol Ice cream to end the night!! I had a Caramel fusion which was a waffle cone stuffed with Caramel and Loaded with Caramel Chocolate Ice cream. Hey, I went off the core for the weekend!!! You have to live a little!!! :)

Day 2- Up at the butt crack of dawn because the bed springs in the bed were HORRIBLE! Every time I rolled over I got springs to the ribs!! I was up at 5am, making my bottles, eating my Pre-race shake. Met up with Coach Mary and a few other athletes and talked about the day. This day was pretty much on your own. It was a day to practice fueling, race strategy, whatever you wanted to do. Some were doing the whole race course, others weren't. I was pretty bummed that we all didn't start together, but we all have different goals I guess.

We got onto the Bike Course after a hearty breakfast at a nice cafe right across from High Peaks Cyclery.

The Plan was to do both loops. My honey was going to see how he felt after 1 loop, but the plan was to do 2. Which would be about 100 miles because we were cutting off a climb in the middle as coach said I didn't have to do that part because I wasn't doing this course for my Ironman!! We started off on very rough roads with up hills and decents. The Decent into Keene was sooo scary as there were pot holes along the shoulder and cars doing abot 55-60mph to your left. Everyone said get out to the Yellow line but that was way too scary for me and I hugged the brakes more than once!! On the bumpy roads, my honey lost his water bottle and he was in a bad mood now. Great.

We eventually turned onto a beautiful road heading back to Lake Placid. We could really push the pace on this road a bit. We stopped and helped a fellow biker out that needed a tube, looked at all the beautiful scenery. Sorry no pics as I left the camera at the Motel!! No room!

Then another turn and it was all up hill to Lake Placid with the strong head wind. We stopped at a gas station so we could use the restroom and fuel up. At this point my honey called it quits. I was doing a fantastic job with fueling. I felt great. No muscle soreness yet and he wanted to quit. I made the decision to go back with him as I was terrified of doing the decent again on my own and wiping out, etc, etc, etc. Back to the motel we go and onto my transition run which I have to say felt AMAZING!!! I could've run for a good 26.2 miles!! HA HA! Proper fueling was the key here!

I fell asleep after this and woke up late for the 4 PM Swim. I didn't get down to the lake until about 4:45pm. Oh well, Ill try and see if anyone was down there. Stef (from my team) and April (her sister)  were heading into the water. I felt relief that someone would be out there I knew in the water with me. You never know what could happen!!

Beautiful Mirror Lake!!

The swim was uneventful. We were back at the motel and ready for dinner. I got a message from Coach Mary telling us we were meeting at Dancing Bear on the corner of Main Street when you get into town. I sat with Mary and got to know some of the people she trains with daily. I wish I lived closer to them!! Hearing all of their stories had me cracking up! Dinner was great! Then we ended up all together at Ben and Jerry's yet again! 

After this it was to the Motel for laughter and a few beers. I cant say what beers because someone might find out who drank them!! ;)

Matt, Coach Mary, and a guy with with the best eyes ever! (sorry didn't catch his name!!)

TRAIN-THIS!!!

Day 3- Got up early, talked with the other athletes around coffee. At 7am, Ran 1 loop of the run course with Stef. We had a great time. It was a great scenic course. It was the exact same course I ran for the half and full marathon so it was very familiar to me. Again fueling was great but I could've probably used a little more Heed. I got back to the Motel, Iced my legs up, packed the car and headed for home after a stop at the cafe again for breakfast!! We saw Kim on the way up the hill hooting at us as we drove by!

 4 hours home, unpacked the car and off for a recovery bike on clean roads!!! Its so good to be back home!! I loved Lake Placid yet again but I love home even more!!