Trip to Aunt Jackie's

Despite being invited quite often, we unfortunately don't often end up aligning schedules so that we can visit Aunt Jackie, Uncle Karl, and the cousins up in Granby, CO.  However, we did finally make the trip and here is a picture of Gavin, Gage, and Tara enjoying a little book reading on this bed sized pillow they have in their basement.  They recently finished their downstairs and it is pretty awesome with two additional bedrooms, a nice bathroom, and game room...perfect for entertaining!  Earlier in the day, we started off with a trip to the pool & hot tub and then did some general playing around the house.  The next day I had to head back to Denver for work, but Tara, Gage, and Gavin headed over to lake Granby for two additional days of camping by the lake with some friends.  What a great trip and good to see family for a quick strike.

Lake to Lake Triathlon

Having limped home through an early season Ironman 70.3 St. George race while still recovering from ankle surgery, it was going to be an interesting test to see how the ankle would hold up after a few more months of healing and a bit more running.  I love the Lake to Lake course and was hoping this year it would be more tolerable than the last time I raced there which was a day filled with rain and ~45 degree temps.  I was more confident when I jumped into the water and swam a more respectable 30:24.  However, chasing only 1-2 seconds behind me out of the water was my main age group competitor Nick Cummings.  He actually soon passed me in the long run up to T1 and hit the road about 15-20 seconds before I did.  The bike leg is great and I soon settled in trying to chase Nick down.  About 15 miles into the course I finally caught him and had a decision to make, as I knew he was a really good runner: Do I sit on his wheel and recover a bit or push past and try to clear a good gap starting the run.  After a minute or two thinking it through, I decided to hammer it and see if I could put some time into him.  I did that, but only about 30-40 seconds and had to see if that would be enough.  Total bike time was 1:18:27 for the day.

 

For this race, I also broke out some "super shoes" of my own to see what they could do.  The Adidas Adizero Pros look great and feel pretty good to but they were not enough to hold off a hard charging Nick Cummings who passed me about half a mile into the 10k run.  I tried to keep in touch with him but the pace was a little hot and after a mile or so I had to let him go.  The damage was already done though and I really felt the early pace in the last several miles coming home to the finish line.  I finished up with a 46:15 10k which was encouraging given the recovery with my ankle but a bit slower than I had hoped for on this course.

 
 

Overall, I finished 19th in the race and 2nd in my Age group with a total time of 2:37:45.  It felt good to race and I had this crew above there to cheer for me as I arrived back from the run!

This is the age group podium with me standing on the 2nd step on the right.  Nick did win our age group with a blistering 40:44 run to finish about 4 minutes ahead of me.

 

This is the final capture of the overall standings for record purposes.  So fun to be out there racing today.  Only had one other team mate there this year, but still lots of fun.

Kansas Road Trip - Part 3 of 3

Tara also got in on some swimming action in the back yard pool with Aunt Patsy.  Here she is looking excited to get in to the cold water on a hot day.

This is a picture from their deck above looking down on the pool.  They only had the pool to themselves for a few quiet minutes before the kids joined them and jumping, splashing, rough housing commenced.  Overall, it was a quick trip for a few days but always so great to see them and the boys just love the rustic lifestyle they get to experience out there with feeding cows, 4-wheeling, lawn mowing, fishing, and general lawlessness.

Kansas Road Trip - Part 2 of 3

We never quite know what the plan is when we come to Kansas to visit, but the crew was up for hitting the nearby lake for some boating action.  These two guys are always willing to jump in water they find and we made some attempts to get them up on waterskis for the first time ever.

This is actually Gavin getting up on his third attempt!  He ski'd around for a few minutes until we turned and he didn't quite know how to navigate going over the wake created by turning and bailed.  Quite impressive and we got it on film as proof!  Gage made a few attempts as well and got close, but couldn't get all the way up.

Here is a picture of the boys and Tara setting up in the front of the boat.

Uncle Ron is navigating while Gage drives the boat across the lake.  Gage did a great job and is looking very serious as he concentrates!

 After the lake trip, we hit the typical Sonic on the way home and had a picnic dinner in the parking lot.

Kansas Road Trip - Part 1 of 3

We always love getting away to Kansas to visit Uncle Ron and Aunt Patsy.  The view never disappoints and while taking a trip during the summer can be hit or miss with the weather it was downright reasonable for this trip.  As always, their back area deck overlooking the pond is amazing.

I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get some riding and running in over some back country roads.  Ron and Patsy were a bit nervous about how the Kansas folk would treat bikers, however I found the locals to be even better than what I see in Colorado where you can get buzzed quite frequently while riding.  I left early in the morning so there weren't tons of cars around which was nice, but I did have to re-route once or twice when the shoulder disappeared.

There is something kind of peaceful for me with these back roads where everything is just open and spaced out.  This picture is a bit more clear than the previous one.

Wild Broomfield Weather

This is definitely something we don't see every day near our house.  This picture was taken a few miles north of our house on the way to an End of the Year Soccer team celebration.  It looked more impressive in person but is a tiny little tornado snaking to the ground in some farm fields in the distance.  I think for Gavin and Gage it might have been the first one they have ever seen in person.  It was fun to see, but also nice to have it over in some fields and not directly at our house!