I headed out to Colorado for a much needed vacation with Stuart and an opportunity to train on the Ironman Bouder course. I had a lot of anxiety about what the course would be like as well as how my body would be affected by the altitude so The trip gave me an opportunity to check both things out. This post serves as a day-by-day journal of what I did and how I felt.
Thursday night
Left home around 6:30 PM and drove out to Mesquite Nevada (an hour past Vegas). Excpet for all the kids (OMG I am starting to feel old) going to the EDC (Electric Daisy Carinival) it was a pretty uneventful drive. We like that!
Friday
We were on the road by 8:00 AM and ready for the 11 hour drive ahead of us. The scenery was beautiful and as always we made the best out of a long drive. We made it to Golden (amazing friend opened up her house to us) about 8:30 PM, walked downtown for dinner, and then zonked out around 10:30 PM.
Saturday
Up at 5:00 AM to head to Boulder Reservoir for a 2 mile open water swim race. I was worried how the altitude would affect me. About 10 minutes into the swim I found I was having trouble clearing all the air out of my lungs when breathing but that subsided and I just kept swimming. I managed to to the 2 miles in 56:17, 1:32 per 100 yards, which is really close to my normal racing pace so I was very happy with that. Turns out I placed 5th in my race! It felt like race day pace to me so I don’t think the altitude really had a major affect on me. YAY!!!
We went for a short easy bike ride after that to check out the beginning of the bike course. My HR was a little bit higher than usual but nothing crazy.
We messed around the rest of the day but by 8:45 PM I was DONE! Nighty Night!
Sunday
We rode the Golden Gran Fondo. I only rode the Piccolo (20 mile course) because I was riding the Ironman Boulder course on Monday. There was a 6-7 mile climb to start. I actually felt really good and passed quite a few people on the climb. I was riding my road bike (Specialized Ruby). I love that bike! When all was said and done I actually won the Piccolo! I kept downplaying it since it was just the 20 mile race but Stuart summed it up nicely; you signed up for the 20, and won the 20!
Side note: men that get passed by a woman and then call her a showoff since she is only riding the 20 mile course are jerks. You got passed by a chick. Deal with it!
After the ride I did a 20 min transition run. Average pace just under 9:00 in/mile and HR just under 160. All good!
Stuart made it is a couple hours later. The 63 mile ride was a killer but he did it! Afterwords we hung out in the beer garden and just enjoyed the day. What a change to not have anywhere to be or anything to do. Stuart jumped on the table of a local Rolfer, Jeff from Westside Rolfing and finally got to experience what Rolfing is about. I have been seeing Jon for Rolfing here in Santa Monica for the past month. It is really quite amazing. If you are in the Golden Colorado area, look up Jeff. If you are out here in LA, please call Jon. This is amazing stuff!
Monday
This was bike recon day. But before we could ride, we went to a local pool so I could get a swim in. We went to Scott Carpenter Pool in Boulder (I used to lifeguard there in college). After the swim we headed out to the Boulder Reservoir where the bike starts. Stuart had used it Garmin Edge 810 to load up the course as a map so that made following it pretty easy. The course is amazing!!! (click here for the Garmin details) I will do a separate post of my thoughts about the ride and run later. We managed to ride all the important parts and all my anxiety about the ride disappeared!
After the ride we drove back into town so we could run on the creek path. It was really warm and we had been moving all day so we wanted to find some shade to run in. It wasn’t a pretty 10K but I got it done.
Tuesday
The plan called for a 2:45 run. I wanted to run as much of the run course as I could and hoped to get in 17-18 miles over the time. Ugh, this was hard. I started off ok but by 9 miles I just started falling apart. Lots of walking or stopping to refill water bottles. This was a very humbling run. I managed to get in 16 miles (click here for Garmin details) which included a little mistake off course. I am happy to have a crummy run now and hopefully get it out of the way before race day. Even if the run was hard the course is beautiful!!
I cooled my feet off in the creek at the end and just like that, my training weekend was over.
Stuart had been packing while I was out running so when I got back he packed the car and we were on the road!
I have a new rule for road trips. You must stop at every view point!
Just over 5 weeks until race day! Bring it!
See Becca Try to Tri 
Congrats on your swim race and the 1st place at the 20 mile Gran Fondo!! You are badass!!
So glad to hear the altitude didn’t affect you much!! We will arrive in Colorado on July 11, and I can’t wait to do some recon and altitude adjustment 🙂
Rebecca, I really appreciate the plug.. Thanks a lot. Good luck getting ready for the Ironman. Let me know when you all get out here. I’d love to chat with you and Stuart, and see how Rolfing has helped your training.
Cheers
Jeff
I wouldn’t talk about it unless I believe in it! See you in 5 weeks!
It looks like you didn’t just win- but you kicked some Gran Fondo ASS! Congratulations- How fun!! And hey, that’s what it’s all about right??!!! Glad the course anxiety has been resolved- Final Push….head down-do work! 🙂
What a great trip out to Colorado for you – you did some serious training, kicked some swim/bike/run butt and it sounds like you had fun too. Good luck with the final push!