Hammering in CO

Well, it has now been 23 days since I arrived in the beautiful city of Denver. I have to say, I do love it, but the training has been hard. Not harder than I expected, per se, but the difficulty has lasted longer than I anticipated.

Everything is pretty slow. The hills and the altitude have to be the hardest part. I could get through the hills, they really aren't THAT bad. In fact, I think I'm pretty good at hills on the bike. I can keep up with some of the locals biking up the hills. Heck, I can beat some of the locals up the hills. But one tough part is the dehydration from the altitude. It's super dry, so no amount of water (or chapstick haha) is enough. I did an 11.8 mile run to prepare for a half marathon I ran on August 18th and MAN going without water was the WORST idea.  I knew there was one water fountain on the trail, so I assumed there would be others. There are a few but not enough. After mile 10, I ran into my house, chugged water and gatorade, and then headed out for 1.8 more just to get in a little more distance.

Whereas I used to expect 18 mph averages on my training rides, 16.5 is really an accomplishment out here. The trail I ride most often twists and turns, goes up and down, so when I'm not climbing or take some bizarre corner (which is virtually always) I have to hammer to keep the pace up.

I have now done the course of a half ironman that I decided to do, twice. Well, not the full course. You can take out one out-and-back portion and cut off about 10 miles, while still covering all the terrain. Last time I averaged a disappointing 16.1 mph doing 48 miles of the course. Today I did 44 miles of the course and averaged 16.5, so I'm pretty happy. In the first hour I covered 19.3 miles, so I think that helped. The rest of the course, other than a middle 20 miles, is pretty much long slow hill after long slow hill. My hamstrings are also feeling incredibly weird/painful so that didn't help towards the end. Hopefully after a taper week that will.. go away. I bought a groupon for a sports massage, so I think I'm going to use it ASAP and hope that will help too.

Funny enough, the only thing that hasn't taken a huge drop is my swimming and it's beginning to become the activity which I most enjoy because it sucks the least. SURPRISE. I joined the Denver Recreation Center, which is nice because it's a ton of rec centers in the area and I can basically go to whichever one I want to swim, even though they all have very limited lap swim hours.

Running has been disappointing like biking. It's amazing how 9:30 pace feels like 9 min pace. Ouch. Plus not being able to get through as many miles without feeling dehydrated and my HR being through the roof. It's tough! I can't get through 4 miles without stopping to walk. It kinda feels like I've gained 20 lbs or something, and I've actually been losing weight (though I'm totally convinced it's because food is expensive haha).

So, it's tough. Once this race is over I think it's time to do some new types of exercise with a short break from the "swim, bike, run" routine. Definitely some HIKING! I'm sure you'll hear about those adventures too.

Watching the Pros

Today I'm writing from the illustrious city of Boulder, CO where I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of some relatively famous men. Haha

The USA Pro Challenge (a sort of US equivalent to the Tour de France, one could say - though that is probably really the Amgen Tour of California... but whatever) passes through today on their 6th and final stage of the race before heading down to Denver for a final time trial stage tomorrow.
I decided to volunteer and so now I find myself maybe 1/2 mile away from one of the sprint points, which is pretty neat...and not too far from the finish either.



Volunteering was pretty exciting. I had a race marshal right by me so... I took pictures when the peloton came by. Oops. There was also a picture of the lead group, but it's not as good.

So after my hours of sitting, and standing, and directing spectators were over, I headed to the center of it all: the race expo on pearl street where I bought myself this sweet poster I'd been eyeing ever since Garmin Sharp put it up on facebook.

I'm glad to say it was only $10, even though it's $20 online. Ohhh yeaahh

I also bought a great commemorative t-shirt that Pearl Izumi made for the event. All the US Pro Challenge tees were $26!! Pearl Izumi had the right idea - they're a local CO company and made sweet men's and women's tees for $20. The crowds flocked to their tent. Plus it's super cute! But quickly Pearl St got aggravating and I was unbearably hungry and feeling pretty tired. I had gone from one end to the other, so I headed back to my car while eating an apple. One of the spectators had extra wrist bands to get to the finish, so I took it and thought "well, let's see how close we can get to Flagstaff." So after driving around a little confused, I found a good parking spot and starting hiking up Flagstaff. Yeah... I couldn't get too close. I was glad I worse sneakers because I think I ended up walking a good 1.5 miles away from my car and up a mountain. There were SO many people who had already made the hike (or bike) up earlier. I was greeted by this as I turned a corner:

Ultimately I stopped and walked back down to the 4k marker because I decided it was the best place to get pictures. I think I got some pretty cool ones:

Including one of George Hincapie, which was neat because it was his final pro road race stage:

He's a local. The company Hincapie is based in Boulder. Everyone knew who he was and was cheering GEORGE as he passed. I then saw him later as he came back down the mountain.

That was good fun, though by the time I got home I was INCREDIBLY hungry.

The next day I biked around Denver a bit, trying out a new trail, but finished downtown to watch the TT. I have lots of pictures, but high lights include:

Jens Voigt, KOM

Tee Jay Van Garderen - 2nd place! 

Levi Leipheimer, last year's winner, and yellow jersey for the day

Tyler Farrar, Sprinter jersey

Taylor Finney, TT winner in 17:25, 32.7 mph

Welcome to Colorado - Let's Climb

I could tell you about altitude acclimation... or the half marathon I think I'm going to do... or that little think called a Half Ironman that I want to do. Or my first ride where I ended up turning around at a beautiful little spot on Cherry Creek.

Cherry Creek Trail

But I'm going to tell you about my SECOND ride in Colorado, with the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club, because it truly tops all others.

In Colorado, I want to join a cycling club - make friends and learn bike routes... race.. the usual. So I looked up the club and they had a ride 30 min away from my house today that was supposed to be "flat" and I thought "good because I'm probably not too ready for the climbing around here."

I anxiously couldn't sleep too well last night - worried about group ride etiquette, forgetting something dumb like my helmet, getting dropped/lost, having to work hard to prove myself.. but I got to the start location 10 minutes early to see... no one. Then a car with a bike pulled in. Then another with two bikes and two men on bikes. Our small group of 6 headed out on a 33-mile ride. There were two other women and I thought "hey, how hard can this be..?"

As we headed out, we let one woman named Sue slowly pace us through a warm-up. We started slowly climbing up the side of a mountain, me at second wheel. Sue yelled back "well, this will be about 6 miles up averaging around 6% grade, gaining 2500 ft." I laughed tentatively. My mind said "Oh crap," my outward attitude said "All right then, guess I'm in for a challenge. Let's do it."

We grinded up and up. Once I was on Sue's left and she motioned for me to go around a group we were gaining on. Naturally, I put in a little more effort to speed up around that group only to find myself riding off the front of the entire group we were with. Oops. I stopped when I seemed to be at a reasonable grade to start up again, and let them catch up.

I rode the rest of the way up with another woman named Mary Ellen, who is a few years older than I am and also new to Denver. We talked in between gasps for air, constantly wondering why we hadn't reached the top yet.

13.7 miles from the start of our ride, after much grunting, groaning, whining, and VERY low cadences we reached the top of the mountain. I started losing Mary Ellen on the steeper climbs toward the very end, but just as the top evened out and I eased off for water, she caught up and we coasted to a stop together to find THE CYCLIST STOP! Complete with free cookies, gatorade, and water all for a requested donation.

Making it to the top of that Rocky Mountain "foothill" was probably the single hardest thing I've ever done. I was never so happy to see a chocolate chip cookie and water. I think this is the most work my small chain ring has ever had.

We continued on after a generous break. The descent was fierce. We were braking and easily looking at 35 mph, whipping around corners - some with little room for error if you didn't desire to go flying down the side of a mountain. This descent was complete with a few sharp hills when suddenly one must be in the smallest gear to make it up.

It was painful and incredible all at the same time. I can't believe I'm still alive but I ALSO can't believe how little my legs hurt right now... 

At the end, Sue looked down at her computer to notify us that we had experienced between 3-8% grade hills on the ascent, it was over 10 miles long, and we had in fact gained nearly 3700 ft in our ride. 

To top it ALL off, I also somehow got a free t-shirt and Sue bought Mary Ellen and me pizza for lunch.  I guess that's a pretty good reward. That and being able to say I did it!