Saturday afternoon at 5:21 pm and it is only 51 degrees in the mountains with a constant rain coming down. I keep checking my weather app to see if by some sort of miracle, the forecast for tomorrow morning has changed in Boulder. But, it is still saying a low of 45 degrees at 7 am and rain showers, so I hike up my big girl panties and start planning my race strategy to keep myself as efficient and warm on course as I can. It involves copious amounts of plastic bags – Ziploc bags for my cycling and running shoes, plastic trash bag for my transition bag, sandwich bags for my nutrition. Clothes- layers and layers for the morning to keep me warm prerace, arm warmers for the bike and maybe a rain jacket, gloves to keep my hands warm, toe covers for my cycling shoes. The swim and run are no big deal in my mind but getting out of cold water sopping wet and then getting on a bike in 52 degrees is a different story. I think I have prepared well with that scenario in mind and it is my hope that the bike segment will go quickly and safely. I’ll check back in tomorrow and let you all know how it goes. Oh and by the way, it is June 22 today. So far, summer has not arrived in our Colorado town and I am thoroughly missing it. I do not have any control over the weather but I do have control over my attitude and what I can learn from racing in adverse conditions so that is my focus for this one. Mental training – how can I handle bad conditions so that when the race is an important one, I do not mentally crumble. On October 13th, the day I toe the start line to my first full Ironman in Louisville, I may face conditions similar. This will be great training preparation. The last request I had of the hubby tonight, “Hey babe, can you go unpack the ski gear and grab some hand and toe warmers for me, please??”
Sorry for the delay here in getting this report written! I raced the next day on Sunday June 23 and then promptly flew to Maine for vacation the following morning on a 6 am flight. So, here we are almost two weeks later and I am finally completing the write up for you all. Today is July 5th! Oops- no internet at our place in Maine so the report had to wait.
Race morning ended up looking better than expected as I woke up and prepared to make the drive from Evergreen to Boulder Reservoir. This is about an hour drive from my house so I usually leave a few hours before race start for the local events. My wave was set to swim at 7:27 am and I needed to pick up my race packet, set up my gear and do a warm up, so I planned to be at the reservoir no later than 6 am. I left my home at 5 am to the sun starting to rise and I saw some pretty colors. That was a good sign that there might be a break in the rain for just a bit that morning. I was hopeful! Still, I had wet weather gear with me if needed to keep me warm before the swim and a jacket to use for the bike if needed. The drive was a nice quiet time to visualize my race and to think of my race scenarios and how to handle things. It had been two years since ITU Worlds in Rotterdam and I had not been training for an Olympic distance event. My current training is focused on Ironman Louisville so that means longer workouts (especially on the bike) and lower training intensities. BBSC, the event organizer, was nice enough to defer my races from last summer post surgery to 2019 so I have a few short course events on my schedule which I am using as B races to practice open water swimming and transitions. Boulder Sunrise was a training day to get back out there and continue to practice the flow of race day. But, we all want to push hard on race day.
I arrived at Boulder Reservoir right at 6 am and parked my car. I left all of my gear in the car and walked up to transition to pick up my race packet and check things out. Once I had my race info, I headed back to the car and put my numbers on my helmet, bike and race belt for the run. I made sure all of my water bottles were topped off and in place. I pumped up my tires. And, I grabbed my headphones to listen to some music as I prepared for the start of the race. In transition, I positioned myself near the “bike out” location as I prefer running further in my bare feet to running in my cycling shoes. So, I had a shorter run to exit transition on the bike but a longer one to run barefoot from the beach post swim and a longer “run out” after T2. All great with me. I met a couple of nice gals next to me who were newer to triathlon and had some questions. I was happy to help them get ready for their day and answer what I could to help them feel more at ease leading into the swim. We were all grateful that the sun had come out and that there was not yet any rain. It looked as if it might hold off. I searched out my Mile High Multisport team mate Shannon to say hello and wish her good luck. And, I headed out to do a warm up before I needed to head to the swim start.
My warm up consisted of a 10-15 minute run with dynamic exercises meant to increase the heart rate and warm the muscles to get me ready for a quicker effort from the start of the swim. I ran up the paved road to the dirt road of the dam path and turned around there to run back. I included some walking lunges with rotations, hip swings, high knees, butt kicks, strides and some glute activation exercises. Then it was time to get back to transition, put on my wetsuit and grab my goggles and swim cap. I got down to the beach just in time to dunk my face in the water but the first waves were already going off so I did not get in a quick swim. Normally, I would swim 100-200 yds for a swim specific warm up but I had to just stretch on land instead this time. The swim start was all good and I felt great from a cardiovascular perspective from the beginning. My left shoulder was a little tight and it had been bothering me that week. I separated it in a bike crash three years ago and there is some arthritis in there now which acts up at times. It took a little bit longer this day to warm up in my wet suit and seemed to tire more easily. The swim started off great and I had my sights set on the far turn around buoy. I have had issues in the past sighting on the wrong buoy at Boulder for Olympic races because I breathe to my right and there are only a few buoys on course. A few times, I have sighted on the far right turn buoy and headed off course a bit before catching myself. I tried my hardest not to fall into the same trap this time but somehow I chose some feet to follow for the draft effect and that friend made the same mistake. I lost some time there correcting my position so I ended up swimming about 1750 yds on the swim so was a bit slower than I had hoped when getting out of the water. But, the second half of the swim after hitting that first turn buoy was great. Looking at the results afterwards, I found out that the #1 woman in my AG came out of the water 5 minutes ahead of me! Speedy! I swam it (with extra yardage…lol) in 26:47. That can improve!!
Transition was pretty uneventful except for the fact that my left foot did not want to come out of my wetsuit. I lost some time there. But, in general, everything went well moving from the swim to the bike and I was out on the road in about 2 minutes. The Boulder Sunrise bike course is 26 miles long so a little bit longer than a typical Olympic distance race. It was a little chilly in the beginning of the ride. I was cold getting on the bike as I chose not to wear a jacket or arm warmers. But, I did warm up within the first few miles of the ride as it is a steady incline out of the reservoir and up Jay Road. By the time I hit 36, I was in the sunshine and feeling good. I wanted to keep my effort up around 85-90% FTP avg for this ride but also knew that this 10K run off the bike would be harder for me since I had just started to do some speed work. So, I held back a bit more than I normally do to make sure I had something left in my legs. Reflecting back, I could have gone much harder than I did and still had a fine run. And, it is also time for a new FTP test as I think my numbers are a bit low. So, I gained some great info for future training and racing on this segment of the race course. One of my biggest focuses for this race was to really focus on my position on the bike and my power distribution between my left and right legs. My right leg is dominant and continues to be post surgery. This sometimes throw my hips off and my left leg then has trouble holding the same power. I really made a conscious effort throughout the ride to equalize. This made a huge difference in how my left hamstring felt coming off the bike. It felt so much better. Bike time: 1:19:44. I think I should have and could have been closer to 1:16-1:17 and still had a good run.
I came off the bike at T2 feeling good about my ride and knowing that I could hold more power at this distance in the future and be ready to run well. My transition time was much slower here than it would normally be (1:52). I did not put my elastic laces in the new running shoes. I chose to wear my new ones and just tie them in transition. The Lock Laces on my training shoes have been hurting my instep of my left foot so I just wanted to lose those for the day. Yes, this slowed down my time but my feet were much happier. Shoes on, hat on, race belt on as I ran out of transition and on to the run. I had a feeling I might be in the top three of my age group at this point. I did not have anyone my age pass me on the bike. In fact, I did most of the passing so I felt confident that I was up toward the top somewhere. I took off running and tried to keep my pace steady for the first mile and then slowly increase it mile by mile. This worked well until about mile 3 at the turn around and then I had to stop and tighten my laces. This always throws me off when I stop running on course at the shorter distances and then have to restart. My rhythm fell apart a bit and I noticed that my focus started drifting to the finish line and I lost my concentration on form in the moment. I started to slow down and my mind started that negative self-talk bit- “Oh, running, why is it so hard off the bike? Never feels good and I still have two miles to go.” Oh no, bad news. When I start hearing thoughts like this in my head, it is never good for my run time. So, I regrouped my thoughts, reengaged mentally and just started to tell myself to shut up and get running. This helped a lot and got me up to the last half mile leading to the finish. I twisted that left ankle on a rock coming off the dam path and my hamstring seized up a bit. I stopped to stretch it a few times but then just pushed through to the end. On hindsight, if I had just pushed through and not slowed, then I would have been one step up on the podium. I ended up with a third place finish just 3 seconds behind the 2nd place gal. In fact. I sprinted at the end to catch her and almost did. This was a great reminder that if I even let up for a second then it can make a difference between finishing where I want to be or being just 3 seconds behind. This is my biggest takeaway from Boulder Sunrise: I have to be willing to embrace the pain a bit more if I want to achieve my time and placement goals for future races. This is mental training. This is where I need to be working the hardest right now leading into ironman Louisville.
Final race results put me in 3rd place for my age group 45-49 years old. I am the oldest this year at 49 so I get to be the youngster in 50-54 in 2020. Reflecting on past time from 2016/2017 on Boulder Olympic courses, I was definitely off my past times by about 5 minutes or so. Granted I am older now and just getting back into racing, but I know I can race faster. I hope to get a little bit more speed back as time goes on but since this is not my goal distance for the season, I am happy with the outcome and thrilled to be back out there racing with so many incredible athletes. It was a ton of fun. I got to meet a new MHM team mate as well! Great work out there, Darren! And, Shannon is always a superstar! Congratulations to Shannon on a first place AG!
Final Time: 2:43:12 Swim: 26:47 T1: 2:01 Bike: 1:19:44 T2: 1:56 Run: 52:32
TriAptitude Coaching 
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