Boulder Peak Triathlon

The Boulder Peak was my first Olympic Distance Triathlon which is typically a 1.5km swim, ~27 mile bike, and a 10k run.  What is unique about the Boulder Peak race is that it happens to also go over Old Stage road which has a nice 12% grade, 1 mile climb on the bike portion for extra excitement.  

Swim: I had been a little scared about the swimming portion being long for me, but my swimming has actually progressed fairly well and with each open water swim I feel a little bit better.  I still stuck the back of the pack at the start being unsure of how I would end up.  It started off fairly well and I was quickly able to find a reasonable rhythm.  About half way through the swim many people seemed to lose the last buoy, as it was more or less in line with the sun, and swam to the wrong one.  Thankfully, I saw most of this happening and was able to readjust without too much extra distance.  On the way back I really was able to push and ended with a 27:30 swim time, which I am happy with for my first race at this distance.  Still getting used to stumbling out of the water after swimming that long and trying to jog towards transition.

Bike: The bike was pretty solid for me.  Tried to hold ~ 210 W for the whole thing and wanted to save some on the front of the course for the backside after the peak.  There were a few people that passed me, but I think I caught most of them by the end of the course.  Total ride time was ~ 1:14, or 21 mph.

Run: The run had some major issues and included an epic meltdown.  It had started to get hot when I was out on the bike with the temperature forcasted in the mid-90s for the day.  I went a little light on the drink at the end of the run and didn't have water for the last 5 or so miles.  Unfortunately, the first water station on the run is almost 1.5 miles down the road.  I started off running around 7:45 min/mile pace which was on target but I just started to overheat very quickly.  By the time I got to the water station, I was already very hot and my mouth was completely dry.  Accompanying this dry mouth was a weird twinge in my right quad.  It wasn't quite pulled, but just hurt enough to bug me as I ran.

In any case, I gave in to the fatigue and struggled to hold 10 min/mile from there on out.  The last four miles because just a painful act that saw me move from 8th in my age group to 15th.  In the end my run time was ~ 59 minutes.  Truly hard to imagine! 

Looking back, the first two phases had been really positive, but the heat overwhelmed me.  With the next race planned being a half-ironman, I felt like I wasn't ready for that yet so I signed up for another Olympic distance race in Steamboat at the beginning of August to serve as a redemption race.  Hopefully I can hold it together for that race.

Walker Ranch Hike with the Boys

One of the days I had to stay home with the kids so Tara could do some work at her new school, we decided to get out to do some more hiking.  I am always seeking out new places the kids haven't hiked yet and I thought the Walker Ranch Loop would be awesome.  It was fairly warm this day so we decided to maybe just do the first portion of the loop rather than the whole thing, but the goal was to get down to the river and let them play in it a bit.  Here are these guys all smiles at the start.

Not far into the trail from the parking lot you start descending almost a mile down to the valley floor below where the river is.  These guys haven't quite realized we have to come back up whatever we go down, but they are enjoying the trip so far.

We finally made it to the more gently part of the stream at the bottom and these guys were happy to crawl around among the rocks and look for fish and any other things they can find.  The water was actually ice cold which kept them out of getting too wet.

I am pretty sure you can't take these guys on a hike without them trying to find some sort of rocks to climb up.  These were fairly safe, though once you get more than about 10 feet up I start to get a bit nervous.

Further down the trail the river starts to get a bit more rocking and this whitewater area looked pretty crazy.  It kept things nice and cool with the mist from the river.

We turned around a bit farther up the trail near some beaver dams and choice trout fishing areas that had some calm pools.  After a light lunch that we packed in we had to make the slog back up the hill.  These guys did great and always love getting into the outdoors where they can explore and still be little WildKratts.  Always so much fun, assuming I can relax enough to let them be themselves.