Aquaman #1 and Bike 2 Work

Week of 6/24 Recap

After the exciting, and tiring weekend of tri’s and 14ers – I definitely noticed I was pretty tired all week.

Monday

REST

Tuesday 

Aquaman! 

This was my first time at Aquaman and a Without Limit event. You have lots of options between the swim/run. I did a one mile swim then 5k run. The mile swim was two loops in Cherry Creek Reservoir. It was definitely the hardest swim I’ve done, both because then length but also because there were a lot more waves and I definitely noticed it!

getting ready!

 You started on the beach and ran in, I did not enjoy this. My breathing started to get fast and I had to just walk and calm my breath. The first loop around was hard and I was wondering if I’d be able to do the second. After running out of the water and then back in to the water, I tried to re-start…and couldn’t. Luckily I could still stand – I took about 10 seconds, and started doing the breast stroke. My breath was so rapid I had trouble, but after a few breast strokes, I got it under control and finished in about the same time.

Next was the transition (2:41) and off for the run. I was definitely tired and breathing heavy. It was an out and back with water at .5 and 2.5 miles. I walked to get my water and then at the turnaround and for the second water. I ended up getting 32:19 (10:25 pace) – which I was pretty happy with.

They only do gender results, but I did my own calcs, there were 3 people in my age group…and I finished 3^rd haha. For overall gender I finished 9 out of 12…this seems about right.

holy tired...

Afterwards we got pizza and snaffle, it was phenomenal. This week I am going to park outside the park and bike in, because it is $9 to get in!

Wednesday 

Bike to work! 

The best commute day of the year. There were two good stations on the way. AA and I were the first ones, at 6:30 to whole foods. They had an amazing spread: muffins, coffee, granola, yogurt, bars and more! I even won a bike light. The highlight of the 2^nd station was a pancake :-)

he is so excited for a picture....

Lots of things to do!

Thursday 

AM run! Made the whole route to Wash Park, 1 loop, and home = 4.5 miles. Not fast, wasn’t watching time, but I was happy!

Friday 

Rest – wanted to swim, but I couldn’t get up.

Saturday 

Bike course for the Boulder Peak Tri! I was nervous about this, with the 15% increase on Stage Coach!

big hill! 1500' overall

I left the reservoir in Boulder a little after 10 for my ride. The first 6 miles aren’t easy. I was trying to get in the grove and it’s a slight incline as you make your way to the hill. The craziness starts around mile 5. It’s super steep, I was even zigzagging across the hill to make it less steep. My per min/mile was about 16 minutes..usually its 4-5 minutes! Luckily the pain didn’t last too long, and the views at the top were amazing. Miles 6-16 are amazing, you just coast and enjoy the scenery! The last 6 or so miles are rolling hills and you have to get back in to the grove of things…but definitely doable! I finished 25 miles in 1 hour, 50 minutes. I did about 11 miles in the first hour….and the next 14 in about 50 minutes!

some pics! beautiful views

Sunday 

after Saturday night’s bike pub crawl for Kelsey, not much in the way of training happened :-( FAIL

somehow got no pictures...16 of us riding one bar to next

wish better ones

Outlook for the week:

Monday – Bike – check! 40 minutes on the spin bike, did small hill intervals for 1 or 2 minutes every 5. Sweating up a storm!
Tuesday – Aquaman, long course!
Wednesday – bike 2 work, or bike @ work
Thursday -  RUN
Friday – Swim & bike
Saturday – hike with mom!
Sunday – LONG run, maybe swim?

Huron Peak Trip Report

Huron Peak Trip Report

June 23^rd, 2013
Hiking Party: Panda, Kels, and Henry  (Cockapoo extraordinaire)

I was a bit tired on Saturday from the early AM for the Triathlon, and then visiting with friends for a while on Saturday afternoon, and it was catching up with me. I caught about a 45 min nap and made my way to Kelsey’s to start the venture. Kels and I started the trip from the Highlands in Denver at 7:02 PM on Saturday night. After making the quick realization to travel 70-West, NOT East…we were on our way!  We stopped off in Idaho Springs to grab a wrap at Two Brothers Deli since I hadn’t had dinner yet…whoops!

The trip was pretty easy to start, I-70 then 91-S at Copper Mtn, then travel west on 24 until county road 390. We had to loop back since we passed it the first time (not paying attention) and started the 12ish miles back to the first trail head via dirt road. Once at the front TH, it was another 2.1 miles to the upper trailhead only accessible by 4-WD. 

We were rocking Kelsey’s Highlander, which seemed to be beastly enough.  As we got started though, we had many second guesses. It was dark, rocky, muddy sometimes, downright freaky on the road! We bottomed-out once, had to re-maneuver a few times…but eventually made it to the trailhead around 10:30 PM. Along the road there is free camping, and plenty were taking advantage of this. There were quite a few cars in the lot, as well, so we knew it was going to be a busy day on Sunday!

Henry enjoying the backseat

We opted for the literal car camping, rather than setting up a tent, so we climbed in the back with our watch dog, Henry, and settled in for the night. I got the white noise machine via my cell phone going, ‘fan’ style, set the alarm, and it was lights out! Except for the rather full moon that was quite bright. 30 minutes later, and no Z’s caught yet, a car pulls on each side of us. They proceeded to talk quite loudly while the rest of the parking lot was clearly trying to rest up for the next day. Let’s just say I was not a happy camper! 1 hour and 20 minutes later, the white noise shut off, and I was still wide awake. I turned on a second round. 

Sometime during this I fell asleep and 4:30 AM came before I knew it!  We snoozed the alarm twice, it was dark, and hadn’t heard any cars or other hikers going up yet. Right around 4:45 a car drove by and we started to move on the 3^rd alarm ringing. We had a light bfast, slowly got moving, and we were on the trail at 5:24 AM, just light enough so we didn’t need our headlamps. We also saw the noisy people heading back to their cars...we think they hiked it at night!

View as I was peeing in the AM

The first mile or so of the trail has lots and lots of switchbacks. The heavy breathing started immediately but I was happy my legs felt pretty good after the race the day before. The trail is shaded, through trees, and the trail is super well maintained. 

happy Kelsey!

Overly happy Panda

After about a mile of these switchbacks, the trail opens to a basin, the views are amazing, and incline eases a bit. As you hike through the basin you can see what you will be climbing straight ahead. There was still a little runoff so it was a tiny bit icy that early, but nothing you couldn’t walk around.

H-ey

Through Basin thing...

still in the shade in basin

After passing through this open area, you begin the steep climbing again. With about 1.2 miles left of the trail, it was slow moving steps from there. There are some steps, well packed dirt trails, and some rocks to climb over. It starts switch-backing again. 

View from the ridge of the steep stuff!

Right about this time, the sun peaked over the hills and I finally needed to take out my sunglasses. We had averaged about 42 minutes for the first 2 miles, so it was probably around 7:30 or 8 by this time. I stopped to get my glasses, popped an energy block, and worked my way back up to Kelsey.  Once the trail meets the ridge, it is all rock the rest of the way up. There is an easy to follow path though, but it is slow, slow going. 

We stopped once more in the middle for another energy block and kept it moving. It is hard to tell where the summit is, I was mentally telling myself to just get to the top of the rocks, and then I was allowed another break. 

Much to my surprise (since I was expecting 3.375 miles on my watch, I figured at least another ¼ mile), at the top of this rocky area, the summit was right there! I spotted a few other hikers about 20 feet away and pushed forward. Kelsey and I exchanged a smile and a high five! Hiking time to top: 2 hours 50 minutes.

made it!

Henry is the best hiker

the group! Huron Peak 14,003'

 We had been passed by a few groups throughout the hike, and shared the summit with 8 or so people as we munched on our food. It is always strange breaking out lunch at 8:40 AM! It was beautiful on top, and the morning haze was still there a little, but for the most part it was super clear. I had some of my sandwiches and trail mix, with real M&Ms. Another group snapped some pictures for us and we enjoyed the amazing view, and weather! This made 14er #10 for Kelsey and Henry, and #8 for me!

We stayed for around 20 minutes and headed back down. There were lots of hikers on the way up, and it is always nice to know you already finished. Everyone thought Henry was an all-star, too. It was uneventful on the way down. The first 1.2 miles you could really tell how steep it was, which is satisfying knowing you aren’t crazy on the way up.

Leaving the basin - so clear out now!

Beautiful day out!

Right after clearing the basin, we were approaching a couple with their golden(?) that was leashed up. Henry was off leash, and is usually fine, since he is harmless and always comes when you call for him.  If Kelsey sees the other dog on the leash, she usually puts Henry on. Kelsey called forward, twice, if she should put him on a leash. They didn’t respond. As we approached Henry was right next to us and went up to the dog. The dog snatched Henry by the face, and the only thing I saw was Henry hanging in the air, being shaken and Henry was yelping. The owner tried to control his dog, but not before he had gotten to Henry. Kelsey, more shocked than anything, ran to Henry. She inspected, and luckily there was no blood, but Henry was shaking and was quite scared. The woman apologized and asked if Henry was okay. Not much else was said as we consoled Henry, Kelsey unsure what to do. She apologized again, and Kelsey said she could have put him on a leash, but Henry still would have gone up to dog, regardless, since they didn’t say otherwise. We parted ways, it wasn’t a good part of the day. I wish the owners had warned us their dog was not friendly, or even put something over its mouth for the hike.

After that, the endless switchbacks seemed to go on forever!  It was starting to get hot so we were happy we had gotten in to the shade. We made it back to the car around 11:30, after a great hike! Total hiking time was 4 hours, 47 minutes. We headed back out for the adventure on the 4WD road and took 285 home this time through Buena Vista, which is about equidistant. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, my headed was bobbing up and down and I tried to fight sleep. Kelsey is a rockstar for driving!

It was such a great hike! I'm so sad Kelsey is moving back to NY but it was a great way to send her off on her farewell 14er! Even better it was her 10th :-) Here are some stats!

Satellite image of Huron Peak

Holy Elevation!

Website said 6.75 and 3,500'...pretty close!
Mile 3 heading to the summit definitely the steepest!

Loveland Lake Sprint Tri - Race Recap!

It was an early AM on Saturday when the alarm rang at 3:40 AM! I had solid sub 6 hours of sleep, but was feeling pretty good. Made some oats and coffee and AA and I were out the door by 4:40. The hour-ish drive to Loveland was uneventful, it started in the pitch black but the sun came up quickly and it looked like a great day!

AA dropped me at the high school and I went in to get my packet. They had run out of shirts so they are supposed to mail it to me, hopefully! We parked, and brought over my gear to the transition area. I realized my two reusable grocery bags probably aren’t the best, as I saw everyone with sweet tri bags. O well. There were 6 racks in the back designated for the Sprint Race, and the remainder were for the Olympic race. The transition quickly cleared out as the Olympic athletes started the waves at 6:30 AM. We took some more time and headed down to the beach to see some of them take off! My wave was scheduled to start at 7:19 AM.

Bike in transition area!

The lake was gorgeous. There was a sea of athletes in funny looking wet suits, pretty fun. The waves went off, and it was neat to see the washer machine begin and they made their way around the 1,500m course. In around 20 minutes, the elites were already out of the water – we went and cheered a few on as they ran and stripped off the top of the wet suit. I wasn’t too nervous, but was excited to get started.

Watching the Olympic waves take off

7:15 came before I knew it and then men’s wave was off! The women’s wave hopped in the water. It was a wide start, I opted for the middle near the back. We were off! 

Women's Sprint Wave in the water

There were two turns around buoys back to the shore, which all seemed to be about the same length. The first leg was pretty uneventful, my breathing was on and I wasn’t feeling panicked. I tried hard to spot, and kept my eye on the big orange buoys. Surprisingly, there wasn’t too much of a log jam at the first buoy and I easily spotted to the second. I tried to stay on course. 

As we neared the second buoy though, there was a traffic jam of swimmers and it started to get messy. There were swimmers on each side of me, both swimming towards me. I definitely had to fight my way for space. To make it harder, it was nearly impossible to sight the big orange buoy so I wasn’t exactly sure where my end point. I fought for my spot, and one time literally stopped and went behind some chick because she was totally swimming across the path for the buoy. Every time I came up for breaths there were swimmers around me, it kept my pace up. The space didn’t free up the whole time – I made it towards the beach and hopped up. I noticed a lot of swimmers were walking, but I jogged through the area and up to the beach. I spotted AA as he was snapping pictures, and it put an even bigger smile on my face.

Here I come!

750 m swim time: 15:42

Average for my AG: 16:18

Rank: 5 of 8

Note: AG is Female 25-29 with 8 athletes

It was a ¼ mile to the transition area. My spot was right near the entrance. I put on my helmet and tried to get my thoughts in place. I started my watch satellites and began drying my feet and putting on my socks. During this time I also put on my sunglasses, clipless shoes, and almost forgot my bib. I stalled a minute to see if I had forgotten anything and then grabbed my bike and jogged out of the transition area.

Transition time: 2:13

Average for AG: 2:16

Rank: 5 of 8

I clipped in my right pedal, hopped on the bike, and got my other pedal in fine, success! I was definitely breathing heavy from the swim and it took a mile or two to calm it down. We headed out of the high school and there were lots of volunteers directing us where to go. It was a big square-ish route of the route. On the first mile stretch about 3 bikes passed me. I got in to the grove, and I wasn’t passed until about mile 4 or 5, but it was someone in my AG unfortunately. 

Route around Loveland

The ride was really pretty, along  semi-busy roads, but it was all coned off with volunteers at every turn. I saw someone having to change a flat tire, and I spent most of the ride trying to avoid anything, praying I wouldn’t get a flat…since I had zero gear or knowledge to fix it! The course was really flat compared to the Evergreen course. There were some rolling hills, but I stayed in my middle ring the whole time. It was a gorgeous day out and I was really enjoying it. 

The sprint course met back up with the Olympic course during the last 4 or so miles, I could hear the tri bikes zooming by me. We made our way back in to the high school area – I was excited to have made it under an hour for the 15 miles!

15 mile bike time: 53:18

Average for AG: 51:03

Rank:  5 of 8

It is interesting looking at results – for the bike there is a clear division in times for top 4 and bottom 4

Average for top 4: 47:16

Average for bottom 4: 54:50

I unclipped and headed in to the transition area. I spotted AA near the back where my station was. I took off the shoes and put on my sneakers, grabbed my hat, a sip of water and I was off!

coming in to the transition, hi AA!

sneakers...on!

Transition time: 1:15

Average for AG: 1:24

Rank: 3 of 8

We headed down the field and made our way to the pavement.  I didn’t put in my iPod and just got to listen to my heavy breathing :-)

Ready to run!

It was sunny out, so I was very happy to have my hat on. I kept glancing down at my watch during the first mile and it was reading 9:20ish min/mile pace. I was wondering if I should slow it down, but it felt good! I thought maybe my watch was off. 

There was water and Gatorade at every mile, the support and volunteers for this race were great! The course went through some neighborhoods and eventually made its way around Lake Loveland.  I could tell a lot of the runners near me were the Olympic racers, and clearly really good ones! I cheered on what appeared to be the top 3 women and they made their way back from their run. 

Around Lake Loveland

I felt good pretty much the entire run. Since we split off from the Olympic distance after 3 miles, I wasn’t sure how much support their would be. The mile 3 was totally mismarked, my watch read 2.6 miles, but the rest seemed to be on point. There was another way station about 3ish miles, so the last 1.3ish would be without water. Around this time, a girl from my AG passed me and I was pretty bummed, but kept it going. 

We rounded the lake, in to this little park place, and looped around for the finish. There was great support coming in to the finish and I kept my eyes peeled for AA, spotted him! I made my way through as they announced my name. It felt great!!

Coming down the stretch!

Final haul

Run time: 41:32

Average for AG:  41:19

Rank:  6 of 8

Timing...but pace is off!

The girl that passed me ended up beating me only by 15 seconds overall! I had her on the first 2 events, but she ran about 45 seconds faster on the run! Darn it all! I had her by 6 minutes on the swim, but got back about 5 minutes of that on the bike. Officially I had a 9:40 pace, my watch said 9:25 so the distance must have been off. I am super happy with that pace!

As I am studying the results, I think the girl with the flat tire was in my age group. Her bike time was super high, 56:57, but the other 2 events were stellar. She had a 7:48 running pace, 2^nd in the swim and 2^nd in the run. Poor girl! If she were on pace with first place, she lost 10-13 minutes from that. I really need to learn how to change a flat!

So all in all, I was so happy with how the race went! It helped the bike wasn’t hilly. I am feeling okay for the Olympic, but am scared of the bike the most (and in turn how tired I’ll be for the run). I am doing the aquaman race tomorrow at Cherry Creek, and I’ll do the 1 mile swim then the 5K run. I think this will be good to see how the longer swim feels in a race setting. I’ll do it the following week, as well.

Looking at the results, I am pretty happy with the my swim time, always room for improvement though. As I mentioned on the bike portion, there was a divide between the top 4 and bottom 4. I definitely need to improve on the bike. The run, as always, is a bit slow, but I don’t ever see myself as a super fast runner, so I’ll just continue to train and improve on this!

All in all, a great day. It was great to have AA there to support me along the way!!!!