Top of the Key

BIG weekend of racing.  Not so much the distance, but the effort.  Rode Saturday with Peter from Echelon at the Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb here in Boulder.  9 miles straight up into the mountains, till you reach Gold Hill, last 3 miles on dirt.  Pretty severe grades at some points, and espeically on the dirt, you couldn’t really stand or you would spin out.  Had a great time though.  Legs were cold, didn’t warm up enough, and didn’t really feel my climbing legs till it was too late.  Something I need to make note of and try to do next time.  Tried to catch Peter almost the whole ride, just couldn’t bridge the distance until a few miles left.  Then it was hammer time to the finish with 2k and 1k signs marking the distance to the finish.  Why wait till the end to kick it?  Might be too late.  I finished better than I expected, but not in the top 20 for this year.

Tried to recover the legs on Saturday for Sunday’s sprint triathlon.  Ice bath, Skins, etc..  Felt ok on Sunday morning.  The warm up run gave me a little insight into my sluggish legs.  Plus, the weather was heating up fast.  Goal was to get in the water as soon as possible.  Wasn’t as cold as they were saying.  Felt pretty solid in the warm up swim, positioned myself in the front for the start…then GO!  But not me, after a few strokes, my calf cramped up on me, not as bad as before, but had to let up and stop kicking, let it loosen itself.  Let most of the group go by before i could begin to even start up.  Then reaching the first buoy, i was finally ok to get into the stroke, and just decided to move forward, one stroke at a time.  My time would be my time, no way around it.  Out of the water, to the bike.  Not really much time to negative split each lap, just started my hardest right away and see where that takes me.  Finished the bike in a pretty solid time, figured I’d deal with the run when i got there.   Ran fast from the start  with nothing to lose, just needed to catch up on Wilson.  When I passed him at the turnaround, he was coming back,i was still going out, he had a great lead, and was looking pretty strong.  I tried to take it up a notch, but didn’t have the kick for the final mile.

Ended up 3rd in my age group, and I really had to work for that.  I’m extremely happy with the effort and the results…now my legs need Jess today because they are worked.  The climbing is what did them in, so now time to soak up the effort and let them recover.  Wilson, IM Canana this year, is just hammering away at getting fast….or faster than he already is.  I’m totally fired up for him that he won the age group.

A few photos here from the Hill climb.  Next up?  not sure….