Apologies for the lack of blogging last week, on each occasion that I told myself to sit down and write the urge to eat or sleep or some form of inane distraction took over. In reality after the first week here, once I’m back in a routine, the days meld into one. Before you know it another week has passed. Secondly, I have been accused/criticized for namedropping in my posts, all efforts have been made to minimize said fault; however, in spite of my best intentions there will be a lot of namedropping :)
Swimming
Swimming is done at Flatirons, the 25m pool which is both awkwardly shallow and with narrow lanes is far from ideal, but the squads and (more importantly) the people who use them make it easily my favorite place I have ever swum. Its quite hard to put into context (for non tri-tragics) what an incredible standard of people swim at Flatirons. Imagine (using a tennis context) you are being coached by Andre Aggassi and training alongside Rafeal Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federrer. Last week one lane included…Craig Alexander (3-time IM World Champ), Tim Don (3-Time Olympian and 2006 ITU World Champ), Lisa Norden (2012 Silver Medalist). Keeping up (aided by some blatant drafting) and not have my bodily functions shut due to exertion (and altitude) are my two most pressing concerns in most sessions.
During one lunch time session, to my chagrin I was leading a lane. My inability to remember sets/send-offs are bad at the best of times. But when we are given annoyingly complicated sets, which are not written down, the whole thing tuned into a farce. To say I was universally despised in my lane would be putting it mildly.
Last Friday Lachie Kerin and I decided (in hindsight rather stupidly) to have an “F-ed up Friday” swim day. In short the goal was to do two squad sessions, totaling at least 10k’s before lunch. The first one was just plain stupid hard. I felt pretty terrible and moved down a lane, only to annoy them (forgot the time-cycle). At the end of the session plus cool down, I had 5k’s on the clock. We donned the cycling kit, rode (at best) 200m down to the bagel store, downed a bagel and a dangerous amount of caffeine. In a very short space of time we were back in the pool. Cue another annoyingly complicated set. I was feeling quite good for the opening 3.5k’s (a welcome change from 1hr earlier) and managed to get through the set. Fatigue-induced delirium always helps in speeding up the process. The last 1k I had to swim solo to get to that magical 10k’s. It was a battle, nearly 3.5hrs in the water, all before 1pm (we first got in the water at 9) I hopped out trashed by quite proud of my efforts.
Biking
Boulder has some of the most incredible riding, the hills are always a good test for my (swim-block induced) deplorable level of bike fitness, not helped by the fact that the general standard of fitness in Boulder means that you have to be prepared to put the ego away. Boulder is probably one of the few places that when you see someone in full team-kit you don’t automatically think they are committing a serious violation of “The Rules” rather they are probably a legit professional. On Saturday Lachie and I rode with Peter Robertson (warning name-dropping…..an Aussie who has won the ITU World Champs three times). His idea of a long-ride and mine were slightly different. A Strava PB of 6mins up the 25k (1100m vertical) climb to Ward and an average speed over the last 1.45 of nearly 41km/h highlighted that. It’s these sort of rides that make you strong, I was happy to get off the bike in one piece, satisfied with my effort.
The other ride that stuck out was today’s. With all the pools shut and the weekly aquathon not on I had a long-ride planned instead. Lachie and I did our usual climb to Ward. Instead of either turning around or climbing another few hundred meters to the Peak to Peak highway and descending, we continued our ascent into ever-thinning air. 2.20mins since we left (of which 2hrs was of solid climbing) we reached 10300 feet (roughly 3100m). It was a surreal experience, especially considering there was still (in some places) clumps of snow on the ground.
Yeah I found some snow and got overly excited
Run
The trails here are pretty insane, apart from the swooping bird (which for its size has an incredible amount of confidence) things on this front (in comparison) have been pretty mundane. The heat has meant that I’m either running at or before 6am or after 6pm. The altitude initially made running a VERY slow process. Unlike some people who do long runs at low (or even sub) 4min/k pace, I am a plodder when I run aerobically, preferring to keep it around the 4.45-50/k mark. The altitude relegated that to around 5.20 pace for the opening few days. It probably took me around 10 days to get to a level similar to sea-level performance.
General Thoughts
Only make eye-contact with someone in Boulder if you are willing and able to engage in a full in-depth conversation. People are VERY friendly here.
Swimming on the right hand side of the lane is not ideal, but tumble-turning is fricken impossible, I am unable to teach myself to do it the other way.
My new friend Barney, the “checkout chick” at Luck’s Supermarket asked me how my day was, I did the usual response of ‘good,’ I asked him how his day was…. “SPECTACULAR!!!!!”
Our homestay enjoys eating and passing judgment on the incredible cooking my housemate and college friend Bronti does for ME.
I just got a fan in my room!! This is a big deal! The lack of airconditiong has meant that some nights my room has been near 30c’s
Bronti has been spoiling me rotten in the food department. Was greeted on my return today by an incredible lunch.
Wholefoods self-serve meals….nuff said!! Although don’t get over-excited in your first outing and get 3.1lbs of food on your first outing.
My homestay keeps acting surprised if she ever sees me during the day. Generally if she sees me more than once before dinner (she is a late riser) she asks me if I’m on a recovery day.
On my weekend of babysitting the cat I discovered I’m allergic to them. (long story short the whole house was away for the weekend except me, I was left in charge of the cat).
-Things that make me unhappy: Being mistaken for a New Zealander.
On a completely unrelated note, I stumbled across this article and found it absolutely fascinating. Here is an exert from the article, link here:
There’s a well-known survey in sports, known as the Goldman Dilemma. For it, a researcher, Bob Goldman, began asking elite athletes in the 1980s whether they would take a drug that guaranteed them a gold medal but would also kill them within five years. More than half of the athletes said yes. When he repeated the survey biannually for the next decade, the results were always the same. About half of the athletes were quite ready to take the bargain.
Only recently did researchers get around to asking nonathletes the same question. In results published online in February, 2009 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, exactly 2 of the 250 people surveyed in Sydney, Australia, said that they would take a drug that would ensure both success and an early death. “We were surprised,” James Connor, Ph.D., a lecturer at the University of New South Wales and one of the study’s authors, said in an e-mail message. “I expected 10-20 percent yes.” His conclusion, unassailable if inexplicable, is that “elite athletes are different from the general population, especially on desire to win.”
With the Tour de France on at a very sleep-appropriate time of 8-11am here, not only have I been able to watch almost every stage (generally they are recorded and watched when I get home). Every year the question of doping rears its ugly head. I find the physcology of doping and especially its justification fascinating. Studies such as this provide a fascinating insight into the murky world of doping in cycling as portrayed in books such as the ‘Secret Race.’ The Sport Scientists blog is another great resource if you’ve got some time to kill (and are slightly nerdy). There latest post (an annual TDF occurrence) looks at the power outputs of the top riders in the mountains, it is well worth a read.
Hopefully I will get my act together and post next week, I also have an aquathon, that in itself will be fun. Running sub 4min K’s (well if all goes to plan) will be an interesting experience, considering the last ‘hard’ run I’ve done was on March 22nd.
Till next time
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