Ten of us woke up at 5 am to join a local masters group lead by Frank Lowrey who is the race director for Silverman, the Ironman 70.3 World Championships and last years ITU long course championships. I've never swam outdoors at 5:30 in the morning when it was pitch black outside but the pool was lit up like a football field and once you hit the water you didn't know the distance. We swam 3k in an hour and then headed home to eat. Today was cold outside and we delayed our bike ride until 10 a.m.
Today's ride consisted of riding the ITU long course route. We lasted 224 feet before the first call for a bike adjustment and 1.5 miles before the first call of "I'm over dressed can we stop". After the initial stops the group stayed together for the first 15 miles then the group split up in three groups. Team Estrogen was out in force today as the ladies were pushing the pace from the beginning of the ride. Bill, who is training for Boston and ran 20 miles on Saturday showed no effects and was soon gone from the group. Michelle, Gail, Kathy and Kelley gave chase and before long we were all spread out. We worked with a few of the athletes on proper gearing and cadence going up the climbs. The views were spectacular and you could see the strip in the far distance. Long climbs gave way to steep windy descents. At mile 30 we stopped to regroup and then pace lined back to the entrance of the park.
On the way home Kathy took us up the infamous 3 sisters. I'm not sure why they called them 3 sisters because it seemed like there were 8 "significant climbs". The last climb consisted of three steep climbs with the last section at a 18% pitch. Out of gears and out of breath we all stopped at the top. One camper summed the climb up best "that sucked".
Day 3 will consist of an early morning run followed by a 70 mile run.
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