Camping for the 4th

Having the 4th of July on a Wednesday was a bit weird, right?  And then you add in the state-wide fire ban and that makes things a bit more strange. 

I have a personal goal to go camping a bunch this year. We only managed to go once last year, which is fairly sad.  This year I'd like to go 2-3 times and explore new parts of the state.  Initially, we wanted to go up to Red Feather Lakes (west of Ft Collins) but with the fires, we adjusted our plans.  Somehow they got adjusted to being smack in the middle of other fires, but hey, fires are all over the place this year.

We settled on going Wed-Friday to a place called Lost Park Campground, which is off of Hwy 285 on the far side of Kenosha Pass and at the end of a ~20 mile long dirt road.  Elevation is 10,000 feet.  And we were hoping that the dirt road and lack of water/electricity would keep the idiots away.

We slept in a bit and finally got on the road by 11 AM.  A short ~1.5 hour drive and we were at the campground.  Since the Park County fire ban included all fires, including campsites, we decided to head up one of the forest service roads and camp at a dispersed campsite. We picked a road that indicated that 2WD was a bad idea (I have 4WD) and went exploring.  The road was rocky and washed out in places, but not bad enough where I needed the 4WD.  About ~30 minutes up the hill we found a nice campsite in a clearing  This was a good option but we continued up the hill... until I chickened out as the road was narrowing and becoming less a road and more like a trail.  So we turned around (with much consternation on my part... I don't like turning around on narrow roads with steep dropoffs!) and headed back to the campsite:

The campsite had a small meadow and was sheltered from the winds by lots of spruce trees.  We had a teensy creek about 300 yards away and some interesting flowers (which I failed to take pictures of).  We didn't have any great scenic vistas to look at (which is usually a priority for me in a campsite) but the remoteness and wind shelter won out over "something pretty".

the view from our tent.... lots of sky and trees

We got camp set up by 3 PM and then took a nice relaxing nap with absolute silence as our background.  The rest of this day was pretty uneventful, just reading a book, cooking dinner, and packing it in as the sun set and things got cold.  Being able to have a fire would have been nice, but with the $1,000 fine, it simply wasn't worth it.  No smores either.  Dessert consisted of leftover rhubarb cobbler.

Thursday was up at at them at 6:30, courtesy of a friendly woodpecker working in very close proximity to our tent.  Also, it turns out our tent faced due east and by 7 AM the sun hit the tent at full intensity, making things pretty toasty in there.  I made our typical camp breakfast (skillet potatoes, eggs, bacon, french press coffee) and by 10 AM we headed down the road to try our hand at fly fishing.

Lost Park Campground Beaver Pond - looking south

pond looking north

This was a small pond with small fish that were jumping like crazy.  We weren't fishing for world class trout.  We just wanted somewhere to practice casting.  I have no idea what I'm doing, so I put some sort of brown-ish fly on my rod and waded down to start fishing.  Almost immediately, I hear "hey, I got one!" out of Will.

if only I managed to take a picture showing the side of the fish.....

I had one strike and saw a ton of jumps, but got nothing.  By noon the flies were starting to bite us and the fish seemed to be sleeping, so we packed it up for the day.  We went over to the campground for a nice lunch and then we drove around on more forest service roads.  We went on road 134, which goes up and over the hill and ends at a meadow with a stream.  This could be a good spot for group camping.  There was also a trailhead which lead into the Colorado Trail.  We met a mountain biker who said he was biking from Denver to Moab.  He only had a medium-sized backpack.  And he took his water straight from the stream (no filter).  Hmmm.

Not being able to hike was a major bummer, but with this stupid broken heel, hiking was definitely off the list.  I'm not a huge fan of driving around, but that was about all there was to do.  After our little driving tour, we headed back to the campsite for more reading and napping.  Same routine as the night previous, early bed and no fire.

Friday was up again by 6:30 although the woodpecker was nice enough to be quiet.  Zipper has become a pretty good alarm clock, jumping on us at 6:30.  I asked Will if he prefered the woodpecker alarm or the Zipper alarm.  He said Zipper.  Good choice.

Will wanted to head back to Denver early because he failed to tell work he was going camping (WTF Will?).  I managed to talk him into a bit more fishing and then at noon we would head back and check his phone for messages. 

We got the campsite packed up pretty easily.  I think this was the first time we got the tent zipped up on the first try and without wrestling.  After 10 years of owning the tent.  Then we headed back down to the campground pond for more fishing.  I had several more strikes, but no bites.  Will was getting eaten by flies.

I was getting pretty good at landing the fly gently and aiming.  Somehow I ended up getting a blister on the palm of my hand.  Finally around 11 or so, I had enough of getting bit by the flies and we packed it up.  Pretty decent timing as it started to rain within 30 minutes of us leaving.

Overall, I'd say this area is worth coming back to.  It wasn't the most beautiful place, in terms of mountain vistas.  But the valley was very pretty, there was zero pine beetle kill, and the area was pretty remote.  I want to come back when I can hike and see what the trails are like, or maybe bring our mountain bikes along and do some riding.

New summer goals and busted heel update #2

Busted Heel Update
I have been fitted with what resembles a victorian or midevil torture device:

Its like a corset for my calf!  And about as comfy!  The black piece is carbon fiber, which sounds cool, but it hurts.  Every time I take a step, my heel clunks against the back of the carbon fiber and the ball of my foot squishes up against the hard egde on the bottom of my foot.  The idea is that you secure the boot as tight as you can with your foot ~1 inch off the bottom of the brace.  Then as you take a step, your heel is held up off the brace.

Honestly, I think the goal is to make walking so uncomfortable that you choose to not walk at all.  I have another ~2 weeks in this thing.  UGH.

Revised Summer Goals
In other news...... I have re-focused this summer's plan away from racing and towards climbing monster hills on my bike.  Last fall, I wanted to buy a used roadie but between convincing Will that I needed a 3rd bike (but they each do different things!) and grandma dying right before VeloSwap, I didn't get a roadie.  Now that my summer is askew, I started researching used roadies and settled on a few to try.  And I didn't really get any commentary from Will, because what was he going to say?  No, do not use your own money for a toy to play with while your foot is broken.  Really, this was my chance to get a 3rd toy without any commentary whatsoever. 

So, I present my yet-unnamed roadie:

Its a ~2008 Specialized Allez Pro with Ultegra brakes and Dura-Ace everything else.  Sweet!  I will probably put on aerobars and maybe get a new seat post.  I'm still figuring out the saddle.  It may need to be moved up and back a bit.  Or I may need a new saddle.  Not quite sure yet.

Potential names are Billy or Monty (as in mountain goat).  This bike will be a climber and I want the name to be some sort of ode to mountain climbing.

And now, my summer goals..... I have this nice pretty list of races here off to the right margin.  Most of those races aren't going to happen.  Specifically the three in July.  At this point, I will be lucky if I can run/walk Rattlesnake in August.  I'm downgrading the RnR to a half marathon.  And I'm thinking about doing the Oilman HIM in Conroe, TX (Houston) in early November.  Because I'm still pissed about Boise.

And then my big scary goal..... IMCDA in June 2013.  I knew the bike was challenging but I honestly thought it was a middle of the road bike course.  Some climbing but doable.  Instead, I have this to look forward to:


this is ONE LOOP.  I get to do this twice.

I've found that the hills are rumored to be around a 6% grade and ~5 miles long.  I don't know how accurate that is and it seems a bit steep, considering most Colorado mountain passes are at 6%.  I think its more like 4 or 5 %.  Hopefully.

Regardless, I have 5,000+ feet of climbing in 112 miles.  I need to get my legs used to climbing.

Therefore, my mission is to do loads of climbing this summer.  Get those climbing muscles developed this year so that training next year will be more about fitness instead of "OMG, THE HILLS ARE KILLING ME!"

There are several organized century rides this summer, mostly in Boulder.  And other mountain rides/routes.  This will be my summer of conquering hills, or at least getting lots of practice trying.

Coconut Rhubarb Ice Cream

Lots going on around here.  New (to me) road bike, IMCDA 2013 registration, the entire state is an inferno (or it seems that way).  Today I'm keeping it simple and posting a tasty recipe.  Really, you could use any fruit or mix-in.  I just had a pint bag of rhubarb from my farm share, so that's what I used.  No photos, but that's probably a good thing.  The ice cream is sort of greyish and the rhubarb puree was a really non-appetizing greenish-brown color.  But I promise, it tastes GREAT :)  And its mostly paleo (except for the sugar).

Coconut Ice Cream Base
Ingredients:
2 cans coconut milk (I used full fat, makes it more creamy)
4 egg yolks
~1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar (to taste)
~2 T vanilla (to taste)

Ice Cream Directions:

• In a medium pan, heat the coconut milk to nearly boiling and remove from heat.
• In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks. Once coconut milk is hot, VERY SLOWLY add it to the yolks, stirring the whole time.  This is called tempering the eggs, so you bring the yolks up to temperature.  If you just dumped the yolks in the hot milk, you'd get scrambled eggs.  Slowly add the milk until the yolks are pretty warm (~1/2 to 3/4 cup milk).
• When warm enough, slowly dump tempered yolks into the saucepan of coconut milk, stirring quickly.
• Simmer mixture until its thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• Add sugar to taste and stir until dissolved.
• Remove from heat and add in vanilla to taste.  You could also use almond extract or whatever you have on hand.
• Put in fridge or freezer to chill before placing in ice cream mixer.  You want the custard nice and cold.
• Mix for ~25 mintues.

Rhubarb Puree
Ingredients:
rhubarb - whatever you have on hand
water
sugar (to taste)
optional: fruit flavored alcohol.  I used Bacardi Torched Cherry Rum.  (also to taste)

Rhubarb Puree Directions:

• In a sauce pan, add rhubarb pieces (cut into ~1 inch chunks) and just enough water to barely cover it.  Simmer for 20 min or until very soft.
• Once soft, add sugar and rum to taste.
• You can mash it with a potato masher but I put the mix in a blender. 
• Also optional: straining in a sieve to remove any stringy pieces.  I didn't do this and I thought it was ok.
• Chill well before adding to ice cream
• To add to ice cream, you can either dump it in when you start mixing (so it is fully incorporated) or you can add it in at the very end and attempt to make "ribbons".  Your call.

Big Plans for 2013

IMTX was 1,600 ft of climbing.  IMCDA is over 5,000.  And I still have to do a marathon afterwards. 

Now I have to get this foot good and healed. :)

Broken Heel Saga Part 2

I made it into the specialist this morning.  It went ok.

She HATED my running plan.  Said that by only doing long runs every 2-3 weeks I put too much stress on my heel (even though I was keeping my weekly runs consistent).  I know she's the expert and all.... but this is exactly what I did to train for IMTX and I was fine.  She said I was just lucky last year.  pffft.  If only last year could be considered lucky.

They questioned my diet.  Do I get enough calories?  (1800/day isn't enough apparently?)  Calcium?  Vitamin D?  They want me to see a dietcian.  I probably won't because I honestly feel that I have better than average knowlege of what I eat and why I eat it than most people.

So, the details:

Walking boot is ok, but its probably not the best solution as it kinda concentrates the impact of each step onto my heel.  But it was better than nothing.

I am getting a fancy (read: ugly) custom boot made that takes the pressure off of my heel.  I need to wear this new boot for 3-4 weeks.  It was either the boot or crutches for 4 weeks.

No running for 2 months.  Obviously no running while I need the boot, and additionally no running for a month after de-booting.  Two stinking months.  At best, that puts me at mid-August.  So much for my race schedule in July.

But in the good news column, I can swim and bike as much as I like!  So there's that!  I'm still fairly crabby panda over this whole thing.  I'm trying to distract myself by shopping for a road bike and looking into century rides.  It still isn't what I had in mind for this summer, but its better than nothing.

:/

so, that didn't go as planned...

aka 3 signs from the universe that I was not supposed to race the Boise 70.3.  boo.

Pre-race, everything was fine and dandy.  Driving up to Boise on Thursday was uneventful.  The fun part of the drive was seeing other tri-dorks along the way.  We saw 3 outfitted SUVs, all of which passed us.  I really didn't know that there was a race BEFORE the race.  Interesting.  The first SUV, carrying 2 bikes on the roof and 4 on the back, was very friendly and waved excitedly.  The second SUV was friendly.  The third SUV didn't even waive back.  Lame.

Our family friend Rob was staying with us at the ranch pre-race and he and I went to packet pick-up together.  The side mission was to meet with my relay-runner, switch our entries from individual to relay, and give his wife's friend her bike.  Yes, I got convinced to drive a random person's bike up to Boise.  They called me on Wednesday (3 days before the race) panicked because she didn't have a way to get her bike up for the race.  Maybe I'm a planner or OCD or something, but shouldn't you have that worked out a bit sooner than 3 days before the race?

My relay runner seemed ok, maybe a bit devoid of a sense of humor.  His wife was bossy and completely devoid of a sense of humor.  Random bike girl was really nice. 

Prior to packet-pick up I wanted to ride a part of the course, just to make sure my bike was shifting ok.  I wanted to ride up the big hill on Pardise Valley Road, but there was a lot of heavy equipment traffic and no shoulder.  So I decided to ride 10 Mile Road, same as in 2010.  Things were sunny and pretty windy.  I remember yelling to Mother Nature to "BRING IT".  I really need to quit doing that because she really does bring it.  After that, we headed over to packet-pickup.  I was wearing my boot and got a ton of raised eyebrows.  Then we had a really random lunch at some bistro ala carte restaurant before hitting the athlete meeting.  Then after the athlete meeting, we headed up to Lucky Peak to rack out bikes.  I had intended to do some swimming, but the weather was getting crappy and I decided that a 15 min splash in some cold water really wouldn't make or break my swim the next day.  Also: I had spent WAY too much time on my foot and it was starting to hurt.

look, its sunny and dry!

The weather report for race day did not look fabulous.  Cold, rain early on, and some wind.  Like ~15 mph.  Warming up at about the time for the race start.  Not great, but not horrible.  I didn't really pack any warm-weather gear.  I had my SunRype kit, my matching jacket, my windproof training jacket, calf sleeves, and shortie cycling gloves.  I considered bringing my winter cycling gloves but never in a million years could I have conceived of needing them, so I left them at home.

I hop on the 10:30 shuttle bus to Lucky Peak and they drop us off at 11:00.  Weather forecast was wrong, and in the not pleasantly suprised kind of way.  45 degrees, 20 mph winds, rain, 35 degree windchill.  Damn.  I am frozen and wet and grossly underdressed.  Even a trash bag would have helped.  People are instantly putting on their wetsuits to stay warm, but I need to use the bathroom and didn't want to wrestle with the wetsuit in the port-o-can, so I waited to put my wetsuit on.  As I waited in a ridiculously slow line, I saw people huddled around trees, closed up in the gear drop moving van, hiding in port-o-cans.  While I'm in line, they announce that the bike is cut from 56 miles to 14 miles due to high winds.  Instantly, the transition area went from one of buzzing with (cold) promise to delfated quietness.  I myself was wondering if the race was really worth it, now that the bike was hardly anything.

even the sun on my kit couldn't keep me warm

At this point, its been about an hour and I'm frozen.  In the port-o-can line I just got colder and colder.  I remember standing there and watching the drizzle float, wondering what the hell I was doing there. 

After the pit-stop, I wrestle with my wetsuit.  Its awful.  My hands are numb and I'm shivering.  I'm seriously wondering how I can handle being out in the elements for another 60+ minutes and decide to find the warming tents that the RD's promised would be at the swim exit.  I wander over and all I can find is the medical tent.  This tent has 4 warming beds, 2 heaters (one of which was broken), 2 chairs and ~10 very concerned medical volunteers.  They are actually pretty pissed that they decided to not cancel the swim as well and I heard multiple times that they were very afraid of being overwhelmed by hypothermic people.

I was in the medical tent as the anthem was sung.  The wind was even worse and and it seemed like it was raining harder.  No one looked happy.  After 25 minutes of sitting next to the heater inside the tent, and I'm still shivering uncontrollable.  Not a tremble, but full on shaking with poor motor control.  Will finally found me inside the tent.  They brought in one poor woman who was fresh from the water and hypothermic.  She stood there, shaking, while they stripped her of her wetsuit and laid her in a heating bed.  She looked awful.  I knew then that I was headed down that path and that I did not want to end up like that.  At the 25 minute mark, the lead medical volunteer looked at me and said that they simply didn't have room for me to stay inside and warm.  They had very limited space and could only take in people who were coming out of the water.  At that point, I was still shaking and had probably 45 minutes before my wave was supposed to start.  I knew that if I raced, I could probably make it through the swim (assuming I wasn't so fatigued from shivering that I could still swim).  What scared me was coming out of the cold water (58 degrees) into the cold and wind, then riding my bike downhill at 35 mph.  I wasn't sure I would be able to feel my hands or control my bike and was very afraid of crashing.  At this point, with the bike cut down to 14 miles, I had nothing to prove.  I was already broken and didn't need to break anything else.  I looked at Will as we left the medical tent and found someone so I could turn my chip in.

Yes, I turned my chip in.  For the first time ever.

I had to sneak into transition to resuce my gear (which had both of my jackets) and my bike.  I still had my wetsuit on and put the jackets on OVER the wetsuit.  Then we hung out and watched the pros take off on the bike.  To my utter shock, the pros were wearing their wetsuits on the bike:

After the pros left, we made our way down to a car, then down to T2 and the race finish.  Then to our cousin's hotel room at the finish for a long, hot shower.  I swear, I didn't warm up until much later that day.

In the end, I know I made the right call.  Broken heel, reduced bike, hypothermia.  I should have probably taken the broken heel and scratched the race, but I'm stubborn, so the universe had to give me two more chances to make the right decision.

MRI

I am an engineer and not a radiologist or a doctor.  But here's my best guess of where my fracture is:

From the side, that spot is exactly where I had pin-point pain.  Also: its where I thought I had peroneal tendonitis.  See statement about about not being a doctor.  From the bottom, in addition to the really cool image of the plantar fascae tendon, there's a very scary and somewhat large line in the back of my heel.   Outside of my foot is actually on the right (this is a mirror image, I think), so the crack lines up with where you see it on the side-view of my foot.  And damn if that's a scary looking long crack.

So yep, definitely broken.

so, what now?

So yeah.  The doctor's nurse (or aide or whatever) called me at 4 yesterday saying they got the radiology report and my heel does indeed have a stress fracture. Or technically, a calcaneal stress fracture.

Damn.

Not too sure what else is going on with it.  The nurse had no idea.  Told me to limit all activity (WTF?  also: no).  I asked about swimming, she said she'll have to ask the doctor.  I asked how long I was down, she said she'll have to ask the doctor.  I asked if I needed to wear a boot, said she'll have to ask the doctor.

I appreciate the call to tell me that its broken, but shouldn't you have, you know, actual information on care? 

Needless to say, I'm switching doctors. I have an appointment with a doctor at CU Sports Medicine who researches women and stress fractures - the appointment is when we get back from Idaho.

And I busted out my boot from 2007.  When we moved from Houston, I nearly got rid of it.  I'm glad I didn't.  And apparently, they're ambidextrous instead of being "right" or "left".  Sweet.

Should I hear back from yesterday's doctor about swimming and biking, chances are for Boise 70.3 I will be doing it as an AquaBike.  I will swim and I will crush that bike course.  And then I will be a sad panda and hand my chip in.  As tempted as I am to finish the race, if my stress fracture turns into a real fracture, I'm in real trouble.  So I will be good (ish) and not run.

And what of the rest of the summer?

Well, I'm estimating I'm in this stupid thing ~6 weeks.  I have a sprint tri on July 7th.  Yep, that will be an AquaBike.  And an Oly tri at the end of July.  We'll see.  Oh, and a marathon in September you say?  With only two months on a freshly healed heel?  Nope, its out too.  Downgrading to a half marathon.  LAME.  And camping with a boot?  I will probably have to rid some sort of plastic bag over it so it won't get totally dirty.  And no hiking. :(  Very sad panda.

And now the question to ponder for the next month..... 2013 "A" race: Do I register for Boise 70.3 and kick its ass properly?  Or do I register for IMCDA and go for a bigger comeback.  

Questions to ponder, indeed....

its going to be a long 24 hrs

On May 13th during a brick run, I jammed my ankle at the start of the run.  It felt fine for the remainder of the 8 mile run.  I ran on it two more times that week and it felt fine.  I ran the Colfax Half Marathon and at mile 8, it started hurting.  I told the pain to go away and it did.  It started hurting more about a 1/2 mile from the finish line and I HTFU and finished.  And then it kept hurting.

My google diagnosis was perneal tendonitis.  I've iced it, taped it, taken 2x Aleve for ~5 days straight.  And it still hurts.

Yesterday I finally pulled the plug and made an appt with a doctor.  The visit was today.  He did some poking and proding.  He did this weird thing where he basically used a turning fork and put it against my sore area to see if that made it hurt worse.  It didn't.  He did say it was swollen.  And he also said he was worried it was a calcaneal stress fracture.  I needed an MRI immediately so we could rule out the fracture.  If its fractured, that means no Boise.  If its not broken, then I'm supposed to wear "well padded shoes" and see what happens.  Mkay.

I was supposed to immediately get an MRI at the imaging place downstairs from the doctor.  I waited there over an hour, after which they told me that I couldn't actually get scanned until 4 PM.  Lame.  I ended up getting an MRI close to the house, which was actually good luck.  It turns out that one of my friends used to work there (and got 2 MRIs for a stress fx there) so she knows the staff and some shortcuts.  Normally, you'd have to make a follow-up appt with the doctor to discuss your MRI.  My friend managed to arrange it so I can get the radiologist's report directly from the source.  So I have to wait until 2PM tomorrow to see what my fate holds.

I'm not sure what's better.  A broken foot and knowing I can't run on it.  (again....)  Or a not-broken foot and trying to run on it when it hurts.

 

Last windy ride before the big race

This past weekend was my last big back-to-back weekend before I start my taper for Boise. 

Saturday I went up to Boulder for a ride and (hopefully a run).  Will went up to Ft Collins with his cousin and I got to ride with my friend :)  We decided to go ride to Carter Lake as I needed a total of 3 hours of saddle time.  The scenery was obscured by forest fire smoke (from New Mexico!) but we were out the door by 9:30 hoping to avoid the winds.  The ride was pretty uneventful, which was good.  And it wasn't windy, which was also good.  I tried to run afterwards, but my stupid left ankle hurt after 10 steps.  So I hung out on the porch as my friend rode for another 30 minutes and the boys returned from Ft Fun.

Sunday I wanted to get in one more ride on the Harvest Moon course.  I had posted in a few spots on facebook that I was riding out there but no one replied, so I honestly thought I'd be riding solo.  I showed up at 7:55 and was plesantly suprised to see people!  As it turned out, the people either a) weren't riding as long as me or b) weren't the same speed as me.  So, I ended up riding by myself.  And to make things more interesting, I left my cell phone in my truck.  That meant no calls for help if it got windy!  This course is interesting because the first half isn't so bad but the back half has the larger hills.  So you get to climb when you're nice and tired - definitely a good training day.

I knew I was in trouble when I made the turn south that I'd gone 22 miles in 1:10.  That's 19 mph and over 1/3 of the miles for a 60 mile / 4 hr ride.  The last 3 hours were not going to be pretty.

As I turned south, the winds seemed to be a headwind, with a slight cross-wind.  At the turn west to Quincy, I was thinking I needed more quality headwind time, so I opted to go straight.  The plan was to pick up an additional 12 miles (6 out and back) before getting back on course and heading home.  After an additional 5 miles, I just couldn't take it anymore.  I'd gone 13 miles in ONE HOUR and was ready to turn around.  I turned around and enjoyed 5 miles of sweet tailwind, soft pedalling and maintaining at least 20 mph.

 I thought I'd have mostly cross-wind on my ~20 mile journey back to my truck.  I was wrong.  It turns out the wind was from the southwest, so that meant I essentially had the same conditions going south as I did heading west.  That meant another 20 miles with headwind..... and with the largest hills of the ride.  Awesome!  And no phone meant that I didn't have the option to call for help.  It was all up to me to return to my truck.  (It didn't help that I saw people from another club take a SAG ride back as I turned west onto Quincy...)

I ended up taking the approach that taking it easy (and staying upright) was the way to go for getting home.  I was working to hit 15 mph on the downhills and I was getting some interesting cross-wind blasts.  To make things more fun, this stretch of road has no shoulder.  I didn't panic and just kept pedalling.  At least the winds kept it interesting.  I was acutally doing ok until the last bridge (no shoulder) and a semi silently snuck up on me and passed me.  That scared the crapola out of me and I decided to not push my luck and ride add'l miles to get to my assigned 60 miles / 4 hrs.  I got to my truck, rode the add'l 2 miles inside the park for a bathroom stop, then 2 miles back to my truck.  3 hrs, 55 minutes.... 58 miles.  Close enough.

I don't know how windy it was... I checked some websites, which said sustained of 10 and gusts of 15 mph.  I normally don't get blown around in 15 mph winds, so I'm thinking we had higher gusts.  I was actually HAPPY to have to climb up the hills, as the hill provided a bit of a wind-break. 

Overall, it was a good test for Boise.  I was tired but not defeated.  And it gave me some good wind training.  :)  In the future, though, I'll be happy without any near-death dealings with a semi.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

I love dessert, but since switching to paleo, I've had to get a bit creative.  I found this recipe a few months back and gave it a whirl.  It wasn't quite like a cookie.... it was more like a baclava that used coconut instead of phylo dough.  It was also massively crumbly, probably due to the large flake coconut.  I thought the dark chocoloate would be a nice touch.  Its tasty and it helps to hold the whole thing together. 

So I tweaked the recipe a bit and came up with this:

2.5 cups unsweetened coconut (I did 1.5 cups shreeded, 1 cup flaked)
3 egg whites (I started with 2 and it wasn't moist enough so I added the 3rd white)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey (I used orange blossom)
a few drops almond extract
good sized handfull of chocolate chips

Mix ingredients from coconut through almond extract together and let it sit a few minutes so the coconut becomes slightly saturated.  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Form balls with some sort of scoop (I used an ice cream scoop, but you could use a tablespoon for smaller sized macaroons) and put on cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Cool in freezer for ~30 minutes.

Once cooled, take chocolate chips and partially melt in the microwave.  Remove from microwave and stir to melt all the chocolate.  Dip tops of macaroons in the chocolate then place the whole lot in the freezer to set the chocolate.

This made 9 two-inch diameter cookies.  I just eat one for dessert as they are pretty rich.

And of course, I don't have any pictures.  That would require planning ahead.

Colfax Half Marathon - Race Report

Back in October (at the RnR Marathon Expo) I got a coupon code for a $50 entry for this race.  This race is 3 weeks prior to Boise and I figured, hey, its relatively cheap and it would be a good test for Boise.  What I did not realize, however, is that the race start is 6 AM.  I realized this a week prior to the race and then spent the entire time leading up to the race whining.

Pre-Race
Saturday night, at 8:30 I started setting up my race nutrition.  I was going to test out the First Endurance "Hand Grenade" (I did not come up with this term) which is comprised of 400 cals of FE Liquid Shot and a half scoop of the Pre-Race.  The idea was that I wanted to use this during Boise but I wasn't sure my stomach could tolerate a hit of caffeine every mile for 13 miles.  Colfax was going to be a test of pacing and nutrition.  The only slight hitch in this plan is that the Pre-Race powder tastes nasty.  I didn't want to mix up a full 400 calories and then pitch it because of the Pre-Race taste, so I mixed up a half batch and took a swig for a taste test.

That meant I just got a boost of calories AND caffeine right before I needed to go to bed.  FAIL.  I got my bag packed and everything put together and headed upstairs at 9 PM to sleep lay in bed with my heart pounding.  Sleep was very fragmented and weird.  I wasn't nervous about this race at all, but I guess my 4 AM alarm and 4:30 AM departure time was in the forefront of my mind.  I kept waking up and checking on the time.  I also had a very funny/vivid dream about the run course in Boise.  In reality, the run is flat flat flat.  In my dream, it was a steep hill and it was marked by a long orange rope that was lying on the ground.  Apparently some women thought the hill was really steep, as they picked up the rope and used it to help them climb up the hill.  Funny!

The alarm finally went off.  I wrestled my calf-sleeves on, which is always hard when you're barely awake.  I normally don't wear them to run, but with my crazy leg bruising, I though I needed some compression.  I wandered downstairs to grab my nutrition from the fridge and put it in my bag.  I grabbed my phone off the charger and went to the office to check on some IMTX results from the previous night.

somehow my foot got EVEN more purple!

I heard a car pull up and realized my ride (Jose - we bribed him with beer) had arrived.  I grabbed a handfull of home-made dried ginger pineapple snacks and headed outside, only to realize my phone was missing.  Crap.  I went back inside and looked everywhere (even the fridge) and still, no phone.  Somehow between the charger and the office the gremlins ran off with it.  I couldn't waste any more time looking for it, so I left without it.

We went and picked up Kelly and drove to the race.  On the way there, I drank my (really awful tasting) mixture of 100 cals FE Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre Race.  One of the facebook groups I'm on had some helpful hints about parking, which were spot-on perfect.  We parked 1 block south of City Park and was super close to the race start/finish.  By the time we got the race, the caffeine was on board and a pit-stop was needed.  I found one by the finish line that only had 3 people in line - way better than the mass of people near the start.  We then made our way to the start line.  I was wearing my Team SunRype kit and my bright orange Newtons, which made me hard to miss.  I found one of my SunRype teammates (Alex) who was doing the full marathon as a training run (he's doing the Leadville 100 this summer - amazing!).  I also ran into a high school friend (J'net) who was doing the relay.  And there were a bunch of my Altitude Multisport friends to hang out with.  Its so nice to have friends at races!

yep, there's no missing us in these kits!

Much time was spent debating my clothing choices.  It was ~45 degrees out.  Do I keep my long-sleeve shirt on?  Do I remove the shirt and put on my arm warmers?  Group consensus was that I'd be hot and I should just wear my tank top.  Alrighty!  I took the long sleeve shirt off and ran over to bag-check.  By the time I came back, they were lining people up into corrals and I lost my AMC people. :(  In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to get into the corral (it was barricaded) but there were a ton of other people with our corral letter standing just left of the fence.  So I stood there, hoping I'd hear some of my friends in the crowd and find them.

Race
The gun went off and we left and I was running by myself.  Lame.  Really it was ok, but still lame.  I've run the past 2 half marathons with my friend Stephanie and we have a great time, chatting away the miles until one of us randomly gets some energy and cruises onward leaving the other in their dust.

You start the run by going through City Park, which is pretty fun with the zoo noises.  I did notice that we were running slightly downhill and made a mental note that what is downhill at the start will be uphill at the finish.  Once we left City Park we hung a left onto Colfax heading east.  At 6 AM into the sun and slightly uphill.  I realized that (for good reason) I'd never been east on Colfax.  I also realized that running on Colfax was not nearly as cool or unique as the race propaganda made it out to be.  It was all concrete and storefronts, and well, just UGLY.  The first several miles were just blah.  I don't know if I was (intentionally) running on tired legs, if I was still asleep, or if it was the lack of scenery, but it took me a good 4 miles before I remembered to run.  (it seems my 30 minute rule can also extend to a 45 minute rule when I'm really tired).

Aid stations were every 2 miles.  At each mile beep on my Garmin, I'd take a swig of my hand grenade mixture.  At each aid station, I'd walk through, grab a cup of water, have a few sips and start running again.  That was the strategy and it worked pretty well.

Somewhere before the 2nd aid station I found my friend Kelly and we ran together for a bit.  This was actually good because a) I was really bored and needed a distraction and b) she needed a boost as this was the uphill section and I helped to push her up the hill.  Kelly was doing the run/walk thing and I was running, so we parted ways at a walk interval.  And from there, I just kept chugging along.

Also somewhere around there, both feet started hurting.  I jammed my left ankle the week prior and it was now whispering to me.  And my awesome faux-sprained ankle was starting to act like it was really sprained.  Awesome!  I just told mysef that I was an Ironman and I needed to suck it up.  And I did.  And the pain went away.  Magic!

There was one cool part to the long, dreary Colfax slog..... as you crossed from Denver to Aurora where they had 2 fire trucks, with ladders extended over the road and a HUGE Americal Flag hanging from it.  At ~6 miles, we made a turn north and headed into a neighborhood and did a weird zig-zag around, including a pass THROUGH a fire station.  By that point, my legs were saying GO and we went.  I kept seeing 9:XX/mile on my watch, which is pretty fast for me on a long run.  After running though the fire station, where a bunch of handsome fire fighters were in a line, giving you high fives, it was hard not to be pumped up and I saw 8:30/mile on my watch.  Whoa, better slow the heck down!

Somewhere after the fire station I found Steph.  Or rather, she found me.  I just heard "HEY, FRUIT SNACK!!" and there she was.  Like I said, I'm hard to miss.  We ran for a bit, discussing how our day was going.  Then she told me "don't be offended, but I'm taking this day seriously, so I'm not going to talk anymore" and then she put in her earbud and took off!  Funny!  She zoomed off but I eventually caught up to her and then I zoomed off.  All in friendly compettition.

By mile 10, I realized I could PR.  Easily PR.  And I was on a part of the course that I'd ran 3 weeks before during the Cherry Creek Sneak.  I knew it was all dowhill and all I had to do was cruise to a PR.  I don't even think my HR went into Zone 3 until the very last mile.  For once, it was a race with a well-planned downhill.

A "fun" part of being at this point in the race is passing people.  I like to negative split my runs, meaning the 2nd half is faster than the 1st half.  Usually I'll have all sorts of people pass me early on.  And then I pretend they have targets on their back and I slowly reel them in one by one as the race progresses.  Its entertaining and it gives me something to focus on.  I'm not fast, but I do a pretty darn good job pacing.

Finally we reached the park and I knew we had about a mile to go.  And I was within minutes of beating my PR.  I kicked up the speed a notch and just kept moving.  My ankles were talking to me again (damn it) but I just kept going.  I remembered the uphill to the finish and was mentally prepared for that.  Then I saw a blue arch and kicked it in..... only to realize it was a dirty trick and the arch was for the START, not the finish and I still had a bit more to go.  By that point, I didn't have any kick left and I just maintained my pace, finishing strong. 

Time: 2:18:52 - a PR by 1:50 :)

The cool part is that I really wasn't even pushing.  Overall, it was a perfect morning (cool, not windy) and the course was relatively flat.  Most of my friends PR'd.  Also: I was not beaten by the fastest marathon runner.  I think this is the first time I've beat the marathoner.  lol

Post-Race
This is where not having my cell phone was a very bad thing.  There were 10,000 people at this race.  And I didn't drive.  So I had to find my people without a cell phone. Awesome!  I found one guy, who said he was going to hang out at the meet-up area and wait for the others.  My gut was acting up by that point (caffeine?) and I ran to the port-o-can and then stood in line for at least 30 minutes in the bag-check line.  The bag-check line was really a crazy mess.  I guess they didn't set the bags in any sort of distinct order and it was taking a long time to find YOUR specific black bag amongst all of the OTHER black bags in the tent.  (note to self: no more black bags for bag check).  I had spotted my ride in bag check (yay!) and he disappeared on me while he went to change out of his race clothes.  I waited and waited and finally decided to look for him and the others in the beer tent.  That turned out to be a good move, as my group (including my ride) was there.

Michelob Ultra... really?  Because its that difficult to get good beer in a Denver race?

I handed out my SunRype snacks to the group and to random race participants.  I'm sure I came off slightly crazy, with my wrinkled Walgreens plastic bag full of snacks and my random sales pitch.

these people actually turnd down free snacks!  the horror!

I swear, this was not posed.  I'm just happy to give away fruit snacks!

We dinked around the beer garden for a while and then finally decided to head home.  I think it was maybe 10 AM.  I was home by 11:30 (maybe even earlier).  Then we had a 1 PM post-race celebration at Lone Tree Brewing Company with the AMC group.  I was starving and I think I ate half a pizza.  And two beers. And then I was worthless for the rest of the day.

If anyone knows what this is supposed to be, please let me know.  We couldn't figure it out.

Nutrition
Overall, I felt pretty solid about my nutrition.  I had good energy going in and felt good through the race.  My stomach started getting a bit twitchy towards the end of the race, as my effort increased.  I just took smaller sips and that seemed to fix the problem.  When I finished, I still had a bit under HALF of my drink mix.  I had good energy so I think/hope I got enough calories in.  Maybe my work on metabolic efficiency is kicking in and I don't need as many calories?  Also, I was smart this time and packed my recovery drink in my bag.

Moving Forward
My feet hurt, which sucks.  I'm hoping that a regimen of 2 aleve every 12 hours for a few days will fix things, along with RICE.  This is fixable.

Fitness-wise, I feel rock star awesome.  I PR'd but took it relatively easy.  How awesome is that?!?  This race definitely gave me a confidence boost for Boise.  I feel ready.

Shin splints redux and a wow! I didn't know my ankle turned that color purple!

So yeah, stupid stupid stupid shin splints.  They're back - but this time theiy're in my GOOD LEG.  Ugh.  Ironically enough, my "good" leg is also the one which had a 5th metatarsal fracture 2 weeks before my first half marathon in 2008.  (and yet, I keep on running.... definition of insanity here?  anyone? anyone?)

So yeah, back to the shin splints.  They happened to appear after a track workout involving 2 x 1 mile repeats and 2 x 800 m repeats.  Then I followed that up (knowing my leg was owie) with my 22 mile running weekend.  Dumb.  But I was well aware of what I was doing.  Somehow an educated dumb seems better than an ignorant dumb....  After my 10 mile race, I decided that I would take a week off of running and do the R.I.C.E thing with a ton of stretching and wearing compression as often as is socially acceptable.  Fortunately, I had intentionally planned the following week as a bike-heavy week so there were very few running workouts that had to be missed.

The following weekend, I made myself promise that if my leg wasn't feeling better by Monday that I would make the very hard phone call to my A.R.T doctor.  Sure enough, Monday it was still bad and I made the phone call.  And the walk of shame back into his office.

Good news: 3 treatments later and he says that my leg should be good to go!  I even ran 8 miles last Sunday and it felt great!

Bad news: OMG, my leg is still sore and bruised from the treatment.  For the record: when your doctor tells you that you should ice your leg for the rest of the day, that means you're in for a lot of pain.

Just the A.R.T. process hurts.  I don't know how I went in for ~10 treatments this winter for my left leg.  I swear, the treatment for right leg hurts worse than the left leg did!  He basically jams his thumb into the tissues of your shin and presses SUPER hard and as an added bonus he'll sometimes move the pressure around, all while he's moving your foot/ankle through a full range of motion.  The idea is to break up the adhesions and scar tissue that is causing the shin splits.  And trust me, those tissues went through the equivalent of a very ugly divorce in my 3 treatments. 

But the even better news?  He said that after 3 treatments, I only have to come in "as needed".  No more torture sessions!  I still haven't ran this week, mainly because it hurts when I walk.  I need to be better about icing and perhaps taking some Aleve would be a good call.

As an added entertainment bonus, I've just been watching a rainbow develop in my lower leg / ankle all week.  Behold:

Immediately after treatment on Thursday... just a little red... no biggie

a full 24 hrs after Thursday's treatment (my 2nd treatment).  Leg is a weird red/brown color

Tuesday morning, right before the 3rd treatment.  Notice how the brusing has migrated to my ankle and foot!

Thursday, 48 hrs after the 3rd and final treatment.  Somehow, the bruising is darker and has spread further up my foot.... Colorful!

Will just laughs, looks and me, and wonders why I'm paying someone to abuse me.  Good times!

What to do for 3 hours on the trainer?

So Saturday was supposed to be a super fun 60 mile ride in Boulder.  The idea was to get out of the house while my mother-in-law was in town and get some quality riding done in a pretty place.  What actually happened was that a cold front blew in the night before and the Boulder ride didn't happen.  I sent Will and Jan off to the science museum so I could spend 3 quality hours on the trainer.  Ugh.

I really should have ridden 4 hours, but IMO, trainer hours are harder than road hours and its generally ok if you cut them back by 3/4.  Two hours on the trainer is generally ok.  Three hours isn't fun but tolerable.  Four + hours is awful.  So, three hours it was!  Fortunately I had a bazillion episodes of The Secret Circle on DVR and a (now) empty house, so I was good to go.

Here's my workout:
30 min warm up
5 x 1 min speed ups, 1 min recovery
5 (?) 25 minute intervals:
     5 min moderately light gear but >90 rpm
     5 min next gear harder, 80-85 rpm
     5 min same gear, >90 rpm
     5 min, next harder gear, 80-85 rpm
     5 min recovery
5 x 1 min speed ups, 1 min recovery.  Really pushed these speed ups with my harder gear from the long intervals and 95 rpm.  These HURT
spin to recover to finish 3 hrs

I like changing things every few minutes when you have a bazillion minutes on the trainer.  It gives you something to focus on and helps keep you mentally sharp.  This is a hard workout to zone out on because you have cadence targets and changes every 5 minutes.

At two hours, I had definitely hit my trainer tolerance limit and I had to play some mental games to get that last hour done.  But when I was done, my legs felt like they'd done something.  And the next day on my ride, they definitely felt like they'd done something, as my hill climbing was sad and pathetic.

More weekend riding and a goal for Boise

I'm a little more than a month out from Boise and I *think* I finally came up with a goal.  I'm extremely hesitant to put down a time goal.  I have something in my head (beat my Galvestion 70.3 time from last year) but Boise is a different animal and I'm not sure its a good idea to compare this race to Galveston. 

Galveston: flat, hot, and windy.  fairly predictable.
Boise: hilly and windy.  Could be hot, could be fine, could be a torrential downpour.  who knows!

Basically, my time will be dependent upon what Mother Nature decides to throw at us.  I'm not sure a goal time is practical given the history of this course.  So, instead of hanging my happiness on a certain time (although, you can bet I will be estatic if I PR) I've decided to base my goal on how I feel coming off the bike.  See, in 2010, I believe I said something like "that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life" after my 4+ hours on the bike in 28-35 mph head and crosswinds.  With hills that I was not used to riding.  What I was most proud of from that race was that I ran the whole run.  It wasn't fast running, but it generally resembled running.  But damn, that bike hurt.

That was 2 years ago.  In that time, I've done another half ironman, a full ironman, and moved to Colorado where in 2012, I ride hills pretty much any chance I get.  After the bike for IMTX, I felt awesome, and I distinctly remember telling Will that the bike (which was my furthest and longest ride ever) felt like just another training ride.  What I meant by that was that I felt great.  Legs felt great, mind felt great.  I owned that course rather than it owning me.  I'm holding onto that feeling every time I ride my bike this year.  I will OWN the Boise bike course.  (and yes, I probably just cursed myself.  I will get hail, wind, and torrential downpours and I will have to work extra hard to stay in my happy place).  In 2010 I was scared by the bike.  Even had nightmares about walking.  Now, I'm visualizing climbing those hills and owning them.  Cool, huh?

Really, I only have 4 hills.  The second one is "attention getting" as a friend would say.

I just need to focus on getting up 4 hills.  That's it.  I can do that.

Here's the hill repeat from my swim/bike brick on Saturday (ok, I only repeated the hill once, but it was QUALITY).

It doesn't look like that much, but it was 1327 ft of climbing in 26 miles. 
Thsi is the same amount of climbing as Boise, only in 1/2 the distance

I do this ride nearly every week.  That second hill that's at mile 15?  It seems like its a near exact replica as the Boise "attention getting" hill.  Normally, I do a loop and I only go down this hill, but Saturday I had a feeling I needed to ride back up it to see what it was like.  After seeing my ride data, I think I need to focus on getting up that hill.  Saturday, it was windy and this hill is very exposed.  I was in my easiest climbing gear and wasn't going very fast, but my effort wasn't crazy high (heart rate maxed out at 166).  And I felt good climbing.

I've been getting twitchy about not getting the course distance in.  Last month I was supposed to ride 60 at Palmer Lake and I left my legs at home and only went 45.  Two weeks ago I rode Boulder and got in 53 miles, but they were a relatively easy 53 miles.  I need to get in some HARD 60 mile days.  The goal is to train on some hard stuff so that those 4 hills in Boise are cake.

We have a local HIM called Harvest Moon (at Aurora Reservoir) and its a pretty hard course - wind and hills.  So that's where I rode yesterday:

Yes, I may as well have been riding in Kansas.....

Funny thing.... at mile 5 you turn north and into a headwind.  And I was FLYING at 18-22 mph INTO a headwind.  This road was FUN.  We needed to pick up extra mileage so on the way back to the truck, we did a 12 mile out and back on this road, starting at mile 41.  You know, because it was so fun the first time.  Turns out, it was fun because I was going downhill.  Coming back was interesting, even with a tailwind.  My legs were pretty well toast at the end.  I probably could have run if I needed to, but I really didn't want to.

Elevation gain: 1,779 in 60 miles.

Hmmmm.  I thought it was more elevation than that.  Still, the hills come on strong at the back end of the course, so it is a good way to train your legs when they're tired. 

I've got 4 more weeks before taper and 2 more long rides planned.  Saturday is the Boulder course.  Then Memorial Day weekend (Sunday) I'll probably do Harvest Moon again.  I think I'll train a bit more aggressively than I took yesterday's ride, just to push the effort a bit.  I want to put a hurt on myself so Boise will seem easy by comparison. :) 

April 2012 Totals

Hey, look what a month of solid training delivers!

April 2012
Bike: 19h 38m - 266.32 Mi (UP by almost 100 miles)
Run: 14h 18m 17s - 78.11 Mi  (UP by 45 miles and included a half marathon and a 10 mile race)
Swim: 9h 45m - 27,826.95 Yd  (UP by 15,000+ yards - 5 workouts)
Skiing: 3h 00m

I am completely happy with how my training in April went.  Bike strength is improving and my run speed and endurance is somehow magically coming back.  I really had no idea what to expect with this compressed training schedule for Boise.  I really thought I was going to just do the 70.3 and have a good time.  Now that I'm 5 weeks away, I'm thinking that I can actually BEAT my 70.3 PR, which was on a flat course at sea level in the middle of my IMTX training.  Lets just see how long I can hold on to improving and feeling good before June 9.

Goals for May

• bike bike bike - I want to do at least two 60 mile rides, race simulation.  Big back to back bike weekends are on the list too, even though everyone in my club thinks I'm insane.  (what? you don't do a long run every weekend? what does the back-to-back bike do for you?)  Based on last year and my performance running so far, I think my time is best invested on the bike.
• keep working on run speed.  Track workouts are KEY here.  So are tempo brick workouts.  And I need to figure out my interval plan for the Colfax Half Marathon on May 20.
• keep tweaking nutrition.  I'm almost there, but I keep having a few random issues.
• try to get in at least one OWS to prepare for Lucky Peak's 55 degree temperatures.
• keep from getting injured.  Be diligent with stretching and compression gear.

Cherry Creek Sneak 10 Miler - Race Report

I didn't have this race on my list, but my team (Team SunRype) offered 6 free entries.  I had a 2 hour run on my schedule and thought this would be a good way to get it done.  So thanks, Team SunRype!

I really didn't treat this like a race.  There was no taper or even rest prior to the race.  Just more training.  For some stupid reason, my coach (aka ME) had me scheduled for 5 hours worth of running from Friday afternoon to Sunday.  That's nearly a marathon. W. T. F. Its like I never even looked at the schedule as I was writing it to make sure it wasn't incredibly stupid.

What I had was:
Friday - 1 hr recovery run
Saturday - brick (2 hr bike + 1 hr run) and then my favorite hang out for a few hours and THEN run ANOTHER 1 hr
Sunday - 2:15 hr run, with fartlek speed intervals.

What I actually did was:
Friday - 45 min recovery run
Saturday - brick (2 hrs + 45 min run) and then 30 min run in the PM
Sunday - 1:50 run or a 10+ mile race.

I felt like I honored the plan but I wasn't completely stupid about it.  Still, this totalled 22.5 miles in 3 days.  Wow.  My point of all of this is... I really wasn't sure how I would do in this race.  My legs had seen a lot of use and I really didn't know what to expect.

Pre-Race
My race started at 7:45 AM.  I left the house at 6:45 and drove to Cherry Creek.  I'm so happy I studied the map the night prior as I got a SWEET parking space.  2 blocks away from the finish line (which was also basically the start line).  And there were a TON of spaces.  Awesome.  At 7:15 (while I was parking) I had my 100 calorie Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre-Race.  And holy crap, will I ever get used to that horrible taste?  I also sipped a partial bottle of EFS which was left over from my brick the day prior.

After parking, I wandered over and easily located my other Team SunRype people.  I mean, we have a giant orange/yellow sun on our bellies.  We are not hard to locate.

The Race
Like I said, I wasn't racing this.  This was more like a training run with a few thousand people and a beer tent at the end.  I did a 30 minute warm-up followed by 20 x [3 min Zone 3 HR intervals and 1 min recovery].  Sure, Zone 3 and you think, no biggie.  But its the last 5 that really hurt.  Zone 3 seems easy early on but it can hurt at the end. 

My "warm-up" was on a 10:48 pace.  Kinda fast for a warm-up. I guess my legs might be ok.  Somewhere around mile 2 I heard a "HEY ERIN" from way across the street.  I wore my fluorescent orange Newtons.  There is no anonymity while wearing those things.  And apparently, I'm the only person out there with them... or at least the only one wearing a brightly colored racing kit.

I didn't preview the course, so I had no idea what to expect.  I just wanted to give a consistent effort.  Not a consistent speed, just effort.  Somehow, every stinking uphill was during my Z3 effort.  And every downhill was during my recovery.   LAME.  I was good, though, and I used my intervals to power up those hills.  Most of my recovery intervals were an easy jog.  I did walk 3 of them, mostly toward the end.  My stomach was starting to talk to me, and the walking helped.  My last intervals were slower but I could still go.  Finally at the finish line, I had about 1/4 mile left and I just decided to go-go-go.  I tried to get other people to go with me, but they just looked at me like I was crazy.  Like, who wants to push MORE at the end of a 10 mile run?  Somehow, I had enough go-juice in me to go FAST.  Pretty cool, given everything my legs had done this weekend.

One irritation about the race, somewhere around mile 2.5, you run up a hill and turn around at the end of the cones.  I was running down the hill and I heard a volunteer say "10 milers straight, 5k turn at the cone".  Wait?  What?!?!  Damn, I turned and did not go straight.  I said some not so nice things to the guy about poor communication of the volunteers (who said NOTHNG my first time through).  I turned around and started up the hill.  Only when I passed the "turn" I discovered that there were actually TWO different turns.  The FIRST was for the 5k'ers.  Then you go about 100 meters straight and and the 10 miler's turn at the SECOND cone.  Communication is everything, even in races.  That probably added ~0.15 to my overall distance.  And it gave me something to be irritated over for a few miles.

The hills weren't awful, Cheesman Park had some, but they were quick.  The really icky one started at 6.5 and went on for about 3/4 of a mile.  It wasn't steep, it was just LONG and was mentally a bit rough.  But I kept telling myself "fast feet" on the hills and I did ok.  I can proudly say I ran up each and every hill yesterday. 

The aid stations were ~1.5 miles apart, which was a good enough spacing.  I like to drink every mile, but I had my hand-held bottle with more Liquid Shot + water.  The aid stations were just a little gulp or two of extra hydration.

The weather was fantastic.  Probably 40's and sunny in the morning.  I wore my tri shorts, sleeveless running top + my favorite light weight long-sleeved shirt, and calf sleeves.  Seemed to work fine, as I wasn't ever too hot or too cold.  And the course was really pretty.  Overall, it was a good race and I'd do it again.

Post-race, we pre-arranged to meet at the finish line at 10 AM.  This gave me enough time to finish, walk back to my truck and get my samples, and return to the finish.  There were 7 of us from the team, and everyone was super cool.

Afterwards, I headed to the beer garden.  There was a long line, a huge crowd, and average-tasting beer.  I had the brilliant idea to head over to Cherry Cricket for better beer and TASTY burgers.  Best idea of the week.

Nutrition seemed to be ok.  I loaded up my hand-held with 400 calories of Vanilla Liquid Shot + water.  And my LS+Pre-Race combo about 30 min before the gun went off.  I had good energy, but I wasn't laughing like a maniac like I was 2 weeks ago at the Platte.  Still, good energy given what I did to my legs is a pretty solid result.  I think I like this First Endurance stuff.

And finally, what race report would be complete without a photo of a red tortoise?  We were leaving the Beer Garden and I saw a TORTOISE and flipped out.  My friends, not knowing my affinity for these guys, probably thought I was crazy.  The Denver Zoo had him out so he could pimp their 5k run.  Not sure how a tortoise is effective marketing for say, a running race, but it caught my attention.

Total time: 1:51:03 (probably ~15 seconds long... I never remember to hit my watch at the finish)
Total distance: 10.29 miles
Pace: 10:48 

I'll take it!

Flower update

I am having such fun this spring.  Nearly every day, something new is going on in the yard.  Its fun to explore and see what is new.

The daffodills are the star of the yard right now.  They are doing extremely well.  I just love them - they're so cheerful!

The tulips are finally blooming, despite the yard-bunny's best efforts to eat them.  I got the Monet mixture - all pastel shades of pink and yellow.  So far, they're white, pink, and dark red.

Our lilacs are finally blooming.  I LOVE lilacs and it was such a nice suprise that the former owners of this house planted several.  When I lived in Houston, I really missed lilacs.  They don't grow there and that made me sad.

Our irises have been a bit of a mystery.  We got several from Will's grandmother's yard in Idaho.  I thought it would be a nice tribute to have some of her plants in our yard.  They were all done blooming when I dug them out, so I have NO IDEA what colors I grabbed.  Then a bit later in August, my mom found some random guy in the neighborhood who was dividing and giving away some of his very expensive, award-winning irises.  Mostly in blue.  We think.  And I just randomly scattered both sets of irises throughout the yard, so I really have no idea what is planted where.  I'm just going to assume blue = random guy, everything else = grandma.

My mom has been telling me all winter that the irises won't bloom the first year.  I did some googling, and the interwebs told me that if the rhyzomes are planted early enough in the late summer, chances are good for flowers.  We planted the Idaho ones in mid-August, so I thought we'd have a good chance for flowers.

And look what I found this morning:



You can see one of my alliums in the near left background, my pack
of garlic directly behind the iris, and some daffys in the far background

Isn't it beautiful?

View from the top, showing off the coloring:

So extremely pretty.  I just wish it was located in a place where I didn't have to peer through some corner window to see it.

We also have a white iris flowering.  While not as pretty, it sure smells good.

My garden experiment has been an experiment.  And that's about the best I can say about it.  About 3 weeks ago I posted this:

This is my indoor seed starter.  In the foreground is mostly lettuce, with some kohlrabi and some herbs.  In the background are tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant (ie the long to germinate plants).  The background plants were starting to get leggy, so I left the lid off the greenhouse.  And then Zipper ate all the plants.  Poo.  These guys needed to be in the ground mid-May and need a good 8-12 weeks before they're ready to go outside.  I now had only 4-6 weeks.  :( 

I transplanted the cool weather seedlings last weekend.  And then they all shriveled and died from the heat.  So, my big "start the seeds indoors" experiment has not been a successful one.  So far.  I am determined to somehow get it to work.

About 2 weeks ago, I did direct-sow some cool weather seeds.  I wanted to see how they'd do outside vs their pampered inside siblings.  So far, so good:

I think these are my mixed lettuce seeds.

Yes, the cups look weird.  But here's my logic:  From top to bottom, the bed consists of: several inches of mulch, weed block fabric, dirt.  You sow the seeds very shallowly in the soil. I didn't want the little seedlings to get lost in the maze of fabric and mulch, so I thought the cups were a clever way of helping them find their way.  And they seem to be happy.  I will probably be planting another round tomorrow, so we have lettuce growing in stages.

Also: 2 of our 6 hops are showing leaves.  The hops we took from Cow Camp in Idaho and some Chinook hops.  But of course, I neglected to snap a photo of them.  They've been secured in chicken wire so the bunnies won't eat them.  Hopefully they'll be happy and grow us lots of hops.