IronCamp Arizona 2008

"Work is speed entering the body."

Kristin picked up a shirt at the Ironman with this quote, and I think it might be my new favorite. At a minimum, it sums up my trip! We just returned from 5 days in Arizona. We ran, we rode, we swam, we cheered, we laughed, and we ate. Boy, did we eat!

Saturday:

After having the plane de-iced before we could take off from Des Moines, Jenny, Michelle, Amy, and I arrived in warm and sunny Phoenix. To our relief, the bikes made it safely. We loaded up the bike boxes into the minivan and Amy's friend's SUV and headed off in search of food! Soon, we arrived at the Halfpap's in Mesa. We were very fortunate to have an amazing place to stay - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a huge kitchen, and all the comforts of home.

Jan was still at her sister's house, and Kristin was still with Reed and the kiddos getting ready for Sunday's Ironman. Jenny lead us out on what she termed a "shake out run." I have my own ideas of what a shake out run should entail, and this run was NOT it! My body was not at all ready for the heat and lack of humidity that is Arizona. After spiking my HR within 10 minutes of running (all uphill), I did my best to keep up for the rest of the run, but decided I needed another day or so to get used to the heat before I really tried to push it.

Next up was our version of the blind leading the blind: putting our bikes back together. Thankfully, I had taken mine apart by myself in my living room, so I knew exactly what it was gonna take to get it back together. The rest of the group had taken theirs to Rassy's and "watched" the guys there pack theirs. We shared some tools and some advice before deciding perhaps this job was better left to the professionals. Armed with Michelle's GPS, we found a Landis Cycles nearby. We loaded up Michelle's, Amy's, and Jenny's bikes into the mighty mini and away we went.

Chalking another one up to living in a small world, we soon discovered that our bike mechanic is an Iowa native. We gathered a few more supplies while he worked. Turns out it was a good thing we brought the bikes in, as Michelle and Jenny both had bent rear derailleurs. Next up was a trip to the grocery store, Whole Foods, and Starbucks. With an early morning coming up, we all hit the sack.

Sunday:

Thankful for the 2 hour time difference between Iowa and Arizona, we got out on the road by a little after 6am. Parking was easy, and we made our way down to the swim start, navigating the zigzag of baracaides, transition zones, and kybos. We found Ashley (TJ's girlfriend) and a primo spot to watch the swim.

I wasn't really prepared for the emotions of being at the event so close to the date of my own. I was wearing my HRM which reminded me constantly that IM CDA was in 70 days. I got a little queesy as I watched the long line of athletes file into the water, listening to Mike Riley remind them that they would soon be an Ironman. It was a good reminder of the magnitude of the event I have chosen to compete in. It reminded me of my goals for CDA and that I had better use this trip to Arizona to the greatest extent possible in order to reach those goals.

TJ had a great swim, and we watched him transition to the bike. We didn't have to wait long to see Reed and Loran head out on their 112-mile adventure. Eventually, we met up with Jan, Kristin, Ashley, and Jen (Loran's wife) for a run. The plan was to follow the bike course on the sidewalk and run for about 1:40.

The bike course is a 3-loop course, and thus, very spectator-friendly. We could do a lot of cheering and got to see TJ, Reed, and Loran on every lap. Jen and I ran together as my HR wasn't quite ready to keep up with the rest of the group. We even scored some free water along the way and ran into Tom and Marc running as well.

Jen invited us back to her hotel room for a quick shower after the run - I cannot tell you how much better we all looked, smelled, and felt after that little clean-up. It was blazing hot (95 degrees), sunny, and windy. I was very happy to be a spectator, and not an athlete! We drank water as fast as we could get our hot little hands on it.

Soon we took over a tent located along the run course and we all camped out, trying to find as much shade as possible. The run is 3 loops, as well, so all was good! My only problem was lack of food! Jan, Jeff Goodman (who ended up in AZ in his dark courderoy pants, dark shirt, and cold-weather shoes after he was bumped off another flight as he was making a connection in PHX), and I found a great little deli for some much-needed food and laughs. We made it back to the finish line just after TJ had lost a sprint (how'd you like to have to sprint after 140 miles?) by 15-20 seconds to finish 2nd overall. The top 4 finishers all finished within 90 seconds of each other!

Amy, Jeff, and I camped out along the finish line and waited for Reed and Loran to finish. They both had great races, and Reed even qualified for Kona! If you look closely at my shirt you'll see the spray of the champagne I was doused with by the women's winner. We had a quick chat with TJ, then hung out near the med tent while Reed and Loran took 3 IV's a piece in their quest to remain upright after the race. Dinner was great - and so was the beer I had with it!

Monday:

With the race over, our focus quickly turned to our own training. Jason had left us a number of suggestions for riding while we were there. We picked Fountain Hills as Monday's ride. The Phoenix area has great bike lanes on many of the roads. Early into the ride we were detoured due to construction. After crossing over a bridge, we realized we were without a bike lane, and there was no way for traffic behind us to go around us. We chose to walk our bikes for a little bit as the road we wanted didn't appear to be too far off in the distance. We were wrong!

After about a mile or more of hiking in our bike shoes in the loose gravel ditch, we got to the "big road," filthy, but safe. The next couple of hours we climbed to Fountain Hills, got some water, had our picture taken in front of *the* fountain, went into McDowell Mountain Park, and back to our road construction. The part under construction was empty, so we tried our luck there. Eventually, we saw barricades in the distance, warning us that the bridge was out. We didn't let that stop us as we hopped the barricade and walked to the end of the road. Jan said it best when she said it looked like something out of the Bible. It was like the parting of the Red Sea meets an earthquake. The road was totally missing, but all the evidence of the water that took the bridge out was gone! We considered carrying our bikes through the river bed, but Amy and I vetoed that after Michelle claimed that the rattlesnakes sleep under the rocks during the day. No thanks! We opted for a shorter hike through the median, then a quick little ride back to the safety of the bike lane.

All in all we had about 62 miles. Michelle and I had screwed up our nutrition somewhere along the day and bonked hard about 2 miles from home. I opted out of the transition run in order to feed myself. I made up for it a couple hours later in the pool.

Dinner was at a friend of Jenny's family in Carefree. The meal was fantastic, the wine was great, and the conversation was lively! The drive home, however, was long...

Tuesday:

Armed with more nutrition than on Monday, we headed out to Tortilla Flats. Tom had warned us that the ride home had a lot more climbing than the ride there, and we soon saw what he meant. It was a beautiful ride, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but there were a lot of switchbacks and hills. My granny gear and I became good friends!

We stopped at Tortilla Flats for some water and a quick rest before we attempted the uphill haul towards home.

Surprisingly, we soon found ourselves back on flat land and pointed towards home. We all thought we had really done well, so we opted for and extra loop on nearby Usery Pass. Kristin had reconned the route the day before, so taking her advice we took the loop counter-clockwise. It was a nice little climb to the top of the pass, a long fast downhill on the backside and a flat section into the wind. Kristin clearly forgot about the steep hill out of the valley that puts the Winterset hills to shame. That day's ride was about 68 miles, if I remember correctly.

Still after the challenging ride, I rode into the driveway feeling great! We had a very short 10-minute transition run to Walgreens for ice for our ice baths. Michelle'd had a rough time on the hills, so while we ran, she drove to the Walgreens to pick us up.

The ice bath felt GREAT. So did the 20-minute swim workout, and the quick lounging by the pool. The rest of the girls went to City Hall for dinner, but I had them drop me off at my friend Signe's house for some supper and catching-up with her family. The food was great, and I got all caught up on the gossip!

Wednesday:

Although our plane didn't leave until later in the evening, we still knew that we needed to get our workout in early, as there was a lot of cleaning, packing, and other stuff to get done before we took off for home. With limited time to bike we headed back to Usery Pass, this time taking it clockwise. The ride down the big hill was fun (for everyone but Jan and Amy), but it was the long grind up the other side that earned us our tough-girl points for the week. It was long and took a lot of encouraging each other, but getting to the top was an accomplishment for sure!

We followed that 20-mile ride up with a 30-minute t-run, then another 20-minute ride, and another 15-minute t-run. We were out of time, but not out of gas, so we ended on a great note! We packed the bikes up, cleaned the house, ate much of the food that was left, and called it good.

Overview:

This trip was a great confidence boost for me. My cycling has improved much more than I could have even hoped. We had a great time, no one got hurt, we laughed hard and often, and I am refreshed and ready to take thius momentum into the final 9 weeks of my training!