Apex Training Weekend Finished - Taper Begins

I will start by saying that I have enjoyed this journey and it has been healing for me. I have met hundreds of new friends in the active diabetic community and am encouraged every day by them. It seems like I meet someone new on every training ride and every swim.

This apex training weekend started on Friday with a 4000 meter straight swim in a pool with my wetsuit on. My buddy, Steve, went with me and did 2000 straight himself. Ironman is a 4000 yd swim so this was approximately 4400 yds. I did it right around 58 minutes and it felt good. I pushed the last 1000 meters. After the swim, a young man swam over and ask me to watch his technique. His name is Sam and is training as a special ops para-swimmer. I LOVE coaching technique and he had good technique but I was able to give him some tips on increasing endurance. That felt really good.

Saturday started at 6:10am for a 114 mile ride on my bike which had 6800 feet of total climbing. I met up with Steve at mile 9 and met up with Joel at mile 28. Steve turned around at mile 34.5 and ended at 69 miles (a new record for him). I told him that I had to run for 30 minutes right after my ride so he promised to do the same and he did it!

My riding buddies, Steve & Joel

Steve, Joel and I met up with a new friend, Stacy, at Steve's turnaround point. She completed Ironman St George last year and gave me some great inside information including a look that could kill when I asked her if she was doing it again. The simple answer was "NO!!!". Joel & I continued on and he veered off to go to his son's track meet and set a new distance record for him at 18 miles. Steve & Joel are both signed up a half Ironman distance triathlon in September.

Once Joel split off, I had to figure out how to get to the base of Lookout Mountain. Fortunately, Stacy caught up with me and she was also going to do the Lookout Mtn climb for the first time and she knew how to get there which was a great help to me. I took a longer break to check BG and eat and Stacy went on up the hill.

My tour guide to the base of Lookout Mtn - Stacy

This is the mountain that beat me when I moved from Visalia to Golden, CO to attend Colorado School of Mines. A roommate who biked noticed that I also had a bike and asked me to do Lookout Mtn with him. I accepted but should have taken a clue from being exhausted just walking around campus at 6000ft after living at 300ft for 18 years. I started up the mountain with him and got very dizzy after a 1 or so and turned around and went back to the dorm. I never attempted it again until today (28 years later). It felt good to beat it without stopping once. I took all the photos while riding.

The start of the ride to the top of Lookout Mtn where the signal tower is at the top. 1350 vertical climbing in 5 miles

This is a view of my college campus in the foreground with the Coors Brewing facility in the background all in Golden, CO.

View of Golden, CO

This view shows how much elevation was gained in just about 1.5 miles

A long way down

A view from my bike as a hit the snowline

A view from the top!!! Very satisfying

It was an amazingly fun ride. I put in more climbing than the St George course so I felt good until I found out that my teammate, Christian, put in 12,000 ft of climbing the same day. The worst part was that I had to miss my Triabubby, Zyler, test for his Blue Belt in Krav Maga which he passed!

Now on to Sunday, short and well short (not sweet). I ran 16 miles, two laps around Aurora reservoir. Starting temp 51, ending temp 43. I fought off a low at the beginning. The cold front came through and blew like crazy for 80% of the run and I froze the whole time but I finished. It snowed a bit and then rained a bit and ended with a nice sunset.

This was the hardest weekend and we taper down from this point. I am ready, mentally, to get this thing done.

Thanks

Brian Phelps