Saturday's training ride

Tyler and I stayed in the Gulch this weekend since Rebecca had her first Saturday off in 6 or so months. Her new schedule is M-F, 8-5. Hooray.

Since she had Saturdays off, I was allotted 2 hours for a ride! We rode up from home, up Telegraph, Cowboy, South Rim, Carbon, Crites, Anasazi, Meadow, home. It was approximately 18 miles and 2000ft climbing with no stopping! We were trying to simulate race conditions for this weekend's upcoming Xterra race in Boulder.

Profile of the route.

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Topo of the training route.Telegraph is approximately where the 7550,7600,7500 ft labels are.

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Local hike in the Gulch

We casually hiked up telegraph to keep the blood pumping getting ready for this week's training routine. Rebecca, Brianna, Tyler, and Cede all hiked. It was 40% chance of rain or we would have went on a higher country hike. The Gulch system is a few blocks from the house.

We hiked up Telegraph and back down... roughly 3 miles.

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It was fairly humid but it did not stop Cede from chasing after every lizard she sniffed out. I was more worried about her stumbling on a rattler.

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Notice the looming clouds on the horizon.

Rebecca ripping through the Gulch

Still having fun with the video camera, here is some footage of Rebecca finishing up the Meadow loop.

Beaver Creek Xterra Results

Congrats Tyler, your first race ever! And it was an Xterra.



Nothing but improvement is on the horizon.

Video of Tyler and I swimming.

I purchased a video camera for recording some of our adventures: Mountain biking, Skiing, underwater adventures, etc. The camera is called GoPro

http://www.goprocamera.com/

I used the camera initially to record footage of Tyler and I while swimming. Visually watching your form underwater has been very helpful to identify where to concentrate on form improvement.

I plan on recording some mountain biking soon!

Beaver Creek - Xterra

Today, Tyler and I entered an Xterra at Beaver Creek, near Vail. - It consisted of an open water swim, mountain bike, and trail run. Tyler completed the short course and due to his outstanding performance I see him doing the full Xterra's very soon. The full course was 1 mile swim a 15.5 mile mountain bike with 3600 ft of elevation gain (it was a ball buster) and then a 5 mile run with another 1200 ft elevation gain. I was exhausted starting the run: dehydrated, hurting from the mountain bike ride, and had horrible stomach cramps from either dehydration or from the Gu shots. I ended up fast walking at least 2 of the 5 miles. Otherwise, we finished the race and we both have a future of nothing but faster improvement. Tyler stated "It was a blast, I cannot wait for the next one"


Below, Tyler chilling out at the deck of our hotel.

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I did not get any action shots of Tyler, his event was before mine. Tyler taking a snap shot of me in Transition 2 from bike to run. I am "quickly" getting on my trail shoes.

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After the race, father-son shot.

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Self notes: Swim I completed fairly well, faster than the pack, the mountain bike, I could not catch my breath and need to work on my climbing (yes, it was 3600 ft, but I felt weak), and finally the run/jog/hike, can improve dramitcally.

Stand by for other pictures and actual data results.

Tyler's first open water swim

After work, I planned an open water swim in lake Haviland, a nice isolated lake at 8100ft to expose Tyler to the open water. It was a great experience for Tyler and we will be back at the lake in a few days for one more training session before the race this weekend near Vail, CO.

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Yes, I am wearing a swim cap while throwing up a gang sign. (Yes, I am totally k3wl) The water was relatively very clear, 20 foot visibility and the temperature felt approximately 62 degrees.

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After avoiding any fishing hooks and slimy rocks we made it to deeper water. Once there, I gave Tyler some basic open-water navigation instruction and some techniques for remaining calm. The wet suits make you positive buoyant allowing an improved swimming form and is less resistance. click for larger image

Rebecca, Brianna and the dogs accompanied us with a dinner picnic. Overall, a great lake, I will definately be putting miles in here and incorporating this into our training program.