Currently sitting in the waiting area (I’m sure there is a better name for it) at LAX waiting to board my flight to Auckland. As with my trip here I am on a multi-leg journey across the world in all directions but Melbourne. Another 32hr door-to-door trip awaits.
Security- American Style. This is only domestic!!
In the last five minutes I have seen: Chris or his brother Liam Hemsworth, anyway it was the Hemsworth who played Thor in the Avengers. A really close college friend from Canberra and her sister who have been travelling along the Californian Coast. And also an obscure teenage ski-racer who I follow on Twitter (dating back to the days I dabbled in some semi-serious Skiing).
So far the travel has been relatively smooth. Although I didn’t make too many friends on my flight to LAX when I misread the gate number (39) for my seat. Reaching the end of the plane only to discover that there were only 37 rows on the plane. To my chagrin I discovered I was sitting in row 10. A very awkward and embarrassing shuffle back up the plane, whilst other people were making there way down to their seats. To make things worse I was told (over the loud speaker) to “find my seat quickly and stop holding up the plane.”
Am armed with sleeping tablets, soundproof headphones, an iPad filled with movies in my quest to avoid: crying babies, awkwardly friendly neighbours and the generally poor selection of movies onboard.
Needless to say its with a heavy heart that I leave Boulder. It has been one of the best few weeks of my life, doing what I love in the Triathlon mecca of the world. As what seems the case in so many of these trips, as soon as you start feeling comfortable and get your bearings the trip ends. It really took me the better part of three weeks to get over the altitude and re-align my sleeping patterns, to say the last week flew by would be a massive understatement.
Swim
My biggest ever swim week….40ks (40.05k’s to be exact). A couple of situations presented themselves that made this weeks 13hr slog-fest in the pool possible. First and foremost the temperature’s reached in Boulder have been ridiculous. I have had no day below 30c here, and throughout my last week it was hitting 42c. In short, running and biking between 11am-5pm were not on the cards. A typical day at the pool involved two shortish sessions split between lunch. The morning’s (i.e. 10am) would be spent either on a hard solo main set or with a squad. Than lunch and then another return to the pool for (the more boring) slower aerobic and technique work. Flatirons pool is the mecca for world-class athletes, the standard of swimmers is ridiculous. There was a woman who must have been around 8 months pregnant popping out sub 1:20min 100m intervals today! Being in the same pool as people like Clayton Fettel, Kris Gemmel, Julie Dibens and Craig Alexander has been a fantastic experience in itself, moreover seeing their own training has been really interesting. Less high intensity, lots of IM, paddles and band work.
Another by-product of my swim mileage has been the emergence of possibly the most awkward set of tan lines, the goggle tan-line. With the rest of my face a rather questionable shade of orange (NATURAL!!) the only non-tanned portion has been around my eyes and a line going from my eyes to just above my ears. I am told (not that I would know!) that this is a tell-tale sign of someone with a spray-on fake tan.
Bike
The highlight of the week was my last ride here on Saturday. I decided to re-acquaint myself with my three favourite climbs. The 25k monster Ward (which climbs 1000m higher than the highest point reached in the Tour De France), Jamestown and Old Stage Road (the scene of much suffering at the Boulder Peak Tri). 110ks, 1400m of vertical ascent.
On another note my relationship with my saddle has bordered (for the want of a better word) on schizophrenic. Some days it feels like I’m sitting on some sort of Lazyboy sofa whilst other like some sort of sperm destroying spike. Unfortunately the latter seemed all too common during my last week. Making me feel a lot like this guy……
Run
The usual cycle of very early morning and late-evening runs continued. Another week of very solid mileage and what feels like a return to the old (semi-respectable) runner I was in February/March. I managed to go 26 of the 27 days without seeing a snake; however, on my last run 500m from home I saw one. I think I broke my 1k record running home!
Other
Each Thursday night Boulder puts on a ‘Stroke and Stride’ (1500m Swim, 5k Run) and it seems each Thursday there is a lightening strike turning the event into a run. Three of the four weeks I was there lightening cancelled the swim. On my last Thursday there, Nick, Scott another Aussie Renee and Nick’s homestay host Sandi (a 64yo ten time Kona Qualifier) headed down to the Reservoir to do the race. My plan was to stroke and avoid the stride. However the lightening derailed my plans and I ended up as a keen spectator/photographer. The highlight of the night was the ridiculous amount of Pizza the event provided.
Nick looking a little worse for wear after his 5k PB.
On my last night five of us went out and celebrated my last night here. It was a very enjoyable night; a sneaky beverage or two might have been also enjoyed! Pizza Locale is defiantly a must for anyone visiting Boulder, so is the post-dinner Frozen Yogurt (Boom Yogurt or Smooch being the two best).
On Thursday I discovered the All Sports Recovery Centre (would’ve been handy to have found out about it earlier). The Normatec Boots were a massive hit, I’ll defiantly be utilising this facility more regularly next time (hopefully, there is one!) I am here. It has ice baths, hyperbaric chambers, massage therapists and the normatec boots.
All in all I had such an amazing time in Boulder, it was everything and more than what I imagined. Blogging now will become considerably less frequent as I return to dreary/cold Canberra.
Boulder Suggestions
- Amante Coffee in North Boulder is where its at for Coffee and celebrity cyclist spotting
- Dave Scott’s swim squad at Flatirons is the biggest and most popular one; however, his sister Jane’s has more pro’s and less AG’ers. Wolfgang’s sessions are hard and are full of laughs, mainly at your expense.
- Hit up a membership at Flatirons and All Sports Recovery.
- The lack of oxygen up there makes hit top end intervals hard. The owner of All Sports, Josh, was telling me that he was doing 4x1mile repeats (2mins rest) the week before he did a 5k at sea level. His mile splits at sea-level were faster than his interval workout at Boulder. Quite a few people utilised indoor trainers and oxygen masks to mimic sea level and hence work at a higher intensity.
- Your swim times are going to be A LOT slower at altitude. Adjust times accordingly.
- Load up on sunscreen. It get very hot in July!
- From personal experience its very easy to be caught up with what others are doing, having so many awesome athletes in one place can be a blessing and a curse.
