Boulder Peak, July 11, 2010

July 11, 2010

Boulder Peak is a Road Tri. 1500m Swim, 40K Bike & 10K Run.

I have a number of goals for each race. I try to keep them challenging but achievable.

1. Swim <>

2. Bike avg > 21 mph

3. Run <>

4. Top 10 in age

5. Total time <>

Boulder is an interesting place to race. It is a training mecca for elite athletes due to it’s altitude and training terrain. It is intense, everyone has super cool techy gear and talks the talk. It is a good reason to tune out and listen to my ipod. We always stay at the same hotel Holiday Inn Express in North Boulder. I like to ride my bike to the race albeit in the dark, Brett sleeps in a little longer, I will see him at the swim start. Riding my bike means I can pass the hundreds of cars that are waiting to get into the reservoir. This way I am warmed up and get to set up earlier than most without getting up super earlier, anything for Zzz’s

Swim 30:47

I am interested to see how my swimming will pay off this year. Last year I had a shocker of a swim in this race and almost vowed never to swim again it was that bad (37mins). I was ecstatic to look at the clock when I came in to T1 and see 30:47. I want to scream to Brett, hey I am fast, but … I grabbed my bike and was out of transition.

T1 1:35

Bike 1:13:2 (4th fastest in my age on the bike)

avg. 21.3 mph

I haven’t been riding my road bike at all this summer, so it would be interesting to see how things would pan out. Stage Coach is a tough climb and I was looking forward to it. Climbing is one thing I have been doing. This is the 4^th year I have done this race and I was really familiar with the course. Stage Coach is an out of the saddle in your lowest gear type of climb and it is long. I felt great and carried some momentum onto the flats. I always reset my bike computer when I am setting up my transition. I have the display so I can see how fast I am going and to see what my avg. mph is. This is what I use as a gauge to see how I am doing. I felt strong on the bike but also see room for improvement. I was happy with the bike.

T2 1:02

Run 46:58

Pace 7:35

I felt really good on the run. I never thought the day would come where I would actually be passing people on the run! 10K flat is cake compared to the 10K’s I have been doing in the mountains. It was paying off. I was aiming at breaking 50 mins and running sub 8 minute miles. I came 8^th out of 120 girls.

Total time: 2:33:45

This was an amazing race for me. It was perfect timing to boost my ego for Beaver Creek Xterra the next Saturday and confirmed that I was peaking at the right time. I guess I had better make my goals a little more aggressive huh?