EPIC CAMP!!!
It was truly an
amazing experience…like nothing I have done before. Back in March I attended a total immersion
swim camp in Kona. The week of swimming
was fun and a great opportunity for me to get comfortable in the ocean
water. This week was a bit different. Epic Camp was the hardest week of training I
have ever done. I have logged more hours
in a week, but never with this kind of intensity or weather conditions. There are no words to explain the heat and
wind on the IM World Championships course.
The TV coverage doesn’t do it justice.
You really need to swim, ride, and run the course to understand what it’s
all about.
Being around like
minded people who have similar goals and a shared passion really helps to
strengthen my dedication to my training and being as strong mentally and
physically as October approaches. These
10 days being away from home was the longest I’ve been away from Lee and the
boys and the hardest for me. Thankfully
there wasn’t much down time and I was so tired I was either training, sleeping,
or eating to ever get too homesick.
Breakdown of daily
training…
Friday – arrived
late afternoon, picked up my bike from Bike Works, and did some work on my
computer before dinner.
Saturday – early
morning swim at the Pier followed by breakfast at Lava Java. I love that place. I started organizing my gear and bike for the
official start of camp. Did a 40 mile
ride out of the Queen K to make sure everything was good and then stopped back
at Bike Works to do a little shopping and made a stop at Island Naturals. It’s an organic/natural market/deli and
another one of my favorites of Kona.
Each morning I
would wake up in the morning starting at 3am since I’m still on MN time. This lasted until about the 4th
day. Either I was finally on Hawaii time
or I was just so darn tired I slept longer.
Sunday – IM bike
course ride, it was raining when we headed out and all I was thinking about was
getting a flat. The only time I’ve
flatted has been when I’m riding in the rain.
Sure enough a few minutes into the ride and I have a flat. The last time I changed a clincher was
2005. Thankfully I had a great group
riding with me who all stopped and helped me out in changing the tire. Really…I didn’t do much of anything, but probably
made things worse by busting the stem of the new tube while trying to air it up.
I can’t count the
number of times during the week I heard, “You really need to learn to change a
tire.” My deal is I ride my trainer
probably 90% of the time. I race on tubulars
and when it counts I will get my tubular changed. I can change my own tire…it just takes me a
bit.
The IM bike course
seems to get shorter each time I get to ride it. The course is like nothing I have ever
experienced. The wind has never been the
same each time I’m out there. You can’t
count on having a tailwind at any certain point and most times you have a head wind
on your way out to the turn around and then you get the same head wind on the
way back in. Crazy how it works and I
use to think people were exaggerating about the wind and heat, but now I know
it’s all real. I rode solo most of the
day and it was a great chance for me to really push myself and maintain aero as
long as possible. My goal of this camp
was to go hard each day and see what I had left in the tank come Saturday for
the race.
After everyone
returned from the ride we did a run down to the pier and an easy swim.
Monday – We ran to
the pier and swam the IM swim course and then ran back. Once we were back we did a 50K bike ride. The distance of this ride wasn’t far, but
this ride was the hardest bike ride I have ever done in my life. Seriously….17-20+% grade for 12 miles. This ride was truly EPIC. The higher we climbed the cooler and foggier it
got. By the top it was pouring rain. The decent back down was so crazy it was
borderline stupid. There were several
times I thought…yep I’m going to crash…yep this will be the death of me. But the whole group made it to the top and
made it back down.
Tuesday – John
Newson, camp director, gave us the option of choosing which group we wanted to
ride with on our long ride today. On the
first day when we rode the IM course I rode off the front alone for most of the
ride. So I decided I would ride with the
big boys in group three. I knew if it
got too hard I could hang on their wheel or we would catch group number 2 and I
could ride with them. Plus, I knew there
was a bit of climbing which I love. It turned
out to be a fabulous ride maybe even my favorite of the week. I never lead off the front and there were
several times when we were moving at a pretty good clip and I just had to focus
on the wheel in front of me and gut it out.
I would tell myself, a hill will come and you will get to rest a
bit. Most people see a hill and think of
the work ahead, but for me on this ride the hill climbing was my chance to
recover before we hit a flat. I can hang
with them on the hills, but it’s the flats I have to work my tail off to keep up. I made it to the volcano with the boys and we
ran off the bike on a beautiful trail down into a crater, across the bottom,
and back up. It was amazing – an absolute
beautiful run!!
Wednesday – Ran on
the IM run course – LOVED it! After the
run we packed up our gear and biked to our new location which was about 35
miles north of Kona out on the Queen K. In the afternoon we headed to the beach where the 70.3 Hawaii race will take place and practiced swim starts and did a longer swim.
Thursday – Early
morning ocean swim with Pete Jacobs. He is
a great guy with lots of great swimming advice for us. Another highlight for me!
My only regret
from today was choosing to ride solo out and back on the Queen K a few times instead
of riding with the group on a different loop.
I wasn’t ready to go when the group left since I had a few meetings with
my students and then I wanted to get my race wheels on and ride them before
Saturday. I haven’t raced since IM
Wisconsin in September. Changing to my
race wheels and adjusting the breaks on the Speed Concepts is no easy task. I consider my bike intelligence at about ….
Well… I don’t consider myself as having much bike intelligence. I can do the basic stuff, but that’s about
it! So thanks to John Ellis our bike mechanic for helping me out.
Each day I’m here
and I’m missing my boys and second guessing myself I remind myself of the first
time I saw the Ironman World Championships on TV and said that will be me one day. I was still in high school, living with my
sister Donna, and had never done a triathlon and was terrified of the
water. I have come so far and overcame
so many of my own personal limitations.
Each day this week I thought I was at my limit and couldn’t do anymore
or go any harder, but I would push a little more and find I just pushed that
limit line back a little more.
So, considering my
goals for October, riding alone out on the Queen K was probably what I needed
rather than a beautiful group ride with some wonderful new friends I have made. It’s easy to sit on someone’s wheel and get
pulled along on the Queen K…I didn’t need or want that. What I needed was to be alone in my head and
feel the wind blowing me across the road.
I needed to get the feeling of the heat rising from the highway and look
out ahead and only see lava fields. I
needed these mental images engrained in my head so when I’m back home sitting
on my trainer I can close my eyes and be right back there on the Queen K.
Friday – Finally a day to sleep in and I’m up
by 5:30AM. I sleep with the air off and
my patio doors wide open. I love hearing
the wind blow and smell the ocean air, but these birds are so noisy in the
morning!
A few us went for a technique swim at the resort pool and Jordan Rapp was there
swimming. He is another very nice pro
athlete.
Saturday – RACE
DAY (report below)
Sunday – slept in
till 6AM and that was me forcing myself to sleep in. I feel great – no soreness from the race at
all. Is that normal? Must be all those veggies I eat and the
Extreme Endurance. I biked into town with
Dave, from camp, to get my bike to Bike Works for shipping back home and then
had lunch at Lava Java one last time until I get to come back in October. Once back to the hotel I packed and started
grading papers and finishing my end of the year grading. 9pm came and I was off to the airport.
I missed my boys
like crazy! Have I said that yet? They are the most amazing 5 boys I know and
being away this long has been so hard. I
have second guessed my decisions so many times on this trip. Triathlon can be a very selfish sport and I
feel there is a fine line with being obsessive and not seeing the big picture
of life. For me, this next week will be
all about spending time recovery and family activities before IM training kicks
in and the boys start summer hockey camp.
I am very
appreciative to all the Epic camp crew.
John Newson does an amazing job of taking care of all the athletes and
everyone was so friendly and nice. To
all my New Zealand friends I will be in touch when I sign up for the Coast to
Coast. It’s a race on my bucket list. I’m sure you have room to accommodate a
family of seven – right? Just kiddin!
The 70.3 Race
Report:
The swim – what
the hell happened Michelle?! I’m a
faster swimmer than my time shows. I
really should have a GPS on to show the route I decided to take which wasn’t
correct and I had to swim back and then around the first buoy. I could have cheated like several others I
saw, but that’s not who I am. Looking at
everyone’s times for the day it seemed most were slower than normal. One thing I will add to my training this
summer is group swims working on sighting and drafting and working together.
Last summer I did long lake swims, but I would swim alone while Lee kayaked
beside me. They were very enjoyable, but
I need to practice using the draft while swimming.
I never felt out of breathe….a sign I wasn’t working too hard. I even remember thinking to myself…this is
really quite beautiful and I don’t mind this salt water at all.
The females started 7 minutes after the guys and it was a complete traffic jam
not long into the swim. I have to say
the back of the pack men are much nicer than the front of pack guys. I usually get a punch to the face or a good
hard kick, but I even had a guy say sorry to me.
I was bummed when I saw the clock when I got out of the water, but in long
distance races so much can change the only thing you can do is keep moving
forward.
T1 – couldn’t find
my bike – helmet was blown off and glasses…took me a bit to get my gear
together. I think I need new cleats I
couldn’t get clipped in until I was turning out on the Queen K.
Bike – I love my
bike and I love riding my bike. I was
hoping for it to be as windy as hell and as hot as hell. In my mind I was thinking - the tougher the
better. When the wind is blowing in my
face or I’m climbing a hill I’m in heaven and seem to get stronger in tougher conditions. Another reason I wanted the conditions to be
tough was so when Kona rolls around it will seem easy peasy. It was quite windy, but it wasn’t hot. I had a few close calls with my bike and the
wind.
T2 – Couldn’t find
my stuff again. T2 was 6 miles away from
T1. I felt really good after the
bike. I think I could have ridden that
pace all the way back to Kona. I never
felt I pushed out of my comfort zone and tried to stay close to my IM goal
paces.
Run – It took me
back to my cross country running days in HS.
We were running across a golf course and some on the road. It was a beautiful run with a lot of sharp
short uphills and turns. I wanted to run about my IM run pace and had
no problem. I didn’t start my watch and swum,
biked, and ran all on how I felt. I was
surprised when I saw my splits because I didn’t feel I was running a 7 minute
pace. For a section in the middle my
pace dropped to 6:43/mile pace.
As I started
moving through the field of women and passed a few pros I started looking to
see how many women were in front of me.
A few volunteers on the course told me I was the first amateur
female. When I was counting the girls in
front of me I only counted 4 and I assumed they were all pro by either what
they were wearing or their number. I was
wrong. The first amateur had a Great Britain
Tri suit on with her name and I assumed she was pro.
Nutrition: I have eaten a ton this week with all my
training. Even the night before the race
I was eating desert which I would normally never do. I have about 10 pounds to drop to get to my
racing weight before Kona. So my eating
habits will dramatically improve come next week when the game face comes on for
4 months. In my training I haven’t let
myself go to “that” place in my head for IM training. Previously, I’ve had a season where I was
burnt out before my A race arrived. For
me, I don’t tell myself I’m training for Kona until now so I can really focus
on my key session, recovery, and nutrition.
Race nutrition - I
front loaded on the bike with my calories.
I knew the climb up to Hawi would be easier to take in calories than
flying back down. I like the Cytromax gel bites, EFS liguid shots, and GU
peanut butter gel.
I had two Gu
rocatane I took out of T2 and used them at miles 3 and 6. Then at every aid station I did water, coke,
and ice down my shorts and in my bra top.
I never felt over heated. The ice
down the pants really keeps you cool…almost a bit too cool. I did receive a few looks from the volunteers
when I grab two glasses of ice and dump one down my shorts and one in my bra
Results:
I’m a bit bummed
by my times. Slower than I anticipated,
but when I look at the overall results…being 5th out of the pro
& amateur field isn’t too bad especially after a week of some solid
training. This was never my A race. My A race is Kona. My goal today was to hold IM paces…I think I
was close. Weighing ten pounds less in
October will help my run and having 15 weeks of working on my bike and swim will
definitely help.
My goals/plans for
the race were – to go as hard as I can and to never give up on myself mentally
and to keep moving forward. I truly
believe physical training is just crap unless you have your mental game up to
par – for IM racing anyway. I know when
I get to the marathon in October I will need to be strong mentally and not let
anything break me. Going into this race
I was physically TIRED! I was thinking this
is my chance to work on my mental strength and dig deep. What I found out was I still had more in the
tank and never had to dig real deep. Our
bodies are amazing and are capable of so much more than we think. When we think we are at our end and there is
nothing left we have only tapped into what we are capable of accomplishing.
I ended up winning
my age group and receiving a slot for the 70.3 World Championships in
September. It was a hard decision for me
to take the slot. Not so much the timing
with Kona because the timing is perfect (5 weeks), the terrain is great
practice (hot and hilly), working through logistics with my bike and gear set
up is all great practice and timing for the race I really care about – KONA. The tough part of the decision is Lee and I
have our 16th wedding anniversary on the 6th of
September. For the last several years we
have been at IM Wisconsin either volunteering or there so I can race. Originally, I knew it was a possibility I
would win my AG and get a slot and I didn’t anticipate taking it because not
only is it our anniversary, but it’s the first week of school for the boys and me.
Long story short…I ended up taking the slot because on my bike in big letters I
have – NO REGRETS. This is my year to
lay it all out there on the line. To
really push myself and see what Michelle Andres from little old Minnesota can
do when up against the best in the world not only at the IM distance, but the
70.3 distance. Many people train their
whole life for the opportunity to race in the world championships and now I
have raced a great race and earned a spot on the starting line of both races in
the same year. Can I podium in both
races in the same year? HELL YES! This is my chance to see what I can accomplish
in this sport. I know myself and know if
I didn’t take the slot I would always think…I would always wonder what if… and
I would regret my decision for taking the slot.
A highlight of the
awards was having Greg Welch say, “and our champion for the 35-39 age group
hailing from East Gull lake, MN is Michelle Andres” Very cool hearing the legend Greg Welch say
my name!
I’ll take this
week to spend as much time with my boys and let my all my training settle in before
I start my IM training and they start their summer at hockey camp. We have lots of fun planned.
A few notes about
misc. things…
Arcadia Brute – I
love riding the hills of Wisconsin. It
was a great ride leading up to Epic camp.
If you enjoy bike riding think about the Triple Crown in Wisconsin. The rides are very well organized and have
never been a disappointment.
My secret –
vegetables…seriously! The power of vegetables
is one of the key elements of my training along with naps. The power of food!
Rumble Roller – I
try to roll every day. My newest roller
is the rumble roller, but this thing is painful. I haven’t been showing much love to the new
rumble roller in comparison to old black one.
Training leading
up to EPIC Camp – do what I can when I can and make it count. The way life worked out I had a big/good week
then a recovery week for 8 weeks. It
seemed to work for me. This was never my
plan, but life happens and kids get sick, I got sick, I have a job…I have a
life. In reality it was probably more
like a 9 day build and then a 5 day recovery.
This is what worked for me during this time of the year, but it won’t be
the case when IM training starts (6/10).
Closing thought…
Passion – you have
to want it (whatever that is) deep inside of you. No one can want it for you – it just won’t
work. I think of parents who so badly
want their child to be the next pro athlete or doctor or lawyer or musician,
but the kid could take it or leave it.
That kid will never be that pro athlete, that doctor, that lawyer, or
that musician unless it is something they truly want. But there isn’t anything wrong with
that…happiness (in my opinion) is finding your passion. As a mom I want my boys to be happy, to find
their own passion. Right now my passion
is Ironman Triathlon.
The reason I get
up at 4:30 in the morning is because I have a dream. I took that dream and created a goal and then
created a path to follow and reach that goal.
Have I ended up on a few detours and uphill climbs I wasn’t
anticipating? Yes, for sure! It’s those
detours and uphill climbs when we really learn who we are and how much we are
capable of accomplishing.
Happy Training!
