During the semester holidays many of my friends depart to various corners of the globe for some form of glamourous and/or boozy holidays. For my 21st present I was given flights to Boulder by my parents. It was hardly a surprise (I had been begging them for some time) but needless to say it was my dream present. I will be spending 27 days in Boulder training at altitude. To most people reading this blog, the reason for choosing Boulder are pretty self-evident. Its boundless trails, altitude and cycle-friendly culture make Boulder a triathlon Mecca. My first day at Flatirons (the gym/pool which is THE place to train) I saw current Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander and former 6-time World Champion Dave Scott.
My first impression of this place was the heat. My last morning in Canberra had been a brisk -5c, my first day was one of the hottest on record in Boulder. By the end of the first day I resembled an english tourist, looking about as pink as my new bike.
The plan for the week was to be relatively cautious, the focus of the off-season, swimming, was to continue. However with the extra time to train (and more importantly time to devote to recovery) my running was going to be brought up to a more respectable level. Cycling would also start to feature more too, over the last month I’d have been lucky to clock up more than 20hrs on the bike.
Swimming-24.5k’s in 8:42hrs
Swim training has been going very well back home. Since March I’ve taken 39s off my 1k time. As mentioned in previous posts, my daily dose of aqua-torture at the hands of my local swimming club has done wonders, and made the process quite enjoyable. A pretty basic solo session I do is 20x100 on 1:30 coming in around 1:22. I decided that after an easy 2k warmup I’d do that at the Flatirons pool. I hit the first one on 1:20, and then proceeded to drift out to 1:30 by the 4th rep. The altitude was an absolute killer!! Every turn I went hypoxic, and don’t even think about breathing every three strokes! The rest of the week was spent concentrating on drills, strength and a some more manageable aerobic sets.
Bike- 297k’s in 10:37hrs
WOW!! It takes a lot for me really to enjoy cycling, this was easily the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike. By chance on my first ride I bumped into Bridie O’Donnell, a multiple Australian TT Cycling Champion and good freind of my Dad’s. She was kind enough to show me some of the routes in Boulder. Its amazing how small this world can feel sometimes. Saturday I had without doubt the most enjoyable ride of my life. It was a casual 3hrs at an easy pace. I set off to Lyons filled up my water bottles and decided I’d have a crack at the Canyon Climb.
Its quite an easy climb, averaging about 3.5% for 15k’s.
Run: 5:53hrs
Easy aerobic was the goal, only twice since March have I done any intensity, both being 3k TT’s. The trails behind my building are stunning, that and running to Flatirons to swim meant I got a decent amount of mileage in.
I week down and three to go, am loving my time up here. I apologise for the lack of photos, will take out the camera to a few S/B/R’s this week.
One problem I have with America is the lack of quality Coffee, am I the only person who doesn’t like the milk in my Coffee almost at the boil?
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