One week to go!

Well, I can't express how excited I am to go to St. Croix. C'mon Wednesday!! This weekend was a fantastic training weekend. I did the Deer Trail RR on Saturday, a 54-mile flat, then hilly course east of Denver. I had a blast. It was really fun to race again with the cat 1/2 women that I hadn't seen since last season. Plus, we had some big gun cat 1 NRC-type gals show up to keep it challenging. The race really didn't begin until mile 40, but then it was a sufferfest. America's Dairyland (a US pro team) has set up shop in Boulder, so they are becoming regulars at the local races on weekends when the bigger NRC races aren't happening. Vitamin Cottage was there in force as well. I enjoy the added challenge, but that means I place even lower in the cat 1/2 field : (. My legs were great though, so I did manage 10th, putting me in the top 50% of the field. Not bad for an old lady ; ). The good news is I had put off my 1 hr tempo run and 2 hr tempo ride until today because those road races make me too tired to strap on the 'ol running shoes after the long car ride home. Despite racing yesterday, I had my best run of the year (7:15min/mi for 8 miles at 144 average HR) and also had a fantastic bike ride afterwards on the TT bike. Guess I'm ready to roll in St. Croix! Yeah!!

Taper Time!!

Well, it's finally arrived...taper time. It's a bit strange for me to be tapering so early on for a 1/2 Ironman race. I don't think I've ever tapered more than a week for that distance. Truthfully, I don't feel like I'm tapering yet, as I already put in a 3+ hour training day of good quality aerobic training today. I felt amazing on the bike today. It's funny how sometimes you really can't predict how you are going to feel from one day to the next. I've been exhausted and bailing on my swim workouts the last 2 days, yet today I had a great swim and then went out and had a great 2.5 hr ride in the hills. It was just last night that I had to quit early due to being too tired to train! No complaints here! Dang...I'm getting excited for St. Croix! I've posted the bike course profile, courtesy of Rick Campins, a MAO athlete I met on the forum who took a trip out to St. Croix to survey the course and then shared it with the rest of us (awesome guy!). Notice all of the bumps symbolizing lots and lots of up and down. That's my favorite! I love constant hills (not the long grinders...I suck at those...but the over and over short up and down hills are awesome!).

This time next week I'll be on the beach basking in the Caribbean sun : ))))))))))))))).

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 ; ).

Brick day!

Today was my biggest brick workout of the year so far...4 hr ride followed by a 30 min run. I recruited 4 of my cycling teammates to join me for part of the ride and told them about my little obsession with the heart rate monitor (courtesy of Mark Allen...picture stolen from the internet below). So that meant I was taking it easy on the uphills and hammering the downhills for the most part. We decided to hit the hills today, heading toward Estes Park and then adding in lots of extra hills on the way home. My legs felt fantastic today! It was one of those days when you are riding and you are just so happy to be riding. The weather and surroundings were beautiful. The Big Thompson river finally melted enough to see and hear the rushing river which I haven't seen since last fall. I was pretty happy with my power output for a 4 hour ride...a new record for mean watts for that time period without depleting myself or getting my HR over 146. The short run afterwards wasn't half bad either...very slow (cuz my HR kept drifting up), but comfortable. I could have kept on going...kind of like the Energizer bunny ; ). Me thinks Mark knows what he's doing : ).

Frostbite TT

This weekend was my first opportunity to test out my fitness on the bike and to reexperience the pleasure of lactic acid...a substance that has been completely foreign during bike training since starting the MarkAllenOnline training program this season. I anticipated a less than optimal race, as I figured I would need to have done some threshold work in order to do well in the race again against the clock. Much to my surprise, I had a fantastic race! I have iliac steal syndrome, so I haven't done a TT in the last 3 years without my left leg totally malfunctioning at some point during the race (if I'm unlucky, at the beginning...If I'm lucky...toward the end). I couldn't believe it, but my left leg worked the whole time! It was awesome. I raced as hard as I possibly could and loved it. I was gasping for air and my max HR was a mere 162, even loaded with ultra-caffeinated Costa Rican coffee. I guess this "building the aerobic engine" stuff works : ). I ended up finishing in 32:06 for a 14-mi TT, giving me 1st place in the W35+ category. The cool part was I was only :57 and 2:07 slower than 2 top NRC racers, Georgia Gould and Meredith Miller. I would have expected a 3+ minute gap for those two for this distance, so I'm feeling pretty positive about the upcoming bike racing and triathlon season : ).

Training Camp!!!

Had a fantastic week of training! It started out with my 5-year PR for a 5K race last Friday...21:15, and 1st Master's female. It was the Leap Day 5K in Fort Collins and the prizes were some really great custom pottery. A great race with fantastic weather! The next day I was off to Austin for my annual cycling training camp with Team Rio Grande! This week was my top training week of the year...and maybe 2 years...since I'll be exceeding 20 hrs of training in 7 days! The first night in Austin was amazing...I arrived via plane ahead of the gang on the Rio van who traveled via road, and met up with our amazing sponsor, Pat McGaughran, owner of the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. Turns out he has a new restaurant in Austin (see group pic), and it's as good or better than the Colorado versions. It comes equipped with some top shelf tequilas : ). We went out for some great Italian cuisine in downtown Austin and then got VIP passes to a fantastic concert at Stubb's BBQ...a hotspot for great entertainment in Austin. The music was great! and the highlight of the night was meeting and chatting with the one and only Lance Armstrong. I asked him if he'll ever do IM Hawaii, and he rapidly said..."No way!" but then qualified it with "maybe someday"...i.e. "Yes!" It was a great evening. The rest of the Rio cycling crew arrived late at 12:30am. We had a great 4 hr ride in Austin the first day, with some fun climbing and good company. After the ride, I went to the most amazing pool ever...Barton Springs pool in Austin. It was the coolest natural bottom, ultra long pool ever! I was so glad I took the time to check it out and get in a little swim. The next day the weather turned nasty and we headed to the gym to pump some iron and for me to remind myself how to run a bit. I also had the pleasure of running along the river in the high winds later that day while most of the boys headed out for a 3-hr ride. I was glad I skipped that ride as we had an epic ride the next day to Marble Falls. The pic is our set of bikes at the mini-mart about 60 miles into our long ride. What a great day! I can't remember ever feeling so good from miles 70-100 of a long ride. I just love the Austin terrain...lots of short steep hills! Next day we got out again, but my legs didn't feel quite so good! Max HR 134 on a nice little climb that I was going as hard as I could on and got dropped. I think my AHR was only 110 on that ride, but it didn't seem remotely easy!! That was it for me...back to Colorado to get back to work. I did manage to get in a 1hr 15 min run on the trails and felt fantastic despite the long week of training. I'm loving the MarkAllenOnline training program. It seems to have prepared me well for this epic week of training : ). With my little deficit of swimming, I have been piling on the swim yardage the last 2 days to semi make up for not swimming much last week. Tomorrow...Frostbite Time Trial...to be continued.

First Blog Entry for 2008!

Alright...I've ignored my blog for an entire year, so it's time to write an update. Hmmm...let's start with how 2007 went. I had a great year both at work and with triathlons. I accomplished one of my goals of winning my age group in the Boulder Triathlon Series and have reaped the benefits of some free skiing at Steamboat this winter! Although my season didn't end as hoped at the 70.3 World Championships, I had a really successful year in general. Shortly after the 70.3, I had the pleasure of returning to Davis, CA to celebrate my 40th b-day...courtesy of my old tri buddies! We had a fun time at my 60's theme b-day bash.

2007 was my year to skip IM Hawaii in order to prepare for my emergency & critical care board exam. It was a great decision as I sat boards in September and passed all parts, much to my surprise! My reward will be to return to Hawaii this year as a newbie to the 40-44 age group with every intention to reclaim my past level of success at that race (i.e. win ; ). I do have that little obstacle called "qualifying" in the way. In the past, that has never been a problem, but I may have some obstacles this year consisting of fellow teammates on the MarkAllenOnline elite team (i.e. Cassie McWilliam) and good racing buddies of many years (i.e. Kathy Winkler). How can these gals still run 37 minute 10K's off the bike at over 40? They are truly amazing athletes! I just wish we weren't in the same races in the same age group, but at the same time, it's fun to have such triathlon rock stars as teammates and friends!

Since I mentioned it, yes, I am part of a team once again this year...the MarkAllenOnline elite amateur triathlon team. I've been eyeing this team for the past few years, as I've had the pleasure to race with a few of their athletes at the Boulder Series and have always been incredibly impressed by their racing talent. So I contacted the coaches and put in my application as soon as it came out. Fortunately, they adopted me onto the team and I'm ecstatic to be a part of it. I'm loving the training program so far and feel like it's really building my aerobic engine...without making me slower in the process. This year will be the true test! I'm optimistic to say the least.

Here's my race plan for 2008:

St Croix 70.3 (possible Kona qualifier)

World's Toughest Half (not a definite, but a probable race)

Buffalo Springs 70.3 (my "A" race for Kona qualification)

5430 Sprint

Boulder Peak Tri

5430 Long Course

IM Hawaii (I'm going no matter what...even if I don't race. Already got my ticket!)

I also plan to work my arse off. Tenure packets go in next year so I have my work cut out for me! Must publish...must publish...must publish ; ).

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Best,

Diana