Triathlon training in Tahoe

Posted by Rachel

This weekend I spent a good chunk of the weekend training for a race I'm not participating in- Tahoe 70.3. That's ok though, since I am registered for the (inaugural) Oakland Tri, an Olympic distance race on 8/31 that still requires training in all 3 sports. Plus it wasn't all business- there were plenty of shenanigans thrown in there as well. Since this a training blog that is not dedicated exclusively to training, I'll talk about both.

We arrived Friday night to beautiful weather and scenery. I've been to Tahoe a few times (one other time in the summer) but I don't remember appreciating it this much. We grabbed some dinner and played some games at the rental house.

Travers and me at dinner with Lake Tahoe in the background

The next morning we did part of the 70.3 bike course (~37 miles of it). The course was really scenic and I enjoyed the ride quite a bit (disclaimer: this may be because I know I don't have to race it). It was a pretty fast course minus one giant beast of a hill about 4 miles long... which makes it not such a fast course after all. But it was a great ride, and then it was time for the beach.

Bike ride with a scenic backdrop

We spent the afternoon doing a variety of activities such as stand-up paddle-boarding, open water swimming, and pretending to be a whale breaching. 

 

If anyone from the xterra marketing department reads this blog, we will sell you this photo for a small fee

A group of us had driven to the beach, but fellow blogger Matt and I decided to swim back to the rental house. Luckily, we procrastinated just enough until the wind really picked up and the water was choppy as hell. I swallowed quite a bit of Lake Tahoe, which I rank above swallowing the San Francisco bay, so I suppose that was a good place to practice. My hands were so cold that the fingers on my left hand would not stay together (almost like there were springs between them), reducing the efficiency of my stroke by about 30%* and making the swim that much harder. When we finally got back toward the house, the beach we came in on was covered in the world's slipperiest rocks ever. I had to backwards crab walk to the dock while shivering to death and laughing hysterically at the situation. This whole swim (which was only ~1.3 miles) and the subsequent deliriousness reminded me that I have a lot of work to do in cold open water if I want to survive Alcatraz.

(*This is an estimated number)

After some grilling and games that evening and a morning run + breakfast burrito the next day, it was time to head home. As a random side note, running was definitely the activity in which I could feel the effects of the altitude the most. All in all, it was a great weekend and I'm excited to come back up for volunteering at IM & 70.3 Tahoe in September.

You didn't think that training was the only thing we did there, did you?

Next up: a few weeks of hard training, including my first experience as a pacer this weekend at the See Jane Run half marathon!