TriathLONG!

It's done - I finished the 5430 Long Course yesterday with a total time of 6:55:07! It was a great experience and surprisingly doable (though definitely a challenge). The key factors seemed to be pacing myself, staying hydrated, taking in enough calories and electrolytes, and keeping a calm mind.

Pre-Race

The night before, I had one of the best nights of sleep I've ever had before a race and probably the best night of sleep I'd had in the last couple weeks. Perhaps I owe this to my plan of taking care of all logistics the day before, so I didn't have do much besides pick up my race packet and lay around watching The West Wing. My brain wasn't still reeling with mental to-do lists and reminders, so it was easier than usual to fall asleep around 9:30. I woke up once at 2:30, but went right back to sleep and didn't even hit snooze when my alarm sounded at 4:15.

I got to the transition area and found a spot in the racks for Wave 10. It was right near the Porta-Potties, so it didn't smell that great for 5am, but at least it made it easier to find my bike during transitions. The girl who racked her bike next to me tied a fake Gerber daisy around our rack as a marker. Gerber daisies are my favorite flower, so this was a nice addition to the transition set up.

For a race of this distance, there was more transition gear and steps to think of - mostly related to food and staying comfortable. I was afraid of forgetting something important, so I decided to stuff the transition items I was most afraid of forgetting into my shoes. Going on to the bike, I didn't think I would forget my socks, helmet, sunglasses, or bike gloves, but I was worried I would forget to put plenty of Cliff Shot Blocks in my back pockets. Likewise, going into the run, I knew I could remember my hat and race number, but I thought I might not remember to throw on more sunscreen, apply anti-chafing lotion, and grab more food. This strategy worked pretty well.

Here's me in my Porta-Potty-Proximate transition slot. I usually wear this same T-shirt before all of my races - the big, important ones anyway. This shirt was from the Corpus Christi "Swashbuckler's" Beginner's Triathlon, my first ever multi-sport race. It wasn't even a full sprint distance - just a 200 yard swim in a pool, a 10 mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run. I did it with my helmet on backwards and almost no air in my tires (this was before I realized you were supposed to pump your tires before every ride). I wear it as a little security blanket and a reminder of how far I've come.

Swim - 1.2 miles - 42:26

My wave (the very last) didn't start until 7:15, forty-five minutes after the gun for the first wave. This gave me plenty of time to put on my wetsuit and mill around on the beach before getting in the warm-up. I was chilly so I was excited to finally warm-up in both senses of the word and plopped in the water around 6:55. This is the point when I usually start to get nervous, sitting in the water, anticipating the start. But yesterday, I felt remarkably calm. I've done rehearsals for this distance twice before (though, never with the full run) and both times I remember sighing to myself while waiting in the water, "Man, this is the beginning of a very, very long day." My mind didn't go there Sunday and, while I'd like to think it was because I felt so confident in my training and preparation, I think most of the credit goes to that FANTASTIC night of sleep.

Women 30-34 shared a wave with Men 20-24. I'm not sure I've ever started in a wave with guys before, so I wasn't quite sure where to place myself. I put myself about mid-pack, slightly further back than usual. Although it was nice and cloudy for the earlier waves, the sun came out just in time for me to spend yet another morning in Boulder squinting in search of the buoys. The start was a little more chaotic than I've had in awhile. For the first 50 meters there were people on top of me and all around me. I eventually carved out spot for myself and felt pretty good. The water was calm and I didn't have any panic attacks that my wetsuit was strangling me like during last month's Boulder Peak. Swimming is by far my strongest of the three sports, but I didn't think it would be worth it to spend too much energy hammering out a super-fast swim time. Mentally, I thought of the swim as a warm-up and made a conscious effort to cruise through the swim and feel fresh going on to the bike. The one positive to starting last was that I didn't have to worry about different-colored swim caps from later waves creeping in on me - if I saw another colored cap, it meant I was catching them. By the last stretch of buoys, I was almost completely surrounded by red and blue caps (my wave wore white) so I figured I was making decent time. I cranked the speed a little for the last stretch and ran up the hill to the transition area.

Bike - 56 miles - 3:26:09 (16.3 mph)

The bike started out with a slight hiccup - I had barely turned out of the reservoir when I switched gears and my chain fell off. I might have jinxed myself the day before when I thought to myself that I hadn't had to adjust my chain in awhile and maybe I should practice that before the race. I did not end up practicing and instead got to practice right there on the course. Luckily it only took about 30 seconds to fix and, since I was just getting started, I didn't lose much rhythm or momentum.

My main goals on the bike were to stay hydrated and re-fuel regularly and to push it as much as I could without killing my legs. I set my watch to beep every 5 minutes to remind me to eat and drink - I drank water at every beep, drank Gatorade at every other beep, and ate a Shot Block at every third beep. I doubt I kept that rotation exactly, but overall it worked pretty well. The first 12 miles (of the 28 mile loop) are mostly a steady incline, then a few miles of awesome downhill, then it flattens out with a slight incline towards the end. I had an easier time with the uphill part than the last time I practiced it. I was able to stay in my big ring almost the entire time, dropping into the small ring occasionally to get up some of the hills. At one point during the second loop, I realized that I hadn't switched back to my big ring once a hill had flattened out and I was so annoyed at the speed I must have lost that I stayed in the big ring, stood up, and powered up the next hill. This was probably a mistake as it resulted in a cramp that lasted the remainder of the bike ride. I spent the rest of the time trying to make it go away. A cramp isn't so bad on the bike, but I knew it would be really uncomfortable on the run. I stopped taking in calories for awhile and just focused on small sips of water and deep yogic breathing. It didn't feel completely gone by the time I dismounted, but I didn't notice it at all once I started running.

Even though my second loop was much more uncomfortable than the first, I managed to keep a pretty consistent pace, finishing each loop with an average speed of 16.3 mph. The last time I did this ride at race pace, it took me 3:33, so I was happy for the 7 minute improvement and for an average speed above 16 mph.

Run - 13.1 miles - 2:35:44 (11:54/mi)

My quads were definitely feeling the burn as I got ready for the run. I headed out of the transition area trying my best to ignore the many people already finished and finishing and focused on the task at hand. My absolute only goals during the run were to (1) stay sane and (2) keep cool. I had planned and practiced running 5:1 intervals -- run for 5 minutes, walk for 1 -- and set my Garmin to beep accordingly. I adjusted the display so it only showed me how long I had left in each interval. I didn't even want to think about my pace. Although I felt a little sheepish stopping to walk midway through mile 1, I was happy to have the break. The first couple miles were tough, but eventually I settled into it. I drank water and Gatorade at every aid station and also grabbed ice to put in my hat and ice water sponges to stick inside my sports bra.

I could tell I was keeping a pretty good pace on my run-intervals, but I kept doing the walk-breaks nonetheless. I adjusted the timing of the walk-breaks occasionally, mostly to accomodate hills and aid stations. I felt so strong that I wondered if it was silly of me to walk periodically. But, I decided that this was cocky - the reason I felt so strong was because I was taking the time to walk. I'd much rather walk on purpose throughout than go to hard and be forced to walk out of necessity. Plus, the mental benefit of breaking the run into six-minute segments was incalculable.

Finishing the first loop and going into the second was a little challenging, just because most people running around me were on their second loop and going into the finish. The crowd was cheering, "Keep going - you're almost there," but I still had 6.5 miles to go. I had prepared myself for this and kept my head high when asking a volunteer which way to go to continue for a second loop. I was totally fine, but then someone in the crowd recognized that I was still going, yelled out my race number and told me I looked strong. It sounds silly, but that random support from a stranger made me so emotional I thought I was going to cry and was fighting back tears for the next mile.

I think I enjoyed the run more than any other leg, which is surprising because it was the one I was most terrified of. I just couldn't believe how strong and capable I felt for most of the half-marathon. It did get hard again towards the end - I thought I was going to cry again at mile 12, half because I couldn't believe I had run that far and half because I didn't want to keep running to the finish line. Once I got off the dirt trail around the Rez and hit the parking lot for the last three-quarters of a mile, I wouldn't let myself take any more walk-breaks. At long last, I veered into the finishers chute and saw my awesome cheering section of friends and family as I crossed the line. Awesome feeling!

I finished with an overall time of 6:55:07. I was predicting a time of around 7 hours, but secretly worried it was going to take me closer to 7:30. I was delighted to come in sub-7.

When you cross the line at an Ironman, they announce your name and say "You . . . are . . . an Ironman!" They don't say anything like that at a Half-Ironman, because the rhetoric doesn't quite work. But hey, I'll say it. I'm half an Iron(wo)man, and that ain't bad!

Pre-Race Prep and Food

As I type, I am 1 day, 8 hours, 20 minutes, and 55 seconds from the start of the 5430 Long Course - my first half ironman!

In order to be as rested and relaxed as possible for the big day, I'm focusing my entire weekend around it. Basically, I'm trying to get every little chore and errand done today so I don't have to worry about anything Saturday but picking up my race packet, hydrating, eating well, and getting to bed early. Right now, I'm watching DVDs of The West Wing (late to the party, but glad to be here!), folding laundry, laying out all my gear for Sunday, and doing some cooking.

I've been cooking a lot of vegetables in the oven lately. It all started when I got a craving for Parmesan chicken a couple weeks ago and tried a recipe I found online. I like to overcook and have plenty of leftovers to re-heat the rest of the week, so I made four chicken breasts. While it was great out of the oven, the chicken was not nearly as good after being nuked (way too dry). I love eggplant, and figured it would hold up much better in the microwave, so I applied the same recipe to eggplant. It was AWESOME! Very yummy without much effort. The only problem was that I wanted to eat it all and it was much harder to save any for leftovers.

After making that a couple times, I decided to branch out to other vegetables. Here's what I made earlier:



















Eggplant, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and Brussels sprout parmigiana! I'm not sure how healthy this is, but at least I'm getting my veggies. And making it was really easy. I just chopped everything, dipped each piece in butter, and lightly coated each with a mixture of breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, dried parsley, and garlic powder. I baked them in the oven at 350 for about an hour with foil covering the pan.











This was my first time eating Brussels sprouts and I thought they were quite good. Neither they nor the cherry tomatoes really needed the crusting (nor did it stick well), but it was a fun little experiment.

For my "last supper" tomorrow evening, I'm opting for something a little healthier. I'm making eggplant and zucchini again, but no butter or Parmesan crusting. I tossed them in the oven with a light coating of olive oil and a sprinkling of parsley and garlic powder. In addition, I'm going to have some ground turkey and tomato sauce with whole wheat pasta. (I'm staying at a friend's house in Boulder tomorrow night and bringing my pre-race meal with me, ergo the need to cook it tonight). The experts say to have a big lunch the day before a race and then a modest-sized dinner. This meal should give me some vitamins, some lean protein, and some "good" carbohydrates and (I hope) will leave me feeling energized Sunday morning!

Boulder Peak

Yesterday was the Boulder Peak - my second Olympic distance tri and my first time ever racing the same tri in a different year. Warning - this post is really long.

Goals

When I first joined CWW, my coach gave me (and everyone else) a little zip-up pouch with a very specific purpose. She reminded us that when doing a triathlon, there is so much gear to gather - goggles, wetsuit, bike shoes, helmet, running shoes, water bottles, etc. But, in the haste of gathering everything, it's important not to forget the reason that you are there. Thus, she gave us the little pouches to hold perhaps the most important thing - our goals. It's all about the power of visualizing what you want to accomplish and committing it to writing. If you write it down, it will happen. (Though goals should be realistic and focused on you - who wins or how you place depends on who else shows up, not you.) I forgot to write down my goals before the 5430 Sprint last month, and perhaps that's why I felt so discombobulated and disappointed afterward. I thought of goals in my head before the race, but it's not the same. Also, my goals were number oriented, which is just a set-up for disappointment.

The goals I wrote down for the Boulder Peak were:

-Have fun and work hard!
-Enjoy and revel in the fact that you are a triathlete!
-Appreciate the crowd, the views, and fellow racers
-Push it from Rez to Olde Stage
-Crank it up Olde Stage - relax and breathe
-Run so you will be sore Monday
-Smile and wave at CWW teammates and coaches when you cross the finish!

The race t-shirt this year had a similarly inspirational message: "Training at ALTITUDE means i get up everyday BELIEVING i have the CONFIDENCE to SWIM 1.5k across the REZ . . . KNOWING i have FUELED my body enough to BIKE 42k and POWER up OLDE STAGE . . . and REALIZING that no matter how HOT it gets out there, i will hit the 10k RUN with EVERYTHING i have left in ME and i WILL cross that FINISH line!"

The theme of this race for me was having fun, doing my best, and not worrying about the numbers. I did have a few numbers in the back of my mind and was worried that I might finish 15 - 20 minutes slower than last year. But, I ended up easily finishing in the same ballpark as last year, which I felt really good about.

Swim

At last year's Peak, my age group was in the very last swim wave. I didn't start until about an hour and a half after I had to be out of the transition area. This year, I was in the second wave, starting at 6:40, only 20 minutes after the transition area closed, so less time to wait around and get nervous. I hopped in the water right away to warm up and then stood to listen to the Star Spangled Banner while the sky-divers parachuted down with a huge American flag. I was really excited at this moment and glad to be doing the race.

The first wave was most of the older age groups together, so there was a 10 minute gap between their start and ours to give them a head start (all other waves were 5 minutes apart). The first wave got a lead kayak that steered toward the buoys through the glare of the Boulder sun and we got a lead kayak too, since the swimmers from the first wave were 10 minutes ahead. The course was kind of a pentagon shape (with the fifth edge being the shoreline between the swim start and swim finish). The first leg of the swim, I just tried to follow the kayak and the streak of the sun in the reservoir, conveniently masking the buoys. One buoy, I literally did not see until I was a few feet away from it. Once I got to the first turn, I was astounded by how clearly I could see the buoys now that they were out of the sun. I thought to myself, this is almost too easy! After the second turn, into the third pentagon leg, I started to freak out a little bit. Right before the swim started, I was thinking about how thirsty I was. The day before at the packet pick-up, the race director was talking about how important it was to take water on the bike because you'll likely leave the swim deydrated, especially if you wear a wetsuit. I started obssessively thinking about how my wetsuit was dehydrating me and constricting me and it even occured to me to wave down a kayaker, strip off my wetsuit, and hand it to them to take it to shore for me. But, I tried to put that out of my head. During this third leg, I started to see white swim caps from the wave ahead of me, which meant I was catching people with a 10 minute head start. But then, I also started seeing purple caps from the wave behind me starting to infiltrate. I knew that this wasn't going to be my best swim, but thought my time would be typical for me. Once I made the third turn and could see the red arches of the finish and cranked up the speed.

I ran out of the water and up to the transition area and was shocked when I saw the timer clock: 45:39. What? Subtracting 10 minutes to account for when my wave started, that meant I had a time of 35:39. My swim time at last year's race was 29:26 (though I remembered it as 26-something). Either way, 5-10 minutes is a HUGE amount of time when it comes to swimming and it really stunned me that I had gone so slowly. But, when I got into the transition area, about the same number of bikes were still there as usually are when I come in from the swim. And, as I was putting on my bike gear, I saw a teammate come in who usually finishes the swim a couple minutes after me, so I figured something must have been off with either the swim course or the timer. (Many people had the same experience with their swim time and it seems like the course was a bit long.)

Bike

I did my best to put my swim time out of my mind and headed out on my bike. Even though I didn't write down a goal for bike speed, I knew that I had averaged 15.1 mph last year and came in two minutes behind the 78-year-old nun from Spokane, WA. This year, I was determined to beat that nun's time!

To give you a sense of the bike course:










It is a steady climb for 5 miles, then about an 800 ft elevation change over the span of two miles - the infamous climb up Olde Stage Road. After that, it's all down hill, rolling hills, easy cheese. I've practiced that hill about 5 times this year and I know that for the worst part of it, I hover between 3-4mph. I knew that I would be able to make up a lot of that speed on the downhills, but I also didn't want to go in to the steep climb with too much of a speed deficit. Ergo, one of my goals was to push that gradual incline the leads up to Olde Stage and not lose too much time.

It was perhaps a blessing in disguise that my cadence sensor wasn't picking up. Usually, I aim for a cadence between 80-90 rpm and shift gears accordingly so I have the most efficient pedal stroke possible. But, I can pretty much do it by feel now - I know when I'm spinning too easily and when I'm grinding too hard. I realized about halfway through the gradual incline that I was still in my big ring (harder to pedal, but propels the bike further and faster). I think I stayed in the big ring much longer than all the times during my practice rides and I think it helped me rack up the average speed I wanted going into Olde Stage.

I finally got to the hardest part of the hill and just focused on breathing and pedalling one stroke at a time. There were huge crowds cheering us on and a big sign for CWW. It was definitely grueling, but I had practiced it enough that it didn't even feel that hard. When I got to the top, there was another CWW sign that said, "You are one tough cookie!" (My coach even drew a picture of a cookie.) After that, it was flying time, down the hills, which was fun on my new, lighter bike. I took me until about mile 20 of 26, but by then I could tell from my computer that I was safely out of "nun territory" and ended up finishing with an average mph of 15.6 with a time of 1:40:09 - almost two minutes faster than Sister Madonna Buder's time from last year! Suck it, Sister! (Just kidding - I think you're awesome.)

Run

Towards the end of the bike, I tried to visualize how good it was going to feel to run after the hilly bike ride. I'm not sure if it helped, but I transitioned from the bike and was off. I gave myself about half a mile to work-out the jelly in my legs and settle into a comfortable, doable pace. When I looked down at my watch, I was glad to see 10:23/mi. It felt more like an 11-11:30/mi, so I was really happy that I felt able to sustain a sub-11 minute mile pace. It did get hard at parts. I walked through the water stations at each mile so I could get little breaks and have something to look forward to. Between mile 2 and 3, I freaked out a little. It was like I stepped outside of myself and looked at what I was doing. I started thinking, "What the hell am I doing? How am I going to get out of this?" I was able to refocus and just keep running for the most part, but I never quite reached the zen of "I'm racing right now, it sucks, but just take one step at a time and it will be over soon."

I did fall back to an 11:00+/mi pace several times, but I was able to think "I need to pick it up and run a little faster" and have my body actually respond. It was nice, because often my body says, "That's great that you'd like to run faster, but it ain't happening." I kept telling myself what I wrote in my goals - you've got to make sure you'll be sore tomorrow. (I felt really disappointed in myself the day after the sprint because I wasn't very sore, which made me feel like I hadn't given 100%). The last mile was probably the slowest, but I cranked it up to 9min/mi when I saw the finish line (and my teammate and coaches). The announcer called my name and city, which is always an exciting touch, and the race volunteers handed me the wet "Boulder Peak Finisher" towel (this race's equivalent of a medal). I finished with a 10:43/mi pace and a run time of 1:06:23 (about a minute and a half faster than last year). Oh, and I am definitely sore today!

My overall time was 3:29:16. About three minutes slower than last year, but that seems to be because of my inexplicably slower swim. Had my swim time been on par with my time last year, I would have beat my previous time by 2-3 minutes. It was most imporant to me to make improvements on the bike and run legs. I was also glad to prove that I haven't majorly regressed since last year, which was the main thing I was worried about.

Overall, it was a great race and I met all of my goals. Just a few more weeks of hard training until the Long Course on August 9th.

5430 Sprint

My first tri of the three-part series in Boulder was yesterday. Overall it went fine. It wasn't my best effort or best race, but it wasn't my "A" race either. Yesterday was a nice warm-up to the longer distances later this summer that I really care about -- the Boulder Peak and the Long Course.

The swim was nice and easy. No major waves, panics, or collisions with fellow racers. The only slight hiccup was that I didn't have a good understanding at the course ahead of time. With the glare of the sun, it usually takes a couple minutes before I can sight the buoy and know where I'm heading. Before that happens, I just follow the crowd. I finally spotted the triangle shaped buoy, thinking that was the turning point. Once I got there, everyone else was still swimming straight ahead, so I figured I must have gotten it wrong. Luckily, following the crowd worked and I eventually made it to the second buoy, which was the actual turning point.

The bike was probably the highlight for this race. Though I'm still worst at cycling of the three sports, I improved the most on this leg. The course (17 miles) was a slight, but definite uphill for the first five or six miles, then mostly downhill with a few rolling hills for the next six, then a mostly uphill, though not as steep, climb back to the transition area. I had practiced the exact course two weeks ago at my team's rehearsal. During the rehearsal, I was really hoping to have an average speed of at least 16 mph, but I ended up averaging 15.9 mph. Urgh! So my main race goal was to average 16mph+ on the bike portion. For the first third of the race--the uphill portion--my average speed hovered between 12 and 13 mph. I was worried I wouldn't be able to overcome that deficit, but ended up making good use of the downhills once I got there. I even caught my speed at 31 mph a couple times. Towards the end of the descent I had an average speed of about 17.1 mph. I was worried that the final miles uphill would lower my average a lot, but I ended up with a final average speed of 16.7 mph! Woo hoo!

I had a pretty quick transition to the run (read: no bathroom break needed). I don't know if it was because I pushed harder than usual on the bike, or because I just wasn't feeling it, but my run wasn't quite up to par for that distance. During the rehearsal, I averaged 10:10 min/miles and was hoping to get closer to a 10 minute mile if not sub-10. Yesterday my pace was 10:30 min/mile. I'm really not sure if I just didn't have anything left to give or if I just wasn't motivated to dig deep and push through.

I think my feelings about the run explain why I've wanted to move up to longer distances in recent years. Since it's doubtful I'll ever mutate into a speedy machine, most of my satisfaction from doing these races comes from enjoying the course and the crowd and just finishing. Now that I've finished the sprint distance several times over, I know I can do it, and "just finishing" doesn't do as much for me anymore. As much as I'm dreading the upcoming 10k following a 24 mile bike and (yikes!) the half-marathon after a 56-mile bike, I think finishing will probably seem a sufficient accomplishment. The Boulder Peak will be a little trickier mentally because I did the course last year and will likely be a little disappointed if I don't beat, tie, or come close to my previous time. But for the half-ironman, I'll be happy if I manage to limp across the finish line before they close down the course.

My overall time was 1:55:28. My other goal was to finish in less than two hours, so yay! In my age group of 111 women, I was 30th out of the water, 84th on the bike, and 88th on the run for a final placing of 73/111. Not bad and fairly typical for me. As the race director said during the awards ceremony, Boulder is a tough place to compete. Most of the podium finishers had at least been to Kona and many of them had placed there too!

After the race on Sunday, I went home and slept away most of the afternoon - I was so tired! But this evening, I'm barely even sore and bounding with energy, which makes me feel guilty that I really didn't give it my all yesterday. Again, it doesn't really matter because this wasn't my "A" race. And, I have two more chances where I'll probably have no choice but to give it everything I've got.

Duathlon Rehearsal Re-Caplet

Today was the first time this year that I put together biking and running in an official-ish capacity. My tri club put on a duathlon rehearsal and we had the choice of doing an Olympic distance (1 mile run / 22 mile bike / 6.2 mile run) or a Sprint distance (1 mile run / 11 mile bike / 3.1 mile run). I did the Olympic distance, which is what I did last year, too. I remember last year, I felt obligated to do the Olympic because that was the distance I was training for. But, this year, I didn't so much feel obligated (even though I am), as I felt the Sprint du would be too easy, or at least a waste of waking up early, packing up all my gear, and driving out the 'burbs.

I finished in 2:46:28, which was fine with me. (It was fun using the multi-sport feature on my Garmin - it even clocked my transition times!) I didn't have a goal going in, I just wanted to see how I did. Ideally I'd like to improve my bike and run pace a little, but I still have time, so I just may. I'm realizing that for longer distance tri's, it may not be a realistic goal to run a sub-10 min/mile pace after the bike portions, especially when it's hot and sunny like it was today. I averaged just over an 11 min/mile pace this morning. I wouldn't say I was giving it my all, but I don't think I would have been able to go much faster. At the Boulder Peak last year, it was 104 degrees and I felt like I had to slow way down from my normal pace and ended up averaging 10:55 per mile. In future races and rehearsals, I'm going to make a point of hydrating more on the bike so I'll be more prepared for the run. In sum, the two things I learned today: I'm used to the longer distances enough to not be tempted to take the shorter option and I need to hydrate more on the bike!

Speaking of hydrating on the bike, I'm riding 65 miles tomorrow, the majority uphill, from Boulder to Ward. Yikes!

AA BBig ImprovEEment

The t-shirt slogan for this year's BolderBoulder (BB) was Altitude Attitude (AA) and I qualified and registered to run in Wave EE. YipEE!!!

As it turned out, I didn't actually get to start with my wave, which was only disappointing because of the previously mentioned correspondence to my first two initials. The reason I didn't get to the front by the time my wave started was because I got stuck in the line for the FedEx mobile locker (to transport to the finish line any belongings I didn't want to run with). I was so COLD after last year's run that I basically packed enough extra clothing to be prepared in case of a post-race blizzard. Even though it's not my initials, Wave FB was a fine wave to start in. I mostly just wanted to start with people who were my pace or faster so I would get off to a good start rather than have to spend the first mile weaving through joggers and walkers. The race used chip timing, so the actual wave you start in doesn't really matter for purposes of clocking your time. Added bonus--according to the announcer at the start, Wave FB included the only couple ever to get married during the BolderBoulder!

I set my trusty Garmin's virtual partner feature to pace me for a pace of 9:49/mile, which was my goal based on my 5k time last week at the Federal Cup and last year's BB time. The first part of the race is down hill and that coupled with the excitement of the start meant for a very fast first mile. I caught my pace at sub-8 min/miles several times, so I knew I needed to slow down, but I also felt pretty good and thought I would be able to keep up a pretty fast, consistent pace and would likely exceed my goal. Because of such a fast first mile, my average pace was just over 9 min/miles for the first 2-3 miles of the course. I decided to slow down a little for miles 3 and 4 so I would be able to speed it up again at the end. (That was a convenient decision because much of miles 3 and 4 were uphill.) This strategy didn't work out exactly as planned because I ended up getting a cramp around mile 5 and couldn't push quite as hard as I wanted. But, I pushed on, got a good laugh out of two guys wearing gorilla costumes, and saw that my average pace was right around 9:30/mile -- I was psyched! For the last 2K, I really wanted to keep my pace fast enough so my average pace would stay the same. I checked my Garmin and was nearly 2 tenths of a mile ahead of my "virtual partner," so I knew I would easily beat my goal and just wanted to beat it by as much as I could. As I neared the CU Stadium, I thought the visual of the end would be all I needed, but I completely forgot how steep the last hill leading into the stadium was! I had to slow way down to make it into the stadium and my average pace dropped by a few seconds. Once I got into the stadium itself, I was able to speed up and finish strong in a Ralphie-style victory lap.

My Garmin beeped as I crossed the finish-line, signalling that I had finished my 10K at an average pace of 9:36/mile with a total time of 59:41. That's 18 seconds faster per mile and almost 2 minutes faster overall than my time from last year! This was actually the first time I've ever done the same exact race more than once (it's hard when you move all the time) and it was exciting to be able to compare my performance year to year, even more exciting to beat my previous time by so much.

But, when I got home, I checked my results online and they told a slightly different story. The timing-chip clocked me at a 9:41/mile pace with an overall time of 1:00:11.57. Not too disappointing because it was still faster than last year's time and my goal time, but it would have been nice to have the official results show that I broke an hour. It's a bit perplexing because my GPS watch should have been accurate. If it were only off by a few seconds, I would have assumed that I didn't start my watch at the right time, but 30 seconds is a pretty big deficit. I haven't decided which time I'm going with . . . it's hard for me to understand why the time I clocked was off by so much, but it's also hard for me to go against something official and on the internet. I guess I'll go with my official BB time. If for no other reason, it will be easier to beat my time next year.

The BolderBoulder was the official kick-off to an all-Boulder, all the time race season. My next race is the first of the Boulder Triathlon Series: the 5430 Sprint on June 21st!

Race Report: Fed Cup 5k

I did my first official race this morning: the Federal Cup 5k. The race is a "a fun and low-cost fitness event that honors the entire U.S. Government workforce and their families" and apparently the longest consecutively run fitness event specifically for federal employees.

The weather was great for running - overcast and temperature in the 50s - but not so great for hanging around before and after. The sun did start to come out around Mile 2 and it has since turned into a typically beautiful sunny Denver afternoon. I ran as a member of one of EPA's two teams, "EPA in the ZONE," but the whole team thing was just for fun. We didn't run together or have matching t-shirts or anything. I think they just calculated the team winner by adding together the top 2 male and female finishers from each.

The run itself went fine, great actually, but I had a pretty bad attitude for about 2.5 miles of it. I've pretty much accepted that I'm a slow runner and I'm never going to improve that much, but it's hard not to get a little annoyed when co-workers who say that they haven't run in months or who don't train nearly as much as I do still easily beat me. So, I childishly spent the first half of the race wondering why I even bother training and thinking how delusional I am to think I have any right to race a half-ironman this summer. But, with my trusty Garmin on my wrist I knew that I was making good time and maintaining a pace that was faster than I was hoping for.

When I was in law school, before I did any regular running, I was in career services freaking out because I hadn't found a summer job yet and everyone else in my class had and I was never going to find one and my life was over (you know, because it was November and summer was only seven months away). I ended up getting what was probably the most useful advice that I ever got out of the career services office. My adviser occasionally did marathons and other running races and said that when you get the starting line, it's really easy to pay too much attention to what the other runners are doing and get worked up or run too fast at the outset. But, what you're supposed to do is know what your own pace should be and focus on maintaining that. "Run your own race," she told me, "don't worry what other people are doing." Good advice for running and for life, I guess, so I kept that mantra in mind as much as I could and my bad attitude mostly subsided by the time I was in sight of the finish line. I still feel a little bit down that I'm never going to improve my running speed that much, but if my choices are go out there and run slow or stay in bed, it seems like a no-brainer.

My official time was 28:59, which is a pace of 9:21/mi. Despite my whining, that's actually a really good time for me, probably the best I've ever done. I haven't felt all that great about my running lately, and I was really hoping to run around 9:30/mi but worried I wouldn't be able to do much faster than a 10 minute mile. So, in terms of my internal personal goals, I did great.

This actually gives me a lot of confidence going into the Bolder Boulder 10k next weekend. Based on my time last year (1:01:32, 9:54/mi) I qualified for the last of the qualifying waves, Wave EE. Since those are my first two initials, I decided I had to do it even though I wasn't sure I'd be able to make that pace again. My goal for next weekend is to do the same as or faster than last year. According to an online calculator using the Bruce Hamilton method, my 5k time means I should be able to run a 10k at a pace of 9:44/mi. I think I'm going to play around with my Garmin, figure out the "Virtual Partner" setting, and set it to pace me at 9:49/mi (splitting the difference).

On an unrelated note, I'm eligible to upgrade my cell phone. I'm thinking about getting a Blackberry, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready yet. The cons for me are the extra money for the data plan and that I'm afraid I'll start obsessively checking my email, when I'm not the kind of person who gets enough email that she would need to check it obsesively. On the pro-side, I am the kind of person who gets lost and confused enough that there would be advantages to having access to my email, directions, and the internets when I'm on the go. I'm putting off getting a new phone until I know what I'm doing for work after June (I guess some things never change). Any thoughts?

Apparently my latest hobby is power point...

Here's a power point I made for my Toastmasters speech about organizing my apartment...


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by emma.garrison

Here's another one I put together a few weeks ago about storage options for my new bike. (I got this new bike that I'm paranoid about keeping on my back deck, but I don't have much room for it in my apartment and I want to install a hook to hang it from, but that requires drilling, which is against the rules, but I ended up getting special permission as long as I get someone to help who knows what they're doing and promise to be responsible if and when I take out a chunk of drywall. A friend is coming over this weekend to install it for me.)

Any-who...


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by emma.garrison

Inauguration!

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by emma.garrison

I spent a ridiculous amount of time putting this together and figuring out how to upload it, so I hope you enjoy! (Click button in the lower right corner for "Full Screen" to see the pictures better.)

New Place, New Space

I'm moving to a new apartment. It's one of five units in an old Victorian house that was converted to apartments during World War II. It's a great apartment with friendly neighbors, and I'll think I'll be very happy there. Even though I'm not moving to a new city this time, or even to a new neighborhood, it's still an undertaking to transport your things and routine from one living space to another. Moving day is 10 days away, but my brain is already working overtime visualizing how my stuff will go in the new apartment. The current occupants are artists and clutter-monkeys, making it even harder to use my already lacking spatial reasoning skills.

Some pictures and initial thoughts ....

La Cucina... It's bright and pretty roomy, with lots of windows and natural light. The main drawbacks are that there is no dishwasher (I'll deal) and that there isn't much counter space. What I'm currently using as a desk is actually a kitchen table, so I'm thinking of putting that in the kitchen for now (it would go in the right-hand picture, underneath the silver star) and getting a new desk, one that's the right height for computer use. I also have a folding shelf and some stacking storage cubes that I might put in the other corner (where the block of knives is) and keep the microwave and/or toaster oven there.

Oh, the kitchen leads on to my...

Awesome Deck!!! Enough said.

Living Room. It's smaller than my apartment now, but it definitely has enough room for me to live as well as space for an office nook and my dining room table (there is no separate dining area.) I think I'll enjoy having the (non-functional) fireplace as a centerpoint to the room. I also love the built-in shelf!
Here is where I'm thinking of putting my "office":

If you can see through the clutter, I'm thinking of putting a little computer desk on the wall with all the paintings leaned up against it, and maybe a small bookshelf underneath the window. A new desk probably won't be my first priority, especially given that the "office" I'm sitting in right now consists of a papasan and a laptop and is more than adequate for my purposes. But, as they say, a place for everything and everything in it's place. This nook shares a wall with the bedroom; I'm planning to put my dining room table in the nook opposite that shares a wall with the kitchen (thank goodness I didn't splurge for all four chairs because I'll only have room for two!)

Bedroom and Closet. The bedroom is smaller, but definitely adequate for sleeping (and has two windows!). My current bedroom has lots of extra space that doesn't really get used. The closet space in the bedroom is about on par with what I have now (if a married couple has been sharing it for three years, I think it will be enough space for me), but it probably will take some work (extra bars, some hanging shoe and sweater bags, etc.).


However, there is no coat closet in the entryway or other additional storage space, so I'm going to have to get rid of some stuff and get creative. I'm a big fan of baskets and bins for storage - you don't have to be super-organized and things are still pretty easy to find without all the clutter. Mostly, I'll need easily accessible storage for all my tri gear, everyday outerwear like scarves, hats, gloves, hoodies, fleece, etc., which will hopefully leave room in the closet for stuff I use less often like luggage and camping gear.

For the quickly accessible stuff, I'm thinking of going the shelf with canvas bins route. For example:

Something like this:













with some of these:














Or ready-made, like this:














or this:














One day, I'll have cute entryway storage, like this:















I've also gotten used to having drapes, which my current apartment has (if you're wondering, I'm only moving because I have to), so I feel a little downgraded going back to blinds. I'm hoping I'll be able to spruce it up some with fun fabric to put over the windows. But, for now, I'm going to slow down, and not go nuts. (I promise I'll wait until I actually move in to make any purchases; I probably won't get anything until the new year.) I really want to make sure I have a good sense of how I'll use the space on a day-to-day basis before I go out and buy a bunch of stuff I don't really need. The closet and storage bins are probably the main priority, and everything else can wait. I've started an "apartment kitty," meaning I'm putting $20/week into a cookie tin (along with every Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupon that comes in the mail) so I'll have some cash to spend on new stuff for the apartment when I get back from Christmas.

When I get the key next Friday, I'll post more pics of the apartment as a "blank canvas." And, once I get moved in and settled, I'll post some "after" pictures.

Thanksgiving Traditions

I've been thinking lately about what my Thanksgiving traditions are, in addition to the traditional traditions like turkey, pumpkin pie, and football. There are a few things that I tend to do, not necessarily every year, but are nice ways to enjoy the holiday.

1. Go to a Movie or Concert on "Thanksgiving Eve"

I like taking advantage of not having work or school the next day by going out somewhere I don't normally on a Wednesday. I remember seeing the Comedian at the Parkway in Oakland one year and a couple years ago I saw a show at the 930 club in DC. This year I tried to reinstate it by rallying friends to join me for a Prince vs. Michael Jackson DJ Dance Party. I called the place and everything to find out all the details, but when we showed up, it turned out to be teen night! I guess they either neglected to tell me it was a dance party for high schoolers or they assumed I was one. We ended up going out elsewhere and had a great time, but the whole teen night thing gave me a good chuckle.

2. Big Turkey Day Work-out Thursday Morning

It's always fun to go out and do something active before sitting down to eat, eat, and eat some more. I did the Turkey Trot in DC once and did a big 3 hour cardio-sculpt class in Berkeley a few times. This morning I did the "Turkey Burn" at the YMCA - 30 minutes of step, 30 minutes of step-n-sculpt, 30 minutes of Zumba, and 30 minutes of yoga. I'm glad Zumba was part of it - it's a work-out based on Latin dance moves and is my latest fitness obsession (that and hula-hooping). The yoga was nice at the end too... I may or may not need a nap before heading out for my Thanksgiving plans.

3. Get Obsessed with a New TV Show

Having time off work when it's cold outside is such a good time to cuddle up with some DVDs. It was two years ago Thanksgiving weekend that I curled up and watched seasons 1 and 2 of The Office - best Thanksgiving ever!!! This year I have the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It has a major cult following and 7 seasons. Hopefully I won't get so hooked that I'll be chained to the couch until Christmas.

4. Be Thankful

Ok, this is obviously a traditional one, but a good one. This time last year I was thankful because I was finally offered a job after a long search. This year I'm thankful that I took the leap and moved to Denver to take the job because I have truly had a wonderful year here. I'm really thankful to have a job period, not to mention one that I really like. While it may not last, I have it now, and I'm thankful for it now. When I was waiting for the bus yesterday, a woman came up to me and commented on the bag I was carrying, which has lots of inspirational quotes. I said that my favorite was, "Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks." She mentioned that both Donald Trump and Walt Disney both declared bankruptcy multiple times, which I had never heard. Then she said that this time last year she was homeless and talked about how grateful she was that she had managed to get back on her feet. Aww.


I'm spending Thanksgiving dinner with some relatives in the area that have a ranch with donkeys and llamas. I'll report back on whether the llamas spit. When I offered to bring something, I assumed I would get the young single girl exemption--"Oh, no don't worry, there will be too much anyway"--so I could just show up with a bottle of wine. But, I found out last minute that they wanted me to bring a side dish. I braved the Wednesday crowds at Whole Food, which actually weren't that bad. The employees kept making weird jokes about what they like to eat for Thanksgiving dinner in an attempt to keep up shopper morale. I really wanted to make something in my new Crock Pot. So, I looked at the holiday section of the Year of CrockPotting Blog and found this recipe for sweet potatoes. It's crocking away as we speak.

Happy Thanksgiving!

84 Hours Later

Before my quick recap of the looooong race, I thought I'd post this video about what 24 Hours of Triathlon is all about. NBC sports did a special on last year's race.



The basic premise is for you and your team (or for those brave souls who did the race solo, just you) to do as many short-distance triathlons in a 24 hour period. The course was a tenth the distance of an ironman -- .24 mi swim, 11.2 mi bike, 2.62 mi run. We completed 18 triathlons plus 1 swim and 1 bike, or 1.866 ironmans. In addition to lots of sitting around and reading US Weekly, I contributed 4 swim legs, 1 bike leg, and 2 run legs.

As I alluded to in my live blog, I went into this race exhausted and without any training for the two weeks leading up to the event. I was out every night the week before at DNC events and hosting two house guests so sleep wasn't really my focus. I thought I'd be able to push through on the adrenaline, especially for the short swim legs in the early hours of the race, but I guess I'm old now, because that wasn't really the case.

The way the race works is that you have to do the first three triathlons in traditional triathlon order - swim, bike, run - and the rest of the legs can be done in any order, with the main constraint being that the water is closed to swimming at night. We strategized about each others various strenghs, and my main contribution was going to be swimming. I did the very first swim leg of the tri - I was kind of honored that they picked me to lead. Less than halfway through that (very short, way shorter than usual!) swim leg, I thought to myself, "I don't think I can do this. Forget the 24 hours, I don't even feel like finishing this one swim." I feel bad about joking about drowning in Lake Washington because the water was pretty choppy on Saturday and there were a few times I felt uncomfortable. I pushed through and I was fine, my time was fine, I just knew that I was not operating at 100% and that I was capable of going faster. Did I mention the long run uphill after the swim to get to the transition / hand-off point?

After we did the first three tris, we assessed our pace and then set the goal of completing 18 triathlons. The plan was to bank our swim legs before the water closed, bike as much as we could before sunset, and run into the wee hours of the morning. There were 4 "A" swimmers, and we went one after another and through the rotation twice. Neither of these swims felt much better than my first - each swim was 30 seconds slower than the last. After two rotations of the A-team, we went to rest and the other members of the team each did one or two swims. We were done banking swim legs by 3pm and moved on to biking.

Since biking is my weakest of the three, I mostly rested while our strong bikers made the most of the sunlight. I got on my bike around 7:30pm - right at sunset. I took off wearing my sunglasses and came back with my headlamp turned on. It was actually pretty cool getting to see the sunset over the reservoir. At the turn around point, a volunteer warned me to watch out for deer, especially since I was wearing a headlight. I saw one! Luckily the cliche about deer in the headlights didn't come to pass. Once I got back to the transition area, I headed to bed.

My bed for the night consisted of two thermarests, my sleeping bag, and my camping pillow sprawled out in the back of an SUV, and I have to say it was probably the most comfortable set-ups I've ever slept on while camping. I knew I was up for running in a few hours, but I had no trouble getting in some much needed shut-eye before heading out. They woke me up around 1:30am, and I had about 45 minutes to have a cup of coffee, get the blood flowing, stretch, and get ready to go.

I think that those two runs - one at 2:30am, the other at 4:30am - were the most fun I had during this experience (though I admit it's an odd use of the word "fun.") I thought that the swims during the daylight hours would be a piece of cake and that I would dread the nighttime running and biking, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. I guess since one of the cardinal rules of being a woman is "Don't run alone at night!" it was a rush running underneath the stars with my lil' headlamp. After two decent runs (averaging less than 10 min/mi!) I crawled back into bed thinking that was my last leg.

About an hour later, I heard a knock on the window and someone calling my name. I opened my eyes and my teammate asked me if I would be willing to do one more swim leg. I sprung up and said, "Yeah!! I really want to!" She laughed thinking that she wouldn't be able to convince anyone who hadn't been running all night to wake up and swim. But, I had been hoping I would get another chance to redeem myself in the water. And I did! My time was almost a minute faster than my fastest time the day before and the fastest our team logged during the 24 hours. Some combination of calmer water and a more rested me really did the trick.



That was my last race of the 2008 season. I'm ready for a break and looking forward to being active in ways other than swimming, biking, and running. I've already gone highlighter happy on my YMCA class schedule and, inspired by Shawn and Nastia, I'm even thinking of trying an adult gymnastics class on Saturday mornings. I went to a boot camp class at the Y tonight, and, man, am I sore! Even though it might make more physical sense to keep up a moderate level of training through the winter so I don't have to spend so much time re-building my endurance next year, it makes more sense emotionally (for me anyway) to take a break so I'll be fresh and re-energized come February.

Here's to a re-energizing break!

24 Hours of Triathlon: Live Blog Transcript

Transcript of my real-time updates to my Twitter account. I'll post a post-race recap once I'm better rested...

06:58 AM August 30, 2008 I will be live-blogging the 24 hours of triathlon. Got off to a stressful start - mix-up meeting my team. Here now.

07:16 AM August 30, 2008 My team just informed me i'll basically be swimming all day. I'll do the 1st leg - then rest for the 1st 3 tris then swim swim swim.

08:22 AM August 30, 2008 1st swim done. I'm tired! Maybe i shouldn't have gone out every night this week. Time to recharge

09:28 AM August 30, 2008 Ok - feeling better. Had some coffee .and i'm excited to swim again. We're almost halfway thru the 2nd tri

10:16 AM August 30, 2008 Reading us weekly while i wait - j.lo is training for a tri !

10:50 AM August 30, 2008 Starting to feel tired again – we’re about to start banking swim legs. I'll go every 4th person.

12:44 PM August 30, 2008 Just did 2 swim legs. I’m kinda sucking today but I suppose that’s to be expected given my lack of sleep & training lately.

12:48 PM August 30, 2008 June & Debbie came by & saw me come out of the water on my last swim – that was the highlight. Now I rest for awhile.

02:06 PM August 30, 2008 Just laid down w/ my ipod for a bit. Maybe I need Michael Phelps’ playlist. We’re almost done with swimming – about to start biking.

03:01 PM August 30, 2008 We're currently 9th of 19. I'm eating a cheese & potato chip sandwich on wheat & reading the other boleyn girl

03:47 PM August 30, 2008 The water, which has been choppy all day, has just been closed hours earlier than planned bc it has white caps.

05:29 PM August 30, 2008 I've decided that this is sort of like camping except instead of hiking you go swim bike or run every now & then. Lots of sitting around.


06:04 PM August 30, 2008 I'm up for biking in 2 more legs - in about an hour & 10 minutes. It's very windy - hope it dies down.

08:15 PM August 30, 2008 Just did the bike - it's the split i'm most proud of so far. 42:35 for 11.2 mi. Not bad for windy, dark, & having to reattach my chain.

09:05 PM August 30, 2008 Laying down for a nappy-poo in an suv. They’ll wake me 45 minutes to an hour before my run leg

01:40 AM August 31, 2008 Awake. Rallying to go run soon.

02:51 AM August 31, 2008 Just finished the run - 2.62 mi in 25:37 so 9:45 / mi! Weird rush running at 2:30 am! I'm up again in about an hour & a half.

05:12 AM August 31, 2008 Finished my 2nd run a bit ago - 25:28. I'm done & crawling back into suv. So is the grand finale to my tri season.

06:28 AM August 31, 2008 Waking up. Turns out they want me to do one more swim before we finish. That'll be in about 30 minutes.

07:20 AM August 31, 2008 YES! So glad i did that extra swim. It was 56 seconds faster than my fastest time yesterday & the fastest swim of our team.

08:57 AM August 31, 2008 It's been 24 hours! We finished 18 full triathlons + 1 swim (mine!) & 1 bike. Going home to sleep now.

Seattle Danskin, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bottom of Lake Washington

I'm not sure quite what happened. I started my race as usual -- donning wetsuit, cap, and goggles, poised towards the front, and feeling good. Sally Edwards started us off with a pep talk, we all cheered and high-fived one another until the sound of the air horn started us off. Then the normal chaos at the start of a triathlon ensued as everyone plunges herself face first in the water, furiously stroking, kicking, occasionally on top of one another, occasionally elbowing your neighbor. I'm used to this by now, so I was stroking and elbowing along with everyone else.

I remember the rest in flashes. A kick to the head. My goggles pushed to the side, water rushing in. A gasp for breath, getting only water. Seaweed wrapping itself around my ankle. Panicking suddenly. Realizing that accidents happen to good swimmers all the time, but it couldn't be happening to me. Sinking slowly. Fading to black.

Kidding! Totally kidding. I finished the swim in 14:16 and was 8th out of the water in my age group. Unfortunately, my parents didn't see me after I finished the swim, and I didn't see them either, so they never saw me for the rest of the race. I found my Mom about half an hour after finishing and she ran up to me and said, "I'm so glad to see you! I thought you were at the bottom of Lake Washington!" I guess she wasn't at all comforted when commenting that they hadn't been able to find me to a fellow spectator who responded, "Oh don't worry. They have divers that can go out and find people."

But as for the rest of the race, it went well! A personal best of 1:26:28, though it feels like I was cheating or something because the whole training at elevation and racing a sea-level definitely worked to my advantage.

I did the race "caveman style" - I didn't have a computer on my bike and I wasn't wearing a watch, so I had no idea how I was doing. I didn't feel easy, like "Wow, I'm Superwoman!" It felt difficult, but I could tell I was pushing pretty hard. Usually, I try to focus on my own race and not pay too much attention to what others are doing, but on the bike portion I was intent on passing as many people as I could. The bike course was AWESOME by the way! A quick jaunt over Lake Washington to Mercer Island in beautiful, sunny-but-not-too-hot weather. I averaged 19.5 mph. (After all the drama, the bike store was able to rent clipless pedals to me.)

The run was the first time in a while I had run without a watch. It seemed like I was taking forever, even though I could tell I was running pretty fast. I must breathe really heavy when I run, because often during races people in front of me will turn around and say, "Wow. You go girl!" Friends have told me that I look like I run fast, which I suppose is a good first step to actually running fast. But, I did run pretty fast that day, averaging 8:58 per mile. In the last half mile of the course there was a pretty steep uphill - no fun! But, at least there was a good downhill right after that, leading right into the finish line. When I finished, the announcer called my name and said, "She's all the way from Denver! The Mile High City!"

I thought maybe my family would have heard that and would see me cross the finish, but no such luck. I had given my brother (who came to the race with my uncle and cousin) a list of the times I would reach each critical juncture, but of course he forgot it, so they never found me either. But, since my doing this race was in large part an excuse to have a vacation and a nice mini-family reunion, it's not that big a deal that no one saw me during the actual race. It was a really nice visit all around and a great race! I finished 34th out of 222 in my age group, and 214th of 3714 overall.

I've been exhausted since I got back, so I haven't been training this week, and who knows what I'll be able to manage next week with the DNC (!!!) in town. I only have one more tri left this year . . . 24 Hours of Triathlon! (A) I'm NOT crazy and (B) yes I will write a more detailed post about what the race entails soon.

Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance

It turns out that the flat I got walking my bike after Tri for the Cure Sunday before last was just the beginning . . . the first in a series.

I had to replace the actual tire and the innertube for the back wheel, which I did. I rode it to work with no problems, but when I went to get it after work, the back tire, the brand new tire that I just replaced, was flat. I filled it up and it seemed to hold, so I took off, thinking it would hold long enough to get me home. It didn't.

When I fixed that tire, I didn't notice anything that caused the flat. I thought maybe it was just a faulty innertube with a slow leak. The next time I rode it, I rode it to work in the morning, planning to go to a Brick work-out straight from work. Before I left work, I went to add some air to the tires and the valve on the front tire blew off, and completely deflated.

Since I had already replaced two tires that week, I didn't have any extra innertubes. They do have some spare tires in the bike cage at work, so I tried fixing it with one of those. Either the new innertube wasn't the exact right size, or I messed something up in fixing it, but when I was adding air to the new tire -POP! So loud! The innertube completely ruptured with a loud bang reverberating in the parking garage.

The next day, I came to work, armed with new innertubes, which were definitely the right size. As I fixed it again at the end of the day, everyone who came down was like, "Weren't you fixing a flat yesterday too?" This time I was very careful, I fixed the front tire, no explosions, no incidents, and I made it home just fine. I went into my apartment for no more than 30 minutes to change clothes and went back to my bike to ride over to a friends house. The back tire -- the other tire, not the one I just fixed -- was flat.

Though this has been frustrating, there are two silver linings: (a) I've gotten a lot quicker at changing tires and (b) the most recent flat--the slow leak--is the first repeat of circumstances leading to a flat, meaning there is probably something I can do to prevent it from happening again. I dropped off my tire with some friends, and they are going to conduct a full investigation while I'm out of town this weekend.

I'm going out of town this weekend to do a Tri in Seattle. It didn't seem worth hauling my bike all the way there for a 12 mile ride, so I'm opting to rent a bike instead. The rental place said to bring my own pedals so I can use my clip-on shoes. But, after running around this evening, borrowing wrenches, watching videos online on how to remove your bike pedals, and getting a neighbor to help, I finally gave up. Those pedals have been there for 3 years and they are not budging. I know I should have tried to take them off earlier, but I've just about used up all the energy I have for bike maintenance this week. I'll just use the regular pedals on the rented bike with my running shoes, and it hopefully won't slow me down too much.

It's midnight, I'm leaving town tomorrow right after work and I haven't even packed yet. Ugh. Hopefully I've had enough maintenance issues that I'll have a good run of smooth sailing ahead of me. But, given my luck lately, I think the race this weekend will be a victory if I can go the whole way without getting a flat.

Tri For the Cure

I had another race yesterday. Although it was only my second official race this year, it feels like I've been doing nothing but triathlons lately. If you count all the race rehearsals my training group puts on, yesterday's was actually my 6th this summer and my 4th weekend in a row waking up at 4:45 to do a race. All day Saturday, I kept saying to myself, "Really? Another triathlon? Really?" I also went on a long hike on Friday and, since my hiking muscles are a little out of practice, I was still really sore on Sunday morning. I dragged myself out of bed (actually, not the hard part - on top of everything else, I didn't sleep a wink!) and decided to just go and enjoy the race. Tri for the Cure is all women and packed with first-time triathletes, which is really exciting and empowering. A lot of the women in my tri group were doing it as their first tri, so I just tried to focus on enjoying that energy.

Guess what? It was a personal best! I typically finish this distance in around 1:45 and my time yesterday was 1:32:15, which was in the top 15% of my age group! It was actually really good for my confidence - lately I've been feeling like no matter how much I train, I just never get much faster. Maybe it's a little lame to get a boost in confidence by competing against a bunch of beginners, but, hey, I was doing my first tri ever in a similar all-women's race a mere three years ago. If anything, it was another reminder of how far I've come.

I finished the swim in about my usual time - just under 15 minutes. The waves started 4 minutes apart and the women in the wave in front of me were all wearing green caps. I just kept saying in my head, "Catch the green! Catch the green!" Before I even reached the first buoy, I was pretty much surrounded by green caps. (Again, a lot of beginners in the race, so probably a lot of new swimmers). Every time I saw a blue cap (from my wave), I tried to keep up with them, catch them, or pass them. Of my wave, I was 27th out of the water, which isn't bad considering there were 320+ of us. For my next race (another all-women's race with lots of beginners), I'm going to pay close attention to the color of the caps two waves ahead of me and try to catch them too!

I enjoyed the bike a lot. It was a little chaotic because the race wasn't governed under USAT rules, which prohibit drafting and require specific passing procedures. But, the roads were blocked off and was really liberating to not have to worry about cars. There were parts of the course where we were even able to use BOTH lanes! I paid close attention to my cadence and speed and averaged 17.5 mph! (Unfortunately, I got a flat tire while walking my bike back to the car, but during the race I was good to go.)

The run! Ok, it was still really hot, but after the scorching heat of the last two weekends, the 90+ degree weather almost felt like a cool front. I was able to pace myself at 9:24/mile, which may be the fastest I've ever run a 5k! And it pretty much felt like business as usual . . . it was a pushed pace for sure, but definitely doable. I felt so good after crossing the finish line, I almost felt like I could run another 10k. About two hours later, the tiredness and soreness set in!

My next race is the Seattle Danskin in two weeks, which should be a fun one because my family will be there to cheer me on! It should also be interesting to see how cooler weather and lower altitudes affect my race. And this weekend - wait for it - I get to sleep past 5am on Sunday!

Two-Thirds of a Half

I was at the Boulder Reservoir again this Sunday, this time for a practice of the Half-Ironman distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). This was mostly an exercise in getting my feet wet and seeing what I could do. I really want to do a Half-Ironman next year to celebrate my thirtieth birthday. I'm generally opposed to setting goals to accomplish before turning thirty, as that seems to imply that in February 2009 I will curl up and die and never again accomplish anything important. Rather, I want to celebrate that I'm doing all these things at thirty that I never dreamed of doing when I was twenty. When I was twenty, I couldn't run a mile, I didn't own a bike, and, although I could swim, I'm not sure it ever occurred to me to swim over a mile in open water.

I enjoyed the day a lot, even though it was hard work and another hot hot day. Going in, I tried to think of the swim as my warm-up, the long bike ride as my main work-out, and the run as a short jog after to see how my running legs held up after 56 miles of pedaling. (I never planned on doing the full half-marathon, and only ran one of three loops for 4.3 miles).

The bike ride was only the second time I had ridden longer than thirty miles. Looking towards goals for next year, I think the bike is the area where I have the most room to improve. (Hopefully I'll at least be able to beat the nun next year!) The sensor of my computer was not adjusted correctly during the Boulder Peak, so I wasn't able to see my speed, cadence, or distance during the race. I don't really know myself as a biker - what pace is typical for me, what pace I should aim for - the same way I know myself as a swimmer and a runner. I've never been sure if my slowness on the bike is mostly mental (because I tend to space out and just enjoy being on my bike rather than being in race mode) or due to my physical limits. Today I played around with this a little using the data from my computer. Whenever I was on an uphill or a patch that was slow going, I focused on my cadence (aiming for 85-95 rpm) to make sure I was in the best gear; whenever I was on a downhill or a fast flat, I would switch over to my average mph and try to get my current mph as much over the average as I could, hoping to see the average inch up. My average mph was slightly faster than my average for the Boulder Peak, which is cool. I even got up to 37 mph during one downhill, which I think is the fastest I've ever gone. I used to be much more timid, riding the brakes all the way down a hill, but I think I moving past that and am finally able to use those hills to help me up the next hill and make up for lost time. The hardest part was that after 40 or so miles, I just didn't want to be on my bike any more. More long training rides next year should help this.

I actually felt a lot better after the 4.3 run than I thought I would. The first half was rough (in part from adjusting to being off the bike, and in part because it was uphill), but I felt pretty good on the last two (downhill) miles (especially after hanging out at the water station for five minutes before heading back!) It was a slow run, even slower than last week, but, as I said, it was scorching hot and I had just finished my second longest bike ride of the year. My coach said that heat like that can increase your time by 30-40% and in those situations you should throw your time goal out the window and just focus on staying hydrated. Most of the other women at the practice had the same difficulty, so I didn't feel too bad. But, I definitely feel motivated to work on my running for next year. I want to start doing more speed-work so the easy pace that I default to when the going gets tough will be faster. I joke that I have no pride and as long as I finish the Half-Ironman, I don't care if I have to walk the whole 13.1 miles. But, since they close the course after eight and half hours, it would be likely be cutting it close to walk the whole way and still finish in time (it took me just under six hours to do the swim and bike plus the 4.3 mile run).

My coach encouraged us to write down all the little things that you learn during these practices so you remember on race day. One important thing that I learned - I need to remember to put anti-chafing cream on before the bike and again before the run for this distance. I didn't use it at all today and I'm still pretty sore. Nutrition, hydration, and electrolytes are also very important when racing for 6+ hours, and this was a good chance to practice that. This morning, I ate / drank:

Breakfast - two whole wheat waffles, peanut butter, frozen raspberries
Pre-race - half cup coffee, 1/2 power bar
T1 - 1 cliff shot, water
Bike - 6-8 cliff shot blocks, 1 package jelly belly sport beans, 1 power bar (1/2 at halfway point, 1/2 at mile 49), 3 1/2 bottles water, 1 bottle Gatorade
T2 - 1/2 power bar, 1 cup water, 1 cup Gatorade
Run - 1 cup water, 1 cup Gatorade, a few potato chips
Post-race - two (half) burritos and lots of other snackies, lots of water

Probably could still use some tweaking, but I stayed hydrated and didn't bonk. I thought the combo of instantly absorbable calories (cliff shots and blocks) and calories that take longer to kick in, but sustain a little longer (power bars) worked well. I probably should have drank a little more water and more Gatorade. I'm probably going to start experimenting with the electrolyte tablets in addition to Gatorade.

My Ride with the Devil

I successfully finished the Boulder Peak – my first Olympic distance triathlon! It was a lot of fun, but definitely a challenge. My time was 3:26:32, which I was happy with.

The race started at 6:45am, but my wave wasn't until the very end and didn't start until an hour later. It was kind of a drag having to wait around (everyone had to be out of the transition area by 6:30) because it just meant more time for nerves and anticipation. I got in the water around 7:30 to get wet and warmed up. I swam out about 15 yards in the warm-up area. When I turned around to swim back towards the beach and saw it swarming with people in wetsuits and brightly colored caps – I always think the start of a triathlon looks like an alien invasion – it finally hit me, I'm actually doing this. Right before our wave started, the announcer said that they saved the best for last and we all cheered.

As per usual, the swim was my strongest leg of the race. I got to use my fancy new goggles, which suction-cupped to my face to prevent leaks and were mirrored like sunglasses so I could sight the buoys marking the course in the glare of the sun. I got out of the water in just under 30 minutes and ran to get on my bike and face the most challenging part of the course – the hill on Old Stage Road.

Old Stage Road has a 600 ft elevation change in 2/3 of a mile, so it's pretty intense. I road by a lot of people who had to climb off their bikes a walk up it, so I was proud that I was able to keep pedaling the whole way. My friend Patty and her boyfriend were there to cheer me on and had written in chalk "Go Emma!" on the street. There was also a guy in a devil's costume who ran along side me saying "Ride with the Devil! Ride with the Devil!" I did wonder for a second if I was hallucinating, but I have photographic evidence that I did, in fact, ride with Devil on Old Stage. The rest of the course was a nice ride – a big downhill and then a few rolling hills back to the reservoir. I averaged 15.1 mph, which I was pretty pleased with, although I must confess that a 78 year-old nun from Spokane, WA beat my bike time by about 2 minutes! But, this was still an improvement for me – my first tri barely had any hills, and I only biked that at a pace of 12 mph.

Even though there was nothing particularly hard or challenging about the run course, it was very difficult that day. The temperatures in Boulder reached into the hundreds on Sunday for the first time in years. One of the race organizers owns a bike store in Austin and he joked later at the awards ceremony that he must have brought the Texas weather with him. The run was hot hot hot and at times felt like a death march. I looked at my watch and realized I was going at a slower pace than I had anticipated, but quickly decided that I didn't care. I just wanted to take care of myself and finish, rather than push too hard and end up dehydrated or sick. It's so tempting to Monday-morning quarterback and think that I could have gone a little faster and shaved a few minutes off my time, but I know that in the moment that's all I could do and I was giving my best.

Some members and coaches from my tri team were there to cheer me on at the finish and it was exciting to hear the announcer say, "Emma Garrison from Denver, Colorado!" when I crossed the finish line. All in all, a good day.

Thanks to all of you for your love and support!