Lake to Lake Triathlon

I heard a lot about this race last year when I was first starting to compete in triathlons, but it didn't quite work in my schedule.  It was rumored to have a great course and without a doubt the best post-race food of the year, so this year I worked it into the schedule. 

What didn't go to plan, was that this will have to win the prize for the coldest triathlon I have ever done.  The whole spring and early summer has been a bit weird in Colorado anyways but it had started to warm up and then suddenly we got another cold spell.  Race day turned out to be 47 degrees with on and off rain and a water temp being a balmy 60-61 degrees!  It really had be questioning if I wanted to start this thing off, but I figured at least everyone else has to race in it too!  Here I am exiting the swim.  What you can't tell is that I can barely feel my hands and lost feeling in my feet about half way around the mile swim course.  It was actually so cold that my calfs started to cramp a bit as well even though I was barely kicking my legs.

 After running about a quarter mile through some wet beach sand and grass, I entered into T1 and struggled to get some socks, arm sleeves, and gloves on.  Typically I spend about 90 seconds in transition, but this one ended up being closer to almost three minutes as I fumbled through things and layered up a bit extra for the bike leg.  The bike actually felt pretty good once I get settled in.  I was trying to push a bit more power than I typically have, as my coach recommended.  The plan was to try to hit somewhere close to 215-225 W for the 30 miles and ramp it up a bit on the climbs.  Overall, The roads were certainly wet, but at least there wasn't tons of pooling water to ride through.  I did enjoy the beautiful course that weaves its way through the back country of Loveland up toward Horsetooth Reservoir and then you have a few very fast descents and then come back into town.  The descents were a bit sketchy in the rain, but I was able to draw back on my years of cycling to know how to ride in these conditions.  Above, I am just returning from the bike leg.

Though the bike went well, I still hadn't been able to feel my feet since the middle of the swim.  At least my core had stayed mostly warm with a nice space blanket tucked inside my kit.  Shout out to my Coach Eric Kenney for that secret trick!  My hands were actually so cold that I had trouble getting my helmet off and unbuckling my shoes, but eventually I got off on the run leg.  The plan was to start at close to 7:30-7:45 pace and see how it felt.  If I could push from there, then it would be great but often I end up going the other direction on the pace rather than being able to go faster.  Shockingly, the legs felt great.  I kept looking down at my watch was seeing 7:10s mostly tick by.  I was thinking this is going to lead to an epic blow up sooner or later but just took it mile by mile.  In the end I was able to hold it all the way through and probably had my best 10k run time since almost high school!

Here is the results page listing everyone by Age Group.  I ended up winning my AG with a total overall time of 2:40.  I think the swim was ~29 mins, bike of 1:21, and a run of 45:09.  Pretty happy with the overall performance.  The swim was not very pretty but the other phases, aside from the transitions, couldn't have gone much better.  Always great when that happens!

Here is the podium picture.  The second place guy wasn't able to stay around for the awards ceremonial.  I can't really blame him, as it took all afternoon to warm up almost.  In a lot of the races I compete in they have finishing medals, but for this race only the top three in each age group get a medal.

Here are some of the people I regularly train with (Mia and Jet).  Both of them also won there age groups.  So, quite a solid outing for our crew.  This was a great race that I hope to do again, but let's try for some better weather next time!

Gunnison Trip

My dear friend, Malia, and her husband, James, just bought 30 acres with a cabin, an hour outside of beautiful Gunnison, Colorado.  This was the PERFECT romping ground for our boys, to be sure!  We spent three nights and four days exploring the area and soaking in the gorgeous scenery.

We went on a beautiful hike one day, leaving right through Malia's aspen grove.  It is truly a breathtaking area of our state!

Malia and I have been friends since high school.  She has been teaching internationally for the past 12 years.  She and James just finished an assignment in Jordan, and Malia's next job will be in Bogota, Colombia.  When they were in Jordan, they rescued two street dogs, Kiko and Peanut, and now they've become a part of their family...whether Malia is thrilled about that or not.  The two individuals who couldn't have been more thrilled with those dogs were Gavin & Gage.  Playing with Kiko and Peanut, running around with them and sleeping next to them in their sleeping bags were all highlights of their Gunnison trip.  

We were their first official guests since acquiring the property, and they hadn't been there more than a few weeks when we arrived, so there were plenty of projects to do.  Gavin and Gage helped James re-establish a wood rack to the side of their tool shed, and I was so proud of them!  They really are very genuinely helpful little men when they want to be, which I think is more often than lots of boys their age when it really comes down to it.

You can imagine how much they LOVED building a fire every night.  We cooked most dinners out there, enjoying the "hobo packs" we created in tin foil. 

Seattle Trip

I love these girls SO MUCH!  Leah, Marie-Christine and I try to get together about once a year if we can, and I had missed the last reunion when I started my new job at Thunder Vista.  This time we decided to meet up in Seattle, inspired by Gavin and Gage heading to Pam & Bob's in Sequim, north of Seattle, during the same time period.  Leah flew to Seattle from Alaska, MC drove from Oregon and I flew from Colorado.  Leah found us a SWEET Air B 'n B place in a great part of town, but of course we would have had a fabulous time even if we'd been stuck in a paper bag together.  I always truly relish the very real, active, honest and fun times we have together.  These sweet sisters in Christ are my dear friends for life.  In the picture above we are heading to Bainbridge Island on a ferry where we enjoyed the afternoon together walking, talking and taking advantage of a tasty happy hour on Taco Tuesday ;)  The three of us have a beautiful and easy rhythm, which is one of the things I love the most about our time together and our friendship, in general. 

These pictures were taken at the famous Pike Place Market.  It was fun to see it all, but the prices weren't what I expected and none of us bought much there at all. As good as the seafood there would have been, Leah's hand-caught wild salmon straight from Alaska was even better (and free)!  I LOVED how she pulled out several frozen portions of the salmon from her beast-of-a-suitcase, along with an entire bag of power greens from Costco that have become my newest favorite food.  She cooked those bad boys up like a pro, with some butter, salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon to top it off.  Yummmm!!!!

Washington Trip

The boys went to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa Mike at their new place in Washington.  Tara flew with the boys up to Seattle and then Grandma Mike took them from Seattle to Sequim while Tara met some friends in Seattle for the week.  This picture is from their back porch looking out across the bay toward Victoria.  They have some pretty serious looking binoculars to peer out and see ships coming through the channel.

On one of the first days there, they were intending to go on a 12 mile hike to a lighthouse but go super distracted at the sight of a beach and some water that they ended up spending the whole day just in the same spot.  Here they are with some driftwood they found. 

A giant log that was referred to as "loggy" for the remainder of the trip was also a main attraction on the beach. These guys spent quite a while rolling this thing around.  Props have to be given to Grandma Mike for being super flexible with the plans and just watching these guys for hours.

Two snails were also found during the adventures and quickly became their local pets for the afternoon.  These guys love a good hunt on the beach.

Here are a few pictures of the inside of their house from later in the afternoon.  This is the dining room table that has these super large windows looking out to the bay.

Here is a picture from the side of the kitchen looking toward the dining room.

Grandpa T and Grandma S also happen to be traveling within the state of Washington at the same time and stopped by the house for a dinner.  It's pretty amazing to think that they all met up at the far corner of the United States and happened to be there at the same time.  There were tons of other adventures that happened throughout the week, but most of those pictures are with Grandma and Grandpa Mike.  Needless to say, they kids absolutely loved it and will be looking forward to their next trip up to the Pacific Northwest.

Gavin and Gage Soccer Training with USSF Nat D Candidates

Now that Gavin and Gage are both in the competitive side of soccer with the Broomfield Soccer Club, we occasionally get invites to special trainings like this one.  This particular sessions was for a USSF National D License course that brought coaches from all over Colorado to come and do in the field coaching to pass their licensing tests.  Here is Gage lined up and looking serious with the coaches and players working with his group.

Gavin also got in on the action and had a much more lively looking picture with his coaching crew and players.  It's a great chance to get extra coaching and work with a lot of the Premier and Majesta players.

Colorado Open Sprint Triathlon

This was the first race of the race season for me this year and also happened to be my best sprint race from last year called the Colorado Open Sprint Triathlon that Without Limits Productions puts on.  After so many months of training over the winter and spring, I was quite excited to get out and see what I had on a race course.  With the cool spring in Colorado this year, many people were quite concerned about the water temperature as it was still quite chilly but some warm weather rolled in just in time to bring up the water to a balmy 64 degrees for race day. 

One of the things I was more confident this year in was my swim.  Having a year under my belt of experience made a huge difference in how I feel about swimming and also I have been able to improve quite a bit through consistent training.  I set up closer to the front for the race and found some feet to follow.  This turned out to be a fairly good strategy as I had a great swim for me coming home in 14:06 for the 750m swim.

It was quickly onto the bike for the short 17 mile loop.  This year I had also put a few upgrades into my bike with a new bike fit at Colorado Multisport, a new front wheel and rear disk wheel (clinchers instead of tubulars), and a new bike computer setup that helps me focused forward rather than looking down.  I had good legs on the bike and was hoping to hold more power than last year.  This all worked out and finished in 43:33 with a NP of 211W.  This was a great picture caught by Kenny Winthrow as I came back into the Res.

This run has always been difficult because of the heat and its got a bit of a hill right off the bat and right at the end.  The plan was to try to start out at 7:30 pace and descend from there in the 5k.  That mostly held true but certainly was tough for the last little bit.  I was able to run 22:32 which was pretty solid with a bit of slowing at the end with some pain in my quads.  If I am honest, I was hoping I could run somewhere in the 21's but I can't complain too much.  Here is another great picture by Kenny of me just past the finishing line on the famous Slip-n-slide. 

My total time for the race was 1:22:42, which was good enough to win my Age Group (M40-44) and also represented almost a four minute improvement from last year!  This picture is from the side of the podium by Kenny again.

This is the front view of the same podium.  It's always great to be on the top step and something that I don't get to experience very much so these are great memories.

This is the standard crew of guys that I train and race with from Boulder Racing.  Big shout out to my coach Eric Kenney in the middle there for helping me to get to where I am today and also having patience with my ailing body.  Almost every single one of these guys ended up on the podium in either the overall or their age groups.  Quite an impressive bunch to try to chase down on course!