What a weekend! And the Bolder Boulder 2011!

It's a long one....

The weekend started out with another long and hilly training ride for the Denver Century. This weekend I joined a group of riders that were training for the DC including a girl I've come to know through Kathleen, Sarah is the one that pushed me to finish the Denver R n' R 1/2 marathon in October. We were riding another part of the DC course and it was almost as much climbing as the previous ride. This was just spread out a little more with climbs all the way to the end. There were a few dark parts...I really need to work on the whole nutrition thing. Between miles 45-55 my right quad was feeling like it wanted to cramp up and I was a little worried. After stopping at mile 54 where I inhaled some trail mix and a Gatorade and stretched a little things started looking back up, which is good since we were going up hill again. It was in fact a very nice ride and I enjoyed my first experience riding with a group. It challenged me to work hard and I was able to end the 62 mile ride with a 14.2 mph average with which I was very pleased.

Elevation profile for Saturday's ride.

I decided to take Sunday as a rest day...ok I didn't really decide to...I just was to lazy to go do anything. My legs were a little tired from the ride but no soreness at all which was good. Finally Sunday night I decided I might want to give a little thought to the Bolder Boulder coming up on Monday. As I said in the prior post this was just going to be a training run. For those of you who don't know about the Bolder Boulder it a crazy little race made up of some 55,000 thousand racers in 91 waves. Amazing race, amazingly organized.

Just a few people in front of us.

We were starting in wave MM. I ran this race with the same girl I ran it with last year. I told her this year though that she really needed to keep running if I couldn't keep up. We both were hoping to set a PR.

It's not an easy course as you can see from the elevation profile, it's pretty much either up or down and they had changed the course this year so that you started out going up instead of a short flat.

One of my favorite costumes..there were actually several more of these guys wandering around these two were nice enough to pose.

The clouds were ominous and looked as if the rain could bust open any minute. In fact at one point right before we lined up some huge and I mean huge raindrops came down and then quit almost immediately it was the strangest thing. Before long we were at the start and off we went. Dodging in and out of people and trying to run the best we could. There are so many bands and so many people on the sides as well as running that it really helps to take your mind off of the running part.

A little bit of 80's pace booty.

I felt like I was running hard, I walked the water stops but tried to run most of the rest, although there were walk breaks in there trying to get around people. I felt pretty good up until around mile 5. At that point I saw a girl who was stretching and maybe puking...I couldn't decide, but at the thought of it my stomach got a little queasy...luckily it wasn't long before something distracted me and I forget about that whole thing. And then mile 6...it's a tuff one. Yep uphill. Much walking was involved although I kept trying to tell myself I only had one mile to go and I should run. Finally up the last hill and into Folsom field where the race finish was. The stands were filling up and it's a pretty cool feeling to run in.

Official time has me at 1:11:16 which is a 10k PR for me by 3 minutes. (The previous being back in 2008 on a much easier course.)

Enjoying the post race beer while watching some of the finishers. The wind was picking up though and it was quite chilly when you are all sweaty so we didn't stick around long enough to see the elite runners.

Race stats
Division place 213 out of 464
Gender place 11447 out of 26319
mile 1 11:14
mile 2 11:11
mile 3 11:55
mile 4 11:23
mile 5 11:16
mile 6 11:50
net time 1:11:15
pace 11:29 (based on net time)
The Garmin shows that I actually ran 6.37 miles for an average pace of 11:11.

All in all a productive weekend...except still no swimming...must get to the pool more this week! Thanks for taking the time to read or skim my rambling!

F is for..

Freakin Fantastic…I got my RUN EMZ shirt! I’m sure that most of you have read the story of EMZ and her 24 hour treadmill run, but if you haven’t go read it…all 4 parts you might want to have the Kleenex ready and then go and donate if you can.

Blurry photo with swim google eyes!

Frightened…I seem to have put a lot on my plate for the next four weeks. 1-10k 2-Sprints and 1 Century ummm yea that seems a little crazy to this girl. The 10k and one of the sprints will just be “training” so I’m going to try not to stress over them. And of course the Century is just a bike ride…a long ride but a ride none the less.

Funny…have you read Jill’s account of our epic ride this last weekend? It is very funny, you should read it.

Fantasizing….that I too am going to be off for summer vacation like the kids.

Failing…the heart rate monitor on my Garmin has been really weird. It only seems to register my HR when it feels like it. I’ve changed the battery and that didn’t seem to make a difference, is it possible that the sensors in the chest strap die or something? Note that I have a verrrryyy old Garmin.

Falsehood,...I might have told a small one when I said that I’m counting the Bolder Boulder as a training run….I really would like to set a PR. Really that shouldn’t be that hard. 1:14 is my 10k PR with a 1:17 at the BB last year. I’m actually hoping to get closer to 1:08ish but anything better then the 1:14 would make me happy especially since I will have a long ride on Saturday there will be no tapering or resting to speak of and it’s “just a training run”.

Feeling…like my training is going pretty good for so far, although I MUST get to the pool more often. I keep thinking I have plenty of time before the 70.3 but it’s now only 75 days away.
Free…of injuries! I’m feeling really good with pains at all!

Food…can’t seem to get enough.

Previous alphabet posts G, J, T, and W can be viewed here

Lookout Mountain Conqured!

So I posted on Jill's ( Run with Jill ) blog last week that I had a long ride to do this weekend and would she be interested in joining me? She quickly replied yes she was up for it! I've never met Jill and was excited at the prospect... that is until she suggested we ride the 62 mile course of the Denver Century coming up in a few weeks, which includes Lookout mountain. You may recall that in a post from a few weeks ago I took a picture looking up the mountain wondering how I would possibly be able to make it up this mountain. So at this point while I was still excited to meet Jill the idea of the ride was quite frightening to me, "fine" I said "go ahead and make me face my fear". So we met up to head out on our adventure, after we spent several minutes deciding how we would dress. Although the day was warm we really didn't know what we would encounter being out so long. We rode along pretty easily just chatting and getting to know each other. We were definitely out for saddle time and not speed. Jill says she is a runner not a cyclist and me...well I'm just playing dress up and having fun. Before long we reached the start of the real climb.

Jill playing with the maps.

UP we go!

We studied it a little had a Cliff shot stripped off another layer (we had removed one at an earlier stop) took the above pics and decided we might as well get started. Turns out I had every reason to be scared of this climb. In fact some where around now I told Jill that way back when, when I was learning to drive they made me drive this road, I was just as scared then as I was today.

The picture above was at our 1st rest break on the climb. I believe at this point I asked another rider if we were 1/2 way...she said no we still had quite bit to go...I blocked the part out about how many more miles.... So we just kept plugging away and I gotta tell you if I didn't have a triple I don't know if I would have made it. As we got closer to the top there were at least some flats (or what seemed like flats) between the inclines. Twice these crazy kids went flying by us on skateboards. I can not imagine how fast they were going.

Success! We made it to the top! In this picture if you look close (click on it to make it bigger) I was down by the football field when I took the picture here looking up at the M and we were now above that!

As you can see we had started putting layers back on. It was pretty cold up on top!

Jill and I

After some picture taking and admiring the gorgeous view we soon got back on our bikes to head down. It was pretty chilly going down the hill, in fact it felt colder then I ever did on my ride last weekend.

Jill took this photo of me as we were riding by Red Rocks Amphitheater
Jill studying the map again.

Once down we had a some confusion on where we were suppose to go. We headed up one step which turned out to be incorrect and had some of the most difficult cross winds I've ever dealt with. You literally had to lean into them to keep from going over it was crazy! And then of course since it was wrong we had to turn around and go back through them. Eventually found our way to the bike path that would take us back home. There were some pretty good head winds but nothing like the crosswinds.

Elevation profile not including the first 8ish miles when I had forgotten to start my Garmin.

This picture pretty much sums up how we felt having just finished 67 miles in 5:20 ride time which was both Jill and I's longest ride to date. Jill was smart enough to have a hat handy. Hey it was a tuff ride! :)

What's a girl to do? What's for dinner? Mexican Egg Rolls!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

That pretty much sums up things around here! These are a couple of shots I took with my phone yesterday at work. As you can see we have a small drainage problem. The rain was coming down in buckets and I contemplated getting out there and doing some open water swimming.

Hard to tell in this picture but the water and hail was flowing through our parking lot harder then I've ever seen it. And as I'm looking at this picture I'm wondering if that was the funnel cloud that was spotted in the area? Yikes!

So as I said what's a girl to do? The rain continued on today and since I just couldn't make myself go run (but I did swim this morning!) I decided to cook! I started a big pot of chili to restock the freezer and with some of the hamburger I decided to throw together some egg rolls. Mexican egg rolls. I looked at a couple of recipes and then just went for it. And can I just say OMG! These were fantastic and I will be making them again!

In a pan I added about (I didn't measure any of this)
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup black beans
1/4 cup mushrooms
1/4 cup onion
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
tiny bit of olive oil
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. oregano
garlic salt to taste

Cook until softened about 7 minutes add about 1/2 cup of cooked hamburger and 1/4 cup low fat cheddar cheese and wrap in egg roll wrapper. This made 4 egg rolls


Spray lightly with olive oil and bake at 450 degrees until brown. Around 10-15 minutes.

Seriously this is the best thing I've made in awhile. I dipped it in a little guacamole, light sour cream and hot sauce, as you can tell from this pic I like hot sauce and had three on the table as I couldn't decide just which one I wanted to use. Don't wait....make these! Use whatever you have, would be great with chicken or no meat and more veggies.

What's going on and what's coming up!

So what's been going on?

Training last week:
Bike
89.11 Mi
6h 37m 53s
Run
9.50 Mi
1h 52m 52s
Missing there is any swimming...the week was only so-so in getting things done. In addition to missing the swimming I missed a run too. It was some what of a crazy week in that Josh, my oldest son made the decision to join the Marines. There were meetings with recruiters, little sleep for me, and tests and physicals for him. He is signed up on the delayed entry program. He will not go for a year when he graduates high school. I'm a mix of emotions. Proud, scared, sad, excited for him, you name it I'm feeling it. And I've just come to the realization that this is our last year, the last summer for being together. Wow.

Food has been atrocious...you name it I've eaten it. A step on the scale this morning has scared me straight...things must change.

I've been reallly tired, I'm sure that is mostly attributed to the lack of sleep and just needing to catch up, as well as no chance to sleep in over the weekend, and by sleep in I mean anything past 6.

What's coming up?

I signed up for the Bolder Boulder 10k again this year. It's on Memorial day. Last year was my first year to do this race although it is in it's 33rd year and is a huge race, one of the largest I believe. The first wave leaves at 7:00am and the last 9:22. I'm excited to do this race again. It's a fairly challenging run with many hills and I'm pretty sure I'm in better running shape then last year so hope to do much better, but we will see.

A tri?!?!?! My first tri of the season is in like 2 1/2 weeks....um hello! Can you say open water swim!!! I am not ready to get in that water! If you recall this past weekend it was only 36 degrees when during much of my bike ride. Now granted this race isn't even a C race but more of a practice race, or even just a good workout. I got the entry free for volunteering at another tri so I guess there is always that chance that I could opt not to do it...however usually once signed up for something nothing will keep me from doing it, but wow it seems to have come fast!

Then just the weekend after that is the Denver Century, nervous about that. Feel a little better having the metric done but that's still a lot more miles and a few good climbs. I will need to get some miles in in the next few weeks.

So that's what's going on and what's coming up. Lot's of work to be done and hopefully lot's of fun to be had!

Oh it's Lovely weather for a bike ride together with you.. CCBT Race report

Me and Jen

Well the day of the Community Classic Bike Tour arrived in a soggy manner...It's been raining here on and off all week. Great...not only my first metric century but my first ride in wet weather and in almost freezing temps. I awoke at 4:30 so that I could leave by 5:30 to make the 1 hour drive to the start of the ride in Loveland. When I first woke up I looked out and thought it was dry, it really wasn't until I opened the garage to get my bike in the car that I discover my mistake. Yep misty rainy crap was coming down and the temperature according to my car was 36 degrees...Well this should be fun. I drove in and out of rain/mist the whole way up.

Met up with my friend Jen, Jen was planning on doing the 62 miles with me but both of us were wondering about the weather and decided we would just play it by ear. After getting all dressed. I was wearing a pair of bike carpi's with my running Cold Weather Under Armour over them a short sleeve bike jersey, a light black jacket, and a heavier running jacket (that I wear when temps are under 30)covered by my bike jacket and my running gloves. Should be plenty of clothes right? Finally layered up we headed out. I followed behind Jen letting her set the pace for the first part of the ride. She hasn't done as much riding as I have and is not quite as fast (it's kind of fun to say that since I'm so slow!) The first 10 miles is pretty flat with just a slight uphill, there were times I really thought the tips of my fingers were going to just freeze off. The toes were cold too but not bothering me as much as the fingers. We got to the first aid station and just getting off the bike warmed the toes and fingers up a bunch, from then on they didn't bother me to much.

The soggy mess at aid station one.

Not long after that aid station you start to climb a little, gently at first until you get to Carter Lake and climb up to the dam, this is killer for me. I got ahead of Jen on the climb because I just have to do it, if I had tried to stay at her speed I would have had a hard time getting through it. It's a pretty good climb and I'm not a climber...hills I need to work on them... Going up there was quite a bit of mist and a light drizzle. I frequently had water running off my helmet. At the top I had to take my glasses off as they had fogged up. I was completely undecided as to if I would continue on with the 62 miles or just do 37. I was feeling like I might be a bit behind because of the slow start. At the aid station at mile 20 my average pace was around 11.5 I think. Can I just say that Oreos is where it's at...man did they hit the spot! I talked with some other people trying to figure out if I would be the only one still heading out on the 62 and it seemed there were plenty of others, so I made the decision to go ahead knowing that if I didn't I would be disappointed in myself.

On top of Carter Lake

Going down the other side of the reservoir is pretty steep and it got pretty chilly but once down it flattened out for a little bit and the weather seemed to dry up...a little. It was pretty uneventful for awhile I chatted some with a guy that had decided with me to go for the whole 62, hope he made it I lost him some where after the next aid station.

Next stop Masonville, mile 34, by this time I had got my average speed up to about 12.5, and the home of the Masonville Mercantile & Wedding Emporium who knew? It was a very cute little town and would make be an awesome place to ride to for lunch some day.

After a quick snack and potty break and a chance to warm the toes on a little space heater I headed out. It was at this point I was going down hill some and could not figure out why I was having to work so hard, I kept look down to see if something was stuck or what my problem was, I couldn't see anything so just continued on, struggling.
It got a little better or maybe I just wasn't noticing it any more because soon we started the climb up to Horsetooth Res. It was a much more gently climb with one short steeper part, good thing it wasn't any longer as I wasn't sure I would I make it but soon I was heading down. It seemed like the next aid station came really fast although it was 10 miles down the road, I made the decision to skip it as I really didn't need another pbj sandwich or a granola bar and I was cruising along pretty good.

I did stop on the other side of the lake to take this photo and then just hit it. I stopped once I was down and in town just to call Jen and let her know that I had made it over the dam and on the downhill stretch. The ride to the next aid station seemed long. There were a few small hills...which felt large but I just plugged away. After the aid station at 53 I thought the last 10 would go pretty quick, not so much. There seemed to be a bit of a head wind but not that bad, but I was working pretty hard. Looking back now I know that I was struggling because of my break rubbing, it just made it much more difficult (duh!) at around mile 57 we got on a very nice bike path and just kind of cruised on in, although I gotta say it seemed to take forever! I actually came up with 63 miles and that last one was really long! Finally done! Course support was to end at noon and I finished at about 12:50ish and just made it for some of the last of the food (still warm!) I grabbed two pancakes and a couple of sausages along with some hot coffee and woofed it down before heading over to the car to say goodbye to Jen and her husband, as they had hung out to make sure I finished. I quickly changed out of the damp shirts and packed up to head home. It wasn't until I took off my shoes that I realized just how numb the toes on my left foot were, took some time for them to warm up.

The very cute t-shirt!

So the totals for the ride.
Total time 5:46
Total ride time 5:02 (12:54 pace)
Total climbing 3720'
Now when you may ask did I discover that my break was rubbing? When I took my bike out of my car and could not roll it into the garage. After taking a look at the tire it was obvious it had rubbed quite a bit. I guess I will be figuring out how to fix that.

This is the 3rd time I've done this ride, the first year (2008) we did around 20 miles (we were going to do the 10 and got lost) the 2nd year (2010) 37 miles and this year the 62. It's a nice little race and I will probably continue to do it as it's a nice way to start the year!

Happy Mother's Day to me! Doesn't this look good?!?!

Here’s hoping that all of you had a great Mother’s day! I had a really nice day. I slept in until 7:30 which for me is fantastic! I've been dragging my butt a bit so it felt really good. I headed out pretty quickly after rising for my long run trying to beat some of the new to us heat. Before leaving however I was sure to let my boys know that I would be back in about 2 hours and I thought that some pancakes and turkey sausage would really hit the spot. And because they are good kids my breakfast was ready by the time I was finished stretching and cooling off a little. Josh cooked a mighty mean breakfast which we ate on tha back patio and Zach did the cleaning up. It was sooooo good!

Chef Josh

Zach on clean up

After breakfast we headed to the rec center and I got in a swim workout that almost killed me. It was rough but on the other hand felt really good. Then we headed over to my parents and had dinner with my Mom and Dad. Pretty much a perfect day!

So another week comes to an end and although I cut a few workouts short and missed some of the bike sessions (there were 4 I did 2) I’m pretty pleased with my numbers for the week.

S:
3500.00 Yd
1h 22m 29s
B:
61.85 Mi
4h 28m 25s
R:
18.89 Mi
3h 42m 56s

Total time 9h 32m

The plan that I settled on using seems to be a pretty aggressive plan, and truth be told maybe a bit above my abilities. But the first one I started just didn't seem to have enough volume. I think it would have gotten me to the finish line of the 70.3 but I don’t think I would have finished strong. I think the plan I’m now following, even with a few adjustments and not hitting all the sessions will have me finishing in a much better position. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.

Here's to another good week...the little ticker on the side bar is showing 90 days until D day!

What a day for a ride!!!

It was so beautiful out today! Temps were around 55 when I left and pushing 75 when I finished. 50 miles today. My longest this year. Next week is the Community Classic Metric Century Feeling a little more confidant after today's ride but I'm guessing it won't be a piece of cake.

I started out this morning feeling a little icky..the tummy was just not feeling it but by mile 6 I was feeling fine. Mile 9 I stopped to answer a text and really had to pee but knew it would be some time before I found a restroom. I was headed to Golden which is a really nice ride. It was great when I hit mile 12 and left the bike path for awhile. Parts of the trail are pretty rough and its nice get on the road for a while.

After a little gradual climbing I headed down into Golden and at mile 16 finally found a bathroom. Golden is great little town and home of the Coors Brewery and Colorado School of Mines. They have made the path through Golden really very cool with many brass statues, parks, places to play in the river and if your really lucky girls you show up when the search and rescue is practicing with the kayaks....its a great view. :) Main street has a great coffee shop, some restaurants and cute shops.

I found as I hit what I thought was the end of the line that they had extended the path and I followed it for awhile and ended up, after quite a steep short climb, at the base of Lookout mountain which is the climb I'm really worried about in the century ride I will be doing in June.

Looking up at the M, I'm no less worried. If you click on the pic and make it bigger you can see the road. I turned around here and headed back down into Golden.

Just after taking this picture I decided that I could hold on to my camera, clip in and take off...on a hill...not gonna happen and I fell over, yep fell over. I also got up...quickly...and was very luck to find no one around. I came away with a crooked saddle, a scraped elbow and calf that some how got skinned up on the gears.

After climbing back out of Golden it was all downhill and at mile 19 I saw little tiny snake that just gave me the willies. The rest of the ride I've done many times and has lost most of it's excitement. It was so beautiful out though that the time went pretty fast. At mile 29 I passed another snake a little bit bigger then the last one. And I spent many of the next miles wondering how big the snakes at miles 39 and 49 would be. Thank goodness there were no more. My legs felt good, there were a few miles just after the 40 mark that I got a little tired but that soon went away and before I knew it I was done.

49.85 miles (50 on my bike)
3:38 riding time
13.67 average
2011 ft climbing

Up for tomorrow...a long run and hopefully I can get my butt to the pool too.