July 26, 2011

Moving!

I can't believe it but after a very long time, probably a good 6-7 years, I have decided to move my blog. Basically it was the spam comments that killed me in the end. Thank you Alison for hosting me forever. Here is my new blog (click on the link, I don't want the spammers to follow me!).

Posted by barb at 6:19 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2011

What I've been doing since Vineman...

Well Vineman was a week ago. That is crazy, it has gone by really quickly!! Since MOO is coming up quickly, well I must say that what I did all week pretty much was train. It was good though. Well that said I had a few dark moments yesterday, but I'll get to that.

The first thing I did this week that was cool is a sweet climb out in California!! I had my bike out there and I really wanted to do a few cool rides since I didn't think I could keep it out there right now. So on Wednesday I busted out after work and headed up to Walnut Creek, a fancy town a few minutes away from where I work, to climb Mount Diablo. I had heard it was a pretty epic climb with great views. Well sign me up. I also read a cute little blog entry that said it was super steep but I was like 'pshaw, I am from Denver!!!' Famous last words. So here are a few snaps.

This is what most of the climb looks like...

Most of the climb isn't crazy steep - you can pretty much ride around 9MPH most of the way. There are crazy switchbacks though and the roads, like most roads I've ridden on in California, are of mixed quality and there are some bad cracks and potholes. When you get almost to the top it gets steeper and steeper and about the last half mile is like you must be kidding me steep. Like if i had to clip out or stop I would have fallen over. It was nuts. I don't think I've ever ridden a grade that steep. It is enough to make you want to quit but you know you're so close and you know the views will be amazing. And sure enough they were! Here is the best view. You can't see too well but in person I could actually see the Golden Gate Bridge, which is probably about an hour away if you were to drive.

I love the feature on my new iPhone where I can take gay little self-portraits. Here is a gem from the peak. It was 95 degrees when I started riding, note the nice glow I've got going!

It was so much fun. I will say the descent was decidedly not fun. I love to descend and I am pretty fearless, but this was not a fun descent. It was too steep, there were too many switchbacks, and I had to ride my brakes the whole way. I am so glad I did it but I don't know if I'd ride it again (if I did I would definitely use a road bike, not a tri bike). The best thing was that after I got done, I found the Whole Foods in Walnut Creek and got an awesome salad! I was having Whole Foods withdrawl in California.

So outside of that ride, which was great, I also had a 7 hour ride and 30 minute run brick on my schedule for this week. That is the longest ride of Ironman training and I had been dreading it. The way I did it was I started out at 7:00 am and did a 70 mile loop up to Ward, across the Peak-to-Peak Highway, and back through Lyons. Not bad although I got behind on nutrition and chugged about a gallon of water in Lyons. Then I met my brother, who should be sainted for putting up with me for the last three hours of a seven hour ride, and we rode to Carter Lake and back. I did okay although I kind of wanted to punch him when he was so chipper and I was hot and tired and cranky and needed a Snickers in the worst way. Once I got my Snickers around 5:30 into the ride, I felt way better. The brick run was no picnic as it was a stupid 95 degrees when I ran, but I finished it, and I was happy.

The rest of the weekend after the monster brick has been fairly mellow - ran and swam this morning, caught up on stuff at my house, etc. I can't believe I am kind of on the way downhill to the Ironman. I can't lie, if it is 95 degrees at MOO I will be sad. But hopefully all this crazy heat is just making me stronger for a nice temperate day in September!

Posted by barb at 7:02 PM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2011

Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Well this is going to be a mostly picture-free race report, I will warn you in advance, but I am actually writing it, which is a positive step for me! Meaning that I remember the existence of my blog which is also somewhat shocking.

Anyway I raced Vineman 70.3 yesterday and it was awesome. This is definitely a must-do race in my opinion. Beautiful setting, big field, exciting pro race, good place to visit in general, and fairly easy travel (especially if you’re me and you get to drive for 90 minutes to get there, as opposed to my Denver friends who had all manner of issues getting to SFO because of crazy Denver weather). I had only been to wine country in the fall and I must say I much prefer it in the summer. The grapes haven’t been harvested, but that means you are driving and riding and running through lush, green vineyards. In the fall it is all kind of brown, so this was way better. We totally lucked out on weather somehow, as this race can be 100 degrees but I don’t think it even got to 80 yesterday, especially for my wave which started at 6:46 am. I have not had a hot race yet this year so I am hoping MOO will not be a million degrees. So here is my report!

Pre-Race:
Pre-race activities were mellow. Easy running, riding, and swimming. The Russian River is amazing for swimming. I wanted to move to California just so I could go hang out there and swim whenever I want. It was a pain to get to the beach for swimming, 15 miles on winding and slow roads with annoying traffic, but it was worth it. When we drove the course we didn’t think it seemed that hard, I would have said kind of like Austin but a little hillier, and with bad road surfaces (chip seal and potholes). But I didn’t think it would be a tough bike especially after ridiculous Quassy!

This is the view for most of the bike course...

Swim:
Well swimming is definitely my nemesis this year. I am so frustrated that I swim and swim and get slower, not faster. I have a few things in the works to start to improve, because it really would be a game-changer for me to get out of the water 1-2 minutes down from the leaders, not 8. The swim was beautiful and I swam mostly straight, but I did not swim fast. At all. My split was 34:58, which is one of my worst Half swims. I came out of the water in 46th, out of 181.

The Russian River:

T1:
Due to our pimp start time we had rough spots in a very long transition area. I was okay with the trade-off though, it was definitely worth it! I felt kind of demoralized after seeing my swim so I did not have the fastest T1 but I also didn’t fall off my bike mounting at the bottom of a steep hill so I am calling it a win.

Bike:
The bike was not as fast as I expected. The hills were hillier, if that makes sense, the roads were horrendous, and it actually rained for a good portion of the ride, which makes me skittish because I don’t like crashing, especially in a race! But I biked myself from 46th to 5th in my age group, and I only saw one bike split that was faster than mine (Beth’s, and she is a rock star, so I’m cool with that!). The course is very scenic although with the road surfaces I got tired of looking at it and was pretty eager to get off my bicycle and start running! I did chat a little bit with some nice girls through the middle which broke up the monotony and a few of the faster 40-44 year old men caught up to me and I played tag with them for a while too. It was not as peaceful as I had expected on the bike but it wasn’t terrible as far as crowding goes. The traffic was not nearly as bad as I feared – on a few courses I’ve gotten stuck behind cars that are afraid to pass which is really annoying. None of that happened and I am happy with my bike split although I wish I had gone maybe 2-3 minutes faster. My split was 2:35:45 for 21.6 MPH.

T2:
Once again, not a pimp spot, but with new cleats (and a SWEET pair of borrowed Look Keo Blade pedals, which I love and must buy), I had a nice clean dismount. My feet were frozen (I know, really!?!?!) so running didn’t feel great, but I busted out of T2 at a somewhat decent clip anyway.

Run:
I am super happy about my run. Really, really happy. I have run a 1:37 off the bike before but it was at Kansas last year which was probably .5 miles short. The best thing about it was that I was only passed by one girl in my age group (the super speedy Other Beth as I call her since I knew Beth S. first), and I knew she would pass me because she is an amazing runner. I was demoralized in the first mile because I felt like crap and Other Beth passed me like I was standing still but then I hit the mile marker at 7:04 and I realized I was running really fast! I decided it would be prudent to slow down just a hair which I did but I felt very good on the run through mile 11. I also was not passed by anyone but Other Beth and that was great, usually I get passed by one or two random girls and that is the worst feeling. Mile 12 was a low point and I felt sad that I wasn’t quite done but I rallied a bit at the end and my finishing kick was decent. The run was hilly but nothing compared to Quassy so I wasn’t mad. I really enjoyed the lollipop running through the vineyards at La Crema – that was amazing. I could have run there all day, and the footing was good, so I wasn’t terrified that I would break my ankle. Somewhere during the run I passed two girls in my age group, but I can’t say where to be honest. It got confusing because I passed three girls that I remember and I think two of them were pros.

It was amazing having the famous O. telling me my position at mile 4 of the run and I decided in the future I only want to race where Beth is, because then I will have an awesome spectathlete informing me of my position! I finished the run at 1:37:43, with an overall pace of 7:28 per mile.

Overall Thoughts:
Well overall I am delighted. I came into Vineman tired, not terribly well-rested, and bitter about stupid Ironman training and generally over tris, not knowing if I even wanted to race next year. I leave feeling positive about the future, remembering why I love to race, and believing the best is yet to come. I definitely think I can run and swim faster, and with my time at 4:53 now, I think 4:4x is not out of the realm of possibility. I remember when breaking 5:00 seemed impossible so that is a really good feeling.

Now I am back at work and I will be taking two nice easy days and then buckling down for the last eight weeks before the Ironman. I had a great time at Vineman, and I am so glad I went!

Here is one last picture, from the awards ceremony. Pretty cool awards - a bottle of wine in a Vineman box. Too bad I don't drink! I may give it away here in California so I don't have to fly home with it. The box is going on my trophy shelf though!

Thanks for reading!!

Posted by barb at 3:31 PM | Comments (5)