Hello Timberman!

Has it been almost two weeks since my last blog post??
Wow...looks like summer -and my training schedule- have been taking up lots of my time!

It's been an amazing couple of weeks-I have had lots of family visiting from all over and of course, this means LOTS of time at the beach.  Training has been going remarkably well too. With only 5 weeks until Timberman 70.3, I decided to take a trip out to Lake Winnipesauke and ride the Timberman bike course. I was really nervous about this as I have heard "horror stories" about all the climbing on this course.

When we arrived at Ellacoya State Park (where all the Timberman action starts), I was taken aback at just how beautiful the area is. All the nerves seemed to settle into pure joy and excitement of what is to come! We took a drive around the lake to check things out and I could see the mile markers on the ground as part of the run course. The views were just amazing!

The plan was to swim and then tackle the bike course but since Ellacoya State Park did not open until 9am, we decided to bike first and then swim.



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I went into the bike with a plan to ride at a very conservative pace and to just enjoy the day. One experienced triathlete friend told me that the first 16 miles is pretty rough and the last 16 miles is even rougher when it came to the hills. I had also heard that the course was amazing-challenging-but beautiful (it was!) and to just take it easy on the climb and attack the downs.

The first thing that came to mind as we set out for the ride was how beautiful the area was and how lucky I felt that THIS course was going to be my first 70.3! I kept in mind to remember the beauty of this moment when I was in the hurt locker come race day and to focus on the majestic views should that hurt come on race day.

The bike course was not nearly as "bad" as I had heard. There was lots of climbing for the first 1/4 of the course-some long, steep climbs but nothing terrifying and there was some more climbing on the return. I really, really enjoyed the ride. My nutrition and hydration were on point. Granted, we only averaged in the 17's for this ride. The weather was great-hot (88*) and lots of wind. Some of the downhills were actually significantly slowed due to the winds but there were also some fun downhill rides where we were riding in the 40's (weeeee!).

After the ride, we ventured into the park and swam for a while. The chop of the water on this windy day certainly comparable to the ocean! But the water was beautiful and refreshing and we enjoyed it. Then we sacked out on the beach to soak in the sun for a bit and finished off our afternoon at a stop at Sawyer's Dairy Bar to scarf down some cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and ice cream! I was certainly happy that my training partner, Marc spotted this little gem of a place on the return trip. Yummmm-

Oh and guess what??

Yup!! Chrissy will be there!