Left on Sunday morning at 6:00am with my friend Audra. We had a nice day planned up in Boulder to get ourselves ready for the 5430 Half Ironman triathlon on August 9th. I have been surviving this week on very little sleep with late night dinners with Andy's family along with early morning workouts.
Our plan was to ride for about an hour from Boulder Reservoir and then do an organized "2 mile open water swim" which started at 8:30 am. They did have a 1 mile swim as well but we both agreed that the 2 mile would do us good considering it would be one of the few that we can get in before our Ironman race in May. There just aren't many opportunities to get in a 2 mile timed swim. After the swim we would ride the bike course for the race and finish with a short run afterwards.
We got to the Res. just before 7:00am, signed ourselves up for the swim and then took off for a nice easy 18 mile, 1 hour ride. We got back about 8:15 and in just enough time to squeeze into our wetsuits and get over to the start of the swim race. I think it was a race considering we had race numbers written on us but not sure there were really any awards....however, they did have food! There were a good number of swimmers who showed up, if I had to guess it was probably about 150. Some with wetsuits and many without. It was a little crazy at first, I lined up right in front and had a number of "feet" to follow/draft for the first lap. My only issue was that is was quite crowded at the start and I jammed my fingers into some guys feet with in the first 10 min. of the swim. I am sure the guy's feet were just fine, however, my finger is still pretty swollen but I am not thinking it is broken.
I finished the swim with a big pack of swimmers, I was the last in the group hanging on for dear life. I was hoping my legs wouldn't start to cramp. Even though I was wearing a wetsuit I realized once I started the swim that I had forgotten to take my nutrition gel so I tried to be a little conservative. I also knew that I didn't drink or eat anything on the bike ride before the swim so I knew I was some what depleted in nutrition. I was hoping for about a :50-:52 min. swim and ended up with a :54. I always wonder how accurate the course is. I felt good though so I was happy with the results. I opted for the long sleeve wetsuit which worked out great. I was hoping I wouldn't overheat as I want to wear the long sleeve for the race.
After the swim we grabbed a little food that was being served and then we got ready for our ride. We were meeting up with Audra's teammates from D3 Sports. There were about 15 there for the ride and we thought this would be great to ride as a group. Well, we couldn't hang with the fast guys and there were a few slower riders so it ended up in between and it being just Audra and I for the two loops of the 56 mile course. My legs were so heavy and tired that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to ride like I wanted to. We were suppose to work on "Big Ring" riding where we ride as hard of a gear as possible at different times during the ride. I love riding in a big gear but my quads were screaming today. If I put it in a lower gear and spun really fast then my legs would just burn as I crept along at a slow pace.
Audra was great, she kept me motivated when I was feeling like total crap. We rode for 3 hours, hilly, extremely windy and low on fluids. I had 2 water bottles and 1 feed bottle and Audra had 1 water/1 electrolyte bottle. There was no place on the course to get fluid and with it being in the 80's we were suffering just a little. We made it thru the course and then whole time I was thinking how miserable I was feeling and how in the world would I do this come race day! We rode the course in 2:54 so I was pretty happy with that considering how I was feeling.
After the ride we packed up the bikes and tossed on our running shoes and headed out for an easy 20-45 min. run....2o for me, :45 for Audra. My foot was killing me the first 5 min. I stopped and did some stretching and things finally loosened up a bit. The tightness in the heel was much better and I was able to comfortably (not pain free) run for about 2.5 miles. I am still dealing with the planatar Faciitis so I am a little nervous for the 13.1 miles I have to run in 3 weeks.. After this next race I will be taking some time off from running and cycling in hopes that I can get the foot to settle down so I can get back to my running.
A total of an hour swim/4 hours biking and a :20 min. run....not too bad. I took Monday off to sleep in and just get caught up with everyday things.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Boulder Peak Triathlon
It was an early start to our day, up at 3:10am for a 3:45am departure for Boulder. Had a good nights sleep so was happy about that. I had most of my stuff ready for the race so when I got up all I had to do was change clothes, heat up breakfast and load up the bike. Andy and I both were racing today as well as my friend Audra. We left the house on time to go pick up Audra who lives 5 min. away, only to find out when we got to her house she was nowhere to be found. After a few phonecall attempts and a ring on the doorbell, her husband emerges from the dark house to inform us that she overslept and she would have to drive herself up to the race....Not good for Audra but I guess it was good that we had arranged to pick her up otherwise I am pretty sure she would have missed the whole race!
We arrived in Boulder about 5:00am with plenty of time to get our body's marked with our race numbers and age and then we picked up our timing chip and racked our bikes. I ate my breakfast of brown rice/banana/blueberries just as we pulled into the Boulder Rez. My race was to start at 7:00am and I wanted to get something in at least 2 hours prior. I was feeling a little hungry about 6:00am so I had a macrobar, my favorite as they sit well in my stomach and don't give me side stitches.
The water was warm so I opted for my sleeveless wetsuit. It's great to swim in but almost impossible to get out of!! I need to get a new top before the next race. The swim was pretty uneventful, I started off on the front line and only a handful of people were in front of me. We swam for about 10 min. into the blinding sun so everyone was all over the place. Once we made the turn at the first bouy things got a little better, however, I was finding myself swimming thru the mass of swimmers from the earlier waves. There were 12 waves and the W-45-49 were in the 6th wave with half of the men 30-34. It sure didn't seem like a big wave so it was nice not getting the crap beat out of me like an Ironman swim when all 2000 swimmers take off at once.
I got out of the swim in :28 but had a heck of a time getting my wetsuit top off. I didn't feel like hustling too much out of transition but now that I know how the race ended up I should have tried to make the transitions just a tad quicker!
The bike was great, I felt pretty comfortable, even on the one mile long, 15% grade on "Old Stage Rd". I was able to get into a pretty good rythem and just continued to pass riders. The course was extremely crowded and I did yell at some girl who was drafting off of me...I kicked it into a higher gear and dropped her rather quickly. The ride took me 1:18:52 so I was quite pleased with that. My legs felt like they were wanting to cramp so I actually took 6 sport legs capsules on the bike: 3 at the start of the ride and an hour later took another 3. I had 2 gels on the bike and drank GU2O in my aero bottle....I added a little water at the first aid station and then just blew by the 2nd aid as I new I had plenty to get me back to the transition.
The run was going to be interesting. I have just started running without my orthodics and in new shoes as I am still having heel pain when running, it's been 7 months and not much has been helping. I have seen a couple of podiatrists and one PA and they all seem to have different diagnosis. Plantar Faciitis is probably what it is but I am going in for a CT scan on the heel next week to rule out a stress fracture. Running without the orthodics doesn't make the calves hurt as much as wearing them but the heel hurts more...so who knows. I plan to rest it a little this week and I have just started wearing a foot splint which stretches the calf out so I will give this a couple of weeks to see how it goes.
The run seemed easy for the first 3 miles, granted the heel was hurting and my calves were pretty tight so I didn't feel like I could really push it without getting myself into A LOT of pain. I was running at a conversational pace until the turn-around and then I did pick up the pace a little more. I was feeling pretty good, took in one gel at the half way mark and then had water at each of the 5 aid stations. I saw Andy near the turn-around and I figured he would catch me before I finished the race. Not so, he finished less than a minute behind me...however, he did start :25 min. after me! I could hear some gal breathing down my neck with less than a quarter mile to go, I couldn't read her age on her calf so I tried to stay with her but she just had more than I did at the end. I later found out that she beat me by :05 and was in my age group. After finding out that she was also a friend of Andy's and a world class runner years ago, I didn't feel so bad!
I ran exactly what I wanted and had a great time. I ended up 4th in my age group, not too shabby for someone who is running on the injured list.. Andy had a great race as well. He had some competiton swimming and riding within a minute of another guy...very close, however, Andy was able to out run the guy and so Andy took the 1st place trophy home with him.
We hung out at the awards and visited with quite a few of our friends that we hadn't seen in years, considering we haven't done a short course triathlon in many many years.
We arrived in Boulder about 5:00am with plenty of time to get our body's marked with our race numbers and age and then we picked up our timing chip and racked our bikes. I ate my breakfast of brown rice/banana/blueberries just as we pulled into the Boulder Rez. My race was to start at 7:00am and I wanted to get something in at least 2 hours prior. I was feeling a little hungry about 6:00am so I had a macrobar, my favorite as they sit well in my stomach and don't give me side stitches.
The water was warm so I opted for my sleeveless wetsuit. It's great to swim in but almost impossible to get out of!! I need to get a new top before the next race. The swim was pretty uneventful, I started off on the front line and only a handful of people were in front of me. We swam for about 10 min. into the blinding sun so everyone was all over the place. Once we made the turn at the first bouy things got a little better, however, I was finding myself swimming thru the mass of swimmers from the earlier waves. There were 12 waves and the W-45-49 were in the 6th wave with half of the men 30-34. It sure didn't seem like a big wave so it was nice not getting the crap beat out of me like an Ironman swim when all 2000 swimmers take off at once.
I got out of the swim in :28 but had a heck of a time getting my wetsuit top off. I didn't feel like hustling too much out of transition but now that I know how the race ended up I should have tried to make the transitions just a tad quicker!
The bike was great, I felt pretty comfortable, even on the one mile long, 15% grade on "Old Stage Rd". I was able to get into a pretty good rythem and just continued to pass riders. The course was extremely crowded and I did yell at some girl who was drafting off of me...I kicked it into a higher gear and dropped her rather quickly. The ride took me 1:18:52 so I was quite pleased with that. My legs felt like they were wanting to cramp so I actually took 6 sport legs capsules on the bike: 3 at the start of the ride and an hour later took another 3. I had 2 gels on the bike and drank GU2O in my aero bottle....I added a little water at the first aid station and then just blew by the 2nd aid as I new I had plenty to get me back to the transition.
The run was going to be interesting. I have just started running without my orthodics and in new shoes as I am still having heel pain when running, it's been 7 months and not much has been helping. I have seen a couple of podiatrists and one PA and they all seem to have different diagnosis. Plantar Faciitis is probably what it is but I am going in for a CT scan on the heel next week to rule out a stress fracture. Running without the orthodics doesn't make the calves hurt as much as wearing them but the heel hurts more...so who knows. I plan to rest it a little this week and I have just started wearing a foot splint which stretches the calf out so I will give this a couple of weeks to see how it goes.
The run seemed easy for the first 3 miles, granted the heel was hurting and my calves were pretty tight so I didn't feel like I could really push it without getting myself into A LOT of pain. I was running at a conversational pace until the turn-around and then I did pick up the pace a little more. I was feeling pretty good, took in one gel at the half way mark and then had water at each of the 5 aid stations. I saw Andy near the turn-around and I figured he would catch me before I finished the race. Not so, he finished less than a minute behind me...however, he did start :25 min. after me! I could hear some gal breathing down my neck with less than a quarter mile to go, I couldn't read her age on her calf so I tried to stay with her but she just had more than I did at the end. I later found out that she beat me by :05 and was in my age group. After finding out that she was also a friend of Andy's and a world class runner years ago, I didn't feel so bad!
I ran exactly what I wanted and had a great time. I ended up 4th in my age group, not too shabby for someone who is running on the injured list.. Andy had a great race as well. He had some competiton swimming and riding within a minute of another guy...very close, however, Andy was able to out run the guy and so Andy took the 1st place trophy home with him.
We hung out at the awards and visited with quite a few of our friends that we hadn't seen in years, considering we haven't done a short course triathlon in many many years.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The unofficial "Triple Bypass"
The Triple Bypass is a ride we do every year. It takes us from Evergreen, CO (home) to Avon, Co which is about 125 miles over 3 mountain passes; Squaw, Loveland and Vail Pass with a total climbing of 13,000 feet. This year we did it unofficially as the four of us who rode yesterday are actually racing a triathlon the day after the "official" Triple ride next weekend. I had contemplated doing both, the Triple on Sat. and then an Olympic distance triathlon the following day but I got the look of "are you freaking stupid" from my husband! Needless to say, we agreed to do the ride the week before.
To do this ride we have to either have someone pick us up or drop a car off. Andy was nice enough to volunteer so on Wed. he drove our car over to Avon and then rode his bike back to Evergreen. He did not ride up over Squaw but he still had the "Floyd Hill" to deal with in his 100 mile ride back to the house.
Friday morning Andy, Audra (my Ironman St. George training partner) and I started our ride at 5:30am from our house. Andy checked the weather and it looked to be pretty stable, partly cloudy with afternoon showers. It didn't matter to me as I was taking all the clothes that I could possibly cram into my camelbak; rain jacket, vest, glove covers, knee warmers, armwarmers, headband and a lot of food. We were to meet our friend Steve Moats in Idaho Springs @ about 8:00am. I told him it would take us about 2:30 hours to get over Squaw pass. It was a little slower this year and it ended up being closer to 2:45. We took our time and rode pretty conservatively over the first pass. I was fighting off some sort of bug so I was all for going easy. Audra hadn't done many long rides this year so she was really concerned about overextending in the first few hours.
The weather was cool with threatening rain clouds surrounding us for most of the day with an occassional burst of sun every now and then. The ride from Idaho Springs to the base of Loveland was a good 2 hours so Audra and I were taking it pretty easy here even though I was feeling like I wanted to push the pace more than what we were doing. Andy and Steve took off at their quick pace but I knew we would meet up again before our next big climb.
We had two sections that we had to ride on the Interstate as part of the frontage road we were planning on riding was pretty torn up. It was all dirt/rock/nasty road for over 2 miles so we opted for the smoother pavement of I-70. We got a little bit of rain just outside of Georgetown but nothing we needed raincoats for. Once at the base of Loveland we were all on our own until the top of the pass. It is a 4 mile climb and Audra and I had decided to do some intervals, sit and spin for a few minutes, stand for a few min. I did mine at 5 min. intervals, she did hers at 3 min. intervals. It was a tough climb and I was hoping I didn't just mess myself up for the rest of the ride.
We all convened at the top of Loveland pass, put extra clothes on for the descent and met up again at the bottom of the pass at a convenience store down in Keystone to refuel. A red bull and some potato chips got me thru to our next stop at Copper Mountain which was about an hour and a half away. At the base of Copper Mountain the rain started coming down pretty good so we hung out at Starbucks for about 20 min. to let the rain pass and then we were off again. We couldn't avoid all the rain clouds and ended up getting wet for about 10 min. of our 30 min. climb up Vail Pass.
From the top of Vail to Avon it was a good 20 miles, most of it downhill. We were all feeling pretty good at this point and the ride into Vail was quite pleasant. The clouds were getting very dark over Avon, another 8 miles away, we tried to see if we could out ride it but still got wet the last 10min. of the ride. Overall it was a great day, I did good on nutrition which is a downfall for me. I seemed to be hungry a lot during the day so I felt like I was constantly eating. I went thru 4 Macrobars (my favorite!!!), 2 gels, 1 almond butter sandwich (on gluten free bread), a red bull and a bag of chips and half a bottle of sustained energy drink for 8:50 of riding.
Audra, Andy and I stopped at Pazzo's pizza in Avon for our after ride meal. It was our first pizza in over 5 months....awesome!! Dropped Audra off in Frisco at some friends house and Andy and I were home and in bed by 10pm. Andy had to work today and I sit here trying to figure out what my body is capable of doing today...clean house, swim, bike or run????
To do this ride we have to either have someone pick us up or drop a car off. Andy was nice enough to volunteer so on Wed. he drove our car over to Avon and then rode his bike back to Evergreen. He did not ride up over Squaw but he still had the "Floyd Hill" to deal with in his 100 mile ride back to the house.
Friday morning Andy, Audra (my Ironman St. George training partner) and I started our ride at 5:30am from our house. Andy checked the weather and it looked to be pretty stable, partly cloudy with afternoon showers. It didn't matter to me as I was taking all the clothes that I could possibly cram into my camelbak; rain jacket, vest, glove covers, knee warmers, armwarmers, headband and a lot of food. We were to meet our friend Steve Moats in Idaho Springs @ about 8:00am. I told him it would take us about 2:30 hours to get over Squaw pass. It was a little slower this year and it ended up being closer to 2:45. We took our time and rode pretty conservatively over the first pass. I was fighting off some sort of bug so I was all for going easy. Audra hadn't done many long rides this year so she was really concerned about overextending in the first few hours.
The weather was cool with threatening rain clouds surrounding us for most of the day with an occassional burst of sun every now and then. The ride from Idaho Springs to the base of Loveland was a good 2 hours so Audra and I were taking it pretty easy here even though I was feeling like I wanted to push the pace more than what we were doing. Andy and Steve took off at their quick pace but I knew we would meet up again before our next big climb.
We had two sections that we had to ride on the Interstate as part of the frontage road we were planning on riding was pretty torn up. It was all dirt/rock/nasty road for over 2 miles so we opted for the smoother pavement of I-70. We got a little bit of rain just outside of Georgetown but nothing we needed raincoats for. Once at the base of Loveland we were all on our own until the top of the pass. It is a 4 mile climb and Audra and I had decided to do some intervals, sit and spin for a few minutes, stand for a few min. I did mine at 5 min. intervals, she did hers at 3 min. intervals. It was a tough climb and I was hoping I didn't just mess myself up for the rest of the ride.
We all convened at the top of Loveland pass, put extra clothes on for the descent and met up again at the bottom of the pass at a convenience store down in Keystone to refuel. A red bull and some potato chips got me thru to our next stop at Copper Mountain which was about an hour and a half away. At the base of Copper Mountain the rain started coming down pretty good so we hung out at Starbucks for about 20 min. to let the rain pass and then we were off again. We couldn't avoid all the rain clouds and ended up getting wet for about 10 min. of our 30 min. climb up Vail Pass.
From the top of Vail to Avon it was a good 20 miles, most of it downhill. We were all feeling pretty good at this point and the ride into Vail was quite pleasant. The clouds were getting very dark over Avon, another 8 miles away, we tried to see if we could out ride it but still got wet the last 10min. of the ride. Overall it was a great day, I did good on nutrition which is a downfall for me. I seemed to be hungry a lot during the day so I felt like I was constantly eating. I went thru 4 Macrobars (my favorite!!!), 2 gels, 1 almond butter sandwich (on gluten free bread), a red bull and a bag of chips and half a bottle of sustained energy drink for 8:50 of riding.
Audra, Andy and I stopped at Pazzo's pizza in Avon for our after ride meal. It was our first pizza in over 5 months....awesome!! Dropped Audra off in Frisco at some friends house and Andy and I were home and in bed by 10pm. Andy had to work today and I sit here trying to figure out what my body is capable of doing today...clean house, swim, bike or run????
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