After many delays, I arrived in Denver at 3:30 am on Thursday. I woke up later in the AM and was so eager to run that I forgot about hydration and food. I headed out and was surprised to not feel the altitude too intensely during the 25 min I was out. It was tough, though I figured more due to not being physically prepared in other ways.
On Saturday, I woke up early in Boulder and head out for about an hour. I did 5 min of warming up on a nice gradual hill. The plan was 8 min repeats and spent my first repetition pushing up a little incline. When it came to the next I found myself facing a huge hill (which I later determined to be 1 mile long), gasping for air, struggling to keep my HR in a normal place. This involved a bit of walking. I noticed a stable 174 bpm as I walked up the hill at a quick pace. Unbelievable. It took a lot of motivation and willingness to compromise my 8-min intervals to finally get through 66 min of slow suffering. I finally met the altitude.
Yesterday I got out for my last run - a 35 min struggle through the slight hills of Colorado Springs. Though everything was a low grade hill, it was still tough to maintain any normal heart rate. I spent all 35 min running until my HR reached 175, then walking down to 150.
I got to stop by a local bike store in Denver where I learned about bike routes, one of which includes a trail that is about 2 min away from one of my potential housing options - SO COOL. I also talked to the guy who worked there about cycling clubs/teams and a time trial series in the area. Yeah, I'm ready.
Today we headed back to Colorado Springs for a quick visit to the USOC training center, which was very cool. I saw some people swimming who I am CONVINCED are triathletes. I was thoroughly impressed by their freestyle stroke. I want someone to teach me! This whole visit got me that much more psyched for the games which start in 3 days!
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| I really liked this TT art at the USOC training center |
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