Xterra Lory Race Report

Swim 1/2 mile, Bike 12.2 miles, Run 8k

I signed up for my first Xterra (off-road) triathlon way back in March when I had been riding my mountain bike. It sounded fun and different and I do like mountain biking. Then summer came and I had a lot of road triathlons to train for and the mountain bike fell to the wayside. After surviving the Boulder 70.3 somewhat intact and the subsequent vacation, I was ready to mountain bike again. Unfortunately, I only had 2 weeks left until Lory. I got in 2 quality mountain bike rides, one of which was pre-riding the course in Ft. Collins a week before. I was glad to find the course was not technical, but I was apprehensive about riding so fast on single track with other competitors.

Come race day, I was able to carpool with my friend Heather, who is a very good Xterra racer. Having a companion made the 90 minute drive to Lory State Park go by fast. Transition was very much like a road triathlon, except instead of a parking lot, we were in a field. And instead of fancy TT bikes, there were fancy mountain bikes:



Also in Xterra races, instead of being in a wave with your age group, you are grouped according to swim and biking ability. I had rated my swim ability high and my mountain biking less than average, so I was placed in the last wave, 7, which didn't start until 8:40. The swim was billed as an out and back in Horsetooth Reservoir, but because of how the buoys were placed, it was really a long loop. As usual, I seeded myself in the front row, and as usual, I had 5 people jump on me when the gun went off. The first couple minutes were chaos as the jumpers realized that they really couldn't swim that fast for 1/2 a mile. I was soon out by myself, until a guy was swimming right next to me and pushing me off course. I had to stop and go behind him to the other side since he could not be convinced to angle the right way. I seemed to pass a lot of people in wave 6. My swim time was about 15 minutes (the timing mat was up the hill by transition) and only one person in my wave swam a pretty fast 12 minutes. Otherwise, there was a girl out of the water 20 seconds before me, and a girl who came out right with me.

T1 - the first transition was a bit slower than my usual ones because I had to put on my camel back and bike gloves.

The bike went much better than I thought it would. I'm embarrassed to admit, but when I did the pre-ride with D3 friend Jon, I forgot my helmet. I NEVER ride without a helmet, but we were in the middle of nowhere and had a time constraint, so I rode the course without one. Needless to say, I rode very conservatively. So on race day with race day adrenaline, I was feeling pretty good and rode faster than I had expected. Being back in wave 7, I did have to pass quite a few people. Sometimes we would get stuck in a line before there was an opportunity to get around and while I could have gone faster, it was nice to recover. The course was 2 loops with rolling hills, a couple sharp turns, some bridges and a few rocks. A guy in an Runner's Roost kit was riding behind me most of the way. He said there was no point in passing since we were going the same speed. We chatted back and forth periodically. There were a couple short steep hills that I had to walk up because people had stopped in the middle of the trail to walk their bikes and there was no way around. I finished in 1:10, about 10 minutes faster than I thought I would.



T2 - ditched the empty camelback (probably 16 oz of gatorade) for my fuel belt with 10 oz of gatorade (the aid stations were at .5 and 3.5 miles.)

And the run was tough, like I knew it would be. The first 2 1/2 miles went up a ridge, about 650 ft of elevation gain total. I wore my Garmin for the first time in a triathlon and except for not starting it for the swim, it worked pretty well:



I did a lot of walking, and would jog when it flatten out. I did pass a gal jogging while I was walking and I wanted to tell her there were no points awarded for style. The downhill was a relief, but I took the first mile too fast (and turned my ankle a couple times) and then was out of gas for the last 1 1/2 miles. My watch put my pace at 12:02, but really it was more like 16 minute miles up and 9:00 miles down with some 9:30 efforts at the end. And I found it difficult to move my feet nimbly over the uneven, rocky terrain. Also, it was getting pretty hot on the shadeless ridge, even hotter for me since I started 40 minutes after wave 1.



At the end of the race, there was a sweet slip 'n slide. It was the best finish ever, even though my shoes got wet and gushy for the rest of the day.



Swim: 15:45
T1: 2:11
Bike: 1:10:57
T2: 1:34
Run: 58:38
Total: 2:29:04

5/21 AG
33/99 female
135/266 overall

All in all, I had a lot of fun and would do another Xterra. I would want to practice more trail running and my crappy old mountain bike probably needs to be replaced. Right now I haven't ridden a nice new bike so I don't know how bad my bike is, but when Heather was putting it on her bike rack she did mention how heavy it was. And it's not even a big bike!

And one last picture... As we were driving south on 287 south of Longmont (I-25 had stopped by Berthod) I looked out the window to see this:



Now, waiting at an airshow to see a stealth bomber is one thing, but not being aware that there even is an airshow and being somewhat in the middle of nowhere and seeing one is pretty wild. We followed it south all the way to the Jeffco Rocky Mountain Airport and caught it as it did its flyby, it went RIGHT over the car. I am very sad that Alex wasn't there with us.

Outdoor Divas Sprint Race Report

Swim: 750 meters, Bike: 12.4 miles, Run: 5k

I found the key to feeling good about a race is to go into it with low expectations. REALLY low. I only signed up for this race because back in May, I was pestering my sister-in-law Sarah about doing a triathlon. She had been talking about doing one for a couple years, but so far there was no doing. So Sarah said, get on the computer, find a race and let's sign up! She wanted one later in the summer to allow for some training and was more in favor of a woman's only race. Outdoor Divas fit the bill. The only problem with it was it was only a week after the Boulder 70.3. But no matter, I said, we shall triathlon anyway!

So as I mentioned in the 70.3 report, I finished that race, then took a 7:30pm flight to Maryland. Once there, I drank beer, leisurely swam a couple times, experienced a few days of DOMS* and then had a connecting flight back Saturday, getting home around 8:30 pm.

I did not have high hopes of "racing" and kept reminding myself that I was Completing An Event. One nice thing about WithoutLimits races is they start at a much more reasonable hour of 8:00. I got to sleep in until 5:15, and left the house a bit after 6:00. In an astounding bit of coincidence, Sarah and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time.

I started in wave 3, going off around 8:30, Sarah was wave 2, about 5 minutes earlier. I think I noticed being at sea level for a week most during the swim. I felt that I was gasping for breath more than usual. I took an inside route (this counter-clockwise course also favors my left-side breathing) and missed most of the traffic. I think I passed most of the girls in wave 2 somewhere in the lake.

Look, another getting out of the water picture! It looks like there is fat oozing out of my wetsuit, but if you look carefully, there is someone directly behind me. Plus, my zipper is still mostly zipped up and I assure you my wetsuit is not ripped on the sides. I do, however, not have an excuse for my expression.



Sarah was in transition when I got to my bike and I was so happy, I know she was most worried about the swim. I hopped on my bike for the first time in a week and started hammering. My legs did not feel fresh and perky.

One problem with this course is that the 12 mile bike consists of 3 loops. There were about 500 competitors, with a wide range of skill and fitness levels. The end result being that by the 3rd loop, it was very congested. I was passing 4 women at the same time and I saw some sketchy behavior out there, like women passing on the right. No one passed me and even though my legs felt like jelly the whole time, my bike split was 2 minutes faster than the Summer Open Duathlon debacle, and my average power was 12 watts higher.



I started the run a bit hesitantly. Legs felt tired, but not weird tightness or cramping. There weren't too many girls out there yet and I only saw one women in my age group pass me. She ran 4 minutes faster than me so there wasn't a chance that I could try and hang on. It was hard to judge how I was doing since my age group had been split into two waves, the second going in wave 5. Somehow I managed a 28:35 5k, which after the 70.3 disaster I was pretty happy with.



Swim: 14:12
T1: 1:27
Bike: 33:58
T2: 1:08
Run: 28:35
Total: 1:19:19
5th AG (out of 105)
31st overall (out of 477)

I ended up only :25 seconds short of my PR on the course, and considering how beat up I felt I was pretty happy with that. See, lowered expectations! I'd like to really hone in on some speed workouts in the next 6 weeks and tackle this course for the last time this year at Oktoberfest and hopefully shave off a couple of minutes (crap, you see what I'm doing? I'm raising my expectations).

And, of course (and there was never any doubt) Sarah finished too. Yay Sarah!



*DOMS - Delayed-onset muscle soreness. Not to be confused with instant-onset muscle soreness. And oh yeah, it's possible to have both at the same time.

Boulder 70.3 Race Report

Swim: 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles

Yup, I'm just going to jump back in like it hasn't been 8 months since my last post. Lots of stuff has happened. I might fill in some of the gaps, but probably I won't. So here it is in August now and Boulder 70.3 was to be my "A" race of the season. Yet even going into the race I knew I was not going to have my best performance ever. A foot injury in February prevented me from running much and I knew my training was lacking. But I hoped I could at least shuffle through the run and beat my time from 2 years ago.

Normally I don't have many pre-race adventures but I had a doozy this race. This season I have been biking over to the races at Boulder Res. It's about 6 miles and takes me a bit over a half an hour pedaling very easy. This morning, I ran over a nail or something and flatted at 30th and Valmont. PANIC. Now, I'm a very proficient tire changer so I wasn't worried about that per se. My first concern was that I don't leave myself a whole lot of extra time before the race. This race started at 6:30 and transition closed at 6:15. I flatted at 5:35. Once I could breath normally, I changed the tire relatively quickly and did my first ever fill with a CO2 cartridge. During the change I kept calling the house to see if Jeremy could drive up with another spare tube. I think it's just bad karma to ride or race without tire changing equipment. I called at least 10 times and no one woke up. I accepted that Jeremy would not be able to help and finished the ride to the Res. I got there about 6:00 and got my area set up and then pulled out my tube to see if I could patch the hole really quick. I couldn't find the puncture, then one of my rack mates (seeing me on ground trying to blow an inter-tube up with my mouth) asked if I needed any help. I said, "Well, what I need is a new tube." and she said, "Oh, I have 3 extra ones, take mine." I hope she had an extra good race. My teammate Sally gave me another CO2 cartridge and I was back in business.

I was in wave 10 so I didn't start until 7:15. I used the time from when transition closed to my start to stand in a port-a-potty line. I had a very nice chat with a guy from Alaska. My swim was pretty uneventful. I was swimming with a small group of women and stayed on course pretty well. Ironman changed the swim course so that the first leg wasn't directly into the sun and that helped a ton. The only incident worth noting was near the end. I was drafting off another women from my wave on her right side by her calves. She passed a guy who had started 2 wave in front of us and I got stuck in a bottleneck. I did not hit the guy but I might have brushed his shoulder. So I was pretty surprised when he came back with a punch the the ribs. There is no real swim stroke that could have created that hit, it was intentional. I hope he had bad race karma. I made my goal of a sub-40 min swim (which always seemed very reasonable, but I hadn't done in my previous 2 halves).

Here I am on the left exiting the water. It's pretty rare to get an official race picture of any part of the swim:



My bike leg was awesome. If anything, I am glad I raced for this part. I was feeling strong (could have had something to do with actually training on the bike, plus an 8 day bike tour of Oregon in July). I had a race plan and I followed it to the letter. I kept my power where I wanted it and took in all the fluid and nutrition I had planned. I felt strong and smooth. The course is two loops, and on the first loop I passed a guy and he didn't like that. So he re-passed and was really pushing it. His legs were going up and down like pistons and it just hurt to watch. I let him go, then on the same part on the second loop I passed him again. He made one more feeble effort to get me, then dropped back for good. I passed 6 women in my age group on the bike plus lots of others from the other 9 waves. My average cadence was 89 (woot!) and my average (not normalized) power was 126. I rode the second loop faster than the first and my bike split was 8 minutes faster than 2 years ago.



And then came the "run." Right out of transition my left hamstring started cramping. I have never cramped before (though I did have tight calves at the Summer Open duathlon) so I tried to jog it out, hoping I'd loosen up. I didn't. My first mile was over 12 minutes and my hopes for a sub 6:00 hour finish were already dashed (I needed to run about a 2:20 half marathon for that). I was wearing my race belt with Infinite in it and I tried to drink it hoping that the salt would help with the cramps. It didn't, but it made me feel nauseous. Oh, did I mention it was already 90 degrees at this point? I don't do well in the heat under normal circumstances. By mile 4 I was feeling nauseous and started to get dizzy, plus my right quad starting the cramping fun. I really wondered if I was going to DNF. At any rate, ending up in a medical tent was NOT part of the plan, as I was getting on a plane in 7 hours. I started walking even more with the intent to finish uninjured and somewhat healthy.

As usual, running by the finisher chute was depressing. I remember being a spectator last year and wondering why so many people were walking though the Res area where the crowd is. I had thought, "At least jog here people!" Yup, here I was, walking. I really really didn't want to do the second lap. As I was leaving the Res, I saw Jeremy driving in with the boys. He hadn't planned on coming and I was so happy to see him. And then - a miracle occurred. One of my acquaintances (through tri-friend Liz) came by. I had met Lauren at Stroke & Strides but didn't know her very well. She was starting to struggle, as this was her first half Ironman. So we started to run together. We'd pick a landmark that we would run to, then take a walk break with another landmark to start our run. And we chatted. It was great. The second lap seemed to fly by.

Here we are going into the second aid station. Becky and Ariel were volunteering, Ariel is selling me some gatorade.



The first time I went by the photographer, I was walking with my head down. They didn't send me that picture. This time, we decided to jog by for a nice picture:



I'm not sure what our run/walk interval times were (probably about 2 minutes each), but near the end of each run my cramping was almost unbearable and then it was almost relaxed by the time we started running again. Not only did I feel better the second lap, but I ran it faster too. I was sooo happy to be done. Lauren made us sprint the last 1/4 mile and she had more pep so she finished a couple seconds in front of me:



My new BFF Lauren. I cannot imagine how hard this would have been without her:



So overall, not my best race experience. I really thought that if I was really struggling, I could still do at least a 2:35 run. But it did give me new appreciation for how well Ironman Wisconsin had gone, believe me, I NEVER felt as bad as I did today during my full Ironman. So, upward and onward.

Swim: 38:11
T1: 3:06
Bike: 2:49:43 (ave 19.8 mph)
T2: 2:54
Run: 2:48:04 (12:49 miles)
Total: 6:21:58

I only wish I had cleaned my mtn bike sooner

I had another great mountain bike ride today. There's something about mountain biking when it's 30 degrees that is much more enjoyable than road riding at that temperature. Probably it has something to do with averaging 10 mph instead of 16, it just feels warmer.

I headed over to Marshall Mesa again and took the community ditch trail. There was a point about 30 minutes into my ride that I thought I'd better turn back since snow looked imminent, but then it cleared up and was fine:



Then I came back up the mesa and crossed hwy 93 again, met a lot of cows on the west community ditch trail and did the some Spring Break loop as last time. I was planning on retracing my path back to Marshall Mesa, but my arms were way too tired to come back on any more dirt, so I took the road home. 2 hour ride, 18.9 miles.

Brighton 5k Turkey Trot

This week was fairly unremarkable. On Monday I did a 4 mile recover run to get blood circulating through my legs. The 10:40 pace nearly killed me. How can I PR is races and then barely be able to run 2 days later? I was still feeling fatigued at masters and it was the closest I've been to getting out the pool early. Only the reassurance that my lane mates would, in fact, give me crap about it forever kept me in. Peer pressure is a strong force. In the afternoon I had another painful massage on my lower legs. The therapist thinks I went from heel striking to over compensating and hitting too forward on my feet. The wear on my Newtons near the toe would agree. I don't think the Newtons are the problem, exactly, but how I run in them.

On Tuesday I met with a naturopath to discuss other options in acne therapy. She had my hormones tested and felt they were all in normal range, so she suggested that I try following a paleo diet for athletes - pretty much no grains/starches, unless I'm going to workout with in the hour, or it's within the hour apres workout. I was not impressed, I don't like diets and I do like eating starches. Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a shot since it is something I haven't tried yet. I'm also playing around with gluten and dairy free, so I'm going to try to limit my carbs to no gluten.

I wasn't feeling much more motivating on Wednesday so I did my easy run/strider workout. Guilt over not really training this fall pressured me into doing 10 18 second striders rather than my usual 8. And Friday morning I squeezed out 2 more painfully slow miles to justify my gluten free hot cereal in the breakfast.

And on to the race.... Like last year, Becky joined me for a brisk 5k in scenic Brighton. This year I left with plenty of time, did not get lost, and was at the starting line when the gun went off. It was so cold that I had my cuffins pulled over my hands (and watch) so I didn't check my pace until mile 1. Uh oh, 7:55. I don't run 7:55 miles. I did slow down and the remainder of the race was extra painful, but at least I didn't blow up as much as I did at last year's Colder Boulder. I pulled out an 8:22 and then an 8:32 for a new PR of 25:46. And Becky took 2 1/2 minutes off of last year's time with 26:52.



After the race, I checked the results and was completely shocked that I got 3rd place in my age group. I have never podiumed at a running race. And while I try not to be negative, it did seem like my age group was especially under performing at this race. Here's how I would have placed in other female divisions:

9 & under: 1st. Yes!!!! Take that, ankle biters!
20-24: 2nd
25-29: 10th
30-34: 8th
40-44: 6th
45-49: 3rd
50-54: 1st. Woot!
55-59: 4th. Those are some fast old broads.
60-64: 3rd. More fast old ladies.
65-69: 1st! I could beat my mom!
70+: 1st. But a 70 year old ran 26:49. Is that not freaking unbelievable? I hope to still be mobile at 70.

After I saw I won, I had to wait around to collect my medal. I had a breakfast burrito but couldn't eat the free Cold Stone ice cream, even if I wasn't trying for dairy free. My core temperature plummets after winter runs and I was freezing for hours after the race.

Luckily my coach, Mike, ran too and placed 2nd so we waited together. I'm not sure the 90 minutes of my life were worth this, but it is my first real medal that's not just a finisher's medal:

Longmont 10k Turkey Trot

After the Eerie Erie I decided I was ready to start really running again. I was planning on recycling the running program I did last fall - perfect since one of my runs per week was with a group and I never did what was on the plan anyway. I ran Monday and Wednesday after Erie and by Wednesday decided that my Tibialis muscle (runs up the inside of leg under the tibia bone) was unnaturally sore. Actually, I had begun to notice it about 3 weeks ago (from today) but as it neither got worse nor better, I ignored it. And as it had been 2 weeks at that point, I decided to give running a break for a week to see if things got better. Things did not get better, nor did they get worse. And I'm starting to wonder if I'm an injury-hypochondriac or if I'm just really in tune with my body and extra cautious. And speaking of injury - my calves are still a little tight (as in, I feel my heels in the morning, but it doesn't hurt exactly) and I can't tell if that's ok, of if it's a sign that there's still a problem. Anyway, that wasn't exactly clear but I have another appointment with my masochist massage therapist tomorrow and will have a better idea what, if anything, is going on with my lower legs.

By this week I was ready to run again and did a couple short runs in my old Asics. On Tuesday I did a warm up followed by 4 x 400's and it was awful. Well, awful as in hard and painful and not fun. I guess doing 18 sec striders and then jumping into 1:50 intervals is a big jump. Thursday, I just reverted back to my old 8 x 30 left foot strike striders. My lower legs did not feel any different with adding running back in, so I decided to do the Longmont Turkey Trot.

Saturday's temperature was just about perfect for running - somewhere in the mid-30's to '40's. Since I was able to hold an 8:35 pace for the last 2 miles of the Eerie Erie, I wanted to push myself a bit harder this race to see what I was capable of. The course was pretty flat and fast (no dirt roads like Erie) and I was able to hit my first mile right where I wanted it - 8:52. Around miles 2-4 a guy started pacing off of me in right in my blind spot and it helped me bump up the pace a little. I hit miles 3 & 4 around 8:30. I started to get really tired around 5 1/2 miles and I didn't have the kick that I like to have at the end of a 10k, but I didn't drop off too much either.

Mile Splits:
1- 8:52
2- 8:45
3- 8:35
4- 8:33
5- 8:51
6- 8:45
.22- 8:12

All that added up to a new 10k (real 10k - my watch even had it at 6.25 miles) PR - 54:26. Which I'm very excited about, except that next time I'll want to beat it, and it will be hard. Sometimes I think I really enjoy the idea of racing, but when I'm out there doing it, not so much. This race was pretty much a suffer-fest, but as always, after the post race endorphins kicked in, I was already planning the next one.

First Mountain Bike Ride in 8 Years

Yep, me and my 15 year old hard tail were finally reunited. See, I used to mountain bike quite a bit. I'd say 12 years ago I did 30% off road and 70% road riding. Then Jeremy had a mountain bike accident which not only broke his bike, but also caused some expensive and painful dental work. So he gave up mountain biking and my bike went into the shed. Occasionally I'd thought of riding it again, but as years passed, the amount of work to make the bike rideable seemed insurmountable. Finally, I pulled it out this year. I took it over to U-Bikes and asked what would need to happen to make it go. They recommended about $125 worth of work, but thought it would be rideable with some new tubes and the tires pumped up. That all happened about a month ago, and for the last 4 weeks my mountain bike got an upgraded spot in the garage, but the cleaning and tire changing still seemed like too much work. I finally got inspired when I realized that today could very well be the last day of Indian summer and when I got down to it and did the work, it really did only take 45 minutes to have a mountain bike again.

Now the other reason why we stopped mountain biking was that it seemed like too much work. You had to put your bike in your car and go somewhere to ride. With a road bike, you need only point it out of the garage and then there are 100's of miles of possibilities. Today I took the same strategy and pointed my mountain bike out of the garage and rode to the Marshall Mesa trail head in 15 minutes. From there, I rode up the mesa:



And then crossed highway 93 and rode Dowdy Draw to a new section that opened fairly recently, Spring Brook. This trail was a nice loop and though only 3 miles, was really nice single track. I like mountain biking, but I don't like the kind of mountain biking that involves jumping over fallen trees or off 5' high rocks. This kind of mountain biking:



By the time I finished the loop, I needed to just take the Dowdy Draw trail to Elorado Springs and ride home on the road so I could still make it to masters.

And the best part of living is South Boulder is that there are still many many miles of trail that I did not ride today. Hopefully there are still some riding days left this year and I can go a different route. Hey, who knows - maybe I'll even do an Xterra triathlon next year.