New Shoe Day

New shoe day, new shoe day!  This is Ed's company on our team and is these shoes are the product of his genius and entrepreneurship.  He has created the fastest shoes in Triathlon and now sponsors our team by giving us each a pair.  His company is called VeloVetta and they are handmade in Italy. 

This is what they look like and are quite high tech.  They are designed to direct the airflow more smoothly over the shoes as you ride which lessens the drag and makes them faster.  They also have a single latch heel enclosure system which means you can easily put them on and take them off after doing a flying mount on the bike after the swim.  So awesome!

Boulder Racing Team Rides

This was an amazing team ride that we got the crew together for and the day could not have been better.  We started at Tom Watson and headed north towards Masonville.  The sun was out, and we had a good crew of 5-6 people with clear roads and low wind.  It's hard to ask for more.

This is Brian, Ed, and Rachel out leading the way.

This is the bridge to cross the river just North past Loveland.  We turned around a bit past this spot and headed back for a short brick run to follow the effort.  Final stats were 3:03:00 and 166W average with 185 TSS.  A quick 30-minute run at high Z2 (~8:15/mile pace) and we were done for the day.  These are the types of rides that really make all of the training feel worth it.  The legs feel good and strong and great company to just spin.

Gage's Formal Presentation

This is Gage presenting on "Food Waste" for a school project in Mrs. Liden's class.  After researching for a month or so, all of the students put together these poster boards and then they had an open house where you can come around and view, listen, and learn about what they were presenting on.

Here is Gage explaining his research to Tara.  He did a great job, and I am glad he was focused on doing a good job on this and putting full effort into it.

Soccer & Rainbows

This is a small picture, but thought it was kind of fun.  This is Gage playing goalie at the end of a rainbow.  It seemed like the angle was just perfect to capture the moment. 

Introducing Boulder Racing

Though many of us already raced earlier in the year at St. George, we finally got the team together for formal pictures and the new team kits this year.  Introducing the team...Boulder Racing v. 2023.  This is a small but mighty team, with most of us qualifying for World Championship races in our respective age groups year over year.  For the first time every (and a great choice), we added ladies to the team in Rachel and Ali.  Additionally, both Ali and Sam are likely to become pro's this year.  

From left to right this is: Sam, Brent, Tyler, Ali, Rachel, Brian, Jay, Ed, and Greg.

 Here is my close-up profile pic.  I am thankful to be able to be a part of this great team.  Also, I am thankful for Ed hosting the team party at his beautiful house up Left Hand Canyon.

Mother's Day

One of the best ways we can celebrate Tara is bringing her a nice breakfast in bed.  The boys and I all collaborated to assemble a nice assortment of tasty things for breakfast.

Here is picture of Tara and the boys.

We had to get one of all four of us together, though.  I actually think these turned out pretty decent!  Happy Mother's Day, babe!  We are thankful for all that you do for us and how well you have cared for us.

St. George 70.3

One of my favorite races that I regularly do is Ironman St. George 70.3.  This year, the family came out with me to cheer me on which was kind of special and different.  With Gavin having his permit, we took advantage to have him drive some of the nine-hour trip from Broomfield to St. George.

Registration is typically the first stop once arriving in town.  Here I am decked out in the Boulder Racing gear after picking up my goods.

I always stay in Las Palmas, which is on the Southwest side of the city, but has this awesome view.  The complex has a nice pool in the middle, which is a nice perk, but I don't think the weather was really warm enough for the guys to head out and take advantage.

Here is all my stuff lined out for race day on Saturday.  Truth be told, this was a pretty tough race for me this year and didn't turn out as I had hoped for.

For the swim: I had some issues with this swim that certainly contributed to the slower time for me.  The water temp was fairly cold, and I did have a bit of that initial gasping/shock when I got in.  I also had a prolonged battle with my goggle leaking on the right eye.  I had to side stroke 3-4 times trying to get this sorted out and about 2-300 yards in I got a bit overwhelmed mentally with everything going on.  I did pull it together a bit and just started swimming and got into a pretty good rhythm I thought through the main body of the swim.  The last challenge was about 100-200 yards from shore my calf muscles cramped up and the only way I could get them to stop was to bring my toes forward which created a nice set of anchors to pull behind me.  Given the challenges, 37:18 wasn't that terrible, but it was my slowest swim I have ever had in a half. 

For the bike: Mixed bag here, I thought the bike felt really comfortable and in control.  I was targeting trying to ride at ~ 190W AP/195W NP.  Legs felt pretty good the whole ride and ended up riding a bit strong 195W AP/200W NP.  Road Snow Canyon as planned ~220W and kept my HR pretty under control for most of the bike.  I got caught a few times having to pass someone where I drifted into the draft zone, but overall, not bad.  I got down most of my nutrition which was probably ~ 650 calories or so between two bottles of mixed Infinit.  I think I was carrying ~ 750 but some was left.  I had a bit of water on the course from various aid stations as well.  I guess it was a mixed bag because I still ultimately didn't complete the run as planned.

For the run: From things seeming so good to seeming so bad.  I've tried to deconstruct this run a bit but still processing.  I was thinking I could run 7:30s average which would be 7:50-8:00 uphill and then 7:00-7:15 downhill.  I think I executed this fairly well but maybe it was just too aggressive of a pace.  I felt pretty good through mile 6-7 and then crashed pretty hard.  It was a combination of physical tiredness paired with some stomach tightness/cramping and then mentally I struggled once it started going bad.  I took water at every aid station and was taking a lick of Base salt every other mile.  I carried about 150 Calories in a mixed bottle with me but never took any of that.  This was probably a miss on my part.  In any case, it was my first race back and I was reminded as to how hard these races can be.  If I had to guess the physical issues were probably nutrition execution issues on my part and the mental stuff is just part of the process with my return to racing.  In any case, I was happy to finish but obviously pretty disappointed with the end result...at least I don't have to wait long to get another shot at it.