Mind Candy

There goes another week of hard training!


Once again, when I think back at it, no matter how much pain some of those trainings might have induced, all I can think of is how much I have learned and how much fun I had.

This week was slightly easier than the one we had last week (though we still had a lot of work to do!), as we got to introduce some well deserved 'mind candy' into the plan.

It is the social aspect of this week that I would like to talk about...that little mental booster! Now don’t get me wrong, we worked very hard and fought through many training sessions this week. But, through it all, we had a lot of fun.

The week started on our calm miracle Monday, at the beach with the crew (yes... another). I savoured it so much more this time, because it was the cherry on the sundae after the mad Volcano ascension.

The other social day of the week was the ride through Hana, where after a 4h30 bike ride on a windy, hilly road, we came to the Haleakala national park. Once there, we ran off he bike...the beginning of that run was very entertaining thanks to our friend Aaron: Doctor Aaron wanted to take us running on soft terrain. We followed him into a unknown trail...then into the grass...into the grass I say...a grass which was getting higher and higher at every step...until it was so high we could no longer see where we were going! Unfortunately, I had not brought my machete on that one, so we had to rely on our long legged ex-gymnast (Katya) to fray us a way through. We later immerged from the wild onto the road, and just kept on running. UGH!

Then the jungle adventure began: We felt we had not had enough action in that day...so we decided to hike up a hill through a bamboo forest to get to a 180 feet waterfall and climb into a cave.

We then decided to come down partly swimming! YESSS...following our most trusted guide Brent McMahon, we swam and jumped down some of the water falls (no need for an ice bath that day, trust me).

That was a relaxing though intense, social day for our team.

In other matters...

This week, from conversations with coach Lance, his wife Lucy and my training buddies, I have realized how much this training camp is an opportunity for me to put my mind to the test. Everyday, I am training myself to keep a positive monologue no matter how tired I am and no matter what the outcome of the training is, because it is the only way that I can make each and every training session optimal, and it is the fastest way to move toward my goals. I am learning to filter the thoughts that come through my mind and keep only those that will help me look ahead. I realize that the great athletes I train with here are very good at applying this principle. Ironman athletes such as Linsey Corbin or Heather Gollnick, to me, excel in the art of positive thinking.

Days like the fun days we had this week are required for cultivating a positive state of mind, I believe they are very important, and they are much appreciated in a 6 week training camp! Now I am ready to focus some more, my batteries are charged and I am hungry for more hard training! Everything is going so well, I’m still going, still happy, still loving what I do and enjoying every moment training here, in Maui, with my great new team.

CHEERS!

To conquer a mountain...

Vertigo...I kind of like it: First, it gets the adrenaline flowing and second, it often is overcome on the way to great accomplishment. Yesterday, I realized that vertigo goes both ways...it may occur as you look down from a height but it can also occur while looking up to the cloudy summit of a mountain.

Yesterday morning, our rooster didn’t have to insist to get us out of bed. By 6:30 A.M., I could hear commotion in the house...that nervous energy was with us, as we prepared for the big climb up to the top of the Haleakala Volcano, the total ascension of the climb would be 10 000 feet and we would have to cover a distance of over 60 miles to get there. The roomies and I had anticipated this ride all week, having heard tales from last year’s camp. Words like 'carnage' and expressions such as 'picking up the pieces' came up in those stories, as apparently everyone had suffered from cramps trying to make it to the summit of Haleakala. I also remember the meeting we had before that ride yesterday...one sentence stayed in the back of my mind and that was a sentence from coach Lance: ‘Guys, this is a training you will remember for the rest of the year’ (At that point, knowing greedy coach Lance, I was just happy he didn’t say ‘for the rest of your life’). LET’S MAKE IT MEMORABLE THEN!!!

The plan was to go for an hour warm-up and then head for the monster climb. I had no idea what I was getting into but DISCOVERING THE UNKNOWN ON A BRIGHT AND SUNNY DAY SURE SOUNDED LIKE A GREAT PLAN! The instructions were to stay in zone 2-3 for this 3h30 climb. As we turned left on Baldwin Ave. and headed up...my 3h30 monologue started.

The first third of the climb was very enjoyable I must say; I love cycling on a beautiful road, but I do have to admit I felt the pace was a bit fast...was I being too impatient again? But I just pushed and pushed on those pedals and hoped to hang on until the end. After all, in the two camps I have done recently with Lifesport, I have learned that the true limits were often much further than I expect them to be. Let’s just see what mine will be today. Let’s just stay at this crazy pace and see how long I can fight.

Middle third of the climb: The Corbin Express was rolling along in front of me and I had made it my mission to hang on as long as I could; I am in time trial mode. I have made it my mission to time trial the rest of that ride, and I don’t want to look up and see how much is left, I don’t want to feel the Vertigo (I already felt I had conquered a mountain and we were only at 4000 feet ...!). I have to shut it off and take this step by step. The hills are starting to get more and more intense and the temperature is dropping. I think of the fast pace we are pedaling and am very motivated. We get to a toll booth at the entrance to Haleakala National Park...and I must not have been that fresh since I spit the content of my water bottle on the nice ranger in a desperate attempt to stay hydrated. Sorry!!!!DON’T LOOK UP. DON’T THINK. JUST KEEP ON ROLLING.

Last third: NOW THE SHOW IS ON, MY FRIENDS. I have switched to robot mode. I am hammering and not moving very fast anymore. NO MORE THINKING. JUST GET THE WORK DONE. It’s raining, and very cold, the visibility is low and the wind is blowing. BUT..... I’M ALMOST THERE. I must have been in a strange mental state, as my glasses fell off in the middle of the road and I just kept on going. Last half hour: Each minute is counted in my head. I am dizzy and low on sugar. I am not riding straight anymore, I even go in the wrong lane at one point and see a car coming at me. I can no longer feel my hands. I FORCE MYSELF TO STARE FORWARD AND PUSH. I try to eat the last bar coaches Lance and Marc have given me from the car, but in this crazy weather, it is actually frozen! EACH MINUTE CLOSER TO THE END OF THE WORK-OUT IS AN ACHIEVEMENT AT THIS POINT. And then it was over...I MADE IT!!!

The work out is over! Hey! It turns out the initial pace was not THAT crazy after all! Once again, the limits have been pushed back!

From this point on, Coaches Lance and Mark had to pick up the pieces. Everyone had gone through combat with the mountain and most of us were frozen, some really needed to be warmed up and taken care of. The Coaches had been on the mountain all day, cheering us on, making sure we were safe and received proper nutrition, being our support crew. Now, they were to pile up our six wet bodies into the truck, pack our bikes in the pouring rain and bring us back home. The emotions were high as we sat in the truck all pulled up against each other to warm up, telling our stories, sharing all the positive energy from our wonderful team. We were all strong today. We should all be proud. Coach Lance was right...I will remember this...until at least the end of the year! Thanks for that.

CHEERS!

Preparing for a tough week-end!

The last hard training workout we did was nice and MUDDY!!! Cowgirl Linsey Corbin and I finished off a hard series of training with a good threshold run in the sun, cruising through the cane fields. We got REALLY DIRTY! I was a little girl again and I enjoyed feeling the mud splash at my back while I ‘accidentally’ hit some of those puddles. Yahoo! I guess it was the best way we had to battle the elements on such a perfect sunny day.

After that memorable session, it was time for some technical work with coach Lance and Mark at the pool, a thirty minute recovery run and .... finally, a much anticipated....MASSAGE. It turns out the perfect massage I had imagined all week, that feeling of relief I had attributed to the word, the one thought that gave me hope as I pushed harder and harder in the training. All of that wonderfull idea, went from an ‘Ahhhh’....to an.....’Ouch’....when I met Teya. Teya is a tiny Hawaiian girl but she sure knows how to hit the sore spots HARD and get those legs ready for another crazy training week! Oh Teya smiled and laughed plenty, telling me stories and jokes, but as she did, she pushed on my sore spots hard enough to make some tears emerge from my eyes! There I was, burying my head in the head support, polite, smiling and laughing back, but also shedding those sore tears. Now I know why you have to put your head in that support frame at the end of the table and I also understand why I always have a red loop around my face for pushing so hard against it after a massage. Friends, it seems to me like even good recovery does not come cheap!

Eating to recover

This being a recovery day, it is now time for me to introduce my roomie Justin and illustrate his recovery eating habits. Big man Justin, from North Carolina, was born built like a Subway sandwich, measuring 24 inches but weighing only 6 pounds. He is now a 6’4’’ oversized triathlete. I must tell you how profoundly intrigued I am about the big guy’s metabolic abilities. Every evening (and especially today), the living room is taken over by the Justin buffet. For Justin (and his spectators), eating is not an event, it is a process. You see, Justin must take in 7000 calories a day in order to simply maintain his weight. And considering our busy training schedule, most of these calories must be taken in during the evening. To do this, he literally eats three meals after a big day. Really....and if that’s not enough, he then goes out for desert when Brent and I are tired enough to be corrupted into gelato. Today, I was quite hungry and tried to compete with Justin...I failed miserably. I only made it through the first meal, and did not even go for dessert. Here are some pictures of the challenge and of my defeat!

Until next time! There is a tough week-end ahead...and it involves riding up a volcano and running at altitude!

Meditating on some hard work

Once again, I realized today why I loved my sport, because today was one of the hardest training days I have done so far. Super coach Lance orchestrated something fantastic today. This was a challenge, folks, and the emotions we had at the end of the day were relative to the effort we put into today’s training.

I guess I don’t talk a lot about my fears on my blog. I have learned recently not to let my worries come into my conscience. But the truth is, I have been going very hard since the beginning of the camp..and for a moment, yesterday, and even this morning,...I thought I might have pushed a bit too hard. When I woke up, I have to admit, my legs didn’t feel great. I consciously decided to pretend they were fine and see where that would take me. Going into today, I didn’t know what I would be capable to handle but I was driven by my curiosity to find out.

As a result, I learned it was the right decision to put that inner voice aside sometimes and to maintain one simple thought: Just put your head down and push as hard as you can. That is what I did. And I had a great day. For me, this is a lesson to remember. Today started at 7:30 a.m with a 30 minute easy run with Katya, we had one hour to get to the pool after that, and start a hard training (sets of 50’s and 200’s at 1500m race pace). We just had time to grab a quick lunch before we had to hop on our bikes for a hard one: 2h30 including threshold work repeats on the climbs followed by a 30minute time trial....into the run workout. The run consisted of an hour of training and included five minute repeats between 70.3 and 10k pace. This training day totalled 6 hours of hard work! As a team, we took it step by step and did great, the positive energy was flowing! Super coach Lance was there for support and we all gave it our best shot. On the 30 minute time trial, Linsey Corbin was impressive, that was a great motivation for me to push, push, push...against the blowing Hawaiian winds. Now I have a slight idea of what the big adventure in Kona might feel like one day. The highlight of my day was the run off the bike. By the time I started running, my morning leg pain was completely out of my mind, I felt great and was happy to put in the last effort of the day. Thanks coach, thanks team, another great day of training in the bank! Let’s keep on moving forward from here...and just keep on pushing!

Time out at the beach!

Hi everyone!

Aaahhh, a simple recovery day!

A day of freedom at the beach, a final deep breath before what our crew refers to now, as terrible Tuesday. Terrible Tuesday is the day ‘mean coach Lance’(his new nickname) makes us work hard enough to make it memorable . Since tomorrow is that day, Linsey, Brent, Justin, coach Mark, Sabrina, Katya and I, escaped to the beach for some fun this morning. We were a bit cold when we got there, so we figured that acting strange would get us warmed up. The photos above speak for themselves, and describe the most reasonable parts of our games. After we were tired of doing those beach moves, it was time to get into the ocean again. I really enjoyed everyone’s festive attitude, especially Linsey’s. We were just kids out there! We swam around the rocky shore, landed on a hidden beach on which we preferred not to stay, (we were the only ones wearing bathing suits in that second beach crowd!). Tour guide Brent guided us home from there. The rest of the day was just as relaxing. That’s the candy I needed for today. Tomorrow is back to work! Get ready for some action friends!