Big Weekend

So far this season we've been traveling to most of our races. This travel is one of the best parts of life as an athlete and already this year Em and I have been to the Canary Islands, Seattle and San Diego for races. We do miss life at home though while we're on the road and especially our two dogs; Thor, our Chessy Bay Retriever, and Izzy, our Black Lab. We decided to stay home this weekend and race the Boulder Peak.

For those of you who know me, I don't cope too well wasting away a weekend resting up for an Olympic distance race. I want to be outside working out when the weather is great and there are mountains to bike up. Luckily, a popular local cycling ride, the Mt. Evans Hillclimb, was scheduled on Saturday with the Boulder Peak Tri on Sunday. I made the decision it would be a busy weekend for my legs and signed up for the hillclimb at Thursday's registration.

Saturday -- Mt. Evans Hillclimb -- 28-miles

Part of the reason for racing Mt. Evans was the sheer challenge of this race. Mt. Evans is one of Colorado's 53 mountains over 14,000-ft. At 14,264-ft, Evans is also the highest paved road in North America, a road that winds from Idaho Spring 28-miles to the summit. The only two lulls in the action was the 7-mile approach to the base of the climb and a slight 2-mile false flat downhill at the 20-mile mark.

Having spent the last few weekends away from the big mountain climbs around Boulder, I stayed with the group of top climbers in my Cat 3 race until the halfway mark at Echo Lake. At this point, a few attacks came from the group and it split riders up into three smaller groups. I paced myself with the second group until another round of attacks resumed from this group. When the smoke settled, I found myself on the wheel of a rider from Crested Butte, Ethan Passant, who I have competed against in high altitude races at the Tour of the Gila and the Ironhorse road race. I knew he was strong and if I could hang on his wheel I would finish with a good result.

Racing at high altitude is tricky though and you must be careful to conserve enough energy as a bonk at over 12,000-ft can end the race very quickly. The best example of this high elevation bonk came in 2006 when local stud Fred Dreier went cross-eyed and had to dismount his bike and regroup on the road side. Note to self: DON'T BONK!

In this case, I was diligent to stay within my limits, but found it easier to ride in Ethan's draft than to ride on my own. Sure enough, Ethan's pace picked off riders who had gone too fast, too early and the two of us began passing riders as we approached the switchbacks leading up to the summit. In the final 1k, I lost contact with Ethan's wheel but managed to finish in 14th place overall and recoup $50 in prize money - enough to pay for my annual ACA membership fee.

My teammate, David Walker, sensed my anticipation of having to race again Sunday, so we stopped by Subway before leaving Idaho Springs for a footlong sub to help kickstart the recovery process. And, the warrior that he is, David promised me he would race a local criterium in Boulder so I wouldn't be alone in my double-duty efforts.

I must have spent over three hours with my legs in our "puffy pants" from NormaTech MVP, a revolutionary recovery tool for athletes that recently rocked into the spotlight at the Tour de France for their use with the Garmin Slipstream/Chipotle cycling team. Gilad and Dr. Jacobs - the NormaTech MVP owners - are big fans of endurance sports and will be around for years to come.

Sunday -- Boulder Peak Triathlon -- 1.5k-S, 42k-B, 10k-R

Neither Em or I are used to sleeping in our own bed the night before a race. With all the traveling we do, sleeping in hotels or staying with homestays before races is common fare. But, with Boulder Peak taking place only three miles out our front door, we were able to sleep in, drink our morning ritual espressos and lattes, take the dogs to the park, and even ride our bikes down to transition. That's right, it pays to be a local!

The pro waves were scheduled to start mid-morning to allow fast finishing amateurs and spectators the chance to watch a handful of top pros including; Simon Lessing, Matty and Shane Reed, Peter Robertson, and....the list goes on. The mens field was stacked.

Em's pro female wave started out 15 minutes before the men in a sort-of equalizer format that seems to be chosen randomly out of the 5,430-thin air. The first person, man or woman, to cross the finish line after this handicap, wins an extra $1,000.

Em had trouble breathing during the swim but still managed to exit the water in 4th place. She maintained a strong tempo on the bike and caught one competitor but was passed by the eventual winner, Angela Naethe, who had a bike split comparable to the pro men. Out onto the run, Em looked steady and strong, and probably could have maintained her pace for another 10k but didn't have the speed training in her legs to outpace some of the quicker women. In the last .5-mile she was caught by two very speedy women who both ran 37-minute 10k times in the blistering 95-degree heat.

My race was nothing to write home about (even though, I will do just that) as I could feel the hillclimb in my legs throughout the race. After sprinting out of the gates to the first turn buoy to latch onto some fast feet for the swim, I couldn't hang with the white jersey of Greg Remaley. I turned over and did backstroke until I spotted the next group of swimmers 5 to 10 meters back. I waited...and spent the rest of the swim with Jimmy Archer and Michael Simpson, trying not to spend an ounce of energy as I knew I was in for a long day.

My pre-race strategy of going bottleless until the first aid station at the peak of Olde Stage Road - a 2/3-mile hill averaging 14% grade - backfired as I had cottonmouth and was cross-eyed before even reaching the climb. I found out after the race that Em had dropped her water bottle out of transition and found out the hard way how poor this strategy worked!

The rest of the ride was unfortunately uneventful as I normally use the bike leg as my weapon. Today, it was not to be and while I passed three or four riders, I was also passed by two riders before reaching transition. Jimmy was one of the riders I passed on 63rd St. on the backside of the course and I later found out he received a stand down penalty for drafting off me after the pass. I never looked back, so I don't know if officials made the right call or not.

I wasn't passed nor did anyone pass me on the run -- that is, except for Matty and Simon, who were finishing their last lap during my second-to-last lap.

Well, it was a good training weekend and Em and I have spent the last few days recovering and planning the rest of our season. It looks like we're going to nix our IM Canada plans and focus on training for halfs the rest of the summer and fall. And, prepare for more traveling.