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!