Epic Disappointment…

I think I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, maybe. I don’t recall the time I got back to the hotel room, it was probably 2 or 3 am and Doru and I were up just past 5 am in order to get to the waters edge for the 6 am start of the Epic Man Training camp.

After a night of partying and getting very little sleep, in an odd way, I was looking forward to pushing myself to complete a full day of training. My previous nights actions just “upped the difficulty factor” and I wanted to see how painful it would be and how much I could overcome, after all, it was called the Epic Man Training Camp.

When we got to Mirror Lake, we were expecting to see about 70 other athletes at the waters edge. I think there was about 10 or 11 and they were spread all over the place. There was no central point or group camaraderie. It became apparent, Epic Man was the wrong name, it should have been called “Bryan & Doru’s Epic Day” (BDED).

It was a colder and cloudy day and there was a bit of a fog over the lake. Without any fanfare, with our wetsuits on, we just walked into the lake and began swimming. It was the fastest swim I’ve ever had, and I don’t mean speed wise. When I got to the end of the lake to turnaround it was around 26 minutes and in my altered state it felt like I was in the water only 10 minutes. Over all, the entire near hour swim felt like it took only twenty minutes.

Frankly, I was worried when I entered that water and began swimming. There was zero support. If I got in any trouble, I was on my own. I knew there was danger involved and anytime you deal with swimming and open water, there is always an element of life or death. My previous nights shenanigans upped the danger factor.

I must say that Mirror Lake is the absolute “best lake” for open water swimming. They have buoys set up in straight lanes. I’m assuming they are for rowers. The water is clear and you can follow the buoy’s base line rope that runs along the bottom for the entire distance of the lake. No sighting is required.

The water was colder, not IMSG cold, but cold enough that I could feel the potential of a calf cramp coming on and being dehydrated didn’t help. About halfway back, my calf severely cramped. I was in the dead center of the lake and no one was around.

I had this happen to me only once before at the YMCA a couple years ago and had I not been in the shallow end, there was a strong possibility the lifeguards would have had to jump in to help me. It’s wickedly painful.

Now I was in the middle of the lake and my left calf cramped hard. Thankfully after my previous episode at the pool I mentally had prepared myself if it ever happened in deep water. I immediately flipped over on my back, kept as relaxed as possible and painfully rode the spasms out.

Then I started swimming again, I just wanted to get to shore and out of danger. My calf cramped again and I flipped to my back again. This time when it ended, I realized I couldn’t do any kicking; I can only use my arms and drag me feet. That shore couldn’t come fast enough. I kept looking for it and tried to say as calm as possible.

The worst thing to do in the water is panic. I learnt this from my grandfather who was a lifeguard and picked many drowned bodies out of Lake Winnipeg. He always said it’s when you panic; you drown.

When I got to shore, I thought my BDED was over, I didn’t know if I’d be able to ride. It wasn’t a cramp that came and went. It was a cramp that felt like I just got hit with a baseball bat and was sensitive to the touch. Doru on the other hand got a major wetsuit rash on his neck. It was the worst I've ever seen.

Regardless, I changed into my cycling gear and the calve seemed workable. We started riding and it was cold out and our shorts were wet from the swim. We both started to get the chills and descending was dangerous due to the shivering. One and a half kilometers into it, we stopped and decided to have breakfast and warm up. After all, it was just the two of us, there was no group.

Over breakfast we decided to go back to the hotel and wait for a couple hours before we started riding again, in the hope that it would warm up. When we got back I snuggled under the covers and it was one of the best two-hour sleeps. I needed it and would have loved to stay in bed all day.

We got back on our bikes and it hadn’t warmed up much, but at least we were dry. I put on three layers of clothes and was still cold. From the beginning of the ride to the end I was dripping sweat, which even made me colder, especially on the descents.

It is a scenic and, in my estimation, a very difficult bike course. It feels like you are climbing 65-70% of the time. If you like using your lowest gear and grinding it up hills at a slow speed, you’d love IMLP’s bike course. I think it’s tougher than IMSG, even though others disagree.

We did the first lap and my calf was sore. I considered stopping and mentioned it to Doru. He was sympathetic and prepared to forgo today’s long ride for later in the weekend on his own.

For a variety of reasons, I decided to continue on. The first was the look of disappointment in Doru’s eyes, the second was I’d rather finish and get my weekly long ride done and this was BDED. I didn’t drive all the way to Lake Placid to do a swim and three and a half hour ride. The final reason was the romance of having post training day beers.

Before we did our second loop, I put on a jacket, my fourth layer. I’m glad I did, I never would have been able to do the second loop without freezing. Doru only had one layer and was fine; I had four layers and was still cold. It was from the non-stop sweating.

On the first lap, a bee or some really big hornet stung me. It hit my arm and got stuck in my shirt. I was waiting for the air to blow it off and it started stinging me. I knocked it off and immediately became worried. I wasn’t sure, but from childhood, I thought I remember being allergic to bee stings. Thankfully, nothing happened other than my arm stung.

On the second loop, I was descending over some very rough road and it shook my handlebars loose and they started moving. It was a dangerous situation. I did manage to stop unharmed and straightened and tightened them up. The road shoulders in Lake Placid are the worst I’ve ever ridden on. I’m glad the roads are closed for the race and we don’t have to ride on the shoulder.

We finished and decided not to run. My calf was too tender and it didn’t get worse riding, but I didn’t want to stupidly worsen it by running on it. I know if I take it easy, it should be fine in a few days. Although, I am now paranoid about my calve cramping every time I swim in cold open water.

The third event in the BDED was the post-training festivities. It started after a shower and a quick blog update. We ate and drank two pitchers of beer at a casual Italian restaurant and our table overlooked the lake. It was beautiful.

The best way to describe the night was “meeting all types of people”. The first bar we went to was full of weekend Bikers of the Motorcycle variety. Lots of black leather jackets with sewn club patches. Very Hells Angels looking and “not a happy vibe”.

We then headed across the street to the night club we were at yesterday and closed the bar down. This time the crowd was a bunch of young people and volunteer firefighters. I asked almost everyone I met how old they thought I was, the consensus was early thirties. I can hardly wait to brag to my kids about it.

It was a fun night of laughs. I can’t even keep track of how many people I met sitting at the same spot at the bar. It was like a revolving group of people coming and going from the seat beside me. Some very interesting people and others very psycho.

We closed the bar down at 3 am and the bouncer had to escort us out. I met an undercover cop that was in the bar. I realized he was a cop as he was standing outside of his marked police car. I saw him in the bar all night, but would never have guessed he was a cop. He was young with a shaved head. What type of bar were we at that requires an undercover cop to be there?

I don’t remember this, but Doru said that after I joked around with the cop outside of the club for a while, I turned around and took a pee in the middle of the street as he watched in disappointment. There’s nothing like a good outside pee.

Bryan and Doru’s Epic Training day ended around 4 am. I think Doru was a little surprised how much beer I could drink, I was having two to every one of his and he had at least 10. He thinks I had thirty. To be safe, I’ll take a twenty on the scorecard.

I don’t know how the other guys Epic Training Day went, but I didn’t see many triathletes looking guys having any post-training day fun. There were a lot of people doing an Endurance Nation training camp; most seemed like “hard core” no nonsense triathletes.

For me, I need to take a break from “tri-talk” every once in a while, that’s why at the BDED we encourage a balanced approach to triathlons. The best part of being part of the non-existent Epic Man Training Camp was the discount we got on the room by saying we were part of Epic Man Camp.

Open Water Swim – 55:27 /2700 meters

Long Ride – 6:15:20 / 163.93 km / 26.2 kph / 125 avg hr

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