Boulder - Week 2

Boulder Week 2

Another packed week in B town with some good training 

Highlight of the Week

First ride up the mountains
The start of our climb on lee drive to the town ward



The Week started with a recovery day after racing the Boulder 5150 the previous day.
I was surprised on how well the body pulled up and I was off to the pool for an easy swim set with a good chilled out spa afterwards. The spa's here are awesome prepared to the cold ice blowing ones back home. There hot and actually have jets... I know where il b at any chance I can be from now on!
Later that day I met my friend pain when it was time to jump on the foam roller.
No matter how many times you get on that thing it always gives you the same result... Tears!

The next day It was time to harden up n head up the mountains for the first time to the town ward for a 3hr ride

The start of Lee Drive off Lee Hill

Boulder in the distance and this is only about 1km up Lee Drive....

Yep I had my granny legs in gear n got flogged by these two jets...

At the top of Lee drive

2nd week here n already got a flat! 

Next stop Ward

This is Ward.... The best town on the planet....? Population about 6 haha
Altitude of 2700 meters
Elevation gain from Boulder approx 1100 meters

It was an awesome ride and after losing the boys on the decent I was in for a solo ride home. After heading back the same way we cam I later found out they were waiting for me at the bottom of the highway which was a different way we came so I ended up climbing back up Lee hill to go home. Another lesson learnt!


Wednesday was a Double Run & Swim Day

After a slow 1hr run up to wonderland lake it was time to go for my first squad session at scott carpenter pool which is a nice outdoor pool. It was a great session with meeting some awesome people including Gregg and Laura Bennett which I had a good chat to after.
Later that after noon the runners were back on and it was time for a 45min tempo session. After scouting the town iv found myself a nice run path right next to the house that takes me straight to wonderland lake and all the trails. The lovely part is its all uphill there and down hill home :)


Thursday didn't go down to well after making a rookie mistake n not reading the program properly. I found myself doing my saturday's session of a 4hr ride and 40min tempo run brick session....

All I can say is wow it hurt and I definitely learnt my lesson.. Especially after the bid day prior!


Friday couldn't of come quicker n i was delighted to have a Rest Day :)
After an easy 3km swim I decided to go in downtown to pearl street and see what was happening.
Pearl street is the go to place in boulder, it kind of reminds me of Fremantle back home but minus the beach as were in the middle of nowhere at the foot of the mountains.
It was sushi on the menu for lunch and would have to say its the best sushi iv ever had!

As for the weekend it just hurt... haha no other way to say it!
saturday was a 3hr ride 40min run
sunday was a double run and swim

which rounded the week for these totals

Training Log

(Training graph is in Total Hours)

Boulder Peak 5150 Race Report

Boulder Peak 5150 Race Report

Sunday July 10th

My first race at altitude with only living here for just under a week and every one told me I was crazy.

Well it was hard but I posted an ok result....

Wave start 6:55am.... Wave start 6:55am.... Wave Start 6:55am

I was off to a great start the night before when my coach messaged me giving me a bit of a race prep and then finished it with "what times your wave start"...

Well probably the most rookie move I have made, I didn't check my wave start at registration...

So I was up and on the bike riding to arrive at transition for as soon as it opened at

 5:00am knowing the first wave was at 6:30am. 

After racking my bike and setting out my gear ready to race I headed over to the info tent and found out my wave was at 6:55am. It ended up working out well as its probably the best warm up iv had pre race because i was relaxed and knew i had plenty of time to do my thing. I did a nice 15min warm up jog out on the run course and then found a nice silent grassy area for some good relaxed stretching for 10mins while listening to some music. I returned to my gear in transition, got the shoes ready and put on the wettie to head down to the swim start for an easy 5min warm up to loosen up the shoulders. It was the first time I had hit the open water in boulder and to top it off I was in my wettie which is already tight enough restricting my breathing. 

Enough on the warm up and on to the race!

Swim

It was a deep water start with an out and back rectangle swim course. I positioned myself at the front on the left next to another guy that I thought I could swim with. Their was a big glare coming from the sun and my goggle choice was not right going with the zoggs predators instead of the blueseventy open water visions. Reedy told me not to smack myself up in the first 200meters otherwise i'l have no air and struggle for the rest as being in altitude. When the gun went off I found myself hitting the first can in the lead with out going full throttle. Once I got to the second can there was a pack of about 5-6 to my left that swum by and dropped me. From their i was swimming solo through all the other wave starts and was glad when I hit the land and running into T1. 

(I was 5th out of the water in a time of 0:24:23. My last 1500m pool TT was 21:30 so from that I know i was a bit off my usual pace. I came out like a cooked lobster in my wettie with the water temp actually not being to cold it probably would have been a better option for me to not wear it which would have freed up my breathing a little as well.)

T1

0:02:08

The run up from the swim was only a few hundred metres. The race was run very well and they had carpet layed on the bitchumen leading into transition. After watching a few transitions from the ITU guys  when they wear wetties I picked up a few techniques they use. With abit more practice im sure I can still get my time down as they are the seconds that count some times. I found I had a good easy transition and was running out to the bike exit ready for the next leg ahead.

(My S-works Transition and kswiss blades ready to fire)

Bike

1:14:19 

This was promised to be the fun part of the race by a few of the boys. The course included a climb up lee hill, which off course I had not ridden pre race. Its a short incline of about 10% for about 2km or so. But even before lee hill heading out of transition and in towards town the legs were struggling to push a decent pace on the bike. It only occurred to me when I got to the top of lee hill and looking down in the distance at the swim course that it was all a false flat with a slight climb heading up out of transition. With the climb out of the way it was time for some down hill. The only thing is they had a speed limit of 35miles p/h... that was about 50km p/h and there was a cop with a radar gun pointing at you. So of course I slowed down as reedy warned me about it only to find other people flying past me and nothing done. So I put the foot down and played chasy back to transition with more little rolling hills. 

(I came into T2 in 6th place)

T2

0:00:36

As I got into T2 I noticed to my left there was the guy in 5th place which was one of the guys that flogged passed me on the down hill. I had a quick fast transition and passed him as I was going through the run exit.  

Run

0:43:30

With now being in 5th I decided to hold a decent pace for the first few kmsPRE with deciding to leave the garmin off. I had a glimpse of 4th position and decided to put the foot down to see what I could do. 

It felt like I was running really strong sub 4's with the amount I was huffing and puffing but the end run split definitely showed something different. It just goes to show what altitude can do to your race when your not accustomed to it.

I had a finish time of 2:24:56 which may seem slow but on the course it was on and the circumstances I was pretty happy and ended up placing 4th. 

It also qualified me for the 5150 Hy-Vee U.S Champs in Des moines, Iowa on September 4th.

This gives me another good race to look forward to as well as the ITU Long Distance World Champs in November.

All in all it was a great race and run really well by WTC which I thoroughly enjoyed and had lots of fun! 

If only they would run 5150 races back home in Aus....

(Yes its a sectioned off Bar area after the finish shoot.... Y the hell do we not have these back home haha screw the G-rade and banana's...!)

(Old school Ref... was scared he was gonna pull out the whistle)

(Tim O'donnell Pro Winner)

he went 3peat....

Next Post Will Be "Week 2 Boulder Wrap up" on Sunday

Boulder - Week 1

Boulder - Week 1

1st week down in b-town and i'v done heaps so hope you got your reading glasses on :)

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK  

   

Meeting Mirinda Carfrae

Day 2 - Tuesday

After waking up from a nice sleep in i was jet lagged as hell so the lads and I decided hit up a traditional south american breakfast at a local diner. It was the first meal i had got from the states and it lived up to all my expectations.... 1 million calories and huge haha! I wish i got a photo for you all to see but never got the chance coz it was demolished pretty quickly after having crappy plane food for the entire previous day.

Later that day I unpacked my Transition S-works and headed out for a ride out of town for 2 hours towards the town Lyons along 36th highway. It was a cruisy ride with my coach Tim Reed and 2 of the other lads joe and al from livestrong and jelly belly. Joe and Al had only arrived back into boulder a few days earlier than me after competing in europe so we all were happy to just spin the legs. I learnt pretty quickly you need some strong sunscreen around this town coz i came back home after only 2 hours abit like a cooked lobster. 

Not living in the new house yet we all went out for a sushi dinner in town. I though we had good sushi back home but this place knocked my socks off. We were in a private asian style room like booth with the thin walls and a dinning table that was just above floor height. The menu was abit different with weird names like the dragon ball. They brought the sushi out on a big wooden boat and it was awesome, i even ended up going back and having it for lunch!

Day 3 - Wednesday

The best thing about Boulder is we get to watch the tour de france in normal day hours unlike back home in perth. With the town being full of athletes and hardly any 1 working we get up when we want to cruise down to the local coffee shop and watch the end of the tour before heading out for our ride which is usually around 9am. 

Back home i was up at 4:45am most mornings so im already loving this lifestyle :)

I was lucky all the boys were on their taper week otherwise i was in for a spanking...

Later that afternoon it was time to put on the speedo's and hit my first swim session at altitude. We went to the north boulder rec centre which isnt to far away from were my new house was to be. They have an indoor 25 except its an american 25 so its a about half a meter or so shorter than back home which means  you always gotta do the math and add up so your not short and with my math skills im lucky reedy's there to do it for me.

My first dive in i quickly figured out what the altitude does to you in the water with having 2 gasp for air for the first 5 strokes. After that it wasnt to bad until you got to the wall for a tumble turn. I ended up with a 2.5km set in the bank.

After the swim and some food joe, al and ike picked me up to help me move into the new house. With renting an un-furnished room we had to go bed shopping. After thinking bout it the easiest thing to do for now was to get a blow up mattress until i get a proper bed so we headed to target. The idea kind of bit me in the bum after waking up in the middle of the night to find it was deflated and i was sleeping on the floor :( until i realised the next morning i didnt put the cap on properly.. idiot i know

All in all the house im in is in a great spot where i dont have to cycle through town and theres plenty of shops and everything i need pretty close.

  

Day 4 - Thursday

It was back off to amante's coffee shop for 9am to meet the boys, watch the end of the tour and roll out on the bikes out of town. There were a few more people this time with the lads from the avanti team joining the group. Its been great here meeting a lot of people and most of them have actually been aussies.. I only had 2.5hrs on the program so kept on the flats when the other lads headed up left hand into the mountains. 

Day 5 - Friday

After watching the tour again reedy came to pick me up n we were off for a few chores including my first food shop. I couldnt believe my eyes when i seen banana's for 55cents when back home their $18 per kg.. everything was cheap as chips with my total coming to $70 which got me everything i needed for more than a week which blew me away! 

On the program was an easy swim at the rec centre for another 2km and then it was time for lunch! I was in for a treat as Reedy took me out for my first american burrito at Qdoba. This thing was the size of my head haha and by far the best burrito iv had!

Later on that arvo I put the runners on and headed out for an easy 30min run. The legs felt reasonably good but the effort in to out was definitely negative even tho i was only running 5min pace the lungs were feeling it. All in all i enjoyed my first run and did it around town getting my bearings right and looking around.

Day 6 - Saturday

With the race 2moro it was an easy day on the cards to make sure i was all loose after hitting up a 1hr ride and jumping on the foam roller before heading down to transition at the res for registration. The 5150 series puts on a great expo for an olympic course compared to back home so it was good to spend a little bit of time down there and check a few things out we dont have. 

Later that day i got another 30min run in the legs with a nice stretch back at home and was in bed early after making a nice pasta dinner and getting the bike and gear all set up.

Day 7 - Sunday 

Boulder Peak 5150 

The Boulder Peak is the most high profile olympic race of the year for this town. 

Now run by WTC and labelled as a 5150 series race it attracted over 1000 athletes and is one of the best run short courses I have seen and competed in. A unique part of this race is that they plan the wave starts for the pros to set off last. With the first wave starting at 6:30am and then a roll down to the the pros at 9am.  It was awesome to have the event set up like this as my wave was at 6:55am and i would be finished for the pros just coming out of the water and heading on to the bike. 

It was an awesome race to watch with alot of the top pros racing. They had altered the run course to a shorter 3 lap for the pros for it to be more spectator friendly.

TRAINING LOG

Week 1 = Altitude Adjustment

(graph = Total hours of training)

Boulder Peak 5150 race report coming soon

:)

Thanks to all my Sponsors for continued support