IM Lake Placid Race Report: A's version

As E already relayed, we had a nice trip out from Denver to Burlington, VT (who knew that tons of other people would be trying to catch the parking shuttle at 4:30 in the morning?). The 6 am flight was a bit rough, but we were prepared with homemade meals, and a ~2pm arrival was a nice treat (flying East is always a chore from Denver, but this was better than our usual red-eye into NYC where you leave at ~midnight and arrive at 6am, the perks of traveling to race, not for vacation or business!).

A nice late lunch on Church Street got us fed a decent, bigger meal, then we pointed the rental car North and West and headed for the ferry crossing of Lake Champlain. Our plan was then to drive in and preview ~1/2 the bike course, from Ausable Forks all the way to Lake Placid as we made our way over to our lodging in Saranack Lake. Heavy rain challenged this plan, you couldn't see much, but we got a sense that the area was green, pretty, and somewhat hilly. Once we found NCCC (North Country Community College) we had some trouble finding check-in for the dorms. Eventually we backtracked and parked near a building with "Visitor" parking spots, only to read a sign with directions on where to go to check in (back out towards the entrance, then left, right, left over the RR tracks, right, and first building on the right. No we did not get it right on our first try, but by our 3rd or 4th try we found it!).

As we moved in, we learned that our accommodations were a bit more rustic than we anticipated. Luckily, we were able to just roll with it. We unpacked our clothes into the dresser and headed out for a quick run to loosen up and shake out the travel, then found dinner and a grocery store (bought bars of soap and contemplated a cheap shower curtain).

That was Wednesday. The next couple of days we settled in, laid low, and got ready to race. We had 2 GREAT swims in mirror lake, picked up our bikes from TriBike Transport, rode the only flat miles of the course to spin out the legs and make sure the bikes shipped fine (between Upper Jay and Jay), and read and rested. I was sleeping well (not the case before St. George), we were fueling well (cutting back on fiber, still no coffee for me until race morning), and all signs were good. The only small hiccup was my watch dying (I use the timer to remind me to eat and drink on the bike) during our second Mirror Lake Swim. I swung into the expo, though, and picked up a new one at the Timex booth (I may have paid too much for it, but it sure was convenient to just stop in there and get a new one right away).

This trend continued race morning. We woke early (4 am, I think) and tried not to make too much noise and wake our suite-mates, Tommy (from Long Island) and Rob (from 'Jersey). A breakfast of pop-tarts (no fiber), banana, juice with carbopro, and coffee (no coffee maker or french press, so some Starbucks via thingies from the grocery) and we were out the door. Rob had shared his secret parking spot with us the night before, so we headed there and got pretty close to transition. Then we got body marked, did a warm-up hike out to the special needs drop off spots, and headed back to transition to add nutrition to the bike, pump up tires, apply body glide, and turn in our dry clothes bags. Somewhere in there I lost my swim cap, but I easily picked up a new one on the beach.

Once we were fully in our wetsuits, we headed into the water, swam a tiny bit, then floated over to the shore opposite the beach to stand and wait a bit for the pro start before finding our spots. We ended up in the middle, ~3 people back from the banner (start line). It was a beautiful morning, a great day to race! Off in the west, a tunderstorm cloud was building, but it was also sunny where we were.

The cannon fired and we started to swim. This swim is 2 loops, a short beach run in the middle. The course is a long, skinny rectangle and the buoys are set on a cord that runs the length of the course, a meter or two below the surface. The whole way out to the turnaround on the first loop I spent passing people. I was to the right and just out of sight of the cord, but tracked well due to the total number of people also tracking off that line.

Part way down, my right hip flexor started to cramp. Uh-oh! I ignored it as best I could and swam on. The return of that first loop went smoothly, but I began to notice some rubbing under my right armpit. I was in my sleeveless wetsuit and the leash for the zipper was caught up in there. I fixed that during my beach "run" (more of a walk for me as I was fixing my clothing, and I still forgot to look for my split time on the clock!) and all was good for the second lap. Except now it seemed like everyone was passing me, not the other way around. I swam steady and strong, but added a left calf cramp to my right hip flexor stiffness/pain and got a small nick in my nose from another racer's watch (I think that was my only real contact during the swim, pretty good for a 2700+ person start in a tiny lake! At that point, though, we were almost done and I decided to just chill a bit, there was no reason to get hurt too early in the day). My 1:04 was an OK time. A tad slower than the 1:00-1:03 I was hoping for, but in the ballpark. My sleeveless wetsuit is easy to strip and I was soon carrying it and running down the road toward T1.

T1 was as quick as I could make it (on with the helmet, race number and belt, socks and shoes, sunglasses, and a swipe of chamios butt'r) but the long run on the road from the lake to the Oval makes this a slower T1 than some. I had a much smoother mount than at St. George, and was soon flying through town and out onto the course.

The first loop of the bike went well and I finished it right on target for pace and effort (both perceived exertion and heart rate, but I was only glancing at this every so often and getting "real time" readings). E passed me early in the first loop, after Keene I think. We ended up staying close to each other for ~10 miles before he moved on ahead. My nutrition was spot on for the whole bike: 4 powergels, 1 bottle of carbopro-nuun with ~200 kcal, 4-5 bottles of Powerbar Perform drink (really like that stuff, goes down easy and worked well for me), and 4-5 bottles of water in the front aero bottle with The Right Stuff electrolyte concentrate added (this was the key to good nutrition for me, I think, 4 doses of The Right Stuff). Oh, and 1 gasX. I meant to take 2 of the 3 gasX I was carrying, but lost my 2 spares somewhere out there on course. My second loop on the bike felt good, solid, and strong, and I hit a faster speed on The Big Downhill since it was less crowded this time (just over 55 mph, I think), but I lost a bit of focus on the climb up from Wilmington and gave up a fair bit of time (7+ minutes!) there unintentionally.

As I rode back into town that last time, I was focused on a fast T2. I had decided to ride with my road shoes, not my tri shoes, so I was not able to get my feet out and leave my shoes on my bike (I tried, wasn't going to happen), but I was still able to run in them, grab my bag off the rack thingy, get into the right change tent, swap shoes, socks, and headware, and get out in ~2:30. What I forgot to do was pee. And I had to GO. Luckily, I have skills, and before the first aid station (at 0.4 miles, I think they said) that problem was gone. All this might explain why I said nothing to Lisa as she cheered for me on the way out of T2 (thanks Lisa, I was just in the zone, and it wasn't even the run zone yet!).

I quickly settled into my pace on the run. I felt good. After my pee, and a gel and gasX, I was flying. Comfy, steady, on target. I was happy. I was making my dreams come true! This feeling survived until I was back in town and nearing mile marker 10. Kerrie had just passed me looking strong (on her way to running the fastest run of the day for the female age groupers) but I knew something was off with my tummy. I had been taking in a cup of drink at each aid station and using the icy sponges to stay clean and cool, but my lower GI was off having its own raucous party. And the party was OVER. A quick (1:33 or so) pit stop in a non-locking porta-potty and I was back, running very strong, and cruising uphill and into town. Justin Daerr passed me on his way to the finish and I used him to pull me up the hill, through the second turn around, and then to slingshot me off into my last run lap.

I started my 2nd lap and felt strong and solid. It was time to hold onto that feeling and start creeping up, faster if I could. I held steady until mile ~18, then noticed my hands and fingers start to get tingly. It was odd. Odder yet was my response: I just settled in, on auto pilot, and got it done. I started taking cola at each aid station, and upped it to 2 cups of drink, too, so that was at least 3 cups per aid station. My tummy felt great and stayed that way until the finish (this is a MAJOR victory for me, first time in 7 ironmans that the nutrition was spot on). I started having to walk the aid stations, though, so that I could grab all those cups before I got to the other end. I moved onward, but in kind of a blur. And I guess I was in full-on shuffle mode here, not really "running" anymore.

But I was not aware of any of this. I was getting it done and was just unaware of how much I had slowed. The final 8 miles were a blur. That is really all I remember. I came back into town, climbed the hills, got a big smile as I saw E heading for the Oval and the finish as I headed out for the final turn around, and then joined him there myself. Here are some screen shots of the first and second loops of the run. You can see my potty stop, and then how pace slowed with ~8 miles to go, and where I walked the aid stations.

Lap 1 of the run... see my potty stop at mile ~10?

Lap 2 of the run.... what happened with 8 miles to go, and can you see where I was walking the aid stations?

In the end, I PRed the race by 49 seconds and PRed the run (for an Ironman) by ~2 minutes but missed my goal times (total and for the run) each by ~16 minutes. That's a lot. Could I have made that up all on the run? Not sure. Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I still oddly pleased at that race I have, the effort I gave, and the outcome? Yes. Do I have any clue what happened and why? No.

I was really ready to run a 3:40. Trained and ready. It was not a reaching goal, not a pipe dream, it was doable, oh so very doable. In the end, though my nutrition finally seemed spot on, I was likely under fueled on the run. I had planned to use race drink as my sole source of fuel, but had neglected to think about dosing using their cups. I probably was not getting enough of anything. And the gel I grabbed, off the table after some hunting and gathering, with 2 miles to go was too little, a lot too late.

After finishing, I was exhausted. And Sore. All over, everywhere. I saw E, bust still used my Volunteer Catcher to walk over to the athletes food area and sit. 1 bottle of water, 1 slice of pizza, 1 ham sandwich, pretzels, grapes, 3 cookies were consumed while we sat and chatted with Kerrie and Kau. Then I changed into better clothes, and we went to the car to drop off gear and grab the wheel bag. Next was a trip to tribike transport to drop off the bikes, then we headed onto the run course to cheer for people. We swung into the Lake Placid Brewery, but the wait for a table was over an hour, so we went to their tent out front and bought a hamburger and chips to share, and 1 beer each. Then we headed back to the dorms and chatted with our room mates (Rob had a good day cheering, but Tommy missed the bike cut-off and was trying to cope with his first DNF). As usual, I slept very little that night due to being sore everywhere.

The next day, I was still sore all over! Deep breathing was impossible (so was deep sighing, like when the 3rd and final Kona slot rolled to 4th place and she took it, I was 5th). And laughing? Not an option.

We had a good morning in Lake Placid before rolling out and heading to Plattsburgh where we had a room booked in an awesome B&B (it was Eric's birthday, AND this was halfway back to the airport). It was so relaxing there! We ventured into town for dinner, then picked up a pint of banana fudge ice cream for dessert, which we shared in their mosquito-proof gazebo.

The next day we took the ferry over to VT, drove down to Burlington, and spent a few hours roaming Church Street and the lake front. It was a nice day, but HOT, so we didn't walk too much or too fast. Our flight wasn't until after 7 pm, so we had time to kill. We wandered, then lunched at the Vermont Brewery, then went to the used book store, then wandered some more. In the end, we went to this "museum" called the Outdoor Gear Exchange and looked at a lot of things made in Colorado. I enjoyed Burlington, the state of VT, and the Adirondacks very much, and would love to go back there again. It was a great trip!

One final thought: I am not sure why I am so troubled by missing my goal times, and the Kona slot. I had a great race. I was fairly steady loop to loop. I nailed my nutrition, before (can anyone say breakfast for dinner???) and during the race. The weather was PERFECT for me, definitely not too hot like it can be at Canada. I am plagued by some of what Kerrie says, here, yet for me some of it IS about the journey, and for me, I get to share the training hours and miles with my family (and my best friend, E). Yet I missed my goals, and that is very hard (for my ego) to swallow and move on.

I guess the conclusion I am reaching is that Ironman is just not for me. I did well, learned lots, and had fun preparing and racing 7 of these things over the last 5 years, but I am just not as good at this as I want to think I am. I can run a good open marathon, I can rock an Olympic distance tri, I'm a good skier, and I can hike with the best of them, but this Ironman thing, not so much. That's OK, next year's race still sold out before lunch the next day, so there are enough others out there to keep this thing going! And I am trying to tell myself that this is not giving up, it is moving on to something else. Work with me here.... and come along for the ride if you wish.

-A

Deer Trail Road Race report

This last Sunday, I did something a little crazy: I did a bike race only 2 weeks after an ironman. In my defense, the plan was to get in about a 2 hour ride of moderate intensity anyways, I figured I could sign up for the race, ride in the pack, and work for my team mates as needed, either pulling, attacking, or blocking.

There were 6 of us SW4 (senior women, category 4, beginners) racing for GS Boulder Trek. Four of us live in Boulder. I have a station wagon that fits 4 people and a rack on top that can take 4 bikes, so I volunteered to drive. The plan was for the other 3 to all meet at Tasha's house, I would pick them up there, and we would roll out at 6 am since we had ~1.5 h to drive and an early start time. I have been avoiding coffee to try and fix any potential problems with not sleeping after my IM St. George race week was so out of whack, but decided to have a travel-mug's worth today since it was a race. Good call! E makes the BEST coffee, it was perfect. It made the early timing of our plan seem very manageable.

The plan got a little interesting when I was ~5 min late (still the first to Tasha's house), then discovered that the 4th bike tray on the roof rack was stuck and didn't want to secure latch onto the last bike we were loading. We had just gotten a new tool kit for the car, but it was still so new it was zip-tied shut. Then as Tasha was getting me the kitchen sheers to work on the zip-tie removal, Ninety, the cat, escaped from the house and hid under the neighbor's car. The three of them coaxed Ninety out with some string and a few cat toys while I "persuaded" the skewer lever to turn and tighten with a crescent wrench. Then we loaded up and rolled out, only ~10 min later than planned.

As we left Boulder, Tasha called Jacqui, who we were meeting at the next exit. She was driving solo to the race and we figured we could send one of us over to ride with her to enliven the ride. Soon were were pulling into the Conoco station, our meeting place. Jacqui was not there yet, so I topped off the gas (I had this weird sensation that we were driving way out into the boonies and should have a full tank of gas to start the trip). Still no Jacqui. Virg ran in to use the restroom. Still no Jacqui. I went to use the restroom. Still no Jacqui. Shortly after that, though, she rolled up, we redistributed passengers, and we were off. The rest of the drive was uneventful.

Once we got into Deer Trail, we followed the signs to race parking, then snagged two spots on the street, right up-road from the start line. A foot race for the two porta-potties ensued between Tasha and Virg, but neither won as both potties were occupied. I was the last of our group over to the toilets and by the time I got there, there was quite a line. It was moving slowly, so I ended up standing there for about 20 minutes. A query of the other racers informed us that there were more toilets a few blocks away at registration, but only another 2, so I hung out in line. I was getting ancy though, I still had to register, pin my jersey, dress, spin out the legs some and try to warm-up, and get to the start line early.

I eventually made it to the toilet, was quite productive thanks to the long wait, threw on my kit, quickly got through registration, pinned both my numbers on with ease, and discovered I had no race socks, just pre- and post-race socks (long, wool). Our parking neighbor lent me a pair (what a sweety, thanks Jen, you are a great stranger-turned-new friend). Then I threw on some sunscreen and headed to the start area, there had not been time to warm up! Ugg.

At the start, we rolled through town (about 3 bocks, including one 90 degree turn), bopped under the interstate, then headed out to the course. The course is a big L-shape and we were riding the bottom line of the L first heading East, then turn back and do the back of the L heading North, then turn back and repeat the bottom of the L, ending about 4 miles from the corner of the L after a third 180 degree turn around. All of it is pretty good road surface, but filled with rolling hills. And it is open prairie, so there can be great wind out there too.

E raced here last year and told me that his group still was in a big pack at the first 180 degree turn, causing him to have to slow enough for the turn that he had to unclip from a pedal. He warned us to try and be at the front for that first turn to avoid the same thing from happening. Jacqui and Lorna took that to heart and made a small break from the pack once we got out on the main roads. The pack let them go for a bit. I was sitting dead center from front to back and tucked away on the right. Soon I was ancy to get closer to the front so I could cover any attacks and see how everyone was riding. I had no thought of getting to the front of the pack with my girls up there off the front, but I also wanted to be up closer to the front and where it was more open and safer. Soon a small gap appeared on my left and I merged into the middle line, then again out to the left when a slot opened. With a bit more work, I was sitting 3rd row back on the left - perfect. We had a slight tailwind and were rolling along nicely.

There was a solo attack that we let go. She was soon absorbed back into the pack, and Jacqui and Lorna remained in front. Then a girl from Pro Design moved and the leaders moved to cover. Before long, we caught the two GS Boulder girls out front, but they seamlessly swung into our group. We rolled along. Somewhere before the first turn the pack split and I was in a group of 10-15 (we had a field of 53 starters) at the front. Our group would change leaders, some of the taller and bigger girls were naturally coming forward on the down hills and the better climbers would lead the uphills. I took a few pulls at the front to do my share, but was not in the mood to do too much work yet. Then when the first turn came in sight, I put in a bit more effort and made it to the turn first for a nice, clean swing around the orange traffic cone.

I looked over my shoulder and realized I had intentionally dropped the pack coming out of the turn. We were now going down hill so I soft pedaled and let them catch me. I did not want to do too much work yet, and we had a bit of a headwind in front of us. As we rolled onward, I tried to pull, then back off. I found myself working on the front more than I wanted, but the legs felt pretty good, so I went with it. After one of the harder uphills, Jacqui rolled up on my left and asked how I was doing. I felt pretty toasted at that exact moment from the small climb we had just summitted, but I panted out "I'm doing OK" and we rolled on.

The bit right before the corner of the L is a false flat that is actually downhill. I was pulling here and very aware of the fact that we were going pretty slow. I felt good, and no one wanted to come around as the wind was shifting to the north and I was providing a great block to anyone wanting to echelon off my rear wheel. To minimize this, I was riding right in the very middle of the road, but there was chatter of feeling great and not having to work going on behind me. I figured I'd pull to the corner, get through that cleanly, then let the others take their turns (I had just been in front for my "turn").

We made the turn and I tried to fall back. This sort of worked, but I was always near the front somehow. I was good at finding excellent draft pockets, though, even off of the tiny girls, and I used them fully. Then, as we rolled along with no-one really committed to working and trying to keep the pace up, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the follow car was right behind us, and behind them was a chase pack of another 10-15 girls. We were about to get caught. Virg was in this group and it sounds like she had then echeloning and working together as champs. She soon rolled to the front of our group and tried to get the same system working, but either no one got it, or no one cared enough to take their turn and the front and use the power of the group to battle the leftish headwind (NNW) that was slowing us down. It was a bit unorganized.

I took a self evaluation and realized I felt good, I was riding strong, and I might have a shot at placing well by the finish. So much for helping out a team mate for this race! Sorry guys. I began to plot where/when I should make my move to try and drop the field. I knew my advantage would be in a longer lead out rather than a field sprint, so I figured I should go somewhere before the last 90 degree turn and last out-n-back, so with about 13-15 miles to go or so.

As I mused on this more, we rolled up to the second (of 3) 180 degree turns and I executed it the same way as before, only this time I put my head down, stood up, and made a small surge before the turn to get some clean space on the road to do the turn.

A glance over the shoulder after the turn told me I had a gap, and in a split second I decided to go for it and see if I could hold this all the way to the finish. A few things told me this might just work: 1) I felt really, really, good and had been able to cover any moves made already by the girls in the race, 2) we now had a tailwind, so riding in the pack became a smaller advantage to me being out front solo, 3) they were NOT organized, 4) I had Jacqui and Virg in the pack and knew they would not work to catch me, 5) I had 20-22 miles to go, that is about an hour of hard riding, I can do that! I was also testing them to see if they would try and work together and chase or let me go. If they caught me, then the game would change, but if they didn't, I was free to ride hard, stomp the hills, use my weight on the downhills, corner cleanly, and hope to high heaven that I did not blow up.

One girl did bridge up to me, but the pack seemed to let us go. I pulled her for a while, then she took a pull, then I went to pull again and dropped her. She was breathing very, very hard, so I let her go. The draft had been nice, but waiting for her would only get me caught. I used the hills and tailwind fully and tried to find a line with less bumps (this was the only bumpy section of the course). I also knew that the finish would be into a cross-head wind, so I tried to save something back for that section, where the pack would have an advantage on a solo rider.

All was well until about 2 miles before the last 180 degree turn when I saw another solo rider approaching. She caught me quickly and then just kept going. I was fading slightly , missed her wheel, and she was gone. She did re-light my fire, though, and I stepped on the gas and tore it up to the finish. In then end, I was ~1.5 minutes back from the winner and another ~1 minute in front of third. Two more small packs (4th through 7th, then 8th through 11th) rolled in about 1.5 minutes later. Virg ended 8th, Jacqui was 13th, and Tasha, Lorna, and Janey were back a bit further. All in all, it was a great day for GS Boulder SW4s and GS Boulder overall (another 2nd and 8th in the SW1-2 and a win in the SM4).

We rolled back into town, changed into dry clothes, checked results, picked up awards (3 random bottles of beer and a single Lara Bar), and tried to get milkshakes at the Dairy Hut, but they were closed. We wanted to support the town for hosting the race, but weren't up for waiting for Brick Oven Pizza, so we hit the grocery section at the gas station then headed back to Boulder.

Once I dropped everyone off, it was time to start thinking about our second, easy ride for the day. E and I spun up to Niwot and then out onto 95th. It was a great evening ride, the mountains were gorgeous and from up there you get a great view, and the legs needed an easy spin.

We had been planning an easy spin into town to check out a new pizza restaurant, Basta, but decided to BBQ some chicken at home instead and then go out on Monday night. This was a good call since Basta is currently closed on Sunday's, according to their website. In the end it was a great idea, though, very, very yummy! We'll be back, and next time it will likely be by bike.

-A

April Updates #1

Yikes, what happened? Seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote our previous post.....

Well, my excuses for lack of blogging are 1) work and 2) Ironman training. E will have to post his own excuses. Despite these two big "time sinks" soaking up all my blogging time, I have had plenty to write about, just no time to jot it down. Those theme-based posts will have to wait though, in lieu of pure news updates, 3 weeks is a lot of time to catch up on! Here goes nothing.....

At the end of my last post, I walked into the production area and my work project began. That day I was at work from ~8 am until ~5:30 am the next morning, then home to sleep a few hours and back in by 1 pm. That was Thursday-Friday. Saturday, the process was on auto-pilot so I snuck out with E for some Costco shopping, other errands (including the purchase of a stove-top esspresso maker, woo woo!), and a quick 2 h bike ride (glorious! but about all I could last for with my limited sleep). By the time Thursday rolled around again, I was mostly back to working day-time hours and getting 1-2 calls at night. Which was good because we had just done the longest-run-before-Ironman on that Wednesday after work. The run went well and the body felt strong despite the crazy-work-sleep-eat hours I had been holding. Recovery included a good session in the NormaTec pants after the run, but I still had my normal "cramping legs preventing me from getting good sleep" that night. Thursday night was much better for sleeping.

The Saturday right before Easter I was at work from 2:40am until ~5 am, then we headed straight out for what was supposed to be an enjoyable 6 h on the bike followed by a 60 min run. We planned a hilly route for the bike, loaded up the car, and headed out. The rest of the ride will be fully captured in a future post (look for the one titled "Canyons") but the quick summary is: it was windy and the wind soon made the whole ride an epic adventure. Truly. Epic to the point of a strong, ~100 mi ride spanning 7-7.5 h. The run was set aside and I headed home to sleep.

Easter came and I headed to church for the early sunrise service. It was short but meaningful. I headed home and we had a nice breakfast of homemade waffles, then hit the yard to plant the spring crops (lettuce mix, spinach, chard, and peas). We split an Avery Salvation as we finished turning the beds, planting the seeds, and doing some other random tidying and yard work, yum! Then we got in a mellow bike ride and run.

The next week got even more normal at work, and had the usual mix of swim-bike-run. Saturday brought a 112 mi, self-supported bike TT (actually ended up being 114 mi). E was looking so strong! I was good for ~25 mi, then slowly started to lose my mental focus and would get dropped by E easily (I was trying to stay close but sit totally out of his draft pocket, per USAT/WTC standards, and ride my own ride). At the 40 mi mark he turned back to find me and I made the decision to stick to his rear wheel like glue. It may have meant that I did not complete the workout as intended, but I still rode strong, tried to stay close and not draft when possible (there was plenty of wind to "catch" if I staggered my position from his slightly) and got really worked. Then we headed straight out for a 70 min run with 20-30 min of climbing to stimulate St. George some. This will be our last long bike before the race. I wore my brand-new tri shorts for both the ride and run and they performed charmingly.

This Wed. brought the last long run. We went after work and got a later start than planned. As we ran, the sun sank lower in the sky. We finished as dusk was fading into twilight, it was beautiful and ended up being perfect! We stayed to the dirt trails and roads north of Boulder. It was a glorious, glorious night to be out and running. No wind (!), warm, peaceful, and relatively quiet (busy trail heads, but we chose non-populated trails). A freshly grilled steak, quinoa salad leftovers, and a splash of red wine made a great end to a wonderful evening (yes my legs were throbbing, but some time in the NormaTec and some time on the foam roller quieted them enough for me to sleep, and the evening was just a special, almost magical time spent in a beautiful place with the man I love). The only thing that would have been better would have been more sleep between the 8:05 pm end of the run and the 6 am swim the next morning.

This weekend will bring a bike time trial. Our club (GS Boulder - Trek) is hosting the race so we get to race (yeah! haven't raced since Mt. Taylor) and work all day. We are hoping for no rain (only a 20% chance) and no wind. Come out and race the Haystack TT or TTT if you are in the area. It will be fast since some bridge work has shortened the course to 12.1 mi. Vvroooom! Then Sunday is a birthday (mine) bike-run-bike-run brick. Got that? A bbrbrb.

All told, it has been busy around here. We are well, happy, healthy (amazingly), and actually got seeds planted before the end of April. More gardening and yard work remain, but they will wait until after ironman #1 is done for 2010. Also, I am very, VERY excited to race in St. George. It is an excitement that has been slow to build, and has been muddled by the magnitude of work and training loads, but it is here and it is still continuing to build. Yeeeeee haw, let's race! (and let's see how taper goes, always a bit of a gamble).

It is also spring here now, here are the signs of spring: the apple tree is about to bloom in front of our house, tulips and daffodils are up, and, my favorite, the peepers are peeping from all the swamps, ditches, and anything looking remotely like standing water. I love those little frogs and their welcome to spring each year.

Happy Friday, happy Spring!
-A

Title-less

So, I (Eric) can't even come up with a title for this post, which i think is indicative of how the weekend went. I don't remember Friday, so we'll skip to Saturday.

Saturday
The Ride
Early start to our ride as we didn't want to deal with too much traffic and we wanted to get back to see Sunny before she flew back to Oregon, so we left the house at 5:45. Ride down to Golden via some pretty crappy roads and then head up Golden Gate Canyon. Not much traffic heading up, some nice views, not shifting out of my 25 ever during the climb, a few downhills that you actually dread since you know they just mean more climbing later, etc, etc.

Our coach instructed us to turn at the second entrance to GGC State Park and take the steep road (Mountain Base Rd) to the dirt road (Gap Rd). Now, the road we were on was plenty steep so i was curious about how steep Mtn Base Rd would be. We found out right away as we turned on to it as RV's are prohibitted from it due to 19% grades. Most of the way wasn't too bad, we managed to get up and over the steep stuff and it was a really nice road. We then made our way to Peak to Peak and over to Nederland.

At this point, we had the option of heading down to Boulder via Boulder Canyon or taking the Peak to Peak over to Ward via Lefthand Canyon. We were still feeling pretty decent and our memories of the road between Ward and Nederland were that it mostly rolling hills. The problem was all of those memories were based on riding from Ward to Nederland, not the otherway around. Our memories will be much improved now, knowing that Ned to Ward is hard, Ward to Ned isn't too bad. So, we truged up to Ward as I counted down each mile on my computer. There were some downhills, but the net elevation gain was about 1000 ft i think. Anyways, we make it to Ward and head down and hit headwinds (lovely). Well at least it was all downhill, until we got to Olde Stage which we took because it was shorter. Not as short at taking Lee Hill, but that was too intimidating. As you can easily hit 50 mph going down the back side of Olde Stage, going up pretty slow on our legs that had already been climbing for the good part of our 6 hr ride. Once we got over the top, we were able to cruise pretty easy the rest of the way home.

The Scooter
We stopped and got another helmet, jacket, etc to be able to ride 2 up on the motorcycle. I'm sure that will make a good post when we first try.

The Sunny
Sunny was briefly in B-town for a wedding, so we went to lunch with her at Illegal Pete's. Both Amber and I were able to finish off a Big Fish burrito. After lunch, Sunny wanted some Glacier ice cream before she left, but the kiosk on Pearl St didn't have a good enough selection, so we drove to another location. A cone of cinimon cookie dough and death by chocolate really hit the spot. Sadly we had to get Sunny to the airport bus and send her on her way. Fortunately, she'll be back in town in a few weeks for a whole week.

The Rest
Nap time.

The Neighbors
When it got time for dinner, we were struggling to come up with ideas and our leftovers weren't sounding good, so it took a while to come up with something. When we finally did, I was about to start the grill when one our neighbors (Amy) called over the fence that they were having a last minute party and we should come over. So we loaded up our salad, bratwust, etc and headed over there. We hadn't been over to our neighbors in the nearly 4 years we've been at our house, so it was about time. Pretty low key as we sat around eating and talking as Eric (neighbor, not me) burned the wood of a couch in his chimama. I did learn a new game (Frisbee cup) which involves drinking, throwing a frisbee and running, but i was too tired to participate.

Sunday
The Run
Up early again as we wanted to run before swimming and Amber wanted to go to church. Out the door again around 5:45. I was right about how long our run should be (2 hrs), but not about how hard, so we ended up going a bit harder than intended. Quick dip in the creek/ditch at the end was nice.

The Swim
An hour and half of going fast. My swim went okay as I tempered my expectations of what i could do. Not suprising that i was kicking even slower than normal, but pulling fine. Amber had a rough swim as she was tired. Really, really tired.

The Shopping
Headed into town to use our Tokyo Joes coupons (from races last year). They have some good food. We then walked to Target to return a headlight (picked up a 9004, not a 9003), went to McGuckin's for some yard stuff, went to Sunflower market for food, and finally headed home. On the way, we saw the sign again for Celestial Seasonings tent sale. Not sure what a tea company sells under a tent, but we went to have a look. What we found was pallets full of teas and such that they were trying to clear out. Boxes of tea for 50 cents. A case of boxes for 5 bucks or something. We also found coffee for 10 bucks a case. We have no idea if the coffee will be any good, but we now have 9 lbs of coffee that cost us 20 dollars. Just a little cheaper than the Peet's, I like to get. If you get a present from us in the future and it contains tea, you can guess where it came from.

The Home
Although we should have taken a nap, we ended up working on stuff outside, making dinner (Grilled pork tenderloin, grilled apricot salad, and a risotto with broccoli and zuccini), drinking a bottle of wine, and making Eric sized (2.35 oz) cookies.

Monday
The Run
An easy run this morning, but I misremembered (aka Roger Clemons) our workout for the second time in two days and went 10 minutes longer than scheduled.

The Ride
Easy ride to work on the new cassettes (12x27, 9spd for Amber 11x28, 8spd for me) that we got in the mail after our ride on the steeps on Saturday.