Time for an update!

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, so thought I would post an update on what I've been up to. Life has been busy between work and my training program, but the racing is starting to pick up! So far all of my races have been training opportunities for my key 1st tri of the season, St. Croix 70.3. I just got through my first "bad" week of training, where I blew off a bunch of workouts just because I wasn't in the mood to train. Fortunately, that doesn't happen to me too often! At least I was able to finish off the light training week with a weekend of racing. Saturday was the Haystack Time Trial, a 16 mile ITT in north Boulder. I raced 35+ instead of 1/2 as I had work commitments later that morning and had to head back early. I was riding my relatively new aero position on the bike...much more aggressive aero setup than the past. I realized on my way to the race that somehow I managed to not get on my bike for the past 6 days! Those of you who ride a lot realize that this is not the best way to approach a time trial. Lucky for me, the new aero position served me well, despite a rather mediocre power output. I pulled off a win in the W35+/cat 3 category and apparently won myself a $30 gift certificate to Niwot Cycles (had to leave well before results were posted, so found that out later). I definitely don't prefer to do races with my cheapo non-aero Mavic powertap wheel, but was very interested in the data, so I went for it (good choice). Now if only I can get that power up within the next 3 weeks!

Day 2 this weekend was the Horsetooth Half Marathon, right in my own backyard (pic courtesy of Eddie Metro). I convinced my coaches that this was a good thing to do, despite my A race being 3 weeks away, but had to "not race" the first 5 miles (which are by far the hardest...steep hills). Boy...that was a challenge keeping my HR below 147 those first 5 miles! I had to walk at least a half a dozen times! The good news was, the legs felt amazing and I couldn't wait to put the hammer down at mile 5. I finally reached mile 5 and then picked up the pace (maybe a bit too much!), as my legs didn't feel quite as good at mile 7 ; ). My average pace was 9min miles in the hills over those first 5 miles, and I ended up finishing at an avg pace of about 8min/mile, so I had a nice solid effort those last 8 miles. I'm happy with the effort...wishing I was a bit faster overall, but I did manage a 3rd place in my age group...good for a nice pair of socks : ). Comparing the race to last year, my finish time was quite a bit slower (3+min), but I was definitely running a faster pace in the closing miles this time around, so I'm happy : ). Then again, I'm always happy ; ).