Tahoe South Shore 2.4 Mile Swim

So the Half Ironman swim wasn't anywhere near as challenging as I expected, although I doubt many others who did it would agree.  I just trained really well for it and the conditions were easier than most open water swims I've done.  Three days later I swam a 4500 in the pool, the longest swim I've done since last year, to see how things felt, and then I went looking for a 2.4 mile open water swim to end the season.  And I found one--right back in Tahoe.  

As part of the Lake Tahoe Marathon weekend (which has a crazy variety of events that one could do),  the South Shore Open Water Swim had a variety of distances, including the 2.4 mile as the longest.  It was low key enough to be fun and without pressure, but hard enough to bring out a group of fairly strong swimmers (who had, on average, well over ironman participant paces).  

We started at around 8:30, swimming out from shore, and then turning north for a long leg into Nevada.  The lake was calm, clear, and the bottom was in sight.  It still strikes me how different Tahoe is, compared to swimming in the bay, where we can see just about nothing.  Watching the bottom as I swam north, it just disappeared, turning into a deep bright blue split with sunrise caustics.  I didn't notice it at first and was quite startled to see the depth just open up.

Turning back, we came back over shallower water, and the wind picked up, making the last five minutes or so quite choppy.  Later swimmers took on a lot more chop.  I finished in 1:21:06, near the faster end of what I expected.  The fastest swimmer was just over an hour, and I was 10/17 in this distance.  Mild calf cramping was the only thing off, but that's not surprising, since I wasn't really training for this distance.    

https://www.strava.com/activities/410501732/overview

Things that went well:

• I kept a consistent effort, and nothing got very tired.
• Concentrating on form on the way back was useful, it's easy to get tired and sloppy with this here.
• No cold shock.  The warm up and ongoing acclimation really help with this.

Things to improve:

• I could have pushed harder, I'd need more experience to understand pacing at this distance.
• Losing sight of the bottom caught me off guard psychologically, but it was awesome.
• Sighting coming back was sloppy.  Sunrise.

Interesting observations:

• The lake goes from shallow to deep quite dramatically.  And it's very deep.  Check out some of the bathymetry images online.
• The water, even though it's not at all warm, was a lot warmer than the beach sand at the start.
• There's all kinds of scattered random junk on the bottom of the lake.  Humans.

Also of note, this was the first timed open water timed swim I've done.  I went in just to cover the distance, but adding the competitive element, especially outside of a triathlon, certainly changed how I went about the swim.

Shirley Lake Climb to the Top of Squaw

After registering for the Lake Tahoe half ironman, I took off up a side trail in Squaw to climb to the top.  It's kind of hard to find and to follow, and not really at all runnable, but the Shirely Lake trail has some great views of the valley.  At times it's a trail, other times, it's just crossing a steep giant slab of granite, and at other times it takes some scrambling up through rocks.  It does kind of dead-end into a fire road that leads to the top of Squaw, where there's trails headed all over the place.  

Many of the peaks up here have volcanic caps that have had more erosion around the sides, including Squaw peak itself.  It's an interesting transition region from the volcanic peaks headed north toward Donner pass and the highly granite region just to the south. 

Taking the tram down--I was planing to race in a couple days.

https://www.strava.com/activities/395054074/overview

Ironman 70.3 Lake Tahoe

This was, psychologically, my biggest race for the year.  Ironman Lake Tahoe has a bit of notoriety, having had a near freezing first year with their highest Ironman DNF rate to date, and a cancelation due to smoke last year.  The first was held just as I did my first triathlon (Malibu 2013), and the concept of Tahoe scared me.  After finishing my first 70.3 at Hawaii, and the announcement of a 70.3 at Tahoe last year, I knew I’d be in for this year.  

Overnight, a bear raided T1, picking out race snacks from transition bags.  Yes, really.

We bussed in together, both 70.3 and full distance athletes.  The full started two hours earlier, giving us plenty of time to spectate the full swim, which is something to watch.  After watching the lead swimmers at Vineman, it really struck me how quiet and the front of the swim pack is, and this race was the same.  

It was in the high 50s when we started, with cold water close to shore that quickly warmed up as we headed out.  After hearing most people talking about how cold it would be, I was surprised by how cold it wasn’t; SF bay certainly does a good job at cold acclimation.  I did start with a slightly faster breathing pace to account for the altitude, but after warming up for the first 5 or so minutes, I fell into my normal swim pace and it didn’t have much more effect.  The water was clear blue, and gorgeous, as we could see the large rocks of the sierra on the bottom, along with the intermittent almost-glowing green abandoned swim cap.  Finishing the swim, T1 had a tent, and unlike my last half, I took the time to change into a cycling jersey to avoid the excess sun.  

The bike was fun, fast, and hard.  Well, the hard part, better known as Brockway Summit, was not the fast part, and it’s probably the hardest hill I’ve ridden up.  Not because of the elevation gain, but because of the sustained grade, which felt harder than climbing Diablo.  The rest of the ride, which went from King’s Beach, up 89, through Truckee, and down 267, before looping back to Squaw, was also gorgeous, and a lot of fun.  I definitely trained well for this, coming in on a consistent effort with nothing hurting.

I started the run under-hydrated in warm weather, and never quite made up for it, but I ran the first half faster than expected, suffering the altitude more than anything else.  The hydration issue would have affected me on a longer run, but this was only 13 miles.  Realizing I was way under a PR time, I slowed my pace through the second loop of the run to take everything in and enjoy the course, finishing in 6:59:36.  

A great race, sorry to see it’s going to be discontinued, but that was expected given how it’s gone.  I questioned whether this year would happen up until a few days before the race, given the wildfire situation in California.  It’s a gorgeous and hard enough course, that if it had lasted another year, I would have gone back for my first full.

Things done well

* The bike went really well, about 25 minutes faster than last year, on a harder course.  

* The swim went well too, about 7 minutes faster.  

* No muscle strain/fatigue on the bike/run transition; I was more limited by altitude.  

* Changing shirts and avoiding tri tops makes longer races much more enjoyable. 

Things learned

* I didn’t hydrate enough on the bike.  Possibly because of the elevation, possibly because of staying dry due to speed.  I’ll have to watch this more deliberately if I do a full distance race.

* Running at elevation was the hardest part, even though running’s been the bulk of my altitude training this year. 

* Brockway summit is hard.

Some cool drone footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKcrunuI_0I&feature=share

Strava

• Swim
• Bike
• Run

Swim 

Bike, twice across the bottom. 

Run, 2x.

Donner Pass to Anderson Peak

I went out for a day trip run/hike a section of the PCT heading south from I-80, eventually making it to Anderson Peak.  The trail swaps between flatter sections and technical rock-strewn sections in this stretch, giving great views of Donner Lake, Tahoe National Forest, Donner and Castle Peaks, and passing by Mt Judah, Mt Lincoln, and alongside Anderson Peak, about where I turned back.  There’s great packed talus sections near here, just before a ridge that heads out to Tinker Knob.   I rolled my left ankle around mile 12, just after turning back, and speed hiked the rest of the way in, happy to have trekking poles with me to keep weight off of that foot.  I covered less distance than intended, since I was feeling more tired than expected around mile 10 and really wanted to make up enough time to stop for lobster rolls in Truckee.  Priorities.

Castle Peak at Sunrise.

Donner Lake

Donner Pass

Tahoe National Forest

Approaching Anderson Peak

Talus-Trail on Anderson Peak.  Not always stable.

Looking South toward Tinker Knob and Granite chief Wilderness

https://www.strava.com/activities/381461642

Lyell Canyon, Donahue Pass, Ansel Adams Wilderness

After TRT, I wanted to switch gears and run/explore more in places that races don't go.  I also wanted to race less to get rid of the time pressure, but still cover ultra distances.  Because of good timing with a work trip, I was able to put together a long mountain run pretty quickly.  I went with this route because it's well traveled and has a flat start/finish in case something didn't go well.  I was trying a number of new things on this run, many for the first time (trekking poles, dealing with a water filter, carrying significantly more weight, testing an emergency beacon, and going 2000 feet higher in altitude than I have previously on a run, past 11,000 feet).

I beat myself up, in a great way.  I kept a hard effort until the return to the valley floor, but my legs were dead by then.  I speed hiked it back in, by conscious choice rather than out of necessity, since I wanted to be able to walk the next day.  

Lyell Canyon is fairly flat, but at over 8000 feet.  There were many backpackers waking up as I jogged up the valley.  

At the head of the valley, there's a fairly abrupt change to rather technical trail that transitions from rock and dirt into rock steps and rock pieces and more strewn-about pieces of rock, over the next 1000 feet of climbing.  There's a great valley here with a small mountain lake/pond that's fed by the Lyell glacier.  

Then it's more climbing up Donahue pass, in which you encounter more rock stairs, even more rock pieces, and rubble and stuff that all kind of defines the trail.  I didn't actually run much up here, given the terrain and altitude.  

At the pass, at 11,000 feet, there's an abrupt change of views as you enter Ansel Adams wilderness.  

Dropping through more rock for a few miles, things change into the more rock-and-pool-with-mountain-backdrop environment we associate with photography from the area.  

I turned around at the Marie Lakes trail, and had a few fun conversations during breaks on the way back, as I was the only runner out for the day that I'm aware of, and I was now passing many backpackers for the second time.  Some of whom were out for a week to cover the distance I did in a day.

A rather unintimidated marmot at Donahue pass.

Mt Lyell again, and the valley below it, later in the day on the return.

Strava