6/22/2014 Curt Gowdy Xterra Race Report

Pre-Race:

My race bag is packed so all I have to do is fill up my water bottles and camel back in the morning and load up the van with our stuff.  Last week my husband and I drove to the race location (Curt Gowdy State Park, WY) and biked most of the bike course.  Might I mention this was my 3rd mountain bike ride ever.  The trail starts out pretty easy with packed dirt single track and becomes technical about a mile in.  I'm not sure if it's the flashbacks of my spill going 40mph on my tri bike or that first fall on my mountain bike that left a hematoma on my shin that makes me scared of falling off my bike on the trails.  I am pretty accident prone...with anything from power tools to plant stands.

I will be in the last swim wave so I can take my time on the bike course- especially the trail called "Mo Roka" with rocks booby trapping the easy way across the trail and (one-foot) sheer drops off rock obstacles.

Race Morning:

I decided to give the bike a shot since I was informed there was a cut-off at mile 9 and I would still be able to do the run UN-officially. We found a small spot on the bike racks and set up our transition.  After all my stuff was laid out and I was about to put on my wetsuit a girl on the same rack asked if I could move my stuff to the adjacent rack since that would even out the number of people on each rack.  I was a little put off by this since I had already set up my things.  I talked back to her a little then grudgingly moved my things. 

The Swim:

The water temperature was 60 degrees and literally gave us a brain freeze when we finally mustered up enough courage to dunk our heads under.  We stayed wading in the water until our wave went off.  I positioned myself in line with the buoys and noticed a guy next to me with a snorkel.  WHAT!?  This guy was holding a snorkel and appeared to be preparing it for the swim.  I immediately looked over to my husband to see if he was seeing this.  Since the gun was about to go off and I was a short distance from Matt, I couldn't figure out a way to get the word 'snorkel' across without the guy seeing it.  About this time I was thinking of clever remarks such as, "Is that race-legal?" or "Do you have fins on too?"  Needless to say I kept my mouth shut. 
The gun went off and since I was in a wave of beginners (me being one of them since this was my first off-road), I was swimming alone for most of the course.  After the first loop I noticed my feet were frozen but still awake enough to feel the sharp rocks on the short stretch of beach before the second lap.  I finished the second loop with no problem and was the first out of the water in my wave.

The Bike:

I was pretty nervous as I set off for the bike but after a few people passed me and I saw others stopping at the same rocks I had to step over it seemed this was the way an off-road triathlon works, at least for the inexperienced like me.  I racked myself a few times, or whatever you call it for women, fell a few times...the worst being on top of a cactus, and hit my ankle on the pedals numerous times.  I had to stop at one point to tighten my saddle, and luckily I brought the tools along. 

I got to the midpoint of the bike, and since I didn't have my watch on I had no idea what time it was but no one was stopping me from continuing, so I kept on biking.  The second half of the bike was where I fell on a cactus and I began wishing someone would tell me I didn't reach the cut-off.  It was hot and exposed and I was ready to be back in transition to begin the run I was now starting to dread.  The single track snaked around a hill and I thought I saw the next aid station, but the trail turned back around away from them.  I finally reached the end of the rocky area and found a medic on a bike.  He asked me if I was the last person out there...I hoped I wasn't but told him I hadn't seen anyone for a while.  I kept going the last 3 miles to transition and was greeted by cheers.  I never did see that last aid station.

Back in transition I re-racked my bike and asked if I could still go out on the run.  "Are you sure I have enough time?"  I put on my shoes, grabbed an extra gel and set off.  The run signs were already misplaced- probably taken from the middle of the road to get ready to load back in their truck.  I felt pretty strong in the first quarter mile until I came up on the first aid station of the run...already torn down.  I stood there for a few minutes with Matt, who had just finished 10 minutes before, debating what I should do.  I didn't have any water with me, the aid stations were most likely going to be taken down, and I had a dehydration headache in the making.  I decided to throw in the towel.  I had already made it further on the bike than I thought I could and wanted to get the cactus pins out of my leg. 

I have a new appreciation for Xterra races.  Road triathlons are completed and won based on endurance and fitness whereas off-road triathlons are more based on technique of bike handling and trail running.  I saw some guys out there that didn't look very fit but were blasting over the rocks.  I also saw fit guys walking their bike over the rocks.  I will definitely give off road TRIs another chance next year.  For our next one I will do the research before signing up for the race.  Curt Gowdy was supposedly the toughest and most technical off-road- which I didn't find out until we rode the course and talked to some people.

New Gadget!

My current GPS watch ends workouts if I pause it for too long (to use the restroom) and there is no way to add to the workout once it decides you are done.  I have a motoactive and they have discontinued it.  Going onto the forum you can see many people are upset about it since there were lots of kinks to work out, and it is a really cool watch. 

Before the motoactive I had a Suunto watch that had a memory belt (HRM) that could store data completely separate from the watch.  This was pretty new technology at the time it came out since it's largest (I think) competitor is Garmin and they didn't have a way of recording data in the water yet.  The only problem with the Suunto watch I had was it used a footpod to calculate distance on the run.  The footpod was pretty inaccurate and looking back I don't know how far I was actually running when I was training with it!

The new watch I (FINALLY) received in the mail is my new Suunto Ambit2s.  It has some pretty cool capabilities and can connect with the sensors from my old Suunto watch.  I've been having fun playing with the settings and customizing the workout screens.  The software used to analyze workouts is much better than the one I used to use a few years ago- they now use Moveslink (Movescount.com) where there is an app store and training calendar with all the training log goodies.

I haven't used it yet but I'm looking forward to obsessing over the numbers soon and watching myself improve!

Mountain Bike Trail Report: Betasso Pass (4.25.14)

We had originally planned to explore Heil Valley Ranch and we were unaware, until we arrived, that the trail had been impacted by the Lyons flood.  We found another trail that looked similar in South Boulder- Betasso Pass.  We arrived, mapped our trip, and headed out with our camelbaks and snacks. 

The ride started out slow since this was our first mountain bike ride on our newly (self) built bikes.  For me, it had been at least a decade (man do I feel old now) since I had even sat on a mountain bike let alone feel the bumpy ground beneath my tires.  My first fall was more of me tipping over as I stopped to let a runner by on the very narrow trail.  The second spill was the exact opposite.  I tipped over the handlebars, getting my legs caught between the components of the bike which left a nice indent on my shin.  I’m sure there were a few extra crashes between that one and the last, where I managed to fall in the only stream there was on the whole trail.  This was the point where I wanted to call it quits and turn around- only one mile into our ride.  I worked up my motivation and determined I would finish the 3 mile loop.  This was the point where Matt exclaimed, “OMG- look at your shin!” and began laughing at its novelty size.  The location where the divot used to be in my shin was now golf ball sized and didn’t hurt until I looked at it.  Great.

Matt went ahead to see if the trail condition was any better- less rocky outcroppings maybe?  After he came back we decided to keep going to the end of our loop since it couldn’t get any worse- and I believe the trail was meant to be a one-way loop for cyclists.  The last section of our journey was, lucky for me, less eventful than the first mile and we made it back to the car without any blood loss. 

The last two miles of the ride were actually fun after I got the hang of riding up hill on loose rocks.  There weren’t as many rocky drops as there were in the first mile of the ride and I didn’t fall any more after landing in the water.  

You’d think that with this experience I would sell my mountain bike and vow never to ride one ever again, but in the end the ride was fun and the scenery was cool- very different from road biking.  You could smell the moisture in the air and fresh oxygen from the trees that surrounded us. 

I will eventually go back and try that trail again, but in the meantime I will stick to the ‘bunny slopes’ of mountain biking.  They do actually use the same coding system as skiing and when we looked up the difficulty of the Betasso Pass trail we rode it was blue (intermediate) and not a green (beginner), as we should have started out on.

I cheated

I have a confession to make...I cheated.  I have recently developed an allergy to dairy and gluten.  Even things that say 'lactose free' will do me in if it was made with milk proteins because it's not the lactase enzyme I lack, it's the proteins in the milk that I am allergic to.  How does my allergy make itself known?  I don't go into anaphylactic shock (thank goodness), but if I have enough of it I break out in hives in addition to having severe stomach problems.  My gluten allergy only gives me stomach problems, but enough to steer me away.  I have a theory as to how my allergies developed, and stories about finding out exactly what was causing my problems, but I'll talk more about that later.  These stomach problems are so much worse for me than your average joe since I run- which everyone knows exacerbates any stomach problems you may have, so you can imagine what a fun time I had trying to figure out what was going on!

Back to how I cheated...My husband doesn't have to worry about this- I remain faithful.  I cheated myself.  After our Adventure run last night I had a beer (contains gluten) and had a weak conscience when I ate bread at dinner.  I'm sure you're saying "No big deal", right?  That's what I was thinking when I made that decision.  Let's just say I won't be making that mistake again.  I felt like someone had filled me up with a bike pump and couldn't lay down comfortably or else heartburn would settle in.  I'll spare you the gruesome details.  Anyway, I hope some of you can relate to the issues, or if you can't I'm happy for you!  I don't wish this on anyone.  The one good thing that has come from my allergies is that I eat a lot more 'clean' now without the cravings other people have.  Many people I have talked to about it say, "I could never do that!  I would miss cheese too much, or ____ too much!."  I always reply back, "If you felt the way I feel after eating any of that, the food becomes less appetizing and you would learn pretty quickly to stay away.  Your cravings will go away with time."

At least I know I am able to get away with eating a little bit of chocolate from time to time...and if you know me, you know I LOVE my sweets!

Muscle Memory

Yesterday my husband and I finished our longest run yet this year- 5 miles.  Not a huge accomplishment on our road to the Ironman, but for me it is a big deal.  Getting back into the swing of things and making improvements is always tough in the first month of training.  It seems the time it takes me to get to a 'comfortable run' (and that nice runners high) is decreasing after each completed season.  I believe in taking time off during the winter to unwind and enjoy other hobbies (like getting to drink beer on Friday night because you don't have a long run in the morning!).  For me, this is a much needed mental break from all the stresses (mental and body alike) that come with demanding training, like that necessary for an Ironman (or even half Ironman).  It's nice to know you don't lose your muscle memory over a few months of down time.

Something weird I discovered the other day is that my normal running shoes- Asics Nimbus- are no longer as comfortable as they have been in past years.  The heel drop makes me feel like I'm running in high heel shoes.  The shoes are new, so it's not that they are worn out.  I mentioned I was doing crossfit over the winter, and my theory is that wearing minimalist shoes while lifting weights (and on our short runs around the building) somehow changed the mechanics of my running to where I prefer a lower drop heel.
*Nimbus shoes have a heel drop (from heel to toe) of 11.5mm vs my New Balance 1080 with 8mm drop (minimalist is 0 drop)*. 

Off to the gym for a nice and slow swim! 

Pre-Season

A friend suggested I blog about my experiences training for my second Ironman Florida.  I guess I'll start off with who I am.  I am a military brat that has traveled the world and ended up in beautiful Colorado.  I went to Colorado State University in Fort Collins for my bachelors degree in Biology.  After that I landed a job at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora studying a cell therapy to prolong heart and lung graft survival.  After working there for 5 years we hit a rough patch and our funding ran dry.  I am currently working at SwimLabs where I analyze swim stroke and help people attain their own goals.  My husband and I are newlyweds enjoying our first year of marriage!

While it is still considered the 'off season' for triathletes, and I didn't have any winter goals other than to relax and prepare for the intense training ahead, I have been keeping in shape through crossfit.  Yes, some of you may roll your eyes at this new 'fad' way of working out, but I find it keeps me in shape and has evened out my muscular imbalances from the miles of swimming, biking, and running from last year.  Crossfit has allowed me to stay in shape over the winter without getting sick of any of the 3 sports I will be doing come training time.

Just last month my CF gym decided we were going to do a 5k on New Years Day.  I hadn't put on my running shoes since September so I knew I was in for a long, slow run.  Long story short there was a difference between the feeling you get when you run after a long time off, and this run.  Although my cardio strength was lacking and my lungs ached, my leg strength wasn't the normal limiting factor-they felt great!  My plan is to continue going to my CF gym throughout my training, which I have never done strength training during the season since I've read that's the thing to do during your down-time off season.  I guess we'll see how it works!