Ironman Build Week One Recap

Posted on June 25, 2013 by kmichaud87

Last week was my first build week for Ironman Lake Placid! T-5 weeks to ago till the big day! The reality of the event is starting to kick in. On July 28th I will be embarking on a 140.6 mile journey of swimming, biking, and running in order to hear Mike Reilly tell me I’m an Ironman!

This past week was a big week for me and overall it went well. My swimming is coming together nicely. My yardage has increased and I’m feeling stronger than ever in the water. However, I have noticed that my left arm is weaker than my right when pulling. Something to work on in the off-season I suppose. I just hope this new strength and speed will translate to the open water. I was supposed to swim in the lake on Sunday, but severe thunderstorms changed that plan. I’m hoping the weather will be a bit more cooperative this week.

Quality time in the pool!

My bike fitness has seemed to have suffered over my Fall injury break from running and cycling. I feel good on the bike and my handling skills have definitely improved, but I lost a lot of power. I know this is my first Ironman and I shouldn’t get too caught up in finishing in x amount of hours, but in my head I have this time frame for the bike and I know that I’m not going to head it. The best I can do right now is to believe in my coach’s plan and follow the pacing. I had a good lesson on Saturday’s 90 mile ride on pacing. The first 21 miles of my route hit some pretty big hills and I trashed my legs a bit pedalling up them. It showed me the importance of pacing, especially at the beginning. 112 miles is a long way…

Okay, not from my rides this week… but from the Patriot Hald Aquabike

My running is so/so at the moment, which is a total bummer. Last year I improved leaps and bounds in my running capability and I was hoping that it would translate over to this year. I took all Fall off from running to heal my hip and plantar fasciitis issues to come back with more hip and this time IT band issues. I guess it’s my body’s way of telling me next year is going to be an “off-year” to fix my muscle imbalance and build aerobic endurance.

I ran twice this week. Wednesday I did 45 minutes of zone 2 running. The first 20 minutes were relatively pain-free and then the IT Band issues started to flare up a bit. However, I can run through it at this point. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing remains to be the question. Thursday I had a 30 minute T-run off the bike and had an awesome run! No pain and I was actually able to run a sub-10 minute mile in zone 2 and pain-free. Still way slower than I should be, but it’s a victory none the less.

Friday night dinner!

One thing that I have noticed is my appetite has picked up. My lunches have now turned into 5-course meals. So much so that my supervisor had to comment about it. However, despite the fact that I want to eat everything in sight, I have managed to lose several pounds. Yay! This coming week is sure to be a big week in terms of running and cycling. Thursday night I have a 4 hour brick workout. I just hope the weather is good because I certainly don’t want to be stuck riding in the middle of a thunderstorm! I also have a 2 hour run on Saturday. That will be the real test…

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 2:10 (6943 yards)

Bike: 8:25 (120 miles)

Run: 1:50 (9.41 miles)

Strength, Core & Yoga: 1 hour

~ Happy Training!

Race Report: Patriot Half-Ironman Aquabike

Posted on June 17, 2013 by kmichaud87

Patriot Half!

I signed up for this race back in December hoping that I would have a good solid race before my final build to Lake Placid. However, sometimes life throws you curveballs and you just need to change your plan. I decided a month ago after my knee/hip issues started that I would drop down to the aquabike. I didn’t really want to, but I decided to be smart and not do anything stupid… like run a half-marathon with an injured leg.

The week before the race I managed to come down with a nasty cold (again). I succeeded to do absolutely nothing last weekend in order to get rid of the cold. It helped, but my nose was still pretty runny and I pretty much lost my voice. I hadn’t been in open water yet either. Luckily, one of my co-workers offered (okay, maybe I bribed him) to kayak for me Thursday night so I could try on my wetsuit and get in the water for a bit of swimming. This week was pretty crappy weather-wise. Lots of rain so the lake was freezing. It was also windy and choppy. I lasted a whole 7 minutes in the water. Yikes! Hopefully race day will be much better!

Excited to swim in Sebago Lake

I headed down to Massachusetts on Friday night and stayed at my coaches house. I got to see her herd of puppies. They are completely crazy and lovable at the same time! I had a pretty good night of sleep. Going into this race I wasn’t really nervous. At this point, mentally I was considering this more of a training day than a pure race. The ultimate goal is Lake Placid so I treated this as a day to a) complete my first real open water swim of the year, b) get nutrition timing down, and c) work on pacing throughout the bike course.

Pre-race:

I got up at 4:15 and had a quick breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese and applesauce. No issues with breakfast going down. Guess I really wasn’t that nervous. Got in the car and turned the GPS on. Had issues with the GPS losing satellite the entire drive to Freetown. Awesome. I made it with plenty of time. Got my race packet. Racked bike. Set up transition. Felt like I was missing everything since I didn’t need my running shoes. Took Azul (my bike) for a quick spin. Used the porta-potty. Put on the wetsuit. Quick warm-up in the lake. Water temperature was about 60 degrees. Waited about 40 minutes until my swim wave went off.

The Swim:

I was in the last wave with both men and women aquabikers and the relay peeps. I seeded myself in the semi-middle third row back. The gun went off and so did we. I found open water pretty quickly. I didn’t have any major issues of anyone swimming over me or kicking me. I kind of wish that they did in a way so I could “practice” for Lake Placid! The first third of my swim was rough. I couldn’t settle in. My stroke was horrible. I’m sure I looked like a dying fish out of water. Finally, I was able to settle into my swim stroke and was making my way towards to first turn buoy. It felt like it took forever to get there! As you got further out into the lake it got a bit choppy. I made the first turn and headed for the second one. I could see that I was passing a few people in the previous waves so I was feeling okay about my swim, but I knew that I was slow. Before I started the race I set my watch to beep every 10 minutes during the swim so I had an idea of the time. The second beep went off shortly after I rounded the first buoy. I made it around the second turn buoy and started to pick up the pace towards “home.” The third beep went off and I knew I was looking at a 40+ minute swim. Definitely very slow for me, which I was slightly bummed about. However, I guess that’s what you get when you haven’t swam open water since last August. Finally I made it shore!

Swim: 42:02 (2:00/100 yards) 5/12 AG; 20/49 OA

Did my hair. Did my make-up. Just Kidding. I had a hell of a time getting my wetsuit off. It took forever. Best part of it was the fact that I managed to strain my left calf muscle while taking my suit off. Awesome. An hour later…

T1: 3:53 min

The Bike

The course is a two loop 28-mile course that is relatively flat with some rollers. It was a pretty course with views of lakes and nice houses. It reminded me a lot of Pumpkinman and a little bit of the Maine Rev3 course. It took me a bit to settle into the bike. My head was still a bit cloudy from the swim. The first couple of miles had a bunch of turns so it wasn’t very fast, but I did managed to pass a few people right off the bat. I concentrated on staying in my power zones and riding the course smart and consistently. My goal was to do the first loop a bit easier and then pick it up for the second loop. About 10 miles into the course I passed a woman and she asked if I was on my second loop. I laughed and told her I was only on my first loop. She said “oh, you have a pointy helmet so I thought you were on your second.” Thanks for thinking I’m super fast lady! I just might have to wear my aero helmet from now on. Ha! Shortly after that I came upon two tom turkeys trying to cross the road. Both were running around in the middle of the road like deer in headlights. Great! Luckily, they moved quickly to the side of the road and I was able to pass them without coming to a complete stop. At this point I started to play cat and mouse with an older woman named Shirley. This would go on throughout the entire ride. I would pass her and then she’d get a second wind and pass me only to have me pass her later on down the road. Great fun and a great motivator! Around mile 15 or so we came up to a road between two lakes. Just as a came around the bend a flock of Canadian geese and baby geese were trying to cross the road. Seriously! Turkeys and now geese! I kind of made a “no no” sound to get them to stay on the side of the road so I could pass and one of them hissed at me! I didn’t think Geese could hiss! Yikes!

I kept moving and soon Melissa passed me like a rocket! I skipped the bottle exchange at mile 18 and kept plugging along. Soon I passed by transition and headed out for my second loop. I picked up the speed and started focusing on passing anyone I could. At this point the headwind picked up again. It was there on the first loop, but definitely picked up a bit more on the second. This time I passed both mile 10 and 15 without any birds trying the cross the road. I did see a turtle at one point. Around mile 45 or so Shirley and I started playing cat and mouse with a man named Craig. Right around this point the bike traffic started to pick up a bit and becoming a bit of a cluster-f***. The roads were a bit narrow and there were cars trying to pass. Things got a bit slow. At this point I was getting frustrated and finally when I had a chance I just put my head low and hauled ass by about 10+ cyclists. Shirley and Craig were long gone at this point. I passed the bottle exchange again and knew I had roughly 10 miles left. At this point I picked it up again. I passed a bunch of people knowing that I didn’t have the run. In the final miles I saw the elite men heading to the finish of the run looking strong. Then I saw transition and was done. It was a nice feeling knowing I didn’t have the run now. But, I sort of missed not being able to run….

Bike: 3:11:56 (17.5mph) 6 AG; 29 OA

Overall, I felt good during the race. I was a bit disappointed with my time overall. I was slow, but I haven’t been training much in my half-ironman zones. That coupled with my cold, I did the best I could on that day. I was just glad that I didn’t have any major coughing spells during the swim or bike. Looking at the results afterwards there were a lot of slow bike times. I was really hoping to go sub-3 on the course and it is definitely within my capability. I think the headwind played a role in the slower times. I compared how I did in the aquabike to my age group for the Half and I would have placed well there if I didn’t have my knee injury. But you never really know. I did accomplish my goal of the day – to have a good solid ride. My VI for the ride was 1.09, which is really really good for me! I was happy about that. My legs felt good at the end, minus the calf strain. Now, onwards to my final build to Ironman Lake Placid!

Overall: 3:57:48.6 6/12 AG (Women under 44); 10/28 Females; 26/49 Overall

My awesome Garmin watch tan lines!

Holiday Weekend Wrap-up

Posted on May 29, 2013 by kmichaud87

The weather for the holiday weekend wasn’t the greatest in Maine, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least we didn’t get 3 feet of snow like Lake Placid! Saturday was a bit of a wash-out. However, I had an extremely productive day and got a lot of things checked off of my to-do list. Some of those things included changes to this website! 🙂

The biggest part of my Saturday was my first official run in the past couple of weeks. As I mentioned yesterday that I was able to run/walk 3.2 miles relatively pain-free. The first mile was good, but I got a few aches and pains afterwards that caused me to take walk breaks. But… it was a huge improvement from the past couple of weeks so I took it!

Sunday’s weather was much better. Very little rain so I hit the road for my 2:20 ride. It was definitely early spring riding weather. I had to break out the gloves, toe warmers, and knee warmers for the ride and my toes were still frozen when I got home. The skies were overcast and it sprinkled a bit. There was definitely a bit of a headwind, but nothing compared to Monday’s ride! I decided to take one of my normal routes, since I knew it would have me ending around the 2:30 mark. However, with the wind I was a bit slower than predicted. Oh well!

Some interesting things I saw on my ride:

1. A most likely drunk redneck attempting to burnout in his crappy truck in the middle of Route 25 and failing. His drunk redneck friends were in the front yard laughing at him.

2. I saw long-haired, long-horned cows in a pasture. They made me giggle.

3. I saw multiple dead snakes on the side of the road, including a giant water snake. I squealed every time I saw a dead snake even though I knew they were dead.

Funny cows!

Monday’s weather was a thousand times better! Although I still wore knee warmers, arm warmers, and toe warmers. I was supposed to do a 4-hour ride on Saturday, but decided that there was no way I could sit my ass down for 4-hours on the trainer. Thus, I moved my long ride to Monday so I could ride outside. It was a good decision. Minus the hellish headwind. The wind was pretty nasty. There were times when I was pushing a ton of watts and only moving about 10 miles per hour on the FLATS! It was mentally daunting at times and a few times I considered throwing in the towel. But, I kept moving forward.

I decided to ride up route 113 towards Fryeburg. My goal is to ride all the way to the New Hampshire border as my ride times progress over the next 6 weeks or so. The roads are pretty good for a majority of the way and the traffic is relatively low. The route is similar to Lake Placid although not as nearly as hilly. One of my coworkers lives in the area and told me about a really hilly route from Brownfield to Denmark that I can take to simulate some Lake Placid hills.

Welcome to Western Maine!

The ride went well. My Ironman fueling plan thus far is working well. I’ve been using Ironman Perform for my drink of choice because that’s what is served on the course. I’m not the biggest fan of it, but so far my tummy is handling it well. I’d rather not have to worry about carrying 10 bottles of fuel with me during the race. I was definitely well hydrated for this ride. I stopped twice to find a bush 🙂

I felt good off the bike so I decided to attempt my 25 minute T-run. I was hesitate at first, but wanted to give it a go. Originally I planned just to do 10 minutes. However, my knee felt great. Or as good as off-the-bike run could be. I focused on keeping my strides short and quick. It worked because I had no knee pain! I continued for the full 25 minutes. It was no where a speedy run, but I was a happy girl!

Happy Memorial Day!

Overall, a good long weekend of training! I got a good 100 miles in over a 24 hours period. My tushy is a bit sore now. Welcome to Ironman training!

~ Happy Training!

IT-Band Woes

Posted on May 17, 2013 by kmichaud87

The IT-Band – eMedicineHealth.com

I spent the last 8 days swimming, biking, and doing core work. No running. Why? Stupid and annoying knee pain. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had developed knee pain in my right knee making running a very unpleasant chore. I managed to compete in my first tri of the season and actually place well, but not without facing the consequences afterwards. Perhaps I should have DNF? Nah….

After the PolarBear I had a 60 minute endurance run in my training plan for that Wednesday. I was feeling pretty good and really wanted a good run. I haven’t had a good run in a while. The weather was beautiful out and I was pumped. I laced up my shoes, turned on the Garmin and did my dynamic warm-up while my watch was searching for the satellites. I swear my watch takes forever to find the satellites. Then it was off. My house is situated on a hill. Either way I have to ride or run down before I hit any flat-ish pavement. I took the hill easy because I knew it would irritate my quad. The hill went okay. About two minutes into the run the sharp nagging pain returned on the bottom outside of my knee rendering me to my little hobble/jump run gait. It’s quite the sight to see I’m sure.

I stopped, stretched (maybe prayed a little) and then began again. I managed to jog very slowly for 10 minutes but still had that nagging pain. After about a mile I knew I needed to stop. The pain intensified leaving me in tears. I turned around and hobbled/walked myself back home crying. Yes, I fully admit that I cried. After my 18 minute mile home I sat myself down in the chair with an ice pack and my laptop. I succeeded to email my coach (while crying of course) letting her know that I could not run and I had no clue how the heck I was suppose to do an Ironman in 10 weeks! Perhaps I was being a bit dramatic, but I was very frustrated.

Not being able to run while training for an Ironman is not good. Normally I would be the idiot and try to run through all the pain. However, the past couple of years I really have learned the value of rest and listening to my body. My body was telling me to stop running and figure out what the root cause of my knee pain was. Mary quickly replied to me to tell me that I would take a full week off from running and let my knee heal. We would see how it feels the following week and slowly build my miles back up. I still have plenty of time till Lake Placid.

I saw my chiropractor again on Monday and we both agree that my knee pain is being primarily caused by my IT-band. My quad muscles are also suspect in the situation too. Along with that pesky little piriformis muscle that I strongly dislike. We’ve been taping my knee and IT-band with kinesiology tape for the past three weeks. It seems to be helping. I’ve been very religious about icing and rolling out with my foam roller, stick, and lacrosse ball. That has seemed to help a great deal too.

Sweet Taping Job

I think the most important aspect of healing my IT-band is rest. I’ve done some research online and most sports medicine professionals recommend anywhere from 3-10 days of rest from the problematic activity (i.e. running in my case). I’m lucky that swimming and cycling doesn’t bother my knee and/or quad and IT-Band. Tonight is going to be my first night running again. Just an easy 30 minute run. If the knee bothers me then I will stop and continue to rest again. When dealing with injuries you have to be smart. I’m going to be smart this time. Let it heal and then strengthen it. I’ve been discussing with my boss at the gym the ideal strength/rehabbing plan for my IT-band to ensure going forward I don’t have chronic issues with it. Hopefully I’m on the road to recovery!

Here’s to hoping my run goes well!

Anyone have any advice on treating IT-band issues? What’s your worst sports-related injury?

~ Happy Training!

Race Report: The PolarBear Sprint Tri

Posted on May 6, 2013 by kmichaud87

2013 PolarBear Tri (www.tri-maine.com)

Going into this race I wasn’t sure what to expect. Honestly, I was about 90% sure I was going to DNF after the bike due to the major knee pain that I have been having. I saw my chiropractor on Thursday and she worked things out a bit and then taped up my knee to help with the patella tracking. I woke up Friday feeling great. After work I did my quick 20 minute bike and then 10 min run. Knee felt pretty good and towards the end a bit sore. I iced and rolled before hitting the sack.

Sweet Taping Job

Race Morning

Woke up with a stiff knee. Awesome. Ate my breakfast and threw all my stuff into the car for the 1+ hour drive to Brunswick. The race is a pool swim and thus only 32 swimmers could be in a wave at a time. I had to be there and set up in transition but 8:10am, but my swim wave didn’t start till 10am. Lots of sitting around and chatting time. My knee was definitely sore and I was visibly limping to and from my car to get my stuff. Not a good way to start a race morning. I met up with my fellow TriMoxie athletes and also saw some other athletes mingling about all waiting for their respective wave starts.

This was my first PolarBear Tri. It is considered to be the season opener for us Mainers who have to ride our trainers all winter long and swim in the pool until June when the lake water becomes tolerable (with wetsuits of course!). This race tends to bring out the big guns in the sport too so I was excited to see how I would do in a very competitive field. I was not expecting much at all due to my recent knee issue and the fact that my general fitness, and especially my speed, is pretty poor this year. My coach wanted me to race this race and I really wanted to. Of course, this was given to me before the knee became kind of a limiter. I told her before the race that if I felt good then I would race. If my knee was okay then I would just turn it into more of a training day. If the knee was causing a lot of pain then I was going to DNF after the bike. I was completely okay with a potential DNF too. It’s not ideal, but my ultimate goal this year is Lake Placid. A little sprint tri in Maine is not going to derail me from that goal.

The Swim

The swim is a 525-yard pool swim. I didn’t bother to warm-up because I would have just sat around from 90 minutes waiting for my turn. This definitely put me at a bit of disadvantage because I am the type of swimmer that needs a lot of time to warm-up to truly find my groove. I chose a lane in the middle of the pool and luckily ended up having the lane to myself. The whistle went off and I found a comfortable pace and settled in a bit. My intention was to keep track of my laps, but somehow I managed to forget after the first 125 or so. Typical. About what I estimated to be the 300 mark I tried picking up the pace a bit. I felt okay. It wasn’t my best swim, but it was not bad. I tried not to kick too hard because of the knee. I finally got the “last lap” sign and I pushed it to the last wall. I struggled a little bit getting out of the water trying not to somehow tweak my knee getting out. I hit what I thought was the correct button on my Garmin 910XT, but turns out it wasn’t. Opps. From looking at my data afterwards it appears I hit the 525 mark at about 8:42. I then set out on a half jog/ half jumping on one foot to the transition area. My knee was definitely sore, but tolerable. The swim time (I’m pretty sure) includes the run from the pool to the TA so my time is a bit slower due to my inability to “run” like a normal person. I can’t imagine what I looked like when the Capstone Photography person took my picture leaving the building…

Swim: 9:20 (1:47/ 100 yards)

The Bike

Transition went by quickly. I made sure not to dilly-dally around too much. I grabbed my bike and headed out on the long run to the mount/dismount line again with my awkward little attempt at running. I hopped on my bike and headed out on the 11-mile bike course. I hadn’t ridden the course before, but from what I was told that it was pretty flat with a few rollers. I had my Garmin Edge on my bike so I had turned that on in TA. The satellites took forever to find. I checked my watch to see my bike time, but didn’t realize that the watch was still set in swim mode. The course was relatively flat so I kept my power up and pushed it. The course was pretty empty, which was nice. I got passed by one speedy woman on a road bike and tried to keep her in my sight the entire time. I then got passed by some big guys flying on their tri bikes. I let them go since I had absolutely no hope in catching them. There were some upgrades at times so I ended up doing a lot of shifting to keep my power consistent and my cadence in a good range. My Power VI was 1.08, which is pretty damn good for me! 🙂 Even though the course is pretty flat, it has a lot of sharp corners. I’ve always been pretty timid going around corners, especially sharp ones, but I have made a good effort to get over my fears. I did super good today not slamming on my brakes and really riding the corners and then accelerating hard out of them. I’m quite happy with my bike performance. I was second in my age group for the bike split. I missed the top slot by 5 seconds. I probably lost those by trying to go the wrong way into the TA after dismounting. Opps! Knee felt good on the bike so I made the decision to run.

Bike: 36:06 (18.3 mph; 133 watts, 1.08 VI)

The Run

Transition went fairly quickly. I found my rack quickly, hung Azul up and grabbed my running shoes and headed out. The first 300 yards or so were very painful. I thought about just throwing in the towel, but made the decision to keep going. I made it this far and after having a great bike split I knew that I could be on my way to a podium finish in my age group. I just needed to keep my legs moving. The first part of the run was on the baseball field. My legs definitely did not like the long grass. I focused on taking short steps and moving forward. Then it was a quick jaunt on the trails and then onto the road. The further I got the better my knee began to feel so I kept moving. I passed a few people and a couple of people passed me. Finally I came to the first aid station and ran through it. I knew the first mile was almost done. During transition I realized that my watch was messed up so I was able to set it in run mode. Because of the pool swim I had no satellite data. Luckily I knew this would be a problem and put my foot pod on my shoes before the race. I hit mile one around 9:50ish. Not my fastest at all, but I was okay with it. I was running and that was what mattered. A 54-year-old woman cruised by me at this point so I picked up my pace. Funny thing was the faster I seemed to run the better my knee felt. Around the 1.5 mile mark we turned onto dirt trails. There wasn’t many people on the course so it was a bit lonely. I hit the second mile at a 9:11/mile pace so I know I doing better. My goal at this point was to negative split the run and also not get passed by Tammy, a super fast TriMoxie athlete who started about 20 minutes behind me in the pool waves. I knew since she was super fast that she might pass me in the run so I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen. Plus it kept me motivated to keep moving. The third mile was a bit mentally tough. We looped back on the same dirt trail again and I could feel my knee pain again. I just knew I needed to make it to the finish. I passed a 65-year-old man in the final yards of the run. I crossed the finish line and limped my way over to the Med Tent to get ice for my knee.

Run: 28:04 (9:22/mile)

Race Bling

Total: 1:15:44; 3/12 AG; 32/133 W; 111/257 OA

Tammy, Myself, Marisa, and Beth – all taking home hardware after a great race!

Overall, I’m pleased with the result. Obviously, I wished my knee would not have been an issue so I could have pushed it more, but it is what it is. I know my speed isn’t there and my general fitness is lacking. However, I had a good first race. My transitions were good. I didn’t stand in TA and play with my watch forever like the Y for the Tri race last year. I went in, did my business and left. I had a great bike split and I did manage to pull off a decent run split. My knee was definitely sore Saturday after the race and I spent a long time icing it. Hopefully, we can get this knee issue figured out so I can start running again without pain. Ironman Lake Placid is in less than 3 months! Yikes!

~ Happy Training!

The Weekend Plague

Posted on March 18, 2013 by kmichaud87

Last weekend I had a fabulous weekend full of fun and friends for a great 26th birthday celebration. This past week began strong with renewed motivation for training. My job situation got a little more stable and I have leads on affordable health insurance plans so that is a huge stress relief. My new Garmin 910XT came in the mail on Wednesday so I was more than excited to try out my new toy this weekend. However…

karma is a bitch

On Thursday I started feeling really nausea throughout the day but I just chalked it up to being related to the recent changes in my diet and also stress. When I’m super stress it tends to affect my tummy and GI track. Then on Friday I had a long day of work between two jobs and I just started to feel like shit. My head felt like it was in a vice and my throat was beginning to get dry and sore. Yup, I totally caught the latest cold that is going around. As always, epic timing to boot. I was pumped for my big weekend of training, which included my first outside ride of the year. Obviously, none of that happened.

I spent a majority of my weekend in bed or the couch watching movies or sleeping. And maybe devoured a pint of ice cream. I did have to work a few hours each day so that was kind of a bummer, but such as life. I did manage a 1 hour ride on the trainer before I felt like I wanted to die on Sunday afternoon. My coach told me not to stress about it and do what I can. I felt the need to burn off the ice cream I ate so I guess it counts?

Today begins the beginning of my rest week. I’m also currently at home sick. I was hoping that I would feel better and be able to get in a quick run today, but alas my body (mainly my head and left ear) has told me that staying in bed all day is a much better plan. Grrr… I’m crossing my fingers that I kick this cold very very soon and hopefully it is the last one of the year. Because I just realized that Ironman Lake Placid is less than four and a half months away!! FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS!! As in 14 weeks! EEEKKK! Time to get down to business!

Now, please go away cold. I really hate you. Thanks.

~ Happy Training!

Tentative 2013 Race Schedule

Posted on November 26, 2012 by kmichaud87

Ok, so that picture just makes me giggle…

The next few weeks are going to be quite hectic and not because of the holidays. I made a good dent in my thesis paper this weekend and I need to buckle down this week and finish the rough draft by this coming Sunday to submit to my professor. I also need to work on my literature review too because I guess it wasn’t detailed enough. I’m a bit annoyed about that actually. I’ve never written a literature review before. Honestly, I find them quite useless. I have my own method of writing papers and it has been quite successful in the past. Why change it now?

Anyway, I’m glad Thanksgiving is over. It’s fun to hang with family, but I can generally only take them in small doses. We didn’t even spend Thanksgiving with my family. We ate dinner at my father’s girlfriends house with her entire family. It was interesting. I have my own crazy family and to be quite honest I’d rather not have to spend time with someone else’s crazy family. Don’t get me wrong, they are very nice people, but it was awkward to say the least.

Wednesday night I got my right hip adjusted by my chiropractor and it was very much-needed. It had been bothering me for the past week and I knew that it was “out.” She “prescribed” yoga for me. A lot better than drugs I would say! I hit up a hot yoga class yesterday at one of my favorite studios. It was awesome and left me feeling pretty relaxed afterwards.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my upcoming 2013 race season and have started putting together my tentative schedule. Here’s the current version at the moment and, of course, it is always subject to change.

2013 Race Season

2/3/13 – Mid-Winter 10-Miler Classic (Registered and revenge race after last year’s attempt at running it while sick)

3/3/13 – Irish Rover 5k

4/28/13 – Wallis Sands Half Marathon

5/4/13 – PolarBear Tri Sprint

6/9/13 – Pirate Tri Sprint

6/15/13 – Patriot Half Ironman

7/28/13 – Ironman Lake Placid (Registered)

9/9/13 – Pumpkinman Half Ironman

What races are you doing this year? I’m still sad that Mooseman is no more. 🙁 Although, it is now going to be run by a different race company, but I’m not sure on dates and if the course will be the same, etc. There is also going to be a new Olympic and Half distance race in Vermont the last weekend of June run by the same people who run the Patriot. If it wasn’t the same weekend as IMLP camp then I would probably consider it.

Official training begins January 1st! I made a comment to my boss at the gym on Friday that I was so out of shape after my run Thursday and he was like “are you kidding me?” Yeah, I am very swim, bike, run out of shape, but I can certainly kick butt at squats and chin-ups!

~ Happy Training!

"Race Report": Ironman Lake Placid

Posted on July 27, 2012 by kmichaud87

Welcome to IMLP!

I didn’t actually race Lake Placid this year. I volunteered, spectated, and cheered all my tri camp friends on so I could sign up for 2013! This was my first time going to an Ironman and let me tell you, it was a very overwhelming and inspiring weekend! I just love the culture of Ironman! Lake Placid truly transforms and embraces the Ironman during race weekend. Very cool!

I arrived early Saturday afternoon and immediately met up with Linda for a swim in Mirror Lake. I was surprised how many athletes racing the next day were swimming! It was around 3pm at this point and those people really should have been resting! The buoys were out so we swam the 1.2 mile loop sans wetsuit since the water was so nice. The race was actually wetsuit legal this year, which was a good thing for the athletes.

Mirror Lake

After the swim I went to Starbucks with Linda to meet up with her coach, Carrie. Carrie told me about the masters swim group that does open water swims Saturday mornings at Kettle Cove. I’m going to start trying to go to some of the swims because I need to start swimming with faster people if I ever want to get faster. The town was quite busy and shining with excitement. I walked around for a bit before heading to my dorm room at the local community college where I was staying the weekend. It was cheap and only required a 3 night minimum. It was a dorm room, nothing special. I definitely do not plan on staying there next year that’s for sure!

Sunday morning was an early morning. It was race morning! We drove into town and parked in the volunteer lot by the horse show grounds, near where our aid station was located. It was a 2 mile walk into town. We headed into town, got a quick breakfast, and located some people to watch the swim start. The swim start is crazy! Mirror Lake is a tiny lake and with about 3000 athletes things are crazy! The gun went off and the athletes began their days. We watched the swim for awhile then we each headed off to do our respective run workouts. I was lucky that I only had an easy 30 minutes run. Linda had a 2 hour long run! I thought I was being brilliant by running around the lake. It was a good 2.5 mile loop. I got to the other side and realized I was stuck! All the age group athletes were funneling from the lake down to the oval to T1 and then heading out on the bike course! I couldn’t get back to the other side to meet up with the ladies to get ready to head to our aid station to volunteer! I started to panic and then took off to run back around the lake! I didn’t have my Garmin on for the second loop back around the lake, but I was definitely booking it back around at my 5k pace!

Athletes getting ready for the swim

Finally we all met up, grabbed food, and began our 2 mile walk to run aid station #2 for our 5 hour shift. It was actually the perfect job. We were there from 10:30-3:30. For the first couple of hours we got things set up and then watched all the athletes pass us on their bikes for a second loop. Andy Potts was killing. His first bike loop was 2:01! That’s just insane because the LP bike course is one of the hardest and slowest courses on the Ironman circuit. At least in the US. There was another long break from the cyclists and then the Pro’s began trickling in on the run. Potts was leading by a a good 10 minutes or so at this point and then the others began coming. I got to hand Potts a cup of ice on his second loop of the run course! 🙂 So cool! The women pro’s began coming in about a good 30-40 minutes after the first pro men. Slowly the age groups were beginning to show up in masses and it was go time. I handed out ice cups, which were very popular since it was quite hot when the sun was out! Our aid station was at mile 2 of the run so at this point in the day many athletes were still relatively fresh. Towards the end of our shift we began seeing some athletes begin their second loop and not looking so happy or good. I got to see a ton of TriMoxie and PBM athletes! We were actually volunteering with a couple of TriMoxie athlete’s children, which was pretty cool. I asked them at one point who they thought would finish first. Both thought Dad would.

Waiting and watching the cyclists start their second loop

After our shift ended we headed back into town to get more food, find a bathroom, and then locate our friends who set up camp to cheer people on! They were all located by Lisa G’s, which is at the bottom of the big climb back into town. The run course is a tough course with several out and backs with a couple good climbs that you do twice.

I was impressed with all the TriMoxie and PBM athletes. Everyone finished extremely strong and for the most part, in good health and spirits. It goes to show you that having a good coach will get you across that finish line! 🙂

Marc in the white tri suit killing his marathon run

Marc finished his first Ironman in 10:37 and 94th overall! He didn’t quite get the Kona spot he wanted but the 40s are a pretty cut throat age group to be in. But to finish in the top 3% is pretty damn awesome if you ask me!

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG and earned a much earned podium spot!

Mel C kicking the marathon’s butt

Mel C finished her first Ironman in 12:29! She ran her way up to 14th in her AG. And I must say, she runs so effortlessly. I always look like I’m in severe pain no matter how slow I’m running!

Mel B starting her second loop of the run

I was most impressed with Mel B. She rocked at camp so I assumed that she was a seasoned triathlete, but I found out this past weekend that she signed up for IMLP last year having never done a triathlon before! She also works 60 hours a week! Her first triathlon was Mooseman 70.3 and if you know that race, it’s one hell of a hard race to pick as your triathlon. She totally rocked IMLP! Hats off to you!

My awesome coach, Mary

My coach, Mary, didn’t quite have the race she wanted but still finished in a super fast time! As she went by our aid station I kept telling people that she’s my coach! Not only is she a great athlete, but a great coach!

I apologize to those I didn’t get a picture of, but you all rocked and inspired me to sign up for 2013! By the way, I’m so glad none of you puked in front of me because I might have changed my mind 🙂 A huge congrats to Marisa, Mike, Tammy, Kelly, Pam, Patti, and Angela. You all looked super strong out there!

We didn’t stay till midnight to watch the last athletes cross the finish line to become Ironman. We were all exhausted and wanted sleep. I had to get up early to get in line to register for 2013. Volunteers get to register first, followed by general public, and then finally what ever spots are left go on sale online. I was in line at 6:30am and it was already quite long. I guess some people actually slept there the night before! Registration wasn’t suppose to open till 9am, but they opened early at 7:30. Thank God! I still waited over 2.5 hours till I got to pay my $687.50 for 2013! But I’m in! I’m going to be an Ironman in 364 days! Holy cow, it’s getting real!

However, I guess one of the more interesting stories that has popped up about this year’s race was some 53 year old man from CT who tried to cheat! We only swam one lap in 38 minutes and claimed that he really swam both laps. Hey, buddy, if you really did swim 2.4 miles in 38 minutes then you really should be in London right now! It’s quite the interesting thread on slow twitch now. Why the heck would you try and cheat at an Ironman race. Seriously, do you really want a Kona spot that bad that you would cheat to make your self better?!

Congratulations to all of the new Ironmen!

~ Happy Training!

“Race Report”: Ironman Lake Placid

Posted on July 27, 2012 by kmichaud87

Welcome to IMLP!

Mirror Lake

Athletes getting ready for the swim

Waiting and watching the cyclists start their second loop

Marc in the white tri suit killing his marathon run

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG and earned a much earned podium spot!

Mel C kicking the marathon’s butt

Mel C finished her first Ironman in 12:29! She ran her way up to 14th in her AG. And I must say, she runs so effortlessly. I always look like I’m in severe pain no matter how slow I’m running!

Mel B starting her second loop of the run

My awesome coach, Mary

Congratulations to all of the new Ironmen!

~ Happy Training!

A Quick Note

Posted on July 24, 2012 by kmichaud87

So the past week and a half has been a bit crazy! I’ve super behind on such things as blogging and laundry and with all my traveling and work schedule my nutrition has been off too! Yikes! But luckily, no weight gain and I purchased my first size 0 pants since middle school yesterday! Thanks J. Crew for making me feel good even though I know your pants aren’t a true size 0. My hip is feeling better, but is sore from being on my feet all day Sunday and then sitting in a car for 6 hours on Monday. I plan on having my race report from the Norway Tri up this week and my “race” report from Lake Placid too at some point.

But, anyway, here is the big news!