Riding in Colorado

Yesterday was a great day for training. I rode up toward Brainard Lake. It is in the mountains and has an elevation of 10,300 feet! It was truly awesome; check out the picture! Chuckie met me and encouraged me to keep going while he rode his motorbike and coached from the side. I haven't met another coach who does this for his athletes!

The ride rocked because:
1. The elevation: riding up to 10,300ft is unbelievable.
2. The road was remarkable - smooth shoulder and no potholes!
3. The weather was perfect!
4. The views were spectacular!
5. Chuckie was there supporting my whole ride
6. The descent was just as fun as the ascent.

I road the entire 21 miles up at a moderate high-end range heart-rate. I stopped once to give Chuckie some training numbers (watts and HR) and then headed to the top. Chuckie was able to also get me some fresh spring water that I drank in gallons! (Altitude is dry! I need to make sure to increase my fish oils.) There was a ton of butterflies on the way up, as well. I must have seen 40 (2 for each mile I rode!).

Overall, the ride time was around 4 hours 40 minutes with warm-up and cool-down. This area is a great area to train -you just have to find ways around the traffic when you are in town. So far, I haven't had any big mishaps but am reminded daily by Chuckie and his other athletes to be safe!

I ended the day swimming in the local Stroke and Stride at the Boulder Reservoir. This was crazy. I did two 750m laps and walked between the laps. I had to be careful not to re-injure my toe. The start of the swim was CRAZY! I was pushed, toppled on, and kicked! It was a bit of a gong-show really. At each turn-buoy all the athletes were bundled and that is where I was kicked in the face. Luckily my goggles saved my eyes. I didn't swim on anyone's feet...something I really really need to work on. By the second lap everyone was spread out enough that the fist-fighting stopped.

It was fun. I had a blast and any extra time in open water swimming, with fist-fighting, helps my cause!