A random list of what I've been up to

Still enjoying the off-season but we're building a bit more structure in terms of workouts and things....

1) we saw Book of Mormon on Saturday.  When I pitched the idea of going to Will, he got whiny, but hello, South Park - and he grew up in Southern Idaho and would pretty much get every inside joke in the show.  I think he enjoyed it more than I did.  There were several times where he commented "I was wondering when they'd get to that".

2) people who need to play with their phones during a live performance should be dragged away and tortured.  The woman next to me kept busting out her phone and doing stuff on it.  Because it can't wait an hour?!?!  Really?

3) we have been having a good time drinking beer.  Like that's a surprise.  After BoM we had dinner at a place that was highly regarded as a beer gastropub.  The food was excellent, the beer list was meh.  It always shocks me when "beer places" don't have mostly local beer on tap.  After food, we went to Epic and it was great.  Its a huge warehouse with arched wooden ceilings and exposed steel beams.  Light fixtures look like the bottom of cone-tanks.  The bar was really nice (we could have done without the 3 huge tvs) and there was a fireplace with couches.  The best part: the place was saturated with the scent of wort and hops.  It was delicious. I really like how it was designed - lots of beer touches and they found a way to make this huge space warm and cozy. The only unfortunate thing was the initial place we sat (a table right by the door) had the unfortunate bonus of being able to see men standing at the urinal when the men's room door opened.  Not exactly my thing.  The Brainless series was good. The stouts and porters were disappointing - no depth.

4) skiing!  I went a few Saturday's ago.  Copper had 5 inches of powder and they had a CO-themed demo day.  We rode other people's gear all day and had a good time.  The strange part was that the place was empty - I rode American Eagle by myself a few times after lunch.  On a Saturday.

5) I've been cooking more, which is fun.  We were invited to a brunch a few weeks back and I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls with bourbon cream cheese icing.  They were so terrible, I'm making them again for this weekend. I'm also doing crock-pot meals more often - I've done something the past 3 weeks.  I like doing a large roast of some sort (pork or beef) but I've had some bad experiences with things coming out too dry.  Well, I think I *finally* figured the trick out.  The key is to make sure the meat is completely covered with some sort of liquid.  For some reason, I had always thought you wanted to use a very small amount of liquid, but the past 2 times I've submerged the thing, its turned out awesome.  And that's pretty much how I will be cooking roasts in the crock pot from now on.

6) the brewery we invested in finally has their state and federal brewing licence.  Awesome.  I'm pretty sure we'll be hanging out there a ton in December.

7) I finished up Orange is the New Black on Netflix and randomly picked Hemlock Grove as my new pain-cave viewing experience.  I had no idea it was about a werewolf (and other things).  Funny how I just gravitate to those shows for no good reason.

8) I'm still recovering from Oilman, or really, from my 2013 season.  I trained pretty regularly from March - November, which makes for a pretty long season.  My runs and rides have gone pretty well.  My swims are pretty weak.  I try to go fast but I just can't find that fast gear.  I know its there somewhere, I just need to be patient.

9) my big goal for the off season is to try and attend one yoga session per week.  I went to a hot yoga class last Wednesday and it was ok.  I was surprised to see that I could do the strength moves pretty well (even ones I usually have problems with) and it was no surprise that my hamstrings are ridiculously tight.  This instructor didn't hold the poses as long as I prefer, so tonight I'm going to a (non-heated) slow yoga class to see if I like it better.

Off Season!

Wahoo!

Seriously, I am soooo happy to have survived Tri Season 2013.  Seeing where I was a year ago and where I am now is amazing.  A year ago, I was rebuilding and relearning how to run after breaking my heel, hoping that everything I had planned in 2013 would go well.  This year's tri season exceeded my expectations with the main highlight being IMCDA.  I still can't get over how well that day went - it really was a fantastic day.

I spent Sunday putting Merlin back together (so easy now that I know what I'm doing) and putting away all of my triathlon race stuff.  Its a bit sad, but also nice.  Hopefully I'll remember where I put everything in June.

I'm still a bit tired after Oilman.  My muscles are fine but there's still some underlying fatigue.  I've swam 3x and its gone just ok.  One of those times was a 3k yard postal challenge.  It sounded like a good idea a week before Oilman and then it sounded like a not-very-good idea after.  But I had committed.  And I got a free (really nice) silicone swim cap.  But I was a good 1-2 min slower than in previous years and probably a good 3-4 min slower than I should have been, given how I've been swimming this year.

I went for an easy run Tuesday (or "joggy-jog" as my coach put it).  I did 30 min in beautiful Colorado 50-degree sunshine.  I ran too fast but my legs felt good and I just wanted to RUN.  I wanted to do hot yoga last night but the instructor was a no-show.  So I went home and watched tv.  Same thing, right?

We're easing into the off-season.  I'm not quite sure what my training will look like but I'm pretty sure it will resemble last year pretty closely, with maybe more speed/strength added in since I'm not coming off of a fracture.  I'm also going to really try and do yoga once a week because I think its good for me.  I'm just going to put it on my calendar and let Michelle deal with it.

And I'm going to ski.  This year is looking pretty good so far.  Copper opened up Nov 1 - with a powder day!  I'm hitting the slopes Saturday, which may be a early-season record for me.  And its looking like a powder day.  Now to figure out which skis to bring......  And to find my ski gear.

2014 is shaping up to look like a fun tri year.  I'm doing the Winter Distance Series again.  Its really well done and it does keep you running over the winter.  May will be the Colfax half marathon.  June is Boise 70.3.  Yes, I'm signed up for Boulder 70.3 but I have a very important wedding to attend that same weekend in Idaho, which means Boulder is out.  So Boise it is.  (and I say this making a bit of a squinty/scared face, that race and I do not have a fabulous history).  July will be spent riding my bike lots.  And August 3, 2014 is the Big Show - Ironman Boulder.  And then I'll spend the rest of August sleeping or camping or fishing.

Also in 2014, I have some pretty fun tri-related opportunities.  I've been accepted as an ambassador for 2 groups and accepted on a local tri team.

Colfax Marathon Ambassador: they wrote up this super cool bio for me and I get some pretty nice gear, including a light weight running jacket with a ton of reflective stuff on it.  In return, I promote the race, which is a pretty easy deal.  I'm really looking forward to running through the Denver Zoo during the half marathon.

Gone for a Run: I follow their feed on facebook, and it turns out that they have an internet store focused on running stuff.  They'll send me products every couple of months and I'll review them here on my blog.  I've got two things so far (Yakety Yak Knee Socks and PR Soles sandals).  Both are pretty awesome.

And finally, I managed to get myself on a local triathlon team.  I admit, I have a thing for cool looking kits that you can't just purchase (ie you have to earn it).  Its definitely elitist tri-cool-kid envy.  The envy was alleviated a bit with my two Active Ambassador teams (Sony and SunRype) but this year, it takes more than a free team kit and a bunch of free samples to make me happy.  The Active groups don't have much sense of local community and I've decided that community and friendships are something that I want in my team.  There are two main "you have to apply and be accepted" teams in town and I think the competition is pretty fierce.  I've really focused on building my local resume this year with the goal of being accepted.  And yay, I was accepted to Kompetitve Edge today!  Hurray!

October 2013 Training Totals

Probably the last post of this type for a while.  November is officially the start of the off season for me.  Hurray!

October:

Swim: 13h 03m - 36,581.37 Yd
Bike: 19h 48m  20s - 275.66 Mi
Run: 11h 29m 18s - 63.15 M

September:

Swim: 9h 20m - 25,535.04 Yd
Bike: 15h 18m - 212.96 Mi
Run: 13h 20m 18s - 71.31 M

I'm doing the Winter Distance Series again this year, so I expect my run mileage will be consistent to what it has been this fall.  Swim and bike... who knows?  Hopefully its just swim twice a week and ride once or twice.  And I'd like to do hot yoga weekly this winter.  And ski lots.  And sleep in.  

Did I mention it was off season?

Oilman 70.3 Race Report

This was a seriously great race.  I had a pre-race talk with my coach and she encouraged me to take risks.  The whole concept is if you don't take a risk, you won't grow and learn.  I was given permission to burn a whole bunch of matches and see what happens.  She also thought my running a 2:22 half marathon was not out of the question. I had a mission to hit 6:30 and I was excited to see what I could do.

Pre-Race
I really didn't leave much time for error on this one.  Will's birthday was Friday, which meant flying out Saturday early, the day before the race.  I felt bad for Will b/c I had to be in bed early for my flight and couldn't stay up and do anything fun.  Poor guy, always a good sport and going along with my craziness.

I was really worried about TSA crunching Merlin during their inspection.  I packed him uber-carefully.  Nothing was left exposed - it was all covered in foam pipe wrap or bubble wrap.  I even left a note asking TSA to pay attention when unpacking and repacking it and labeled the box "this end up to open".  Seems to have worked - Merlin was pretty darn close to the way I left him when I cracked the box open in Houston.

My friend Melissa (who is doing IM Boulder with me) picked me up and we went up to Conroe to eat lunch, build my bike, and do packet pickup.  Merlin re-assembled super easy - yay!  Packet pickup was low key as well.  I bought some CO2 cartridges and some tinted sunglasses for the race and we were good to go.

We did a quick 15 min test ride and 10 min run and called it a day.  The rest of the night was spent getting ready and eating/drinking.  I tried some Osmo pre-race.  It was salty.  I'm not sure what to make of the stuff.

Sunday had a wake up call of 4:35 with a goal to leave the house by 5:30.  I braided my hair, applied my tri-tattoo race numbers (so cool!), lathered on sunscreen and probably poked around too much.  I drank ~200 cal of Skratch and 1.5 small Honey Stinger peanut butter energy bars before we left the house.  Our housemate was supposed to race, but he got sick.  He was nice enough to drive us around which was super sweet of him.

Transition was the usual, except it was 41 degrees and people were cold.  I had my hoodie and flannel pj pants and was perfectly warm.  I had terrible time management.  We got there with maybe 45 min before transition closed and I dinked around too much, chatting with people I haven't seen in forever.  This meant no bathroom pit-stop (which actually was ok - fortunately) and no warm up.  I also had no brain cells for pretty much the entire weekend as I kept forgetting things and Melissa was remembering for me and helping me out.

flannel pj pants are the new craze in triathlon apparel

At 6:45 they closed transition (we were among the last ones out).  I only had the bottom part of my 2-piece wetsuit on by that time and got to spend the walk to the swim start wrestling with my swim top.  I decided that counted as my warm up (sorry Coach).

Then it was over to the swim start to basically dunk my head in the water and swim a few strokes.  The water was just right, probably 70, not too hot or too cold.  It was crazy murky, which was a Houston feature I'd forgotten about.  I could literally only see 3 inches in front of my face.  Thankfully the water didn't taste as bad as it looked.  We then went back to the beach, chatted with friends, and waited for our waves.

Swim
This was a beach start, which is something I'm never a fan of.  I was dumb and hung back a few rows of people.  I was keeping another friend company and wasn't really thinking strategically for myself.  This was a really dumb mistake and I completely missed my chance to draft off of people.  I knew this right when I got into the water.  I couldn't find anyone and I was swimming HARD to find people.  In all honesty though, with the visibility being crap, I'm not sure I could have drafted off of anyone even if I did start at the front.  The swim (as usual) seemed to take forever.  I was determined to swim pretty hard and channel Dory.  We swam from the beach, through a lagoon, then out to Lake Conroe where we did a rectangle.  The winds were pretty decent and they were kicking up some good chop in the water.  Not enough to make white caps, but it was enough where you couldn't see a buoy once in a while and you occasionally rolled with the the wave.

Overall: it was a sucky swim.  I kept my effort up but I knew it wasn't a fast time for me.

Time: 39:25.9
Age Group Ranking: 5/22
Overall Ranking: 184/532

I also checked my wave and I came in with the 16th fastest swim out of 88 people.  Not fantastic but not awful either.

T1
I popped out of the water, got my cap/goggles off, and also my wetsuit top off (except the right arm) all in the 100 ft before the strippers.  I had to stand there for a few seconds (nicely) yelling for help - things were a bit chaotic.  She did her job quickly and I was up and running along to transition.  There was a bit of a jog from the wetsuit strippers to transition (maybe 1/4 of a mile?) and a baby, 10 ft tall hill that people were walking over.  Thanks to my extra red-blood cells, I could breathe just fine and sprinted off to transition.  Seriously, I passed everyone.  Apparently I dropped my goggles somewhere along the way and a guy was nice enough to grab them and catch me.  When he did catch me, he made a funny comment about how he had a hard time b/c I was running too fast. Sweet!

this is a pretty kick-ass photo series.  Look at me with
my wetsuit top off as I hit the timing mat, just feet
after the water.  Go me!

Actual transition was no biggie.  I did buy some knee socks the day before, in case it was cold and I needed arm warmers, but when I got to my bike, I didn't want to bother.  I knew the sun was out and I'd be fine, thanks to my Colorado cold-weather bike riding.  All I had to do was put my stuff on and hit the road.

Time: 3:25.9
Age Group Ranking: 3/22
Overall Ranking: 80/532

Apparently nearly everyone else decided to put on warmer clothing because I didn't think I was moving all that fast.

Bike
Now it was go time.  I had a date with the bike course and I was going to do my best to kill it out there.  I was riding strong.  The steeper hills were a bit harder than I was expecting.  I stayed big ring the entire time but I did have to shift into my easiest gear on nearly all of the hills.  That was a bit of a bummer as I was hoping I was stronger than that.  I just focused on keeping my cadence up and my effort solid.  My heart rate was really high for the first 40 minutes, around 155+ for an effort that was no where near that high.  I think that was residual effects from the harder effort on the swim.  I just kept plugging away, hoping it would eventually go down.  It did and then my heart rate stayed around 145/150 for the rest of the ride.

I love the first part of this course because you are on rolling hills going through the forest.  I just really tried to stay in my element and enjoy riding here.  I also went a bit down memory lane - the last time I'd been here was during IMTX.  I recognized some of the turn-offs and smiled.  And then I just kept on pedaling.

Nutrition-wise I was doing ok.  I really tried to get in calories from the start, knowing I'd need them for the run.  Every 15 minutes I'd eat some chews or swig some Liquid Shot.  My drinking wasn't all that great, but it wasn't hot and I pretty much needed to pee starting at the first aid station.  Its hard to keep drinking when you have a full bladder.  They only had one port-o-potty per aid station and there was always a line, so I just kept moving on.  Probably not the best idea but I really didn't want to waste time.

Around mile 20 we crossed into Grimes County and into the land of chip seal.  Ugh.  And then around mile 25 we turned onto FM 2819 and encountered some of the worst chip seal I've been on.  It was so bad my vision was acting like there was a strobe light in front of me.  By the time I hit the turn around (and the next aid station) my adductors were acting up (again - ugh) and I decided to stop and stretch for 2 minutes.  It was at that point I saw Melissa on the other side of the road heading into the turn-around.  I shouted that I was fine and she went on her way.  I hopped back on my bike and was happy the stretching worked - I was back to riding well.  Melissa ended up catching me and we chatted for a while.  We both didn't like the swim but we were both riding well.  I had clocked a time of 1:33 at the halfway point and was really hoping for a faster than predicted bike time.  I was worried about the wind though, since I knew it would be a headwind the whole way back.  I joked about needing some long climbs to be happy and Melissa rode on ahead.  I think I caught her 5 minutes later (on a long flat climb) and laughed.  At that point I started counting how many people I was passing (16 the whole way back).  I was just trying to stay small and do my hill climbing thing.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  I pushed where I could.  My heart rate stayed pretty low and I'd evaluate: can I ride harder and still be ok for the run?  My upper hamstrings were talking to me and I really didn't think I could push much more, so I just kept doing what I was doing.

As I rode the last stretch of road into the resort area and transition, I smiled as I remembered the first race I did out here in 2009, the Aquabike that nearly killed me.  I was seriously dying on that stretch of road.  This time it was easy and I was looking forward to running.  Have I mentioned how much I love my new bike lately?  Its true, I do.

Time: 3:20:54.8
Pace: 16.7 mph
Age Group Ranking: 8/22
Overall Ranking: 334/532

I was targeting 3:24 as my realistic goal (3:15 for a stretch goal) so I'm really happy to come in under my goal.  I think if it wasn't so windy out I would have done even better.

Funny random racer sighting: some guy was wearing a jacket, cycling tights, and shoe covers.  I can't even imagine how long it took for him to wrestle those tights on in transition......

I was perfectly fine in my tri kit.

T2
Really nothing much to report, although I did nearly leave my gloves on for the run.

Time: 1:56.1
Age Group Ranking: 4/22
Overall Ranking: 174/532

Run
aka Go Time.  To hit my goal of 6:30, with a 3:24 bike time, I would need to average a run pace of 10:50, which is something I'd never done in a 70.3.  Or really, even in an olympic distance race. I didn't know what my swim time was so I was still aiming for a pace of 10:50 or faster.

Each loop of the run course went like this:

• sidewalk for a bit
• gravel for a bit
• grass for a bit
• paved streets with a baby steep hill
• packed dirt with tree roots
• grass with holes filled in by loosely packed dirt
• more sidewalk
• then finally a road with out and backs through neighborhoods - including a 1/3 of a mile shallow hill towards the end and then a downhill 1/2 mile kick to the finish

Seriously, the dirt/grass/gravel stuff was probably about a mile of each loop.  I was so happy I've been doing trail running and my feet are used to uneven terrain.  It was a really weird choice for a run course.

Melissa was right behind me off the bike and we came out of transition together.  I really had to pee still so I stopped at the 2 port-o-potties right after the timing mat.  They were disgusting.  Yuck.  I wasn't that far behind Melissa after my pit-stop.  She stopped to fix her shoe and I had a sock that was bunched up so I stopped with her.  We ran the entire first loop together and maybe a bit more.  It was really nice to have a run buddy again :)  I was supposed to keep my heart rate down below 155 for the first part of the race.  I kept looking at my Garmin and seeing 157 and a pace that was sub-10. She was running a bit too fast as well and we'd try to slow down.  And then we'd speed back up, probably because we were chatting and not focusing on running.  I finally gave up on trying to slow down because my effort felt easy and I was feeling really good.

Around mile 6 or so (I think this was after the 1st aid station on the 2nd loop) I lost Melissa.  I was feeling good and wanting to push.  I don't think she was feeling good.  She knew I was pushing for a good time and I'm sure she was ok with me leaving her.  I focused on a steady, controlled effort for loop #2 with a heart rate around 160, hoping to bank some time and to see how long I could hold on during the final loop.

The final loop was basically just trying to hold onto my pace.  My heart rate was at 165.  I was uncomfortable but not terribly so.  I was running to the aid stations and only walking about 0.05 mi, just enough to eat some chews, drink some Skratch or water, and dump some water on my shoulders and head.  Then it was back to running.  This was going really well until the 2:00 mark and I just needed a bit of a breather (literally).  I was short of breath and needed an inhaler break and a pep talk.  By this point I had ~2 miles and I KNEW I was going to hit my run target of 2:22.  I just told myself to suck it up (literally) and go.  Nothing felt distinctly bad - no pains or anything - I was just getting tired and it was harder to keep going fast.  I walked the final neighborhood aid station and I knew that I had a little over a mile left, including that 1/3 of a mile hill - and then a downhill to the finish.  There was a bit of an internal struggle regarding walking that hill or not and I was very happy to find that running up that hill was no big deal.  It wasn't that steep and there was shade.  And there were men walking up it.  So I ran and it really wasn't that bad.  Then came the downhill and I knew I only had a 1/2 mile to the finish, so I just ran hard.  I have no idea how fast I was going because I flipped my garmin display to only show time, HR and distance a few miles back.  I didn't want to focus on pace and get freaked out about going too fast or too slow.  I just wanted to run by effort and not be distracted by numbers.

I hit the chute and the announcer said my name followed by a "from Parker..... Colorado.... (?).  I saw the clock say 6:39.  I thought I started 14 min behind the first wave, did a bit of math, and was really happy to find I came in way under my goal of 6:30.

I then also had a world class asthma attack.  Our sick house-mate greeted me at the finish and I did a good job freaking him out by not being able to link 2 words together and struggling to get my inhaler out of my tri top.  Thank goodness I put it in my top before the swim instead of keeping it on my bike like I normally do.  I don't think I could have made it to my bike.

Once that passed, I checked out the post-race refreshments.  They sucked.  I got a gatorade, figuring that I was dehyrated.  I drank over half and hung out at the finish waiting for Melissa.  I then got goosebumps and started shivering while standing in full 68-degree sunlight.  Not good.  Melissa finished and we then headed over to transition, where I got a hoodie and all was well with the world.  I checked the results on my phone and was ecstatic to see my times.

Time: 2:17:36.8
Pace: 10:30
Age Group Ranking: 7/22
Overall Ranking: 316/532

Several things are notable about this run:

1. This is now my half marathon PR.  This run beats my previous stand-alone 13.1 time by 1:15 Amazing.  And this was with a 1 minute bathroom break thrown in there.
2. This is the first time I my run ranked higher (age group and overall) than my bike.  Meaning: I gained places on the run.  This never happens to me.
3. I ran faster than my olympic-distance run PR. Wow.
4. My pacing was pretty much spot-on.  I ran hard but within limits and had enough to really push and leave it all out there for the last loop.
5. I didn't over think things and I didn't get defeated when it got hard.  I just went for it.

Overall Results:

Time: 6:23:19

Age Group: 7 / 22

Overall: 286/532

And now its time for a well deserved off-season and skiing.  Yahoo!

Oilman Race Week!

Hurray - its here!

Full disclosure: I'm not sure if its the race I'm excited about or the fact that once this sucker is done, I'm officially in the off season.  Woot!  Off season!  Skiing!  Sleeping in!  No feeling of "if I don't get this workout done I will DNF"!

So, yeah.  I'm going to do my best to kill this race.

My targets:
Swim: 36 min
Bike: 3: 24 (or 16.5 mph)
Run: 2:22 (or 10:50 min/mile)

For the record, my best long-distance triathlon run pace is 12:00 during IMCDA.  Yeah, that run is going to hurt.  But I have to believe I can do it.  I've been running fast lately, holding 3 min repeat intervals at well below a 9 min/mile pace.  Also: flat course and sea level.

I've been given the green light by my coach to take risks and if I feel good, to push.  I have nothing serious planned this winter, I have nothing I need to recovery quickly for, so I can burn up my entire book of matches on Sunday.  I signed up for this race as a challenge to see how fast I can go, so I owe it to myself to push beyond my comfort zone and really see what I can do.

Cross your fingers and make sacrifices to the travel gods that my flight goes as scheduled and Merlin does ok in transit.  I fly in Saturday morning.  We head straight to race check-in.  And the race is Sunday.  I will be in Texas less than 24 hrs by the time I'm racing.  Way to maximize the extra red blood cells :)

30 minutes

I still owe a post about my fun trail runs in Montana from a few weeks back (lots of pretty photos) and maybe a post about how I was the fastest person on a group ride a a week ago (the boys just "wanted to hang on").  But instead, I am having a mini freakout over this little race I have in 3.5 weeks.

It didn't exactly click that I had a race coming up until Saturday night, I was getting my clothes ready for Sunday's ride and I realized that I have never worn the tri shorts I was planning on wearing during a long ride.  And I've been terrible at practicing "race nutrition".  For the past few months I've just been doing "whatever".  Its mentally challenging, because my long rides now are the same duration as my taper rides back in June.  So I don't take it all that seriously.  I mean, I do, sorta (in case my coach is reading this...hi!).  I'm riding well and not picking easy rides.  And I'm picking challenging runs.  I'm just lax on the "practice race day stuff" because apparently a 3.5 hr ride isn't long enough to make me worry about this sort of stuff.  And don't even get me started on the eating and drinking.  I have been soooooo not good about that.  Thank goodness I'm at my St George weight.  I'd like to be lighter, but mmmm wings.  And beer.  And pizza.  And chocolate.  I think I burned myself out with my 6 weeks of sacrifice leading up to IMCDA and I just can't motivate myself to eat that clean right now.  Especially when everyone around me is in off season mode.

So yeah, I finally "practiced" Sunday and everything was fine.  Cool.

The whole point behind signing up for Oilman was because I haven't race-raced a 70.3 since, oh, 2010.  Texas and Boise.  And those were my first 70.3's, and "the hardest thing I've ever done".  I was going to race-race Boise in 2012, but my heel had other ideas.  I've done 2 other 70.3s since 2010, but they were "practice your IM pacing" races.  No pushing, no going too fast, just practice, and don't get too far in a hole where you don't have time to really recover for your last 140.6 build.  So, coming off a really great race at IMCDA, I decided to do a fall 70.3 and see how fast I can go.  I'm actually happy I set a late-season goal, because I still have my IMCDA fitness.  I rode with my IMCDA buddy Ryan 2 weeks ago and I killed him on the climbs.  I was shocked.  It took him 5 min longer to climb the 2.5 mile stretch of Tomah Road.  It got to the point where I was wondering if he was having issues and I went back to find him, only to have him pop up at the top of the hill.  I was really bummed in 2011 about how I let my hard-earned bike fitness go and I'm pleased to see that I didn't let it happen this year.

So I had some time today to sit and think about goal times.  I'd really like to get 6:30 at Oilman.  My PR is 6:58, at Galveston in 2011 during my IMTX build.  St G is a PR*, mainly because it had a crazy amount of elevation gain, with a time of 7:06.  So..... how exactly does one cut 30 minutes off.  It sounded reasonable until I looked at the numbers.  And then I started freaking out a bit.

Swim and transitions, no problemo.  Not worried about that.

Bike is where I start to get twitchy.  The fastest I've ever done the Oilman course was at 15.9 mph / 3:31.  Waaay back in 2009, when I did it as an Aquabike, and the bike segment nearly killed me.  (going back and reading my race reports is entertaining... I've come a long way).  The fastest I've done the local Harvest Moon course is 16.3 mph, and that was with double the elevation gain.  And probably more wind.  So assuming I do 16.3, that's only coming in at 3:26.  5 min faster.  That's it?!?  Lame.  I was hoping for more like 3:15 but that gets into uncharted/fast territory, with 17+ mph paces.  BUT, hill climbing (I did 3x the elevation gain on Sunday) and 4 YEARS more experience and hello, IMCDA strength.  And I will have sea level on my side.  I should be able to go faster than 3:26.  But how much faster?

The run is also big question mark.  I did a trail 12k on Saturday, which was 7.3 mi and ~700 ft of climbing.  My average pace was 10:16.  Pretty fast for me.  I've been running up hills (even tried to run up a freaking mountain in Helena a few weeks back.  1300 ft climbing in 2 miles.  Yeah, what was I thinking?).  I've also been running pretty fast lately.  But how fast?  I haven't "raced" a half marathon in over a year.  My 70.3 run PR is 2:39 or a 12:08 pace.  Hilariously enough, my IMCDA pace was 12:03, for DOUBLE the distance. Jeebus, I sucked as a runner back then.  My stand alone half marathon PR is 2:18 (10:36 pace).  Soooooo.  Maybe a 2:30 run split is possible?

That gets me to a 15-20 min PR, not 30, from looking at past results and crunching numbers.

Where will that other 10 min come from?  We'll just have to race and find out.

Wildlander 12k Trail Run Race Report

Our friend from the Color Run was looking to do another 5k this fall and one of my tri-club friends found this race.   I was hoping to avoid the big races (Race for the Cure, Hot Chocolate - $40 for a 5, and $64 for a 15k is ridiculous, even if you get a hoodie) due to cost and crazy-huge crowds.  This was a small race, benefitting local wildland fire and EMS efforts, and - the best part - was on a private ranch off of one of my favorite cycling routes (Palmer Lake / 105).  Every time I ride my bike through here, I'd see the pretty sandstone formations and would want a better look.  Wildlander was my opportunity for that better look.

This race was just about perfect for us.  There was a 5k for Will and Kambria and I could go long with the 12k, which fits in nicely with my 70.3 training.  It had a 10 AM start and you could park literally steps from the start.  (as opposed to the Hot Chocolate race, where they were asking you to show up at 5:45 for a 7 AM start.  Ick!)

There were about 40 people doing the 5k and 30 people doing the 12k.  Very chill and PERFECT.  It was also really cold out.  Maybe 30 degrees, but sunny.  I decided to run in my capris and my tank top at the very last minute (ditching my long sleeve shirt and gloves) and this was a smart decision.

Adrian, Will, me, and Kambria

The race start.  Colorado is so ugly.

My instructions were to a) not twist an ankle and b) cruise the first part of the run and then if I felt good, go hard for the back part.  There was about 800 ft climbing for the 12k (7.3 mi) so I really didn't know what to expect.

It wasn't a true trail run - it was more like a "run on dirt ranch roads".  Although spur 1 had some washouts and you did have to watch your step.  Running didn't feel all that easy, those little steep hills sucked and I had to walk a few times.  But apparently when I ran, I ran quickly.  The 12k crew definitely got the more scenic run - we ran through the forest and popped out in meadows with really cool sandstone formations that looked like castles.  I wanted to bring my phone with me so I could snap photos, but my damn Galaxy S4 is so ginormous, it won't fit in any of my running pockets.  So here's what I found on the interwebs:

The run was a series of 3 out and backs, which was actually pretty cool.  You could tell the turn around was coming up soon when you started to see familiar faces running opposite you, and I could high five my CDA buddy Adrian at each loop.

I tried to keep my pace/effort reasonable and just was running and enjoying the beautiful October day.  Leg 2 had a SUPER COOL suspension bridge.  I really wish I could find a picture of that, it was out of control.  The bridge went up at probably a 30% angle and topped out on a cliff formation above a stream.  I really wish the run went over the bridge, it looked badass.

The final leg was the 5k course, which was more open, a bit less scenic (but still pretty) and more windy.  The hills weren't as steep, though, and I made myself run up the last mile to the top of the hill.  After all the hills I've been running, I didn't want to let this one defeat me.  I got to the top (it was windy and cold) but made sure to take a minute and look around at the panoramic view of the ranch and the sandstone formations.  Beautiful.  Then it was time to book it downhill - it was go time.  At 6.2 mi, I hit lap on my garmin so I could get my 10k split.  I knew from the top of the hill I had about ~1.5 mi to the finish, most of it was down or flat and I wanted to really push that last bit.  So that's what I did, with a lot of focus.  Afterwards, Will said something about chicken coops and I had no idea what he was talking about.  *shrug*

With about a 1/2 mile left, you made a turn and ran toward the barn that was the start/finish line.  And there was a guy that I thought I could catch, so I ran HARD.  Probably the fastest I've ever ran (I saw 7:XX on my garmin).  I worked so hard to catch him, and not puke or blackout.  Seriously, I was working hard.  And it worked - I passed him!  Yay!  And then I finished and nearly did pass out.  Ooof.

isn't this a great shot of Will?

Kambria running to the finish

 

Santa Claus is impressed

10k split: 1:03:54, 10:19 pace (a PR by ~30 seconds, but with 700 ft of climbing)
12k: 1:13: 36, 10:06 pace.
The last 1.1 mi were on a 8:54 pace.  Damn.  1:03:54.3

September 2013 Training Totals

I was sorta expecting to see higher numbers, but I think taking a full weekend for Ragnar shenanigans made it hard to get higher numbers...

September:

Swim: 9h 20m - 25535.04 Yd
Bike: 15h 18m - 212.96 Mi
Run: 13h 20m 18s - 71.31 M


August:

Swim: 11h 21m 10s - 32097.99 Yd
Bike: 11h 31m 46s - 169.95 Mi
Run: 15h 39m 21s - 86.23 Mi

Bike would have been a smidge higher if I was able to ride outside for all of my rides.  My weekday rides have been on the trainer for two reasons.  #1: they're either aerobic rides or interval rides.  The trainer makes it easier to hit my targets correctly.  #2: I can't start to ride until 6 or 6:15 and it gets dark around 7:15, making it pretty hard to ride outside for 1.5 hrs.  One of my long weekend rides was also on the trainer because it rained all day long.  So I would have probably been closer to 230 miles for the month.  Not bad, considering one of those weekends got eaten up by Ragnar.

October is my big (relatively speaking) build month as I get ready for Oilman.  Curious to see where those numbers come in.

Running slowly more quickly: an update

My coach really likes run training, using the Maffetone method (or MAF).  Essentially, you "run" with a maximum heart rate that is pretty low (143 bpm for me, and run is in quotations because sometimes running doesn't happen with a HR that low).  Periodically, I'll do a MAF test, which consists of running very slow circles around a track with my garmin beeping at me, telling me to slow down b/c my HR is too high.

My first MAF test was in late October 2012.  The results were:

• Mile 1: 12:37
• Mile 2: 12:50
• Mile 3: 13:22
• Mile 4: 13:47

Really freaking slow.

It has been 11 months, I've been running consistently and I've done an Ironman since then.  I've also been working with my acupuncturist on getting my lungs working like a normal human being.  I've been seeing improvement, like at Ragnar when I ran as hard as I could for my last leg (2 mi) and my legs were the limiter instead of my lungs.  I've also been doing aerobic rides on the trainer, usually a 1:30 ride with a HR target of 130.  I did a ton of this last winter and it was pretty easy to get my HR to that point.  Two weeks ago was the first aerobic ride and it took quite a bit of effort (and sweating) to get my HR up that high and maintain it.  Which tells me that my aerobic fitness is improving.  Michelle decided it was a good time to do a MAF test and I agreed.  I was curious to see how far I've come.  And it turns out, I have really improved.

• Mile 1: 10:53
• Mile 2: 11:09
• Mile 3: 11:09
• Mile 4: 11:54
• Mile 5: 11:36

My best mile was 1:44/mile FASTER than my fastest mile and my slowest mile was 0:43/mile faster than my fastest mile from my first MAF test.  Craziness.  But also super awesome.

New Swim Coach

Things at my masters team have been a bit disorganized lately.  Normally that would irritate the crap out of me and cause me to switch teams, but for whatever reason, I've been ok with it.  Probably because I've only been swimming for IMCDA recovery and some general fitness without any real goals.  And I do like the group and one of the coaches.  So the fact that the other coach would fail to show up or when she did show up, she would sit on a lounge chair and play on her phone the entire practice didn't really bother me.

They hired a new coach, who apparently gave up a "normal" job to be a full time swim coach and is straight out of college.  He's been in town literally 7 days.  He showed up to watch Monday's practice while the usual coach lead the workout.  I felt this was a bit of a test, as the last part of the main set was a ladder of IM (ie all 4 strokes).  We (the swimmers) were being tested (on the sly) on 1) who could swim all 4 strokes and 2) who was a whiner.  I think I passed both tests.

Wednesday was Scott's first workout.  It went like this:

• Warm up: 4x250 swim/kick/pull/swim 
• 10x50 golf (I was one of the few people who knew what this was - go me!) 
• 5x100 build 75% to 85% by 50 
• 6x50 golf 
• 3x100 build 85% to 95% by 50 

Then he suggested that we do a ONE MILE SWIM for time and we all laughed. That would have put our yardage at 4,000+ m.  And most of us had to be at work at 8 AM and doing a mile would have kept us in the water until a bit after 7 AM.  Still, I expect to see that one mile appear sometime in the very near future.

Today he was late and I know we were all wondering if he was going to be like our prior no-show coach.  Turns out his alarm didn't go off and he showed up after we all did a 500 warmup.  Today's workout was a bit of a doozy.  But I liked it.  A lot.

• 10 x 100 on 2:00 (remember, this is a meter pool).  1-5 build 75% to 85% by 50, 6-10 build 85% to 95% by 50 
• 8 x 50 descend 1-8 on 1:05
• 6 x 50 95% - rest consisted of enough time to touch the wall and turn around.  yay?
• and the "surprise": 4x50s all out on 2:00 to build lactic acid tolerance.

After that, people still wanted more and he was doling out tempo 500's.  I heard that and decided to do a 400 cool down and call it a day.

He did promise to up our distance to 3,200 m, which would consist of 30x100.  I told him that he and my tri coach would get along well.  (Michelle agreed with me).

Overall I'm a bit scared but I am excited.  He's a true swimmer and he's giving us collegiate level workouts.  The two that I've seen have required that you stay present and focused on your swimming, which I like.  I enjoy swimming smart and learning things.  I feel like that's been missing lately, as I've just been swimming to get distance and workouts done.

We'll see what this does to my overall speed - who knows, IMBoulder could be done on a 1:10.  That'd be pretty sweet.

Re-Branding

I've been pondering changing the name of this blog.  In the beginning, it was more of a commentary on the weird things I encountered (see: freak magnet) but for the past several years this has become more of a tri-focused blog with random asides about beer drinking, camping, and Colorado adventures.  I've been applying to local teams and decided that perhaps the sarcasm of my blog title wouldn't quite convey appropriately.  So I've changed it.

*boom*

Go Tri Erin

Right now the URL is still the same, but in about a week (or so) I'll be changing it to GoTriErin.blogspot.com

Ragnar Colorado 2013 - Race Report

Three days later and I'm still not sure how I feel about this event.  I'd been wanting to do this race for a year.  I thought it would be a fun way to keep me running.  I could do training runs in the mountains instead of dreary half marathon (or longer) training runs.  I finally found a team (thanks to a facebook friend of a facebook friend) and I was in.  12 women from Denver and we mostly were strangers.

The logistics for this were daunting.  Our start time was 7 AM Friday morning at Copper Mountain, which meant we needed to spend the night at Copper.  Then we needed 2 x 15 passenger vans.  I somehow ended up being responsible for Van #1, I think because no one else wanted to be responsible.  Fortunately I have had experience driving F250 pickups in refineries, so a van wasn't too daunting.  Then there was the planning and emails and team shirts and themes and decorations and and and and!  So much AND!  And the packing.  Ridiculous.  The smart thing I did was to put hot pink duct tape on every bag and labeled each bag's contents with permanent marker (run, post-run, food, misc, cold clothes, shower).  I also put duct tape on all of my electrical cords so I knew they were mine.  (we had a near meltdown at the end over an iPhone cord... it wasn't pretty)

The race was 192 miles, from Copper to Snowmass.  The women on my team were FAST.  I was one of the slow pokes.  And they were tiny.  2/3 of our shirt orders were smalls or x-smalls.  (Will, commenting on seeing photos of us: "you really were one of the bigger girls on your team."  Thanks Will.....)

I got the van Thurs afternoon, picked up some of my crew (either at my house or the Golden light rail station).  We got dinner at Chipotle in Silverthorne and met Van 2 in Copper for check in and decorating.  Upon arrival, they actually had us drive into the ski base on the sidewalk and park in the village next to a restaurant.  That was sooooo weird.  I'm used to tromping around in my ski boots in those areas, not driving a van!  

Our team name was "Your Pace or Mine?" and for decorations, we had a bunch of comment bubble sticker with cheesy pickup lines made up.  My favorites "What are you doing at 2 AM?"  and "Do you believe in love at first sight or should I run by again?".  Fun!  We also had xmas lights to put on the bumpers to make it easy to find our van at night.

Team Your Pace or Mine?

Then we piled into our condo and sorta slept.  I never sleep well in strange places.  And some people were very loud at 5 AM, right outside our open window.

We were up around 5:30 or 6, then down to the ski base for coffee and food at 6:30.  Our leg left at 7 AM and there were maybe 15 other teams starting with us (there were 200 teams total).  Some teams had costumes.  We just got matching long sleeve shirts and called it good.  Besides, sequin running skirts seem itchy.

Van 1 reporting for duty!

I had legs 4, 16, and 28.  We decided Van 1 was the place to be.  We didn't have to wait around half of the day to start and we didn't get stuck with the graveyard run shift.  Liesl was Leg 1 and we drove back over to Frisco and decided to stop part way and cheer her on.  We hopped back in the van (after taking a bathroom break) thinking we'd have plenty of time.  We were WRONG.  She was waiting on us and poor Lisa (Leg 2) had to jump out of the van and run uphill to Breck with no warm-up.  After that point, we stayed on point and pretty much went straight to the next exchange.

My first run was on the west side of Dillon Reservoir and took me up Swan Mountain Road.  I'm so glad I ran this a few weeks ago because I knew what to expect.  My leg was ~9 mi and had 960 ft climbing.  I was smart and got in a 5 min warm-up around the parking lot because you start climbing immediately.  Ragnar has (sometimes) little chutes made of cones and tape that are the exchanges, usually 2 lanes, enough for 2 teams.  We had these rainbow sparkle skirted girls coming in ahead of us (which is fine, other than the rainbow sparkles).  But their runner came in and they just stood there taking pictures, blocking me from view of my runner.  That really irritated me and I passed their runner EASILY on the first mile.  We then made it our team's mission to beat them.

9 miles and 960 ft elevation gain

My run went pretty well.  I went out too hard and ran the first 1/2 mile uphill (mainly chasing rainbow sparkle girl).  Then I got smart and did 2:1 intervals for the rest of the 2 miles uphill (my previous run was more like 1:1).  Then I had a nice long 3ish mile downhill that I pushed, only stopping every mile for water and nutrition.  Then it leveled off for a mile and I just ran.  Then we hit the low point of the run and had to run uphill back to the marina (Exchange 6).  That last uphill sucked.  It was hot and mentally I was expecting it to be flat.  Not hilly.  There was probably too much walking.  I finally got to the exchange (8 min ahead of predicted!) and saw my team off to the side chatting.  They weren't expecting me and thus, weren't looking for me.  That was kinda funny.  We sent runner #5 off (Aimee) and I then went to go sit in the reservoir for 10 min as an ice bath.  Very smart idea.

Leg 4: 8.95 miles, 11:01 pace, 960 ft of climbing

I made goodie bags full of SunRype for each van

probably the best ice bath ever

The thing with this race is that its a lot of hurry up and wait.  You wait to run, you hurry to drive to the next exchange, you wait, you run, you hop back in the van and drive and wait some more.  

Our last Van 1 runner (Liza) was ending back at Copper, which was a main exchange, #12.  We met up with Van 2 and cheered Liza in.  Lisa realized she had a condo in Avon, which was pretty darn close to our next round of runs.  We went to a cafe near the condo for lunch (curry chicken salad on gluten free bread) and I then got very very sleepy, like put my head on the restaurant table and take a nap sleepy.  We went to the condo (which was AWESOME and so nice of her to offer) and I immediately hit one of the twin beds for a nap.  It was not a quality nap because several other people from my van were very chatty in the main room (and the condo was echo-y) and I left my earplugs in the van.  I maybe got 1 hr sleep.  Maybe.  Then it was 5 or 6 (?) PM and we needed to head over to Exchange 18 to start our next series of runs.  We hung out, waited for the last runner from Van 2 to run and and saw a beautiful mountain sunset.  Really, life was rough.

in the parking lot at Exchange 18.  They make you wear reflective vests after 6:30 PM

at the Exchange with a beautiful sunset

Van 1 and Van 2 reunited

Eating was tricky for this thing.  I was runner #4, which generally meant I had ~3 hrs to wait after our first runner left.  You were hungry but didn't want to eat too much (or not enough).  At this exchange, I opted to have some choc protein powder, and apple, and some SunRype Fruit Source bars.  

We took the wrong directions to the next exchange and Liesl only had 2 miles.  This meant she was waiting on us for a good 10 min and poor Lisa once again had to jump out of the van and run run run with no warning.  

Night time was a bit sketchy.  We were driving a strange van on strange roads with little sleep in the dark, along with potentially 200 other vans in the same situation.  Oh, and there were frequently runners on the same road we were driving on.  There wasn't any police support, no reflective or illuminated signage on the roads ("race in progress") and maybe 1/3 of the time there wasn't anyone staffing the exchanges, which had high vehicle and pedestrian traffic.  Not really safe.  It was as if the race organizers decided "hey, we are making the runners wear all this safety gear so our job is done".  This resulted in the only thing alerting oncoming traffic of my presence was me.  And I am not ok with that.

My next leg was #16 at around 9:30 PM and consisted of 5.9  miles along US Hwy 6 with a net downhill elevation loss.  I was going to try and run it at a 10k pace and see how that went, knowing that I only had 2.1 miles the next morning.  It was oddly warm out.  I had capris on and a long sleeve shirt and made a last-minute decision to change into a t-shirt.

Will said I looked like Tron, another friend
commented that I looked like the green Power Ranger.

I took off knowing that there were a few people a few minutes ahead of me and I made it my mission to catch them.  It was mildly drizzling (and later lightly raining big drops), which meant cloud cover and no stars.  Boo.  With the exception of having (at times) zero shoulder, the run was actually really nice.  I was running comfortably fast with a goal of chasing down this glowing red light out ahead of me.  I finally caught him around mile 3:
guy: how's it going?
me: good, I've been chasing you for miles and I finally caught you
guy: laugh and groan
me: where are you from?
guy: Denton, TX
me: oof, good luck and drink lots of water

This was one of my favorite parts of the race.  Each time I encountered a runner I asked them where they were from.  There were a lot of flat-landers at this race.  I felt really bad for them.

I literally saw 4 people during this 6 mile segment.  It was lonely.

The nice thing around running at night was that you really couldn't see the terrain ahead of you.  I actually ran 700 feet UPHILL (and 900? ft downhill) and never once did I slow down or walk.  You couldn't see the hills ahead of you and so your mind couldn't play games.  You just put one foot in front of the other, in the darkness, and run.  Makes me wonder how much my head gets in the way of my running... I think I get defeated without attempting to just run sometimes.  I need to remember Leg 16 on my hilly runs and suck it up and just run.

My leg ended in Eagle, which consisted of a crappy S-shaped steep hill (lovely) and a run through downtown.  There was a bar with a live band and I'm sure they were all wondering what the hell we were doing, running around in our Tron outfits.

I'm really happy with my pace for this leg, tired and in the dark.  I did 5.94 mi in 56:47 on a 9:34 pace.  That's 53 seconds/mile FASTER than my 10k PR and only 7 seconds slower than my 5k PR.

I hit the exchange and went to the van and we immediately headed to the next exchange.  We got settled and I changed tops and sports bras (a good tip is to put your used race clothes in a ziplock bag) then rolled out my legs with my Stick.  I also made my recovery drink and inhaled a whole bag of beef jerky.  That was dinner.  Drink mix and jerky in the back of a van at 11 PM at night.  I know you're jealous.  I'm amazed I didn't get sick.

We did a few more exchanges and ended up at Exchange 18 in Gypsum, CO at the local rec center.  This was where we would "sleep".  There was also free coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks.  You could also shower and change in the locker room.  Some of our group settled in the corner of the gym and I set my stuff out and then changed into shorts and a t-shirt.  I doubled up my thermarest because the gym floor was hard.  The gym was incredibly warm, so I left my sleeping bag alone.  We were positioned directly underneath a flood light, so I put the hoodie of my sweatshirt over my face, which made things warm, but it also made things a bit dark.  Insert earplugs and my mission was to sleep until 3 AM.

looks comfy, right?  ugh

This was quite honestly the worst night's sleep I've ever had.  Somewhere in the gym-area was a fire alarm, beeping a low battery alarm.  The women's locker room door squeaked every damn time it opened and closed.  And then at 2 AM, so dude announced to the entire gym that he really needed a shower.  I heard all of this with earplugs and my sleeping bag over my head.  After the guy made his announcement, he pretty much woke up the whole gym and people started rustling and moving, making sleep pretty much impossible. I got up and decided to make myself a mocha (coffee and hot chocolate) and chat with people.  Then at 3 AM my team wanted to leave, so I got packed up and we headed over to Exchange 24 in Glenwood Springs.  How I managed to be awake and functional enough to drive 55 mph on a very windy section of I-70 is beyond me.  But I was actually fine, which was the weird thing about this race.  I had 3 hours of crappy sleep in a 36 hr period and was able to form coherent sentences. Amazing.

We walked into the high school there and realized that we should have slept at this exchange (or in our van).  Granted, our priority was to sleep so we utilized the closest sleeping area at the time, but Glenwood was so much nicer.  And they had a scrambled egg and bacon bar in the cafeteria which smelled DELICIOUS.  Sadly, it was close to 4 AM and I had a run around 7 AM so no bacon goodness for me.

The eating thing was a really challenging element to this race.  You pretty much eat whenever you can.  I knew that my leg would start approximately 3 hrs after our first runner, which is enough time for a light meal.  Usually 2 protein bars or a protein shake and some fruit.  Then when runner #3 left, I knew I had about an hour before I had to run, so I'd eat another SunRype Fruit Source bar.  And after my run, I'd have a recovery drink (First Endurance Ultragen, 320 cals) and maybe more fruit or something else (like jerky, because that makes sense....).  You never had enough time for a proper meal and are always walking a fine line between eating too much and not eating enough.

Our first 2 runners had really tough segments.  I was thinking I had it rough with my 9 miles, where 2 miles of it was up a 6% grade.  Nope, these girls had it really rough.  Each had 5-6 miles of pretty much straight uphill.  We drove it and all of us just felt so bad for them.  I had fresh legs for my "very hard" run.  These girls had no sleep and tired legs for theirs.  Wow.

This segment was really the prettiest, though.  We were on some dirt road, somewhere out in the country between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale, with the sun coming up.  It was beautiful.  And a bit chilly. During our previous run sets, we were pretty team-spirit oriented. Everyone would get out of the van to keep the next runner company and to cheer in our incoming runner.  This last set of runs was less enthusiastic as most people just stayed in the van.  We were tired and it was cold.  We dropped off runner #3 and made our way downhill into Carbondale for my leg, #28.

This segment started at a strip mall near this place called Gringos.  You had to wear your reflective gear until 7 AM (even if you weren't running) and I was projected to run right around the cutoff.  One girl in my van was a little bossy (she has little kids, I'm sure its habit.... and we were sleep deprived) and told me literally 3 times in a span of 5 minutes that I HAD to wear my safety gear.  Of course I wasn't going to break the rules but if I started after 7 AM, I was ditching the Tron outfit. Also: it was full on daylight by 6:30 AM.  I ended up wearing my vest and holding my stuff, with a towel over me.  Because it was cold, but it also covered up my reflective vest.  (I was going to run in shorts and a t-shirt b/c it was in the mid-50's and I knew I'd get hot.)  Anyways, my garmin clicked to 6:59, I headed back over to ditch my Tron outfit and was met by another teammate.  At least she got it.  A few other runners were there, and I was thankful because I literally had no idea where my run went.  Our runners came in off the highway.  It turns out I had to take off onto a trail behind a strip mall - not very obvious.

Nancy came and and I took off.  I had 2.1 miles of what I thought was flat and I just wanted to run HARD.  It turns out it was more like a false flat (100 ft gain).  I ran on trail, then through downtown Carbondale, then again on trail.  It was beautiful with fog in the valley lifting and sun hitting the mountains.  I was trying to take it in but I was also sleep deprived and my main focus was to RUN.  I wanted to run hard to test myself, to leave it all out there.  No excuses because this was my last leg and I had pancakes waiting for me in 2 exchanges.

this looks hilly but it's really because the scale is small.

I'm really happy with my run on this leg.  2.1 miles in 18:37, or a 8:56 pace.  That is faster than my 1 mile repeats a month prior to CDA.  The real kicker?  I haven't done a lick of speed work since May 30th.  I'm not completely sure where all this speed came from (I have my suspicions, CDA training and acupuncture to work on my bad lungs).  I was limited by my legs, not my HR or my lungs, which is exactly where I need to be.

I did a quick cool down walk around the parking lot and back into the van I went.  My Ragnar was done and I was really proud of my performance.

We did a few more leg exchanges and met up with Van 2 at Exchange 30.  Our final van swap.  Also: $5 pancakes.

Van 1 is DONE!

I ate 4 of these.  They were delicious.

We were in need of coffee and decided to just head to the finish, at Snowmass, figuring there had to be a latte at the base.  From there, we pretty much spent 4 or 5 hours milling around while Van 2 was making their long and uphill journey to the finish.  Our final runner had 8 miles and 2,000 ft climbing.  At the end!  Not cool!

We had a lot of time to kill and the finish festivities were really, really crappy.  The only shade was 4, 10x10 pop up tents (with chairs) - not nearly enough for the 200 teams of 6 people waiting for their other 6 people to come in.  Finish line food was ridiculous - apples, bananas, and some generic unlabeled Shot Bloks. Oh, and we got ONE Bud Light.  Embarrassing.  There were other vendors handing out samples of Nuun, Iced Tea, and Ice Cream Sandwiches.  I've seen better spreads at local charity 5ks.  We were starving so some of us wandered down the hill to a pizza place that the gondola liftie told us about (Torchies) and it was really seriously good pizza.  Why they couldn't cart pizza up the hill (for free) to the finish is beyond me.  We also used some of this time to clean out the van, which is always fun on 3 hrs sleep.

Our final runner was plagued by debilitating leg cramps (at one point she was lying on the trail screaming profanities, wanting to die). Poor thing.  Van 2 had arrived and we were all super supportive of her when she came through.  We saw her at the top of the ski hill and ran 2/3 of the way up to meet her, do a little bridge thingy (think the kid's London Bridges song) and followed her down the dirt switchbacks to the finish.  I was in flip flops, which was pretty precarious.

We got our fake medals (our real medals had a transit issue and weren't there... so we got generic medals with a sticker on them.  yay?).  And then we posed for a finish line photo.  And then it was done.

Time: 32:19:55
Place: 129 our of 194 teams
8th out of 18 all women's teams - pretty solid!

Lodging was ridiculously expensive ($100 for a motel) so I decided I'd camp out on some random forest service road.  I took a shower at a teammate's hotel room and then headed back to Basalt, where I turned onto Frying Pan Road and drove past Reudi's Reservoir.  I was mad I didn't have my fly rod on me because the Frying Pan River is a gold medal stream and it looked NICE.  I found a nice little dirt road (FR400) and settled in under a tree at 7:15 PM.  I had a dinner of protein bars (I wanted a sandwich but couldn't find one in Basalt) and had a goal of staying awake until 8 AM.  I made it to 7:50 and zonked out on the floor of the van.  I woke up once in a while because my hip would go numb (from the hard van floor) and didn't really wake up until 7 AM.  My teammates were a bit horrified of my camping adventure (they were worried about my personal safety), but I felt that there were better odds of someone snatching me from Hwy 6 during my run than on this random, isolated road in the woods.  Also, I was being cheap and I really just wanted some peace and quiet.  I got up at 7 AM, changed into cleanish clothes and headed back into town.  The sun was coming up and it was beautiful.  Then I drove the van back to Denver.

a random lime kiln in Thompson, CO,
a few miles away from where I camped

Colorado sure is ugly....

Good things about the experience:

• No one in my van got very sick.  There were some stomach issues but they were easily resolved.
• No one backed the van into anything.  Yay!
• No one got injured!
• Everyone from my van ran really, really well.  We were ~30 min behind pace at the start of our last set of runs and we caught ourselves up.  Really awesome.
• Everyone got along, which is pretty remarkable for a bunch of strangers
• I'm really happy with my performance.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd do another one.  I wasn't very pleased with the lack of safety measures.  They pretty much put all the safety responsibility on us and walked away.  The race support was also pretty crappy.  I really have to wonder where the $1200 entry fee (x 200 teams) went.  Ironman is expensive but you see where the money goes (off duty police officers, support, road closures, etc).  For the money, I just expected more.  But even with better support, I'm not sure I'd do it again.  It might be better if I was in a van full of close friends but there's still the logistical challenge.  You never quite know when you'll sleep or eat, and the quality of eating and sleeping is questionable.  It's barely managed chaos with 3 hrs sleep over a 36 hour period.  And the planning (and packing) was a pain in the ass.  I really think I prefer Ironman, where you know where you'll be at what time, what you'll be eating, what support you'll be getting, etc.  From a effort/reward ratio, I simply get more out of Ironman.  I'm glad I did Ragnar but it wasn't life changing, or even really all that great.  It was ok.  I was hoping for a lot more than that.  I even feel guilty that it wasn't more.  Most of my teammates thought this was an amazing, indelible adventure.  Granted, I have a larger endurance resume, but I pretty much feel "meh" over the event.  Basically a bucket list type of thing for me and that's it.  And now its back to Triathlon because I have the Oilman 70.3 in less than 8 weeks.  Time to get focused. :)