Race Report - Fall Frenzy Sprint Triathlon

This was my first (and only) sprint of 2011 - weird!

I signed up for this one mainly because it was 4 miles from my house.  Meaning: there was no excuse not to do it, since I could ride my bike to and from the race.  When I signed up, some weird flags went off in my head about the race organization, but I signed up anyways.  The swim was a 500 yard pool swim, so they asked that you provide your estimated time.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go, so I was fairly honest (but agressive) and I put down 8:10.  Turns out, they group you in heats by your (self) seeded number and you swim together as a group.  Soooo, if people weren't honest, it would lead to a bunch of frustration (on my part).  Also, they (for whatever reason - I guess so everyone finishes together?) have the slow swimmers go first, which means that I started towards the end of the race.   They did have a fast lane option, which was dedicated for the whole event, but you had to be able to swim 7:30 or faster.  In all honesty, even when I'm on my swim game, I don't think I could swim a 7:30, so I was just hoping I'd get a decent group.

I went to the pre-race meeting (actually I accidentally timed my packet pick-up at the start of the meeting, and we parked poorly, as in we parked right in the middle of the meeting and felt bad leaving when the meeting was going).  Soo, the race details got even more icky.  Apparently they take ~25 people around your proposed swim time and put you into a wave.  And then it was up to YOU while you're standing around waiting for your wave to find 4 other like-minded swimmers to swim with.  The race started at 7 AM - my wave was at 9:25.  UGH.  Apparently there were a ton of people seeded to swim the 500 yards in 23-25 minutes.  I can't even imagine how you could take so long swimming that.  I mean, that's almost 1 minute PER 25.  I think you would water-walk it faster than that.

So, I guess in an effort to make things nice for the later racers, transition never closed.  Typically in a race, transition closes ~30 min before the race starts.  That way, you don't have people mulling around haphazardly while people are running to and from their bikes.  An open transition meant that people could come and go as they please.  So, as I am leisurely setting up my bike, racers are running to and fro.  This did NOT sounds like a good idea to me.  Honestly, if I hadn't paid money, I may have decided on Saturday not to race.  Instead, I decided to suck it up and to try and go FAST.  I was secretly hoping for a podium spot, since I knew a bunch of speedy people were racing long at other races that day.  Based on past recent races, I should have some speed and I should be able to post a pretty decent time.

Pre-Race
I set my alarm for 7 AM, woke up at 6:45.  I haven't slept in that late for a race since Boise 2010, which had a 2 PM start.  I leisurely dinked around the house for an hour then hopped on my bike and rode 4 miles to the race start.  I forgot my jacket in the garage and it was COLD.  That was the one good thing about starting later in the morning - riding my bike soaking wet out of the swim in 50 degree temperatures would be CHILLY.

I showed up to transition and it was really weird.  Most people had their areas set up and there were a few empty spots left.  You had to be very careful with where you racked you bike because in some cases, it was very hard to tell if the place was already taken.  A lot of the slower people were newbies and don't use cycling shoes.  Sometimes all you'd see in an "open" rack was a hat or maybe a bag - no running shoes, since they were using their running shoes on the bike.  Really weird.  I ended up finding a decent spot with a good amount of room and then marked my rack with hot pink duct tape, since I knew everything would look alike when I came into T2.

I then went and got my bike number (because they weren't in yet during packet pick-up!), got body marked (numbers were placed on my arms like normal, but also down the front of my shins :/ ), then I headed to the pool to see what the deal was.  It was around 8:30 and I had almost an hour to go.  I was very aware that things were going to get warmer the longer I waited so I scoped out the fast lane. 

Fast Lane: We will have a fast lane once again this year. In order to swim in this lane, you must have a swim time of 7:30 or faster AND be able to do flip turns. If you do not meet these qualifications and swim in the fast lane, you will be assessed a 5 minute penalty. Once we have moved through all the fast swimmers, we will open it up to the current heat the rest of the pool is on to speed things up. The fast lane will run from 8:00-9:30a.m.

People's race numbers were in reverse order of swim time (slower people had lower numbers).  I was watching the fast lane and there wasn't a line of swimmers waiting to swim, and they weren't getting 5 swimmers at once to swim.  Also, by around 8:45, the swimmers didn't appear to be all that fast.  It didn't seem to me that they weren't really enforcing the 7:30 pace rule, which meant I might be able to sneak into the fast lane. I began polling people with numbers similar to mine: "do you do flip turns?" EVERY single person said no.  So, my hope of finding a group of people around my pace to sneak into the fast lane was dashed.  No flip turns is a SURE sign that you don't belong.  (I still don't understand WHY you wouldn't do flip turns!?!?).  The current group of fast lane swimmers was nearing the end and I noticed that there were only 2 guys waiting around.  I went over there and talked to them.  Turns out they needed a 3rd swimmer so they could start the swim.  They were faster than I was (one guy was about 7:15, the other guy had no idea), so we arranged a swim order and I snuck in.  Success!

Swim
They had the 3 of us get in the water together, and they started us ~10 seconds apart.  For whatever reason, we decided I should go second in our group of 3.  This was my first non-tech-assisted swim of the year (meaning no wetsuit or speedsuit).  It was also my first time swimming in my Team SONY kit.  I did my first flip turn and *poof*. It turns out, my SONY tri shorts turn into a parachute during flip turns.  Lovely....   My swimming hasn't been great lately - my current team doesn't believe in swimming longer than 125 meters.  The longest I've swam since May is 200 meters, which is my cool down.  I haven't swam 500 yards straight since May and it showed!  The guy behind me passed me maybe halfway through.  He tapped my foot and I paused on the wall to let him by.  Then at maybe 350 yards, the first guy lapped me, but again, he was nice about it, tapped me, and I paused at the wall to let him by.  All this pausing killed my swim time though.  Blech.  Still, it was better than me trying to pass people, knowing that most male triathlete guys have huge egos and don't let people pass easily.  Normally, I like to descend my swim races, but I could tell I was fading.  I tried to keep my kick strong, but my arms and my breathing were no where near as strong as I like them to be.  Still, I finished ok and the guy who started behind me (who passed me) was still in the water when I touched the wall, so I couldn't have been too far behind.

The other lame thing about this swim is that they have you start at the far end of the pool, so once you're done, you hop out and run all the way around the pool (no running on the pool deck!) to get to the swim exit.  And THEN you hit the mat.  So who really knows what my swim time was.

"Swim" time : 8:55 (seeded for 8:10)

Age Group: 4/38
Overall: 54/333


T1
They had you exit the indoor pool, run across a lawn to a parking lot, then you ran down the road adjacent to the parking lot and THEN you got up to transition.  It was maybe 200 meters or so of jogging?  Watching people (newbies mostly) made for some good entertainment.  Many people stashed clothes at the pool exit on the lawn and they were putting on shoes and clothes there instead of actually in transition.

I hit the door and kept my pace a nice fast jog.  As I was on the grass I heard a "Go Erin!" but I have no idea who was yelling it.  Still, it was nice to hear my name :) 

The rest of transition wasn't too exciting, just lots of quick jogging and grabbing my stuff.  Transition was in a soccer field which is always interesting.  Grass on your feet and in your socks.  And grass/mud in your cycling shoe cleats. 

T1: 2:40.4
Age Group 7/38

Bike
When clipping in, I start with my right, pedal some, then clip in my left.  Right foot was no problem, as I was smart and arranged the pedal properly for a quick clip-in.  I somehow missed my left pedal twice.  Each time, my foot slipped and the pedal smacked against my ankle and shin, making some pretty sweet bruises!  No idea if I had mud/grass in my cleat, if I was just rushing too much, or if I was just being a dumbass.  Finally, third time was a charm and I got into left pedal.

The start of the bike was a bit strange.  Instead of being on roads, we were on the paved hike/bike trail, which had lots of sharp corners and turns.  Its also quite bumpy (due to concrete seams every 5 feet) so its hard to get into a rhythm.  Finally after maybe a mile (?) we were able to ride on open road.  For some dumb reason, I thought the course was flat.  DUMB DUMB DUMB.  It wasn't ridiculously hilly, but there were some good hills.  My mission was to GO FAST on the bike, but the hills made it interesting.  And hard.

The RDs made a comment in the pre-race meeting that we should know the course, specifically where to turn.  Apparently intersections which required a police officer did not allow volunteers to be present for safety reasons.  Police officers are not always the best at telling you where the course goes (say, if you need to turn) and you could miss your turn.  I was very pleased to see that the RDs marked the bike course with spray paint arrows, so there was never any question of where you should go.  VERY nice.

One cop pulled a near-IMTX, letting traffic through, which made me slow down on a downhill leading into an uphill.  I had to hit my brakes but I didn't stop, and he felt bad and apologized.  Several other cops were "directing" traffic from inside their cars.  I'd approach and they'd decide to get out of their car and see if traffic needed to be stopped for me to proceed.  Fortunately, Sunday morning isn't high traffic and I never had a near collision.  Still, you're getting paid to do an EASY job.  Get out of your car and keep us safe, mkay?

Bike course wasn't too exciting.  There was one nasty downhill into a u-turn, which meant you got to climb back up that hill from a near full stop.  That wasn't very nice.  The course going out was mostly uphills and you circled back and had 1 nasty uphill and one medium hill that just went on a bit too long.  I could tell I'm not used to going hard on the bike and I think I started to fade a bit.  Or maybe the wind was working against me.  All I know is I saw 20+ mph going out and was working to keep it at 18 mph going back.  Still, for 12 miles, I pushed.  Since I started the swim early, it was impossible to see where I was in relation to my competition.  I as passing a ton of people, including some dude on a mountain bike with a kid-carrier, which had a stuffed animal (dog?) belted inside the carrier.  (I wish I had my camera, it was amusing).  Only one person passed me, and she was in my age group.  I passed her on the flad and downhill, only to have her destroy me on the next hill. Must work on hills this winter. 

A quick 12 miles later I was done with the bike.  Always trying to work on my T2 time, I undid my Garmin while I was still riding (I'm sure I looked cute, riding and holding my Garmin in my teeth) so I wouldn't have to mess with it later on.

Bike:
00:41:13 17.47 mile/hr
Age Group: 10/38
Overall: 108/333

Ok, maybe I'm being hard on myself with the bike split... my fastest bike split was 18.7 mph and I've got a bunch of 17.6-17.9 mph splits on FLAT courses.  Given the hills (and my lack of bike training lately), maybe that's not too bad?  Plus, I my pace was right in the middle of the top 10 finishers in the AG.  Still, hill strength will be a good off-season goal.

T2
Nothing remarkable here - just tried to keep it fast.  Swapped out my shoes and grabbed the rest of my junk to put on while I ran.

1:02.6 (my fastest T2 except for the questionable 20 second T2 at Rattlesnake).

Run
Since I had crushed the 10 miler on Monday, I had HIGH expectations for my run.  It was only 3 miles and I wanted to run FAST. My calves, however, had different ideas.  As did a wicked side stitch.  I was trying to push the pace and the best my legs would allow was somewhere around a 10:00-10:30.  The side stitch was irritating but not awful.  But my calves were so tight they just couldn't move any faster.  I walked the first aid station, which eliminated the side stitch.  Leg were still tight until the turn-around.  I knew there was a big hill at the finish, but most everything from 1.5 miles to the finish was downhill, so I tried to push it.  I did a decent job pushing (but walked the aid station, probably only 10 seconds though).  My legs loosened up a bit at the turnaround but I didn't ever get my awesome flying while running feeling.  I tried to do some speed pick-ups as an attempt to trick my legs, only my legs didn't fall for it.  Ugh.  Not a bad running performance (my 3rd fastest 3 mile pace for a sprint) but it wasn't what I knew I was capable of.  My energy and spirit were willing - this time my legs were just not wanting to play along.  Probably because I crushed the 10 mile race 6 days before.  *sigh*

Run time: 30:29.9. 10m 10s min/mile
Age Group: 19/38
Overall: 185/333

Overall time: 1:24:21 (right at my predicted time)
Overall Rank = 111/333
Age Group Rank = 13/38
Post Race
I got my feet rubbed by a reflexologist (felt nice but wasn't long enough), had good italian grub from a local restaurant (spaghetti and meatballs!), then I stuck around for the raffle/award ceremony.  They posted overall race results, not AG results.  I was in the top 1/3 overall that there was a slight chance I'd podium.  I would have podiumed if I was 1 year younger.  Sadly, I was 5 min away from 3rd place and over 1 minute away from 10th place.  5 minutes for me, right now, is just too fast to overcome for me.  Maybe in a few years.  I did win a free massage, though.  Post-race stuff went on WAY TOO LONG, and it was 12:45 before I hopped on the bike to hit the trails home. 

Lost: Motivation

I think I've finally hit burn out mode.  I've been skipping workouts like crazy, which is so not like me.

This week:

• Monday: 10 mile running race
• Tuesday morning: yoga
• Tuesday: track night was rained out, so we went to a bar for beer and food.
• Wednesday: swim team.  Also: should have done my track workout but I did not.
• Thursday: should have run 6 miles.  Instead, I got up, the house was cool, which meant it was "cold" outside. So, I turned my alarm off and slept in.  Could have ran after work, but instead, I peeled, sliced, and froze about 30 peaches. Priorities.....
• Friday: should have got up to hit swim practice, but the forecast was for a low of 47, and we swim outside, and Friday is sprint day (which I hate).  So I slept in. 

What is wrong with me?  I never skip swim practice!

Here's some random analysis of where my motivation has gone.

1. I really do not like my current swim team.  The workouts are not challenging, I've been there since June and really haven't made a connection with anyone.  Even thought at Highlands Ranch I never made friends, at least the workouts were challenging and I was learning new things.  At Inverness, the coach pushes the easy button on the workouts, which doesn't exactly inspire me to do anything more than "easy button".  And since I really don't know anyone there, there's no one to hold me accountable.  After my tri this Sunday, I'm even thinking of taking the rest of the month off from swimming (and getting my Ironman tattoo).  I dunno though.  This would be the longest break from swimming since 2006. 
2. Based on my recent racing experience, I'm rocking it without really doing much training.  Normally, I train out of fear that I won't perform to my expectations.  Only lately, I'm exceeding expectations without training.  Soooo, why train if I don't have to?
3. I think I'm so scarred for life from training in the snow last winter/spring, that I really just want to stay in my warm bed.  I am not ready for winter.  Even though 47 really isn't cold, its more the idea that real, true cold is on its way, so I'd better start hibernating now.  Or maybe its more like I didn't get to stay in my nice warm bed at all earlier this year, so I'm making up for lost time.
4. I only have one more tri this season, and its a sprint.  I could do that in my sleep.  Or I've got myself convinced I could do it in my sleep.  We'll see how true this is Sunday. :/  Besides, with this sucky swim team, I haven't swam anything longer than a 200 (which is my warm up) since May.  This sprint is a 500 pool swim, which I suspect will hurt.
5. I've been battling shin splints since February.  They're not awful, but lately, I'm just more and more annoyed with them.  When I run, they hurt for ~2 days after.  Its irritating.  If I don't run, they don't hurt.  No irritation.  So therefore, I just don't feel like running. (I do have a physical therapy appt for Monday for this).
6. October will mark the anniversary of the start of IMTX training.  I trained HARD for 8 months.  I've been training sorta-hard since then.  Well, not hard for me, but hard for the average person.  I think I just want a break.

Maybe next week will be better.

Race Report - Park to Park 10 Miler

A few weeks back, one of my facebook friends posted one of those "hey, I'm thinking of running this, anyone want to join me?" posts.  I vaguely knew about this race but never thought to research it.  September is "get serious about training for that half marathon in October" month.  I've been HORRIBLE at getting in my long runs on the weekends.  I also had to find 2 more races to do for Team SONY.  Even through the price was a bit steep ($60) I thought that this would be good for me because a) it would force me to run 10 miles and b) it would count as one of my Team SONY races.  Win-win!

The run starts at the Natural History museum / zoo and works its way through 5 parks, with the finish line at South High School.  I know Washington Park / South High School very well (my dad lived near there) but I wasn't very familiar with any of the other parks.  I was excited to explore Denver as a runner and see some new things.

Since this run is a point-to-point, getting to the start or finish is interesting if you show up by yourself.  The website offered 3 suggestions: 1) park halfway and run to the start and from the finish (about 4 miles each way); 2) get a group of people, stash a car at the finish, then ride to the start; 3) pay $8 for a shuttle that will either take you to the start or from the finish.  I opted for option #3, the shuttle.  You could either park at the finish and take the shuttle to the start or vice versa.  I know South High School very well AND I thought it would be handy to have my car right at the finish so I could leave when I wanted to leave, so I chose the early option.  That meant for a 7 AM race start, I had to catch the shuttle at 5:50 AM.  UGH. On a holiday no less!

Race Plan
My last "long" run, all of 8 miles, was on July 16th.  SEVEN weeks ago.  Granted, I've been ok about doing mid-week 6 mile runs, but horrible about doing anything over 6 miles.  I really had no idea how 10 miles would feel.  I remember last fall, when my IM coach was getting me ready for a December half marathon.  She had several of my long runs as descend tempo runs, where you get faster in the last half of your run.  So that was the plan... descend this sucker.  I wanted to run the first 5 miles as I felt, keeping my HR in the 150's and warm up nice and slow.  Then miles 5-8 were at Zone 3, with my HR somewhere in the 160's.  Then mile 8 should have my HR in the upper 160's lower 170's.  The last mile should be fast where I'm working but not all out, and the last half mile would be as fast as I could sustain until I crossed the finish line.

Race

The pre-race was very low-key.  They had last-minute packet pick-up at the race start, a van for you to drop your gear bag (they'd take it to the race finish, a VERY nice feature since it was chilly out and I needed my jacket before the race), and the start line with pace groups.  As part of Team SONY, I have a running kit and a tri kit.  Only one problem with the running kit - no pockets!  I need gels for anything longer than 1 hour, so I wore my tri kit.  I think I was the only one (out of 971 people) wearing a tri kit.  But at least I had my gels!  I found some of my Saturday running club buddies (who I haven't seen in 7 weeks) and said hi.  They were going to run faster than I was (how'd that happen? we were the same speed!) so I put in my SONY MP3 player in my ears and decided to be anti-social for the race.  Also: my bib number was 777.  Such a cool number!

The race went by in a blur - it really didn't feel like 10 miles.  The course twists a bunch and travelling from park to park really does provide a good distraction.  There were only 3 aid stations (2.5 miles, 5 miles, 7.5 miles) and for whatever reason, that helped things to seem shorter than it really was.  Maybe its because I'm trained to see aid stations every 1 mile.

Nothing huge to report on this race report - I kept pretty much to plan.  I ran with my hand-held bottle filled with water, as I'm trying to live off the course better.  I had 2 Hammer Gels in my pocket, but they were really as a supplement if I needed them.  On the way to the race, I had a Coke Zero and a PowerBar, trying to minimize stomach issues.  The first few miles my stomach felt a bit icky, more like it was too full.  Need to remember that I don't need to eat a whole bar  - I bet half a bar would be fine.  Fortunately my stomach worked itself out and was a non-issue.  I took a gulp of PowerAid at each aid station.  At mile 5 I started to get a bit dizzy, so I took in a 1/3 of a gel.  It helped, but didn't fix the problem.  At ~8.5 I took in more gel, so I'd have good energy for the push to the finish, and that seemed to do the trick.

Pacing was really good.  There were some slight hills, and the uphills, while not steep, were LONG.  I stayed focused, working on keeping my steps small and light on the hills.  I actually passed quite a few people on the hills :)  The fun part about going up the hills is when you crest over the top and go downhill.  If you keep your foot cadence the same as you did on the uphill, you can FLY downhill.  I really pushed the downhills, while staying in my HR zones.

The first 5 miles were pretty uneventful.  Just running and getting warmed up, taking in the sights.  I'd say that I never really felt warmed up until somewhere around mile 4 or 5.  Also around mile 4 or 5, my bladder decided to make its presence known.  The port-a-cans at the mile 5 aid station were busy and I was secretly hoping that my bladder was just confused and with time (and more running) it could be ignored.  I decided to hold off until the 7.5 mile aid station and use the bathroom then.  I increased my pace at mile 5 per my pacing goals and everything was going fine.  At mile 7.5, I was happy for a bathroom break, only to find out that the port-o-cans were LOCKED.  No idea what the deal was here.  I just knew that I had 2.5 miles and no more than 30 min of running left.  I decided to suck it up and push for the finish.  If I was running hard, then chances are, I wouldn't be thinking about my bladder.  This worked and I was fine for the rest of the race.

Miles 8-10 went through Washington Park, which is the area I'm most familiar with.  I knew the finish wasn't far and I wanted to see how hard I could run.  I kept looking at my watch and was seeing 9:30-9:15 pace.  9:15 is my PR for 1-mile repeats on the track.  I didn't know how I could keep up the pace for 2 miles but I was going to try.  We got the south end of the park and I pushed more.  Then out of the park with 1/2 mile left.  You could see the high school, only they were sneaky and made you run around the school into the staduim, and around the track to the finish.  I kept the pace, passing people, and once I saw the stadium parking lot, I just lit on my afterburners.  That's the best way to describe it.  I was tired, but I wanted to push more, so I just went for it.  It was such a cool feeling to demand MORE from my body and to have my body respond.  I was now running somewhere around an 8:30-8:15 pace and passing all sorts of people, including several who had passed me early on.  Then finally the finish line.  I'm sure my photo is precious, as I'm redlining and feeling pukey. But I'm happy because I executed my plan, ran FAST, and barely trained for this.  Maybe not training is the way to go.

Results
Chip Time 1:43:34
5 mile split: 53:21- I ran the back half of the race 3:08 faster, which is about 37 seconds/mile faster than the first half.  PERFECT.
Overall Place 741 / 971
Gender Place 402 / 591
Division Place 86 / 128
Age Grade 48.5%
Pace 10:22

Mt Elbert

About a month ago, my tri club posted on facebook about doing a hike up a Fourteener the last Saturday in August.  Groupon had a half off coupon for an adventure race, but this seemed more fun.  And besides, I'm a native and have never climbed at Fourteener!  Originally, I wanted Will to come along, but once he heard that we had to leave at 3 AM, he was out.  Also, this funny bit of conversation:

W: who are you hiking with?
E: people I don't know from my tri club. 
W: you don't know these people?
E: nope, but what could go wrong?

There are 54 mountains in Colorado which have elevations higher than 14,000 feet.  The common term for them are Fourteeners.  Quite a few people are focused on "bagging" every one of them, sometimes all within the same year.  Some of the hikes are 100% trails, some you have to scrabble up loose rock, some you have to very carefully walk along the spine of the mountain.  And at Pikes Peak, there's even an oxygen bar. (eyeroll).

Our hike leader, Matt, decided that we'd hike up Mt Elbert, which is the highest mountain in CO and the Rockies.  Its the second highest moutain in the continental US, only 65 feet shorter than Mt Whitney.  The hike was 4.5 miles with a gain of nearly 4,500 ft elevation.  The plan was to get to the trailhead at sunrise and summit well before thunderstorms could build.  Lightening is the main danger when hiking above treeline, thus the 3 AM departure time.

green line is the trail to the top

The drive up wasn't as awful as I anticipated (it helped that I wasn't driving).  Turns out I knew Matt from the club track workouts and we have done a bunch of races together (before I moved here).  So we chatted the whole 2 hr drive to Leadville, where we met the other half of our group.  Being up there in the dark was a bit spooky - and the trees were covered in frost.  (not ready for winter... yet).  After a quick pit-stop in Leadville, we drove to the trail head, where there were about ~20 other cars in the parking lot and more cars coming in.  Elevation was just over 10,000 feet.



Pre-dawn parking lot with lingering fog



We started hiking and I just took off up the trail.  I was hauling.  No idea why - maybe I was just excited to get going after sitting in the car for 2.5 hrs.  We took a break at the first mile for snacks, and I realized that I had an open blister just under my right ankle.  Fortunately I had some blister block (and it stayed on for the whole trip!).  After the rest break, I was no longer speedy.  I think the lack of oxygen finally caught up to me and I was no longer the leader.  Actually, I was in the back of the pack now. Boo.  When we were hiking in the forest, the trees were pretty thick and there was little undergrowth.  We started getting to where the treeline, the trees started getting a bit more sparse and you could catch glimpses of Mt Massive (another 14er adjacent to Elbert). 



The group just before treeline



Our group was a pretty good one - very friendly and all willing to take breaks.  Treeline was at ~12,000 feet and at that point, my asthma was becoming noticable.  I just couldn't get in enough air or catch my breath for any sustained amount of time.  Finally, I decided that it was better to go slow and to NOT get into an oxygen deficit than to go hard, ignore the breathing, get dizzy and then sick.  The topography was also becoming more steep.  As a result, I decided to hike 100 vertical feet and then take a 30-60 min mini-break to catch my breath.  Sometimes I'd stop sooner, depending on the steepness and my breathing.

Mt Massive peeking through



So more hiking... up and up.  Above treeline, the vegetation was high alpine meadow with sparse grasses and NO flowers.  Once you went up and over a saddle, you got to the main climb, where it was all rock and dirt.  But mostly rock.



hiking up out of the trees



the top of the hill was the first of 2 falst summits



this was the most sucky climb



the specs are people - top is the second false summit



Matt was hiking with me, which was nice, but I also felt a bit bad.  I don't think I was holding him back, but I hate hate hate being in the back of the pack.  However, my lungs were my limiter, and there wasn't anything that could be done except to take my time.  Somewhere mid-way up the hill on the above-right picture, my Garmin read 14,000 feet.  Matt thought my Garmin was wrong.  Turns out Matt was wrong and we actually did have another 400 feet of climbing.  This trail took us through two false summits.  False summits totally suck, because mentally, you think you're near the top.  Only to find out that you're not even close to the top. FINALLY we got to the last part of the trail, which was along the spine of the mountain.  And then we got to the top and the rest of our group was there, but they'd only been waiting about 10 minutes.  There were probably 40 (?) people also at the top.  We ate lunch and hung out, took photos.  Until a cloud over Twin Lakes started to look a bit too dark and scary, so at 11 AM, we decided to head back down.



Ridegline



scary cloud that made us think twice about lingering

 

survey marker



you can see the trail on the ridge below

Matt had planned on a 4:30 hike up, I made it in 4:20, so according to him, I was still "doing well".  Nevermind the fact that I got totally lapped by dogs.  We started down at 11, which was the time that Matt had planned on us reaching the top. On the way down, we were glad that we didn't linger, as the scary cloud started making noises, big ugly claps of thunder.  Being on a mountain above treeline in a thunder storm is NOT a good place to be!  We weren't in any danger, but the clouds were definitely building.  Going down wasn't as lung-taxing as going up, so I didn't need very many breaks.  I am a horribly slow down-hill hiker, though.  My knees just don't like it and my legs become very wobbly.  As a result, I take things very methodically and slow.

goal here wasn't to take a pic of these guys - I wanted

to show how steep the trail was, but they wouldn't move!

FINALLY, after 3 hrs, I made it to the bottom.  The top of my right foot was sore, both of my big toes were numb, and my calves were shot.  But we'd made it round trip in 7.5 hours (9.5 miles by my Garmin).  AND we beat out the storms.

We met up with the faster group (who got lost on the way down - oops!), the drove into Leadville for lunch.  PIZZA.  Mmmmmm!  After that, it was down to town and I was home by 6 PM.  Where I became a zombie.

 

rain falling over Twin Lakes

Today (2 days later), I feel like I just did a half ironman, if not more..... My legs are super sore and I'm TIRED. My right toe is still numb too. :/

Race Report - Rattlesnake Olympic Triathlon

The plan for the summer was to enter a few races for fun and milk my IMTX training for all it was worth.  Why I decided to do yet ANOTHER Olympic race, I have no idea... especially considering there was a Sprint the next day.  But the Oly was my club's race and the price was right.  I was actually close to signing up for the back-to-back (oly and sprint), but somehow I was smart and decided that the oly would be plenty.  Coming into this race, my swimming has been eh (not liking my new team at all), cycling has been non-existant (3 rides in 6 weeks, all crammed into the last 10 days before the race!).  Running has been ok, doing 6 mile runs regularly.  Not enough for my upcoming half mary, but plenty for an oly.

This race was set up very strangely.... the swim was a 2 loop swim, where you pop up at the end of the first loop and run on the beach for ~100 feet and head back into the water.  I did that in a race last year and hated it.  The swim start was also very funky - time trial (meaning you start 5 seconds apart), and the start order was women first, oldest to youngest.  Blech.  And it was a "run from the beach" sorta start, which meant you run in and (if you're smart) dolphin dive to get rolling. 

Pre-Race

Really weird bike racking in transition

Getting to the venue was ridiculously easy.  Took me maybe 20 minutes to drive, and that was taking the long, non-toll road way.  Got to the parking lot (right next to transition!) at 6 AM.  Transition was really funky.  Instead of having rows of racks, they had these weird little bike stand thingies that you see in front of stores that hold ~4 bikes.  The stands were scattered about and space was pretty tight in between the "rows".  Since I got there early, I snagged an aisle spot.  This was good because I could use the aisle for transition and I didn't have to worry about the tight rows.  They forgot to turn off the sprinklers that morning, which meant transition was full of puddles.  Quite a few people were complaining, but its not like you come out of the lake dripping wet anyways. 

They offered body marking inside transition, which must be a Colorado thing (Boulder Peak had that too).  I really like this because you don't get the bottleneck into transition. 

puddles and awkward transition area - but look at all the
room I have

I got everything set up and chatted with some friends from my tri club.  Said hi to my other Team Sony teammate who was racing.  Then it was time to make the big "wetsuit or no wetsuit decision".  I headed to the water and waded in about mid-thigh.  Everyone was wearing wetsuits.  They claimed the water temp was 71 - it felt more like 75.  I decided (again) to not wear the wetsuit and wear my Torque.  (Bear in mind, I bought a sleeveless wetsuit in July to wear this summer, and I've never even tried it on yet.....).  I ran back up to transition to grab my Torque and to stow the rest of my stuff at the club tent.  Then it was time to cram into the Toque and get into line, where I was one of maybe 10 people not wearing a wetsuit.  I was the only one in a speedsuit, everyone else simply didn't own or rent a wetsuit.  Hmmm, not too sure about my decision now....

Swim

swim start - rawr!

The swim start was awkward.  You had to line up by number.  I was 196 out of ~400 people, and 5 seconds apart meant I was standing around for 16 minutes.  I think I prefer wave starts, as you know when you start and there's not so much mulling around.  So, once I FINALLY made my way to the start chute, you stand single file on the beach.  The woman in front of me left, and then I had a guy with a stopwatch count me down.  I heard "GO" and took off.  I've only done one beach start before, and that was as a relay and I was combined with all the 20-25 year old men.... so I let them go ahead and I held back so I wouldn't die.  This time I wanted to be aggressive.  I took ~4 running steps with high knees once the water was to my knees I dove in.  I think I executed this pretty well - I felt fast and my goggles stayed on.  The swim was a really weird out and back, with a u-turn.  The buoys were connected with a yellow floating rope.  So, my goal was to just stay on the rope the whole time.  This worked pretty well.  I hit the buoy and turned 180 degrees and was met by 2 women who were treading water or doing breastroke RIGHT AFTER THE TURN.  WTF?!?!  I had to swim between them, but as I did, I yelled (I think) "not a good place for social hour ladies".  That pissed me off.  Ugh.  I had a harder time navigating the rope on the way back and I had some chicky in a pink wetsuit decide to swim RIGHT next to me.  Fine.  I survived IMTX with no wetsuit - game on chicky.  That continued on for basically the whole back end of the first loop.... at the end, I swam until I could touch sand with my hands, jumped out, ran my ~100 feet in the sand, (made a comment to the photographer about that moment being cute/horrible), then ran and dolphined in for the second loop.

running into the water to start the
second loop

For some reason, my navigation wasn't great for the second loop.  I think I got a bit lazy, knowing the yellow rope was there.  Only the course was more congested, so I had to swim wide at times, which meant I should have been sighting but wasn't doing so as much as I should have.  I had the same pink wetsuit chicky bouncing off of me - I actually converted this into drafting.  If she was going to swim close to me, I was going to benefit from it!  I hit the turn and hugged the yellow rope for a while, which turned out to be an error.  The race finish was actually quite a ways to the left of the swim start, only it wasn't marked with buoys!  Finally I realized that hey, I should look for the red finish flags", and found them. Then it was a weird open expanse of a swim, with only the red flags on the beach to guide me.  (different colored buoys would have been helpful here....)  Things finally got a bit congested towards the end - once again, I swam until I could touch sand with my hands, then I popped up and ran up the hill to transition.

T1

this doesn't look as awkard as
it felt.....

From the water, you have to run up the beach, up the grass, to the wetsuit strippers, then up more to a sidewalk, then UP MORE to transition.  They had strippers for this race (yay!), so I was trying to jog a steady pace while wrestling out of my Torque.  I needed to get it down past my hips before the strippers so they could pull it off w/out damaging it.  I got the top part down pretty easy, but when I grabbed on to pull it past my hips, I caught my tri shorts and almost pulled them down too.  Oops! 

Near-clothing malfunction aside, I finally got the thing past my hips and ran up to the strippers who were all "WTF?" when they saw my Torque.  I told them it was mostly like a wetsuit and all they had to do was grab and pull.  They did and I was off for MORE running up the dang hill.  I finally made it into transition where it was super easy to spot my bright yellow bike.  A quick socks on, shoes on, helmet on, glasses on, racebelt on, and I grabbed the bike and was out to start the bike.  Also: my club was volunteering in transition and it was SO NICE to hear people cheering for me. 

Bike
So I rode the course the week prior (after not riding my bike for 6 weeks) and it was hilly.  Not ridiculously so, but it wasn't going to be easy.  Fortunately, it was not windy, so I had that in my favor. 

brown grass and power lines
not very scenic

For the first few miles, you wind around the reservoir park.  Not really sure why they just didn't extend the course on the main road by another ~2 miles, but for whatever reason, we got to ride on really crappy chip seal with decent hills.  Fun after swimming!  Once out of the park, I focused on getting my HR down to something in the 150's and getting my cadence comfortable. Bike was mostly uneventful... I passed some people, mostly going downhill.  I always push the downhill so that momentum will help me up the hill on the other side.  So, that resulted in a game of leapfrog - I'd pass people going down and they'd pass me going up.  Definitely need to work on going up hills if I'm going to be any good racing here.

The bike course is a simple out and back on varied road surfaces. Concrete, asphalt, bumps over bridges, and chip seal.  I hate chip seal.

A compliating personal feature for my ride was my full bladder.  It felt full during the swim (which I ignored) and now it felt full on the bike at ~mile 10.  There wasn't anywhere to stop and I didn't think the remainder of the ride would be fun with a full bladder, so I pee'd on the bike.  And I was proud of this!  I made sure I didn't have anyone near me (no witnesses!), and propped myself way back on the seat and let things go.  It was a bit icky (and I felt bad for my bike), but I knew there would be water at the turn around that I could use to rinse myself with.  I felt badass and much better.

The final hill is this up, flat, up, flat, up push to the turnaround.  It just goes on foreverl  On the second to last hill before the turn around, I dropped my chain.  I guess this was Buzz's way of paying me back for peeing on him.  Unfortunately, due to going uphill, I didn't have momentum to fix it on the fly (although I tried), so I had to stop, dismount, and fix it.  My Garmin was on auto-stop (I really need to turn that off for races!) so I don't know how much time I lost... but if I had to guess it was 30 seconds.  I hopped off, did what I needed to do and hopped back on.  Hardly got any bike grease on me either.  Then I had to start the climb from a dead stop.  Boo.

Turn around was uneventful.  I got water to rinse the ickyness off me and got back to work.  Since I dropped my chain, it was tempting to push hard to regain my position.  However, I still had 10+ hilly miles AND a 10k run to get through.  As much as I wanted to push, I knew a steady pace would be much better.  And in the end, I ended up catching back up to some of the people who passed me.

As I approached transition, you have to go on those lovely chip seal roads UPHILL back to transition, which sucks.  I was having a hard time, and I figured that after 23 miles (and little training) that I was losing my legs.  It just got tough and for no reason.  (the next morning, my back tire was dead flat.... not sure if it was going flat on the bike though).  While I was riding, I was determined to have a quick transition.  I was tired of getting to my rack and blankly starring at things, only to finally realize I was in a race and get moving... and have a crappy T2 time.  So while I was riding back, I actually thought about transition, what I needed to do and the order.

T2
I came screaming in on my bike and ran into T2.  Again, I was happy for my aisle spot, as it was super easy to park my bike.  I fiddled with my garmin, and while I did that, I said "HEY - multitask!" to myself, so I unclipped my helmet at the same time.  Got all that done, swapped shoes, and then grabbed the rest of my run stuff (hat, water, garmin) so I could put that on during the run.  My transition was focused and FAST.  Go me!

Run

this is the happiest I've felt
running in a race in a long time

I made a race-day decision on my footwear.  I normally run in Brooks Adrenaline 11's but I also own some Newton Motion shoes and love them.  I just don't run in them all that often.  The one time I raced in them I ended up PR'ing on the run and placing 5th overall in my age group.  My feet fly in these shoes.  But if the run is on an uneven surface (trails) Newtons are a bad choice, as its easy to turn an ankle.  I brought both shoes, but once I heard the run was 100% concrete, I knew it would be a Newton sort of day.

Also, during the run for both IMTX and Boulder Peak, I had really bad stomach issues.  I was a bit gun-shy for this race and was very conservative with my nutrition.  I probably under-drank on the bike (on purpose).  And for the run, I carried only water and had a gel in case I needed it. 

I got out of transition and my feet were flying.  I kept looking at my watch and seeing a ~9:30 pace.  I told myself to slow down and it just didn't happen.  Finally after the first mile, I knew the heat would eventually get me, so I gave my feet permission to fly along as long as I could handle the heat.  The first 3 miles were SO MUCH FUN. 

this is my "I'm hurting but will try to
smile" face

gooo Team Sony!

Effortless running.  It was amazing.  And better yet, my stomach was cooperating!  Then at the turn around (3 miles) the heat hit me.  I ran to the 4th mile aid station and then I just got hot.  My heart rate hit 180, and that's my personal HR limit, especially when you have 2 miles left to run.  So I did some run/walk business to get my HR under control.  I was also getting a bit dizzy (under nutrition) so I had a tiny bit of gel to get that taken care of. There was one girl in my age group, who I was just behind on the bike before I dropped my chain.  She was having trouble, so I made it my goal to ease up, but not so much that she'd beat me.  This proved to be decent motivation and by the 5th mile, I couldn't even see her behind me anymore.  The final mile was a bit ugly, mostly because of the heat and these lame little hills.  More walking.  Then I finally sucked it up and ran the last half mile, as fast as I could.  I don't remember the pace at the end, but it probably wasn't as fast as I'd like.  I was trying to push and it just wasn't there.  Hit the chute and raised my arms - wanted to get a good pic in my Sony kit :)

Post-Race

I had to pick my mom up from the hospital at a yet-to-be-determined time that day, so I headed up to the club tent to check my phone for messages.  No messages - good!  I can partake of post-race activities!  They had bagel sammiches (so much better than pizza), cookies, fruit, pop, and beer.  I sat at a table with my club-friends (I can't tell you how happy I am to have friends at races again!).  I ate my stuff, figured I'd hung around long enough, and headed up to transition to grab my stuff.  My club had beer at the tent, so I stuck around to drink half a beer (it wasn't that good), then I grabbed my stuff and drove home.

Nutrition

Goal for today was to avoid stomach issues.  I modified my pre-race food.  Normally I have a Honey Stinger protein bar and coke zero about 2 hrs before the race.  I think the protein bar messed with me during Boulder Peak, so I swapped that for a Powerbar.  Stomach was ok during the swim and great on the bike.  I mixed up a 2 hr drink in my 40z oz bike reservoir and was careful to not chug it.  I also normally have a gel on the bike for the oly-distance, but today I was being cautious and stuck to drink only.  That seemed to work as my stomach felt great during the first part of the run.  For the run, I carried water and had a gel for emergencies.  I took a swig of gatorade at mile 1 or 2 (I can't remember), which ended up hurting a tiny bit so I quit that altogether.  Then after mile 3 I started getting a bit dizzy.  I ripped open a gel and took in maybe 1/4 of it.  Just enough to get some sugar in but not enough to mess with my stomach.  This seemed to work as the dizziness went away but my stomach was ok.  Maybe next time I'll go a bit heavier on the bike with calories. 

Stats
Swim - 29:04 (2 minutes faster than last year's 2 loop with run oly distance swim).  Age Group - 10/33 Overall - 160 / 397.  Was expecting to be a bit higher up with that time.  Also, people were commenting that the swim was short, which I believe.  My swim time included not only my swim, but also my long run uphill AND the strippers.

T1 - 1:29 (fastest T1 to date, probably because the chip mats were right at the transition entrance)

Bike - 1:28:37 / 16.83 mph.  Age Group - 19/33 Overall - 297 / 397.  For reference, last year's Oly (which was FLAT) was in 1:25 with no mechanical issues or hills.  So I'd call this a success.  Especially with my lack of training.

T2 - 0:20.  Yes, 20 SECONDS. I was hoping for under a minute.  I have no idea how I did this.  I'm pretty sure that I can't even change shoes while standing up in 20 seconds.

Run - 1:06:40 / 10:45 min/mile pace.  PR by 4 minutes.  Age Group - 23 / 33 Overall 303 / 397

Overall Time: 3:06:10  PR by 23 minutes (Boulder Peak) and by 28 minutes (Houston Tri, Sept 2010).  GO ME.

Crazy Week

At this point, I just hope I survive through September.

• Monday - recovery day, nothing special otherwise (honestly, I just don't remember Monday)
• Tuesday - awesome 6 mile run, blah work
• Wednesday - mom had surgery to remove a 20mm pre-cancerous polyp from her right colon.  I took a vacation day so I could be the "responsible child".  Got up at 5 AM had an "eh" swim practice (I think I'm going to switch teams AGAIN - this one just isn't doing it for me). Then I got home and figured while I was taking a vacation day and didn't have to be anywhere until noon, I should get in a bike ride.  Normally I just ride on the trails by my house, but since it was after 8 AM I thought it was safe to ride on the roads.  I managed to pick a ridiculously hilly route, which had wind from all sides.  Went a whopping14.8 mph for 16 miles.  Left a bit too late to run any errands, so I went straight out to pick my mom up.  Got there 5 minutes late (she was waiting on the front porch).  Got the hospital right at noon, got her checked in, and waited and waited.  Her surgery was at 3. They didn't call her back until 1:30, which meant lots of anxious waiting.  Poor thing couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight.  I was thirsty and starving, but felt really rude eating/drinking in front of her, so I suffered as well.  They took her back at 1:30 to prep her (hospital gown and an IV).  I went back ~20 min later, where they told us her surgery was pushed back by 30 min to 3:30.  She was a bit of a wreck so I distratcted her with random facebook photos of people she may know.  They wheeled her off at 3:30 and I was free to eat and drink.  Headed across the street for a bite and beer.  I felt sorta guilty about the beer, but I also thought I earned it.  The surgery people said I'd get a call ~30 min before the close of surgery, sort of a notification to get my butt up to the waiting room so the surgeon could talk to me.  I didn't like the waiting room so I hung out somewhere else.  At 5:15, I decided I needed to head up there, sat down, and 2 min later the surgeon showed up fully dressed.  What about my warning call?  Surgery went well, except instead of removing 2 inches, they took out the whole right colon, which is about 5 inches and included her appendix.  At 7 PM they wheeled her into her room, where she was awake but loopy.  She asked me the same series of questions about 3 times.  And I'm a bad daughter and didn't ask the right questions of the surgeon and therefore didn't have good (detailed) answers for her.  I helped her eat her "dinner" (clear liquids) and left at 8:30.  LONG DAY.
• Thursday - decided to sleep in and ditch my run.  Got to work and realized my laptop power cord was making a popping noise and wasn't working.  I called IT at 9 AM to tell them I needed a new charger.  At 11, my laptop battery died.  Meaning there was no work to be done.  I called again, and was told to wait.  I called again at 2 PM - same response.  Considering I was now using my vacation time to sit in my cubicle waiting for a power cord, I decided to just head home.  So I did.  And played with the critters (Swift, my cat; and Molasses, my mom's tortoise who we are pet-stting for the next month or so).  At 5 PM, Will and I head over to the hospital to visit mom.  Not a bad visit, she's doing better but was still on IV pain killers and a liquid diet.  Left at 8 PM.  Ate pizza at this place by the hospital that we went to ALL THE TIME as a kid.  That was trippy.  It hasn't changed at all.  And was YUM.  Then home to feed/medicate Swift.  And at 10 PM bedtime.
• Friday - skipped swim practice.  Not getting much out of it, plus I have a race Saturday, and I'm really tired. Alarm went off at 6:30, Swift came upstairs to greet us, only instead of meows and purrs, she's breathing so hard it sounds like she's gagging.  SCARY.  Will took her downstairs and she was doing better (slightly).  Breathing hard but at least her mouth was closed.  Gave Swift her 2x/week cancer pill, and went to work.  I hate waking up and then trying to figure out right away if  I'm going to have to put another cat down.  Ugh.  Patching things together for work to full my day (there's not much going on right now) but at least I have my laptop charger.  Then after work its off to the hospital, dinner, and home for race prep.

Yeah, I have an olympic distance triathlon tomorrow.  Not sure why I thought this was a good idea.  Part of it is because I'm sponsored now and I have to get in 5 races between now and January, and there aren't that many tris to do between now and then. Its also my tri club's race, and I will have friends and support there. Also, I thought I needed the distraction.  Well, I'm distracted (and pulled in 4 different directions).  Hopefully the race will go well. :/

Too many options

I am easily talked out of training without a plan in front of me.

Saturday I was supposed to wake up at 5:30 AM do a 10 mile run with my (very informal) running club.  Instead, I woke up at 5:20 AM, drove up to Idaho Springs to SAG (aka be a support vehicle) for my tri club's annual Mt Evans bike ride.  I figured there was NO WAY I could ride my bike up that thing (28 miles, all uphill with a 6-8 % grade, ending elevation of 14,130 ft) but I could assist those who could and make friends along the way.  We had 14 riders.  Everyone made it to Summit Lake, 11 made it to the top.

There was a half marathon (Georgetown to Idaho Springs) that morning, so we "had" to park at the Cemetery. 

Echo Lake

QUALITY pavement up above Summit Lake

The group.  Fastest rider made it up in 3 hrs 15 min.  Descent took 1 hr.

After the ride, we had lunch at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs.  For my SAG duties, one rider bought me a beer.  I got the Rye Porter.  OMG TASTY!  For lunch, even though I did in no way earn this, I got the waffles n chicken sammich.  With another rye porter.

with maple bourbon glaze.  I ate this at 3 PM and did not eat dinner.  Too stuffed!

Sunday I NEEDED to ride my bike.  In my last post, I made it pretty clear that my time on the bike has been non-existant.  And I have an Olympic distance tri next Saturday.  So, I organized an unoffical club ride on the Rattlesnake bike course.  25 miles of HILLS.  With no trees or shade.  Going out, I was actually holding 12 mph going uphill and my HR was only 163.  I thought to myself, wow, maybe I did hold onto some of my IM bike fitness afterall.

We turned around and WHAM, headwind.  Yeah, fitness?  What's that?

Actually, the ride wasn't so bad.  The last 2 miles of steady climbing will suck.  Running a 10k after a hilly ride in virtually no shade will really suck.

Sporting my new TEAM SONY race kit after my ride on Sunday.  I'm a sponsored athlete, yo!

Then there's my whole half marathon.... I won't be doing a long run next weekend.  I haven't done anything over 8 miles since IMTX.  I won't be able to run next weekend because I have the Oly race Saturday and I'm volunteering for the sprint on Sunday.  The following weekend is a bust, as I'm hiking up Mt Elbert (a 14,000+ peak) with my tri club (organizer's notes: 9 miles round trip with 4700ft of elevation gain...your legs and lungs will be tested, but this is very doable climb.  We shall see).  My last "distance" run (8 miles) was July 16th.  And my half marathon is Oct 9th.  Sooo, this give me 5 weekends of running opportunity before my race. And that's if I don't do any more tri's.  There's 2 more I'd like to do before season closes in October.  I may just have to do long runs and then the sprint tris may (or may not) suffer.  And then there's beer fest at the end of Sept.  TOO MANY FUN THINGS ARE GOING ON.  Ugh.

I NEED to get in 2x 6 mile runs during the week and I NEED to start working on my Saturday long runs.  And then really buckle down in September if I don't want to die on Oct 9.

Two really great runs

Trying to keep things upbeat here.  Will do a memoriam entry about Ernie when I can think about him and not cry. :( 

Onto rainbows and bunnies (happy thoughts).

We went to Idaho for vacation last week.  Not exactly a happy vacation, as the primary objective was to spend time with Will's grandmother.  Grandpa passed away in February, and since then grandma has been declining.  She had a "cardiac event" in early July, went into assisted living 4 weeks ago, and asked to go off of all her medications 2 weeks ago.  I can't say I blame her, she's lived her life and she's ready to go.  Still, it sucks.

Even through we were on vacation, I needed to get some training in.  Swimming is hard to do in the desert (yes, Southern Idaho is a desert).  I could have brought my bike with me, but I didn't see myself trying to figure out which roads were paved in the area of the grandparent's ranch.  So, I made it simple and brought ONLY my running gear.  My goal was to run 20 miles for the week.  I had 9 weeks until the Denver RnR half marathon and I've barely been running*.



What happened to running and biking??

 I still don't have a real run plan.  I'm going to try to run 3x per week.  Tues should be track night, Thurs should be 6 miles, Sat should be my long run (10-14 miles).

Goal for the week was to run 4 times.  Twice @ 6 miles, a 4 mile "recovery" jog, and another 6 mile run.  We drove to ID (10.5 hrs) on Saturday and stayed with Will's mom.  Her neck of the woods is still pretty "country" with farms, dairys, and pig farms (OMG, the SMELL) nearby. The roads are really simple - all based on 1 mile squares.  VERY hard to get lost out here.  Last time I ran here, I broke my foot. So, the running joke this time was that I should NOT break my foot, that it wasn't 15 degrees out, and my MIL's husband shouldn't have to drive around looking to rescue me.  I got up at 6:30 (early, but still sleeping in since I normally get up to run at 5:20) and hit the road.  (full disclosure: I wanted to stay in bed, but the MIL's husband promised to take us out to breakfast that morning.  Pancakes = I need to EARN them by running) I ran on dirt roads the whole time with some decent uphills.  I took the first 3 miles as a warm-up then did some fartleks every 5 minutes to build speed coming back on the last 3 miles.  The first three were decent.  Took a while to get warmed up, but I was happy running with new scenery and smells, as it had just rained and the fields were full (except the pig farm smell - ick!).  Plus, its kinda fun to run with cows and horses as your audience.  Coming back I ran fartleks at my 5k pace (which is actually faster than my 2010 5k pace now), starting at 20 seconds and building to 40 seconds every 5 minutes.  Fartleks are great because you get burst of speed which don't tire you out, and it gets your feel moving faster, which keeps your non-fartlek pace faster than if you were straight-pace running the entire 5 minutes.  For the last half mile, I pushed the overall pace to my 10k pace, to negative split the run.  Really great energy on the back half of the run.  Legs and spirit felt great.  Speed was great.  10:47 overall pace. (My last run of a similar distance was at a 10:59 pace).  Then we went out and had fantastic blueberry pancakes (soooo good) and then I took a 3 hr nap.  Hello vacation!

Monday we migrated to the grandparent's ranch, so Tuesday morning I ran out there.  Again, 6:30 AM.  Sun was out and it was a bit warm (not Houston warm, but warmer than Denver).  Same deal as Monday.  Dirt roads, warm-up the first 3 miles, fartlek back the last 3 miles.  The first two miles really didn't feel great.  My right foot is developing minor plantars fascitis and was pretty stiff.  Actually, my legs in general were pretty stiff, probably from Monday's run.  But knowing my body, I stuck with it, because it usually takes me 2-3 miles to warm-up.  My watch rang at 3 miles, I turned around and started pushing.  Fartleks starting at 30 seconds every 5 minutes.  At mile 5, I was flying and feeling great. I rarely get runner's highs, but I was feeling it that morning.  I felt FANTASTIC.  Running in the country next to a mountain with beautiful skies and happy legs.  I decided to push the last mile, descending from a 5k pace to a faster than 5k pace at the 1/2 mile mark.  I was flying and it was wonderful.  6 miles at a 10:32 pace.  Sweet!  (probably would have been even faster, but its impossible to run across cattle guards, and I had 4 to cross).

Tuesday I pushed myself to run again.  This workout was a recovery run intended to loosen the legs but to also build strength.  I knew it would suck.  But that was the point.  I got up at 7:30 this time (slacker!) and hit the road.  Goal was 4 miles.  Immediately, it was not a fun run.  Legs were very stiff, nothing felt awesome.  When things don't feel great (which is often the case), I stick to my "give it 20 minutes" rule.  If things don't feel better by 20 minutes (usually almost 2 miles), then its time to bag it and head back.  Usually things feel better after 20 min (as demonstrated the previous day).  Today was no such day.  I got to 1.5 miles and simply wasn't feeling it and headed back.  Total run - 3.2 miles @ 12:10 pace. FAIL.

Wednesday was a planned (and needed!) rest day.  Thursday I probably should have gone running, but I didn't.  And then a dry storm moved through on Thursday, causing 30 (!!) range fires in the area.  The air quality was horrible, which meant no more running for the week.

This fire was ~5 miles away from the ranch and 20,000 acres big.  Will helped with fighting it (with his cousin) and they ended up saving a neighbor's house.

fire at twilight

Total mileage: 15.2 
Maybe next week I'll hit 20 miles.  Actually, I've got an Oly on the 20th, so it may be more like 3 weeks before I hit 20 miles for the week.  Training plan???  Good thing I don't have one, or else I'd be blowing it big time!

* Holy hell.  I just charted my weekly distance from late January until now.  Can you say slacker???  Damn.  I knew there would be a dropoff after IMTX, but seeing it graphically is harsh.