Ironman Mont Tremblant: The Course

I raced Ironman Mont Tremblant in its inaugural year in 2012. In sum: It’s challenging. It’s spectacular. It’s worth doing again. In this post, I want to share details about the course that will help guide training if you are signed up for this race. Because the course is the same for the 70.3, this post should also prove useful for those of you signed up to do that race. If you are on the fence about doing this race: Get off the fence, whip out your credit card, and do it. It’s awesome. (In a previous post, I covered …

Ironman Mont Tremblant Race Report: The Experience

(NOTE: the Ironman Mont Tremblant race report will be in two parts. The first part will cover my experience at Mont Tremblant, while the second part will cover practical and specific details about the course and venue that those of you doing the race next year may find helpful. Click here for the course overview–swim, bike and run.) *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ If you wait for the perfect conditions to race hard, it might never happen. You have to take what the day gives you, make smart decisions, and push through the various challenges that make an Ironman the difficult – yet rewarding …

Preparation Rituals: Ironman Race Week Tips

Ironman race week is here. The training is done. All that remains are the final, don’t-mess-this-up-now preparations. It can be quite easy to get off track in the final days leading into an Ironman: there’s so much excitement, new places to explore, people to chat up, gear bags to pack, bikes to drop off, athlete dinners to attend, expos to walk through. All of this excitement seems cruel at a time when you need to relax, rest and reserve energy. It can be very easy to go off the rails and make decisions that could affect you on race day. …

I just want to know what happens already

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. ~James Stephens. It’s just a little more than a week to go until showtime. Nine days until the canon goes off, and I begin my third Ironman in Mont Tremblant, Canada. You’d think I’d be nervous or scared. And I am, a little. But, mostly, I am curious.  I try to read the tea leaves of my training, of my performances at Bassman, or Quassy or Rhode Island – hoping to find a clue as to what I can expect at Ironman Mont Tremblant. While that story is positive, it’s incomplete. It offers …

Pushing the edge, silencing the voice

It’s Triathlon Season Eve: 2 weeks until my first triathlon of the season: Bassman, which is a local half distance race. This will be followed by  Rev3 Quassy in June, Rhode Island 70.3 in July, and the main event of the year: Ironman Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Each of the half-iron races has a specific purpose in my terms of my overall goals for Ironman Mont Tremblant. In sum: race HARD, go FAST. While I have always had a goal of getting faster (doesn’t everyone?!), this year my speed goals are particularly aggressive. In order to achieve them, I will have to push harder than I ever have. Much. Harder. …

Lessons learned: Bonks and Meltdowns

For endurance athletes, Saturday mornings typically mean one thing: long workout time! My training plan called for a 45 minute run at IM pace, followed immediately by a 2:15 bike with several hard interval sets throughout, followed immediately another 45 minute IM pace run. I remember tweeting cheerfully that I was about to start my own personal duathlon. I was excited to feel the endorphin rush of a well-executed hard workout. Aaahhhh. Poor girl. She just didn’t know what was coming.  It was raining, but I love running in the rain. It makes me feel hard core. The run went …

Drinking the X-Day Kool Aid

Last Monday, I came into work to find a sweet treat in my mailbox that one of my former students had left as a gift. It was a homemade box, filled with homemade chocolate truffles. Each had a different type of sparkly sprinkle on top. They looked mouthwatering–especially for someone who loves chocolate as much as I do. I swirled the box under my nose, enjoying the rich sweet scent, as one of my colleagues came into the room where the mailboxes were, and I asked him, “Ron, do you want these?” Was I really going to give these treats …

I’m ready to race

“Where’s my medal?” I exclaimed as I walked in the door. No response. “Where’s my dang medal?” I repeated, giggling. John was sitting in the office, barely paying attention to my antics. He looked up after I came huffing through the doorway, a huge smile on my face, a rush of endorphins in my blood stream. “How did it go?” He asked. “It” was a race simulation that my coach Vince had cooked up for me. “Aaawe-soome!” I sang in reply. Finally, I had gotten to “race.” Thanks to a commitment to recovering my leg from the chronic ITBS that …

Wait, how many feet is that? Previewing IM Mont Tremblant on the CompuTrainer

Elevation profile for the Ironman Mont Tremblant bike course. I opened my Training Peaks schedule on Christmas Eve to find a 3-hour hilly ride that my coach, Vince Matteo, had scheduled. This would be my first 3-hour ride since September. For me, the three-hour ride is a sure sign of beginning base training for an Ironman. With Ironman Mont Tremblant 7 months away that’s exactly right where I need to be. Usually, I would opt to do my long ride outdoors. But, a few factors drove me to the CompuTrainer for this ride. Most importantly, it was only 35-degrees. The …

Becoming the athlete I have to be

“Be the kind of person who does the types of things to have the results you want.” Ever since I heard triathlon & running coach Bobby McGee say these words, they’ve stuck with me. I’ve repeated them in my mind, turning over the meaning, and finding much value for the place I find myself in my endurance sport life. I realize how much I have already changed to become the kind of person I want to be. (For a great post on the progression of limiters in triathlon, see this blog post from Endurance Corner.) I’ve changed my diet, my …