I had volunteer duties on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so Thursday was my planned long training day. Luckily the weather would be sunny as it would be for the whole trip. I had planned to do a full day long brick (🚴🏼♂️+🏃🏻♂️, ick! = 🧱) of 90/15 miles. But 4 days before my trip I had a (stupid) fall off bike on a downhill turn (onto grass at least, don’t worry, the bike is ok!) and sprained my ankle. I also bruised my low back a bit but it was the ankle that has kept me from running even now (almost 2 weeks later).
Although a few days of icing, NSAIDS and rest quickly got my ankle walkable, running was not possible yet. I loaded up my backpack in the morning with extra water, a lock and food in addition to my usual load of first aid and bike repair equipment. It had to weigh at least 12 lbs.
I planned to do a 100-mile ride including one loop (56 miles) of the Ironman Bike Course and to Bike the run course.
The bike route heads West towards Keene and on the way there is a long steep descent. I kept it under 40mph but when racing I hit 50mph.
On race day there is a lane closed to cars but on a random summer day there were a LOT of cars and trucks and the shoulders were not always very wide.
I had brought my mini GoPro for the bike ride thinking it would be easier to access it in my bikes “bento box” than getting out my phone from my backpack’s waist pocket. But since I always came to a full stop for photos it really didn’t matter. And the GoPro has a very wide angle lens so even though it is 1080 quality, having to crop so much decrease the photos resolution.
After taking Hwy 73 East to Keene the route switched to 9N which was the nicest road. Mostly flat, it traveled along the Ausable river and had a very wide shoulder and very few vehicles.
This year for the first time I saw many signs on the course and other roads for “portable restroom”. This is a nice service provided by the communities to prevent bikers just “going” anywhere. They have porta potties at many of the scenic overlooks and trail heads.
I reached this one at about 2 hours into my ride and it seemed like a nice spot to have my peach and a ClifBar.
It was very beautiful and so quiet I could hear the river and the birds and insects. I heard a big splash and turned around expecting to see ? An animal or big fish but it was a family of Grebes.
I noticed that my phone had only SOS here (I had brought my Garmin emergency Satellite device as well, in case I had ended up biking off a cliff). I had thought that Apple was going to allow texting with the satellite connection but it is ONLY for contacting 911, and THEN also contacts your emergency contacts).
I continued north on 9N past Jay and turned around in the tiny town of Au Sable Forks.
As I looked at the beautiful river I noticed the trees were blowing a little. Usually the wind doesn’t pick up in Lake Placid until the afternoon (for the second bike loop of Ironman) so I had hoped that starting at 6 am I could finish my loop before that. But as I headed back South to Jay and the Westward turn towards Wilmington the wind was already strong. I made myself as aero as possible but the hills towards Wilmington were bad and then the road south from Wilmington to Lake Placid was BRUTAL! The strong winds and many cars and trucks along with the minimal shoulder made it a brutally slow 10 miles back into Lake Placid.
I stopped to use the Porta Potty by a trail head I had hiked in the past to see waterfalls.
When I got back to Mirror Lake for a break to refill water bottles and use the restroom I had only done 65 miles but almost 4000 feet of climbing. Between the wind on the flats and my extra 12 lbs on the hills I was pretty exhausted. If not for my ankle (and still slightly sore back) I COULD have pushed myself to the limit and done 100 miles but I used common sense instead and decided 75 was plenty! I shot a video of the WIND!
I biked West back past my campground and turned around at Saranac Lake to reach 75 miles.
After a quick shower I relaxed in my compression leg sleeves, iced my ankle and then stopped by to say hi to a couple from Quebec I knew through the Lake Placid IM Facebook page.
Dinner was a sandwich I had in the fridge and I went to sleep EARLY as I was exhausted and had to wake up early the next day.
Alex had gifted me a troll and I took some photos of him. Here he is sleeping on a natural hammock 🙂
75 miles is enough.