Rain, rain, go away...

3am this morning I awoke to the sound of hard rain pounding the pavement outside my hotel room. The plan for the morning was to leave at 6am and ride down 86 and climb to the summit of Whiteface Mountain. I tossed and turned over whether to send this group up, and finally decided around 5:30am to play it safe. So instead, we went running on the course along the river. It was a cool, yet humid morning and everyone started the run very gingerly, feeling the effects of yesterdays hard effort still in their legs. The plan after running was to be ready to ride by 10am. From 8am until 9:45am, it didn't rain much, but, guess what, it then started pouring. So I altered once again and we went swimming in Mirror Lake. I'm not against riding in the rain by any means. We have all day to train here and with people tired why take a chance? The lake is frigid upon first entering, but 5 minutes later, all is good. We swam the entire length of the lake which was cool, then regrouped and I jumped on Kenny's toes and let him pull me back. I actually felt decent in the water, considering that the only times that I have swum this year were at camps. I then set the ride time for noon. It was raining, but it was time to go. We rode down 86 and climbed to the toll booth on Whiteface. Ed S. climbed very well. Actually, everyone did considering they all looked wasted and a bit grumpy when we headed out. We descended and regrouped and the rain was gone and it was getting more hot. I sent some of the group on the out and back and then back up 86 to LP, and took the rest on a reverse loop of the course. If you have never ridden this course in reverse before, you need to try it - it's a blast. Brad and Jay both flatted when we rolled off of 86 onto rt 9, and after fixing this, we realized that Brads rear brake was frozen, so I hammered Ed back to his house to grab some tools, and then continued on my way up the big hill that is the descent during the race on 73. I caught Pam and Margit and pulled them back to LP - they did great. Everyone was really hungry and lots of food was flying around while Greg P. did computerized bike fits. We made quite a few adjustments. By the way, I sent Greg out at 6am to do the Whiteface climb. He's a very experienced rider and I wanted him to experience this ride. He loved it.

We just had a great dinner at the Adirondack Steak house and then some Ben and Jerry's. I'm fortunate to be able to put on these camps - I always end up with great people. I know this sounds cliche but this group has been terrific. No attitudes, no egos, and lots of support for each other.

Tomorrow is a huge day and it's supposed to be sunny and HOT! Most will be riding the 112 miles and they will be using My Athlete devices ( www.myathlete.biz password Ironman, Ironman 123) so you can track them out there. Besides that, Sean G. and his film crew are here shooting footage for our training dvd. And there are a ton of triathletes in town, so the course should be crowded tomorrow which is always fun.

Cheers,

EH