Boulder Sunrise Olympic Triathlon

On June 7, I completed an Olympic distance triathlon in Boulder.  I did this as a practice run for my upcoming half ironman at the end of the month.

My triathlon resume is short.  In 2010, while 5 months pregnant with Rachel, I did my first sprint tri.  During this time I trained a little with a tri group in Penticton and tried to do my best during the discomfort of pregnancy.  In 2012, I completed a sprint tri and an olympic tri, as well as many 'stroke and stride' fun races, mostly in order to be more comfortable with open water swimming. 

May was a great training month for me.  I swam 16,200 yards.  I ran 52 miles.  I rode 132 miles on my road bike and spent 108 minutes on the trainer.  I hiked about 19 miles.  For the first week of June, I went hard, right up until this race, without any usual 'pre-race' mentality, since this was just another training day for me.

The week before the race I got in my wetsuit for the first time this year.  As usual, I completely panicked and couldn't figure out how to breathe.  I was really disappointed by this, because I'm a much more confident swimmer than I was 2 years ago but the panic ensued anyway.  After a long warm up, Jason reminded me to get water in my suit and pull it way up and try again.  That helped, and I calmed down.  I practiced open water swimming again Wed and Thurs before the race Sat.  On Thurs, a 1500m swim (with a run in between that was very slow) took me 31:12 and I felt comfortable.

In 2012 I swam 1500m in 30:41, biked 24.8miles in 1:28, and ran 10km in 56:14 for a total of 3:00:50.  I wasn't sure I was up for these numbers again, but I was hopeful, since I have trained much more in the last few months than I ever did for that race.

Rachel pushes Ava early on race morning

Race morning, our family got going early and I had time to get settled in transition.  I had to remind myself what transition meant and where to put my things.  I had a short warm up in the water, and we were off.  I was in the 3rd wave, near the beginning of the whole event.

My swim was good and bad.  Good because I didn't panic and I felt capable and confident.  Bad because it felt crowded and it was hard to see.  My first running start, one large 1500m loop, small buoys that were difficult to sight, not a lot on the horizon to use for sighting, and fog/gray sky made it difficult to contrast against the water.  I blame all these things for my difficulty in swimming in a straight line.  I'm certain I was all over the place.  In other races I had my head out of the water a LOT, and in this one I swam more with my head down... but did a terrible job of being efficient with my course.  On the home stretch I pushed it to come out of the water, and was pretty sure I'd had a good swim.

Exiting the water is a difficult thing for me.  I swim as far as I can, so I don't stand up too early.  But I am always disoriented when I come out of the water and move very slowly.  I fiddle with my suit, don't want to run, and can't make decisions very well.

This exit had a long run all the way to transition, and I took my time once I got to my bike spot.  I could hear Rachel cheering and Ava crying, and I hoped Jason was doing ok with the girls.  I wanted to make sure I did all my transition properly, because this was my practice for my real race at the end of the month.  I put on a dry cycling jersey (my tri suit zipper broke recently so I don't have a tri suit now), and headed off.  Even trying to mount my bike, I still felt out of it.

I knew I had come out of the water earlier than many others, so I expected to get passed quite a bit on the bike.  But I rode hard and felt good on the bike.  I tried to push my pace a little bit, and felt great until about 18 miles in.  Then I was ready to be done.  Nobody in my age group passed me, which surprised me, and I wondered if my age group might be quite a small group.  The hardest part of the bike was when a city bus pulled into a bus stop right in front of me, and I had to go around it into the road.  Thankfully there was hardly any traffic, but I was quite surprised by this bus.

One of the reasons I chose this race event was that it was a fund raiser for an organization called 'Your Cause Sports', and I put the money I raised toward the American Cancer Society.  Ray Oliver (Jason's father) lost his battle to cancer shortly before Rachel was born, and he loved riding his bike.  Every time I ride my bike I imagine that he is there with me, smiling and cheering me on.  We had a great time on the bike part of the course... (Thanks Ray).

My legs felt good getting off the bike and starting my run.  The run was 2* 5 km out-and-backs, which originally discouraged me from signing up at all (I hate doing anything out-and-back).  There were sprint athletes, different start times, duathlon racers, people with disabilities, a blind athlete, etc.  It was quite entertaining and I had no idea how I was doing or where anyone in my age group was relative to me.  I decided to push my run and see what happened, but also practicing my nutrition/gels/gatorade drinking that I planned to do for my big race.  I felt really strong on the run and was thrilled to see Jason and the girls cheering at the turn around and at the end.

Rachel did an amazing job of cheering everyone on: 'Great Job!  Thumbs Up!' and many athletes came up to her after their finish to thank her for making them smile.

I pulled one of the biggest loser moments I've ever had (and that's saying something), and became a real tri geek, when I ran through the finish line and sprinted around the parking lot so that my Strava watch would get to 6.2miles and count my 10km time.  I was hoping it would be a PR.

I was thrilled at the end of the race.  I felt so strong!  I was particularly happy with my run, because running since I've had Ava has felt so slow.  This felt like a break-through run and I felt confident.

The girls were tired and needed to get home, but I wanted to go see the results board before we left.  It turns out that, out of the 11 people in my age group, I came 3rd!  So I took Rachel up on to the podium with me to get my award.  I couldn't believe I was getting a triathlon award!  Part of me was ecstatic and part of me rolled my eyes because I believe age group awards are silly.  If I had been in the age group lower or higher, I would have been 7th or 8th.  But, it was fun and exciting to get my little plaque and be on the podium.

The immediate excitement of the finish wore off quickly when I started looking at the numbers.

2012: Swim 1500m in 30:41, biked 24.8 miles in 1:28, and ran 10km in 56:14 for a total of 3:00:50
2014: Swim 1500m in 29:47, biked 26.4 miles in 1:30, and ran 10km in 54:36 for a total of 3:02:27

The difference in the bike distance confused me in comparing, but I wish I had been able to finish in under 3 hours.  My transitions were very slow, and my swim this year could have been straighter and faster.  I was really happy with my 10km run, though, and it was a PR since having Ava by several minutes.

Since the race, I've been exhausted.  Not great timing since I still need to train hard for 2 more weeks before I get to taper.  I'll have to find the energy somewhere and do my best.

Thanks to Jason and my 2 girls for being a fantastic cheering squad and support team.  They are awesome!  Thanks to Susan Oliver for donating to Your Cause Sports to help this event raise over $26,000 for charities, including the American Cancer Society.

http://www.skipix.com/skipixv2/viewlargeimage.php?photosetid=11537&filename=SunriseTri_20140607_0262.jpg

Photo Update

Here are a bunch of pictures from May and early June as we transitioned from Winter to Summer! 

Highlights include Aunt Karen visiting, hiking in RMNP in the snow, planting fruit trees in our yard, getting outside, the Boulder Creek Festival, and visiting a fire truck recently.

Yay Summer!!!

Training, training, training (CO Trail Segment #1)

At the end of June, I plan to complete an item off my bucket list: do a half ironman triathlon.  I registered in December as a motivator to get myself back into shape after having Ava.  Recently, training for this race has become all consuming.  It's quite a bit more time and training than I realized it would be, even though I'm not training to the level that many local triathletes would.

Thankfully, Jason is not training for any races right now and finished school for the Summer.  Last weekend, we crammed in a heap of workouts and adventures.  Sat morning I rode 28 miles with a friend, then ran 4 miles off the bike.  Jason went for a hard trail run up and down a few local mountains Sat afternoon.

Sunday morning we woke early and packed the family in the car.  Drove to Littleton, CO and met friends to practice open water swimming.  At first, I panicked.  But eventually I settled into it and got over 1 mile of swimming in.

After grabbing a quick breakfast with our friends, we headed to Waterton Canyon.  Jason hopped on the mountain bike and started up the first segment of the Colorado Trail.  He mountain biked 6 miles up the double track and then locked the bike at a covered picnic area, next to a flock of bighorn sheep.  He then proceeded to run 10.4 miles (mostly uphill) along the single track trail.

I drove the girls around, through Conifer CO, to the end of segment 1.  We had never been to this area before and I was not confident that we were in the right spot.  When we parked, next to a few other cars, I saw a bear on the hill just above us.  The bear was small... not a newborn cub but not quite a teenager, either.  He was cute, and playing in the rocks.  I was not afraid of this bear, and he was a little ways away from us, but I kept an alert eye wondering where the mamma bear might be.

As I set up a picnic with the girls, other people came and went at the trailhead.  Many people were there to fish.  I saw the bear here and there, and it was slowly approaching our area.  I warned another family that the bear was coming closer to their kids by the water, and I prepared to move my kids into the car.  The parents went in search of the bear, on foot, with their camera.  That really irritated me.  I moved my kids into the car and we watched for 15 min or so as the bear came near our picnic site, and people gathered all around to take pictures of the bear.  Still no mamma in sight.  Just many curious humans.  The little guy eventually scampered away over the hill.

Jason had not arrived yet and I was nervous that we weren't in the right spot.  Rachel and Ava were both getting cranky and needing to sleep.  I had asked several people if I was at the Colorado Trail parking lot, and received various vague answers.  Finally someone told me the actual trail head was 1/2 mile or so up the road still, so we got in the car and drove up there.  It was hot... probably mid 80s.  We arrived at the very clearly signed and marked trail head just in time to see Jason arriving safely.

Jason and I switched, and I started off going back the way he came as he got in the car and drove the girls back into cell service and into little girl slumber.  I climbed for 2 miles and then had a lovely fun descent all the way back to the bike.  Most of the way I clapped and shouted and thought of bears.  I saw 2 other people and felt slow and sluggish.  I was delighted to make it back to the bike, see all the bighorn sheep, and ride down Waterton Canyon double track back to the car.  Jason and the girls were there for me in the parking lot, and we drove home.

This was my second piece of the Colorado Trail.  I've ran about 6 miles near Kenosha Pass and now have completed the 16 miles of segment 1.  There are 28 segments for a total of 486 miles.  We've got some work to do!!  Completing all the segments is another item on my bucket list, but a goal that will take me a very long time to complete.

We hope to do a similar adventure soon in order to get in some more training and another segment...