Back in Boulder

After arriving in Boulder later Wednesday night, I have been catching up with work, sleep, laundry, you name it. I have also been trying to take it easy with my training as I will be going into a big block leading into Worlds next week. Not too much exciting to report other than the boys rocked their collegiate mountain bike race in Wyoming and U of M, University of Colorado and the Lions all won this weekend...Whoooaaaa! Oh yes, and Shep gets back on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun in Cancun

The last few days in Cancun were absolutely perfect...minus getting fried like a lobster. I needed a that forced rest we all take to take and that was the perfect opportunity. I had some great downtime, good chats with my mom, and met some interesting individuals. Check out some of the random pics we took while enjoying the weather and scenery :)

Cancun 70.3 Race Report

4:52 – 33:24 Swim, 2:33 Bike, 1:38 Run

1^st 20-24 AG, 8^th Overall Female

Racing in Mexico – Round 2!!! Not too sure this was the year to race down there, but hey, it’s all in good fun, right?!? Absolutely.

At any rate, the preparation leading into this race was great until about 2 weeks out. I had put in some big weeks at some very high altitude and never really recovered too well, hence putting myself in what us endurance athletes like to call a ‘hole’. After digging myself out of ‘the hole’, I had a stellar taper the week of the race and a great attitude going into it. After lots of running around, tying up loose knots with each of my clients and the stress of packing, I finally made my way down to Cancun where I met my Mom at the airport. She flew in from Michigan and was ready to have a fun little vacation since she had never been down there before. We walked outside and it was absolutely gorgeous. Well at least for the first 5 minutes. Then, it just started down pouring like I had never seen before. There were gigantic puddles and flooding everywhere. I started to get a little worried as the forecast was not predicting such stellar weather. However, I stayed optimistic and when we arrived at our hotel, which was beautiful, I met up with fellow teammate and good friend Laura Tingle and the rain finally stopped.

Unfortunately, when I woke up on Saturday morning, the day before the race, it was completely dumping rain once again with some added hurricane-like winds. Let’s just say that those conditions never let up from 6am-9pm that day…talk about stress. I ran on the treadmill in the hotel in the morning, swam in the ocean with waves crushing over me in the afternoon and then had to ride on a bus from the hotel to transition with my bike (covered in plastic bags) and drop it off for the race the next day. I definitely did not sleep well that night.

Maybe that is why I felt like such crap race morning! Imagine that. Lots of stress plus little sleep…hmmm. Crappy for me, when my tummy doesn’t feel so great, there is no possible way for me to force food down. So, I just take the caloric deficit and pray that I can refuel during the bike. Luckily, when we arrived at the race site, the condition were not too bad, just a little windy. However, windy conditions in an ocean swim usually lead to lots of chop and giant waves. Oh yeah, and that’s exactly what we got. Because I was having such a hard time sighting over the waves, I mistook a yellow kayak for a buoy and swam a good 200m off course – grrrr. So after yet another unsatisfying swim (I haven’t had ONE yet this year), I was able to get my head back into the game and get on my bike, eat some food and just hammer. The course was flat and fast. With my Bontrager disc and 6.5 Aeolus front wheel, I was flying and buzzing by people left and right as my legs just kept feeling stronger and stronger. It’s feelings like that that make racing so much fun. After being engulfed by a giant peloton of 20 or so people chitchatting, I decided to try and put out a solid effort and get rid of them as I was not going to get a penalty for drafting. Well that lasted a good 10 minutes until I got swallowed again. By this time, the sky had completely opened up and started shooting rain at speeds that made the drops actually hurt as they hit my arms and face – now try riding behind a group of 20 egotistical men who refuse to let you by but when they pass you slow way down so you’re forced to be stuck behind them…ugh. After several ‘mini hurricanes’ (at least they felt like it – not that I’ve been in one) and some road that was only a few centimeters under water, I decided to just put my head down, pass the pack of guys who were completely driving me nuts and go after the last 10 miles in a pretty strong headwind. Mission successful and when I arrived in T2, the rain had stopped and I was ready to rock the run. The first couple minutes are always so darn awful, but that feeling usually dissipates very quickly. As I was finally finding my rhythm and getting a good pace together to lock and load, boom – another massive downpour unleashes. I just kept telling myself that at least it’s not 110 degrees with 100 percent humidity as I’m trying to run through enormous puddles with soaking shoes that feel like 10lb bricks on my feet! ‘Remember, it’s ALL IN GOOD FUN!!!!’ – I repeated this over and over. And it was a lot of fun. I had a decent run that was very average time-wise but I only got faster as the miles ticked by which is a great sign.

The race overall was an absolute blast and a fun experience. The spectators and volunteers were absolutely amazing, as always, and even though I didn’t quite get those times I was hoping for, it just leaves me more hungry to get even better ones later this season at Worlds. Now that the race is over, it’s time for that little vacation with my Momma which she deserves after standing in that crazy weather all day!!! Cancun, here we come…

To the South I go!

It's 4:30am here in Colorado right now. I'm up, drinking my coffee, getting the final few things organized and packed and then will soon be heading to the bus station to catch the 5:30am shuttle to the airport! WHOOOOAAAA!

I know I really shouldn't have, but I just took a sneak peak at the weather in Cancun and unfortunately it is currently raining and has a forecast of rain for the next 10 days :( I'm really trying to keep my hopes up, but it might end up being a wet one this year. Oh well, at least I'm getting away for a bit and able to spend a few days with my Momma.

Stay tuned for an update, I'm assuming I will have internet at the hotel down there! Train hard all you Kona-bound people but BE CAREFUL!!!

P.S. Mercedes is the most amazing roommate/massage therapist EVER! She gave me the best rub in the world last night and my body feels freakin' awesome! Thanks Girl :)

I love tapering!

As annoying as it is to rest and recover, it really does do the body good :)

Things have been going much better this week and I'm super excited to get things packed and ready to go tomorrow. I've never been to Cancun, but if the rain can hold off, I reckon it will be a really fun trip! Must get on the bike, grab some peanut butter from Justin's at the Farmer's Market and head over to the Shenk/Zeiger household for Mark's birthday!!! Busy, busy, busy...

T- one week!!!

After a little blip in the system, I think I'm back and heading in the right direction. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning were a bit on the rough side. Shitty training, shitty attitude and shitty things happening outside of triathlon. Lots of complaining, lots of eating and thanks to Blake, lots of watching the TV show 'House'. Yes, we rented seasons 1-3 and have been watching it nonstop!

Kiel and Blake finally dragged me out of the house on Saturday for my ride and run and then after my long run this morning and some more episodes of House, we all went and played a little golf. Thanks to JZ, I have a stellar taper for this week that will hopefully get me ready to rumble for Cancun. I have a much better outlook going into this week than I did a few days ago and I'm super excited to get back to it!

Fall or Not?

The weather in Boulder is just so weird sometimes. The other day it was pissing rain and a high of 50*. I was certain that Fall was on it's way. However, the past two days have been in the high 80s during the day and the 50s in the early morning. How in the world do you plan for this?!?! I seriously think the second the sun comes out, the temperature changes at least 20*. Quite obnoxious if you're heading out for an early morning mountain ride...which is what I'm about to do. I know it's going to be freezing when I start, it will be hot while I do intervals uphill, then chilly on my way down...grrr!!! Okay, I'm really not complaining, I'm just trying to think of something to write as I gobble down my breakfast and ignore reading the news.

Training has been going very well and I'm definitely looking forward to my taper next week and a little vacation with my momma in Cancun....whooooaaaaa :)

Training at 10,000 feet is FUN!!!

It was definitely a weekend to remember and lots of catching up and recovering to do...reason for the delayed post.

Saturday I had a killer swim, a great ride up in the mountains and an enjoyable run off the bike. Usually after a big day I take a long nap and try to recover as much as possible, but instead, I decided to head up to Pike's National Forest (10,000+ft) to go camping with Mercedes and Amanda. After driving straight up for 20 some miles on a bumpy dirt road, we found a nice little spot to set up camp. We made a sweet fire, some fixings for dinner and had a very pleasant evening chatting about anything and everything. I woke up early on Sunday morning and went out for my long run on the most amazing rolling terrain at altitude EVER. It was probably one of the best runs I've had this year. Afterwards, we all went hiking in Garden of the Gods down in Colorado Springs and out to lunch at a little Mexican place downtown. I was completely wiped by the time we got back, but worth every second. I'm seriously contemplating doing it again this weekend in Winter Park while the boys race their mountain bikes :)

It was a lot colder than we thought so Merci is changing into warm pants...

Cooking time.

Amanda and Apache kickin' it

Apache getting a nice long brushing

Eating my Justin's Nut Butter...yummy :)

What Pike's Peak looked like on our way down!

Hiking in Garden of the Gods

Yes, I am a huge loser...but I love it!

Coming together

So maybe a random day off is a good thing...duh, of course it's a good thing when your body tells you to stop and you actually do :) After a solid day of eating and a killer massage from Merci, I was able to pull it together for a solid day on Thursday. Even though my track times weren't what I was aiming for, I worked really hard to complete the session as consistent as possible with the goal of trying not to be lapped by all the crazy Olympic Japanese athletes out there in their tracksuits running their little legs off. If you live in Boulder, you know exactly what I'm talking about! After a solid swim at lunchtime I hit the trainer for a hard bike session and nailed it...actually I was surprisingly pushing way more wattage than I was supposed to :)

Friday was a decent day as well. Great hill run up to NCAR in the morning then a little work and a swim at noon which I struggled to finish due to lack of energy and food from earlier, however, got it done and relaxed and ate the rest of the day...love it.

Now to the pool for a little swim, a long ride in the mountains and a run off the bike!

Not very exciting!

I apologize for not posting anything recently, but there really hasn't been too much going on in the last couple days...

* Sunday - picked the boys up from their 14 hour epic mountain bike ride from Breckenridge to Denver (check out Shep's blog for pics and details...pretty cool)

* Monday - Overhauled my TT bike which was pretty hilarious

* Tuesday - Run, work, swim, work, bike, work, eat lots of food

* Wednesday - Drove Shep and Brett to the airport so they can lead bike tours in France for a month (yes, I'm sooooooo jealous) then worked, sat on my ass and ate ALL day. I hate when I do that. Oh well.

I'm heading to the track to get in my workouts from yesterday so hopefully I'll get a little more focused and motivated after a good session!

Random

Good times...

You think you have a lot of bikes...

...but if your garage doesn't look like this, then you definitely DO NOT!!! Unbelievable :)