Another week in Boulder and with it some routine. No longer am I getting lost and taking 1hr to cycle the 10ks to the pool, no longer am I going to the shoddy place with the crappy coffee, no longer am I struggling to grasp that in the US people drive the cars on the right hand side of the road.
Again I have completely and utterly failed to take significant photos, sorry for those who need big font and lots of pictures.
Swimming has been as usual intense, any attempts at even a humble tumble-turn have me hypoxic, although that feeling started to subside near the end of the week, about time! I am getting used to swimming in a 25m pool, I’ll admit I have been spoilt at CISAC, MSAC and Kardinia Aquatic Centre (understand that those acronyms probably mean nothing to most of the readers). Yet I am still struggling in the 23yd (seriously, are we stuck in the 19th century, why do we still need yards!!) pool. The walls of the pool are banked, meaning I’m still battling to time my turns correctly. There is nothing worse than going for a tumble turn, stretching your feet out, and meeting only water! Still another solid eight sessions in the pool.
Standard Boulder, two pro-tour level bikes casually left outside the building. I prefer my Tarmac (the pink one) over the R5 (does a good job of hiding its value with that crappy paint scheme) any day.
As I’ve said before it takes a lot for me to really enjoy riding. Boulder has converted me! My schedule had me completing an “undulating” 2.40hr ride on Wednesday. I may have been a little liberal with that definition!
Riding with Nick Baldwin (see his blog here) I knew I was in for some pain, and I wasn’t disappointed! Having a 4:49hr IM Bike Split (180km) to your name means that you are in some pretty elite company. Our ride was without a doubt the most enjoyable and satisfying of my life.
The climb is 25ks and averages 4%, with the last 2.5ks averaging 8.8%, lungbusting stuff, especially at nearly 3000m meters. Highlights of the climb were:
- Seeing a bear skamper across the road infront of us.
- Asking 30mins into the climb how long was left, Nick’s response of 20mins was well recieved. 20 minutes past, and another 20 and then another 20! I must admit theat there was some (i.e. a lot) of abuse hurled in his direction at regular intervals (between gasps for air).
- Asking Nick what his HR was, his response of 140BPM was greeted with more abuse (mine was in the 160s).
- At the top being reminded not to smoke any pot by the lady at the cafe (liberal use of the word). Didn’t know I gave off that impression.
- Nick walking right over 3-time Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander and not noticing.
- The descent!! Gradual slope, open turns, no braking!
- Me complaining how it seems that no one in the US works, completely forgetting it was July 4th! (kind of a big deal!)
At Ward. Nick and I got a photo taken at the top, except the person taking it forgot to press the actual “take picture” button. This is all I have to show for our ride.
In terms of run mileage things are on the up. Getting back into respectable territory for an ITU wannabe. I really enjoy double-run days, not sure why. But give me two short runs over one long run any day of the week. The usual run schedule was a day bookended by a pre-breakfast and pre-dinner run.
The standard morning 30-45min run trail
My local Coffee shop now doesn’t even bother to ask if I want my coffee ‘tepid’ (i.e. not the temperature of Lava). The Mediterranean Breggo, the morning Granola (the one on the left) and the banana and walnut bread have become staples (depending on the meal).
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