30 July 09: Lake Placid Final Report!

Posted on 31. Jul, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 16 Comments

Sadly, Maiki and I left Lake Placid this morning after two fantastic weeks there. We are already talking about how we must find a way back next summer, and certainly for him to defend his title is a great reason for another trip to the mountains. This morning we got in one more beautiful lake swim and little run before we hit the road; the session just reminded us of how much we will miss this place!

Obviously my primary reason for visiting Lake Placid this year–the race–turned out to fall far short of what I had expected in terms of my personal performance. Still, in some ways, I am probably quite fortunate that in spite of a very disappointing race result, I can honestly say… Read More

29 July 09: Beaver-Hunting Extravaganza!

Posted on 29. Jul, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 3 Comments

What does the Ironman Champ do to celebrate his big win? He goes . . . beaver hunting, of course!

Yep, on Monday, after Maiki gave the cutest winner’s speech ever (Okay, I might be biased, but everyone else seemed to love it, too–and it was pretty darn impressive for his second language.), we hit the trails with our cameras for an afternoon in search of the elusive beaver.  It was a team effort with Matty Lieto and his girlfriend, Lea, who, being from Bend, Oregon, are relative beaver experts compared to us. And that is probably obvious given our attire . . . Turns out miniskirts and designer jeans might not be the best for hiking through water and waist-high plants.

Still, the experience was well worth the mosquito… Read More

27 July 09: GCM Indeed . . .

Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 3 Comments

While tomorrow I will be happy to discuss my fairly-disastrous race yesterday, it isn’t important enough to address today, in light of the GCM’s smash-o-rama here in Lake Placid. Surprising everyone–including himself–but me, Maiki biked and ran around all day miles ahead of the competition. He built himself something like a 17-minute lead on the bike, and won the race by 20 minutes!

Honestly, this is pretty much how I envisioned his race playing out, as I trained with some pretty amazing male athletes in my day; after watching his prep day in and day out for the past months, I had an idea of just how fit he was, but it was awesome to see him execute. We got to see a fair bit of each other on the run;… Read More

25 July 09: Almost Gametime!

Posted on 25. Jul, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 1 Comment

I just wanted to quickly check in and thank everyone for their kind messages and thoughts this weekend. It’s Saturday night and my bike and bags are checked in, and the ice-cream dinner has been eaten! Actually since I’ve gone virtually non-dairy in my daily life, I decided that I ought to switch to fake ice cream for my pre-race dinner; so tonight I enjoyed a pint of ice cream made with coconut milk. Hopefully that will do the job! Anyways, I am now just relaxing in front of the Tour with Maiki and . . . my coach! He made a last-minute trip up from North Carolina, and it is a real treat to have him here with us. And thanks to our local friend Bill, we are also… Read More

22 July 09: Only in Lake Placid…

Posted on 23. Jul, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 2 Comments

Yes, that is really what it looks like . . .

That is an actual road sign here in Lake Placid. As you can probably tell, it is not a temporary sign for race week, but a real road sign on the road where the out-and-back stretch of the run course is. How cool is that?! The locals tell me that these signs aren’t just for us triathletes, although the world does revolve around us, of course; there is a winter Olympic Training center here, and apparently this road is also quite a popular training ground for these athletes as well.

My Lake Placid training camp experience got even better yesterday, as I moved into the house of a lovely local host, Bill Morris, over on Lake Placid–which is actually… Read More