Columbia Brick Training

DC tri club set up an awesome brick training event Saturday on the Columbia Course in Ellicott City, MD. Met up with some of my DC tri friends at Hains Point at 7am to carpool over. Sara and I in my car, and Matias, Kelzie, and Zach in Ryan's car. It was a smooth ride out there and we made it to Centennial Park by 8:30am and were one of the first ones there. I was a bit nervous cause I was not sure how much or how fast or what was going on. We started getting ready to go and they started talking about doing 3 rounds (ride 25 mile loop, run 30 minutes). Round 1 take it easy, Round 2 CRUSH it, and Round 3 whatever you gots left. Yea, I'd be up for about an 80 mile ride and probably NOT a 9 mile run. Ryan had forgotten his shoes so had to go back to Arlington and would met up with up on Round 2.

Round 1 - Matias, Zach, Kelzie, Laurel, and I headed out on our bikes. DANG. This was a pretty STUD pace (~20mph) for Round 1 (take it easy). My legs had been sore most of the week and this was not good. We got lost. So this 1st loop was not the exact course. Oh well, we made it back to my car aka transition area and started getting ready to run. Kelzie and Laurel were only going to be running about 10 minutes...that I could do. So the 3 of us girls stuck together. Laurel says to me ughh I don't know if I can handle that pace for very long...UMMM YEA glad you said that...me either! HA! We decided to take it down a bit. We got back to T and Ryan had made it back with shoes. We all got ready and back on the bikes. That was only a 2 hour process (we might be here till dusk)!

Round 2 - This was were the hurt was to go down. We headed out and Matias said 5 miles cruise and then we are gonna go. Laurel, Kelzie, and I just looked at eachother...Yea thats right. After about 5 miles the pace started to pick up. I tried to hang on. Kelzie and Laurel dropped behind a bit. I started to get dropped by the guys...then yea dropped...but kept sight of Jarrin, another guy who joined us for this round. I shortly caught him and we rode the rest of the way together. Kelzie then caught back up in the end. This Round was a beater...but my legs were feeling better/stronger/more solid. I was loving the hills. Time to run...legs were more tired this time around. I did about 15 minutes.

Round 3 - Jarrin was out (his first time back on his bike in awhile). So the 6 of us headed out. Kelzie, Laurel, and I were wiped and made a pact to stick together no drop pace but finish the last loop. After about 5 miles of trying to hang with Matias, Zach, and Ryan, I was feeling a bit nauseas. Laurel calls to me..."Katie wait I am turning back." I call to Kelzie..."hey, what you feel like"..."Uhh lets keep going but let them go." Yeah ok we can do it. "Come on Laurel"...couple minutes later she was gone. So Kelzie and I were each other motivation for the last 20 miles. I was hurting. Not so much my body..but I was just nauseated...was I hungry? no. hmm OH...I need some Endurolytes. Took 2 of those and within 15 minutes I felt like a new person (gotta remember that...always hard getting back into nutrition each season). About 5 miles ot go and we see Zach in the distance. We come up to him..."Zach, are you OK?!", I say. "I AM BONKING," he says. I gave him some gel and we pulled him in. We made it back and Kelzie and I just decided to go for a stretch out walk. We were both done.

We did not finish up until about 330pm...the DC tri picnic was OVER. We scraped up the leftovers (some carrots and angel food cakes) and decided to head home. I enjoyed riding with Kelzie, we motivated eachother and not sure how far I would have gone if she was not as determined. Good work. Hopefully I have found a new training partner. It had been an awesome training day.

Photo above - my backyard! Come over and swim with me.

Up Next: Tour De Skyline May 9 - 10, 2008