First OWS of Season + Evergreen Killer Hills

3 day weekends are great. Monday is Bolder Boulder, a 10k race in Boulder with 50,000 of my closest friends. I knew I would want at least one rest day before the race, but I also wanted to get in some training! Enter…3 day weekend. Today I had a great training, and the weather is phenomenal to boot!

Let’s back up to recap yesterday first though. I guess I feel like being super detailed today!!!

Friday 

E470 Bike Ride

I brought my bike on the light rail again but was getting a little sick of the Cherry Creek loop, plus the roads have lots of cracks and my wrists really take a beating after just one loop. I looked at google maps and the bicycling feature, as well as local mapmybike routes for ideas. I decided I wanted to head down and check out the e470 trail. This trail hugs the highway (e470) traveling east-west.

Route 

I went down to the gym around 11ish, changed, and then realized I forgot my bike keys at my desk. I threw my work clothes over my biking gear and ran up to get them. I need to try and remember them! I’d say I finally got on the bike around 11:30.

Elevation

 It was 4 miles south on a 2 lane sort of busy road to the start of the trail. There were a lot of up and down hills and I got a good sweat going. Once I reached the trail I rode 3.5 miles west towards the mountains. It was a perfect day and a bit hot actually. The e470 trail is paved and very well maintained. The only negative factor is that instead of exactly following the highway and going under bridges…the bike trail separates and goes up to the crossing road so you have to wait at lights. The roads are 1-3 miles apart so it isn’t like a city but not optimal!

Nice path

I turned around at 7.5 miles and headed back. Once I got back to the main road I seemed to hit every light! It was a bit frustrating, but I was outside enjoying the day during work – so I wasn’t that upset J

Mountains!

All in all it was a 15 mile ride, 950 ft of gain, and about 66 minutes (4:33 min/mile pace & 13.2 mph)

Unfortunately, it was a nicer day that I thought and got this awesome sports tan….

 

Currently sitting outside trying to reverse this...

Saturday

Open Water Swim - Grant Ranch

In the back of my head this week I had been thinking it’d be great to get over to Grant Ranch and do my first open water swim of the season! I wasn’t sure if that would happen…but yesterday I signed up for my 5 pack and decided it could definitely work!

Grant Ranch is in Littleton, and only about 20 minutes from my house. Mile High Multisport (a local tri club) has worked up a deal with Grant Ranch. OWSwimmers are allowed on weekends 7-9:30 and a few mornings and after work. It is a great facility, the lake is great, and there are kayakers out there for safety as well.

I got up at 6:30, ran to get coffee and made oats before I headed out. I left the house around 7:30. As I got closer, in my head I wasn’t nervous, but I must have been subconsciously. I could feel my nerves coming. I got my wet suit on and headed to the water. 

Beautiful morning!

When I got in I was immediately short of breath. I took a swim clinic last summer and one of the most helpful things I learned to get used to the water was to buoy up and down in the water. When you are under water, breathe heavily out and force out water and then come up breathe in and keep repeating. I did this over and over until my nerves settled down a bit. It is such a strange feeling not being able to see anything under water! Even though I love swimming, and always have, it is something very strange. I guess it is like riding a bike! I just thought it wouldn’t be as hard since I did it a lot last season!

The course has two options, ½ mile around 3 buoys or  you can swim 1 mile by continuing past the 2^nd buoy and making the triangle bigger. I planned to do the ½ mile route – this was my first OWS of the season, no need to rush things! 

I headed out and got the crawl going pretty well. SO different from my first experience. I breathe every three strokes, and I was doing one breast stroke about every eight or ten breathes so I could see where I was going. The first leg was definitely the hardest. Thoughts in my included, “why am I doing this to myself?” Then I would answer, “because it is so fun and you are lucky!”

After the first buoy, the second leg was shorter and went well. Once I rounded the final buoy I kicked it in to high gear and I was really flying! It was great. Someone passed me at one point on the first length, and it was a little less scary when there was someone else out there. But then again, when there are hundreds of other triathletes at a race, that’s a whole different story.

I didn’t have a watch on, but I think it took about 25-30 minutes. Great success!

Happy!

Evergreen Bike - Stagecoach and Bear Creek

Next, I headed to Evergreen for my bike ride! I had decided I wanted some hills and decided doing the tri route from last summer would be a great option. There are some KILLER hills.

Max Elevation 8,050

I got to the parking lot by 9:30, got out my bike, only to realize I had forgotten my helmet L I immediately called AA for reinforcement to the idea that I shouldn’t ride and I could just ride near the house, even though that was 45 minutes away and I already drove all the way to Evergreen! Then I thought maybe I could just buy one…AA knew the exact location of a place about 5 miles away! I headed over, to Bicycle Outfitters, and as I was explaining I just wanted to cheap helmet since I forgot mine (was looking to be $40) the guy said I could just borrow one! It was so nice of them, I was so happy! I headed back and after the 45 min detour…was ready to ride!

I absolutely love Evergreen, it is definitely my favorite town in Colorado that I have seen. I just wish it wasn’t so far from work because I’d love to live there! The ride starts off by going by Evergreen Lake and then continues back in the hills and more gorgeous terrain. The first five miles are a steady incline and definitely had me breathing hard.  I missed the turn at mile 5. I realized about 1.25 miles later that it didn’t look right. I pulled over, and another bike stopped a minute later and nicely directed me the right way. We chatted about how lucky we were and beautiful the scenery was. So very lucky J

Appropriately named Evergreen

I turned around and got back to the turn-off at 7.5 miles. The killer hills start here for the next 3 miles. I was so winded, it was such a good burn, but I pushed through. One of my miles was over 9 minutes, that should indicate how steep it was J The last 3 miles you lose about 700 feet of elevation so it is pretty fun! I was back to the car by 11:30 and ready to head home.

Downhill!

Overall it was a 14.4 mile ride, took 68 minutes with an average pace of 4:44 min/min (12.7 mph).

A great day in Colorado, for sure. I came home and AA had been cleaning all morning – the house looked great! We celebrated with Park Burger.

Testing Clipless Pedals

New shoes!

Pre-fall...

We also got the tools to put on my clipless pedals! Up until now I’d been using just cages and sneakers. I tested it out a few times in the alley, no problem! One last turn and I was ready to go inside…I wasn’t moving and trying to turn, and I completely fell over. I had some scratches to prove it J

My ouch

It was a great week for training – almost 4,000m for swimming and over 40 miles over biking! If I include the race on Monday….13 miles of running!

Swim Therapy

Who knew I would be getting therapy at swimming in the AM? On Tuesday AM, I had a great workout, swam 44 laps which is over 2,000m. I have been breaking every 10 laps and it seems to be helping my headache. On Tuesday though, the elder (60’s) man got my attention next to me, even through my wax ear plugs. He started asking if I was happy, and that I needed to only do what made me happy. Put myself as #1 and get rid of anything (and one) that doesn’t make me happy. He emphasized I need not stress and keep myself #1. He said, “you can only make others happy if you are happy yourself”. The rest of my swim, I was smiling. This morning (Thursday) I also made it swimming. He again asked if I was happy and to make sure I only do what makes me happy! Swimming makes me happy – so I will continue to do this :-) I think his name is Larry...

Rec center for swimming :-)

Somehow I wonder if he sensed how stressful work has been! Monday I worked extra long and didn’t work out. The rest of the week I have been making sure to force myself to leave my desk and get out doors! Besides my early AM therapy sessions its been a great week of training so far.

-Monday – Rest aka Work

-Tuesday – AM 2,012m swim & 3 mile run during lunch

-Wednesday – 14 mile bike ride to Cherry Creek during lunch

-Thursday – AM 1,143m swim & 4 mile run during lunch

Hello gorgeous lunch time - in Cherry Creek

Bike rack at work...mine is the cool white one :-) 

Outlook:

The Bolder Boulder is Monday! AA got a friend to use his bib, and unfortunately James won't be making the trip, but we are going to reschedule for another race coming up!

I’d like to be strong for BB – hoping to break 10 min/miles this time. I wanted this to be my time to break 1 hour for the 10k, but with my recent times, and other training, I’d rather just focus on the 10 min/mile and be able to still train this weekend for other things!

-Friday – hoping bike ride, or easy elliptical

-Sat – Long bike ride?

-Sunday - REST

The birthday weekend was great thanks to AA and those who celebrated with me :-)

Friday  - BBQ at our house, AA grilled some great food and we had great company!

Saturday – Rock climbing in Boulder Canyon. So fun! Did two routes, one was 5.7 and another 5.9

Sunday – Colfax Marathon Relay! (click!)

awesome day :-)

Colfax Marathon Relay Recap

It was a bit of mesh of a team, but we had been texting/emailing through the week to try and get it set up. The team was myself and my friends Jen and Jason. Aaron’s cousin Chris was running with us! And Jen’s friend Sonya stepped in as AA’s replacement. I had made a chart of ‘expected times’ and most everyone was going to carry their cell to update after they finished their leg. I also had pictures of everyone. Sonya and Chris were exchanging and had never met each other!

Getting to know everyone...

The first leg (Jason’s) left City Park at 6 AM! I woke up at 6:03…it was weird knowing he was already running! Luckily he could walk to City Park from his house. He said he headed over a little after 5, it was still dusk, and all was quiet. He had a 6.4 mile route down Colfax that went through Bronco’s stadium. He crushed his leg and came in at sub 8 min miles!

Jason through Mile High

Route and Ele.

He exchanged to Hock who got to run around Sloan’s Lake. She did great and came in 30 seconds/mile faster than her expected time! Sonya got the short end of the stick and had the uphill route, got put on the team 2 days before, and loads of biking the day before. She rocked it though with a 9:51 pace!

From what I hear the exchange was a little confusing between Sonya and Chris. It didn’t help they had never met, but also it was hard to see the approaching runners and if you didn’t hear your # you just had to recognize them!  Chris had the ‘screaming downhill’ route. This was his first road race and he did so awesome! He came in at a 10:34 pace and really showed the progress he has made running over the past few months :-)

My exchange with Chris was crowded as well and hard to see, I didn’t hear our # called, but luckily spotted Chris with his red shorts! Before I knew it I was off, and ran right in to the Bronco Stadium! 

Taking in the whole stadium!

It was really neat running through it, but eerie how empty it was!! After the stadium, we made our way to the bike trail and ran through Confluence Park near REI. Eventually we ran up to 17^th street and made our way through downtown. There was an uphill crossing over Lincoln and the sun was in our eyes, but great scenery running through uptown and in to the park.  I was amazed at all the marathoners running at this point. I had fresh legs, and they had already run 20! It is amazing what they can do.  I wasn’t feeling great this whole time, but my pace didn’t reflect it luckily, I think I had too much birthday cake over the weekend! As we made our way in to the park and eventually in to the final chute – Jen and Jason jumped up! Team PNDA BR’s finished at 4:04:49 – what a great race!

In the yellow and orange to the right!

I'd say we were spot on our estimate....4:05 estimated versus 4:04.49

Nothing special for treats afterwards. They limited you to one water bottle, and there were none after you got in to the corral after. I was so thirsty! They had bagels and ½ a banana. We waited in line for our free BBQ, which was great, but I was still so thirsty. We didn’t stay long and walked back to J&J’s to BBQ again. 

Team PNDA BR's

alternate member :-)

So overall I really liked the race, it was neat doing the relay. It is nothing compared to those 30 hour runs with 2 vans, but it was neat to dip the toes. Next year I would do it again, or consider one of the other 3 races...10 miler, half marathon, and marathon!