I have been building for the race since mid-January. Averaged 10.5 hours per week which is pretty light. However, this includes 2 short vacations when I could not train all that much, some taper and a 7 day break after St George 70.3, and about 5 days of downtime in late May when I came down with a chest cold . All in all,I felt that it was a decent prep cycle, although the timing of the illness around the Labor day before the race threw a wrench at my plans to have a graduated taper. Cannot control stuff like that, but unfortunately it had some effect on the race. The long and short of it, I had to ease off in Boulder because of the nasal congestion that I could not completely shake off.
In terms of being race ready, I felt that my cycling fitness was probably the strongest ever. The swim fitness was pretty good too, but the run was somewhat weaker than usual - I just could not do more than 30 mpw, and that honestly worried me. But nonetheless the race week came and it was time to go to Boulder and test my limits one more time.
Day 1
I flew into Denver on Thursday of the race week. For the 1st couple of nights I was staying with my childhood buddy Leo who has been living in Colorado since the early 1990s and is always super hospitable. Picked my rental car and drove it to Aurora where Leo lives. Got there at around noon, settled in and went for a quick run. Although it was sort of overcast, I started to feel the sun a couple of miles into it. Was very glad that I had put on a lot of sunscreen! An important lesson learned in St George. The run went pretty well, I did not struggle with the rollers or the altitude, and overall it did not feel that much different from my easy runs in the Valley. The rest of the day was spent napping, checking the Sunday forecast (it was showing a significant cooldown from Saturday with a chance of rain), playing with my buddy's kid, their dog, having a nice dinner and... well I did have a couple of beers. Maybe 3.
Day 2
Got up fairly early, had my usual morning fare - a bagel with peanut butter, a banana and a cup of coffee type of breakfast, and then headed to Boulder to checkin and pick up my bike. The drive took a little bit over an hour. Got to Boulder at around 10am, parked and headed to the IM village. It was setup on a grassy lot next to the parking lot of the high school. The grass was a mess - it could have been cut by the city, and there was also some road construction going on literally right next door to the tents. The village was pretty empty since it was early-ish, so it took me no time to grab my registration packet, a few souvenirs from the store, and then go get the bike. I was pretty relieved that it had seemingly arrived with no damage - well, more on that later. Threw everything in the back of the car and drove back to Denver. On the way there, I got an email from the RD stating that this was going to be the last year of IM Boulder. It was a bummer for sure, but it also gave me a good reason to do my best on Sunday.
Once I got back, I reattached the race number, reinstalled the aero bottle cage, the pedals and the eTap batteries, pumped the tires and headed to a nearby bike path to pre-ride. The bike path ran through an awesome looking open space with lots of greenery, sizable creeks and so on - and it was also twisty as all hell, so staying on the aerobars was a challenge since I had to make sharp turns every few hundred yards. Turned around after about 10 miles and rode back - and suddenly the storm cloud appeared out of nowhere and right around the time I was about 2 miles from my car it started pouring. Had to ride a bit faster while avoiding wiping out on the sharper corners.
Got back to my buddy's house and did the final prep for the race - ie hand tightened every single bolt. As I was working on the front brake, I had noticed something odd - the fork was now turning all the way, while before there was a little stopper pin in the top tube that was restricting the fork to about 30 degrees of movement to the left/right. This was a bit of a surprise, but I did not think much about it.
Assembled the gear and the special needs bags in the afternoon. Was not 100% sure how the weather was going to turn out, so just in case threw in a rain vest and the arm sleeves into the bike gear bag, and an extra t-shirt and a trash bag with holes for the head and arms into the run special needs bag - in that neck of the woods you just never know if the temps going to drop or if it rains. Threw in some extra GUs and a Clif Bar into the bike special needs bag. Also taped 5 GUs to the top tube just in case I wanted some change of pace for my nutrition - one can only have some much Infinit on any given Sunday 😄
In the evening had another awesome dinner with my buddy and his family - they made shrimp fajitas with some salad. We had a bottle of wine between of us and stayed up fairly late just chatting, reminiscing about our childhoods and enjoying the weather. Went to bed at around 10:30pm. Slept well.
Day 3
Slept in as long as I could - still got up at around 8am. Had another bagel/banana and a Clif bar with a cup of coffee. Loaded my gear into the car, said bye for now to Leo and his family and headed to Boulder for the gear drop off and some pre-swimming in the reservoir.
Got there at around 10am and was able to park in the lot right next to the water. Dropped off the bike and the gear bags. Since the forecast was sort of iffy with regards to the rain in the morning of the race, I wrapped the aerobars in a trash bag, and put a plastic bag on the seat. I was very worried about the fork moving around too much.
Then I went for a quick swim. The water in the reservoir was very warm, easily in the upper 60s. Since I missed all of the previous days' supported swims, I could only swim in a small circle near the beach, but honestly it did not matter. Right away I knew that it was going to be a single cap swim in a very comfortable water temperature. I also really liked swimming with just an underlayer under the wetsuit as opposed wearing a full aerosuit - it really did not restrict the range of motion in the shoulders.
Once I dried up a bit, went back to the car and set out to drive one loop of the bike course. It took me a little bit of time to find the beginning of the loop but after that the map was easy to follow. The terrain consisted primarily of stretches of mostly flat roads with some rollers and a few sharp climbs with top kickers that looked quite steep. The back end of the loop had some more rollers but I did not see anything that looked like a concern.
Came back to Boulder around 3pm and headed to Dina's place. She's my cousin's cousin who moved to Boulder when her hubby got a job at CU over there. They invited me to stay over for a couple of nights and I gladly accepted their offer to couch surf 2 miles away from the Boulder High School. We had a nice dinner that night - all while it suddenly hailed outside!
The weather went from warm and sunny to overcast and cold... just like that. In any case, I was in bed by 9:30pm and fell asleep quickly.
Race Day
Woke up at 3am and had 1.5 cinnamon raisin bagels with peanut butter, 2 bananas and a Starbucks espresso double shot. The goal was to get about 750 calories in and I think that I came pretty close.
Headed out of the door at 4 am, drove to the corner of Pearl and 15th and parked in a structure (yay free Sunday parking!). It was VERY cold and wet outside - I was shivering although I had a warm underlayer on and a shirt/hoodie on top of it. Took quick walk to the Boulder high and dropped off my special needs bags on the way before lining up to get on the shuttles.
It was a quick ride to the reservoir, listened to Viktoria by Marduk on the way there - lots of adrenaline in that record! Got off the bus at around 4:50am - and yes, it was even colder there.
We had to walk up this little hill to get to the transition area, so that warmed me up a bit. The bike was in a good condition, a little wet but nothing critical. Took the bags off, attached the batteries and my Garmin, tested the wheels and found that the front wheel was rubbing for some reason. That was odd as this issue was just not there in the morning on Saturday. I had to open up the brake a little - that's one great thing about the TriRig Omegas, you can always fine adjust just one side... that took care of the rubbing issue, but I was still worried about the brake moving during the ride. Just in case, I laid out a trash bag under the front wheel to minimize the movement.
Ate another Clif Bar, put on my wetsuit (swam in a HUUB suit this time) and headed out of the transition area. Lined up for the 1:10 group and started to get mentally prepped for the race. We had Mike Reilley at the start line - he was doing his usual banter/cheering bit and I had realized that I had really missed it last year in Santa Rosa. He made the time go by very quickly, and I was somehow feeling at peace with the universe. Did not get in the water til 6:46am or so... and then it began.
The Swim
The first 100 yards felt great. And then something happened... I felt a weird discomfort in the upper body, and I suddenly had to stop. I was breathing way too hard. After a minute or 2 I started to feel ok. People were swimming around me, and I decided that I was ok to continue. Had to swim a bit slower than normal until I hit the first left turn. After that I got into the rhythm, which was still a little slower than my usual pace, but I was feeling relaxed and just making sure that I was doing a good job sighting and breathing. After the second turn the chop picked up a little bit and the going got a bit harder. The water was at least 15 degrees warmer than the air but was definitely cooling down minute by minute. The last 300 yards or so were a struggle as the arms started to get a bit sore, so I started kicking harder. Got out and the watch showed 1:31 as the swim time. Ouch. The Garmin file here.
T1
Was out of the wetsuit very quickly, did not have to stop and have it stripped - that's one thing I really like about HUUB (if it only was not such a pain in the ass to put on). The run on the grass to the bags was pretty short and the volunteers were very helpful and I was in the changing tent in no time. Here I really did mess up. The plan was to take off the underlayer, put on the HR strap, pull up top of the aerosuit, throw on my rain vest, and head out with the shoes on putting on the helmet as I was running to the bike. Sure enough I forgot to put on the HR monitor and only realized it when I had the vest on... I really did not want to risk not knowing the heart rate on the run, so I had to dress up twice. That sucked. The run to the mount line was basically to the top of the same hill again, this time in bike shoes. 10 minutes left there.
The Bike
The first 90 minutes or so were pretty much punctuated by this one uniform sensation - I was cold, shivering and everything. Having the vest on sure helped, but the arms and the hands were uncomfortably cold. I was very grateful that I had put on some warm-ish socks in T1 - at least the feet were not ready to fall off. Once we started hitting the first hill going up to the Hwy 36, I began to feel more normal and had a pretty good climb where I was able to push out of the saddle and generate good steady power. But then came a fast descent down Nelson Road and I got cold again, to the point that when I was riding up the 65th I had a hard time putting back the nutrition bottle in the cage behind the seat. It fell out and landed on the nipple that broke off and ended up inside the bottle - boom! Half of my 1st loop nutrition spilled out. I had to turn around and go salvage whatever was left in it. Stopped at the next aid station and transferred the remaining Infinit mix into an empty water bottle. Also grabbed a few GU Roctanes just in case. For some reason one of the was open which I did not notice - and the GU leaked out gluing my vest to my aerosuit in the back. Good times!
The rest of the went pretty much without a hitch, although I did have to stop about 10 miles later on Hygeine Rd when my chip band slipped down my leg and was hanging a bit too loose for my liking. I retightened it - as turned out too much, so that the ankle was sore for a few days after run, more on that later. I made it up Hygiene Rd which was probably the steepest bit of the course and that's when I finally stopped being nearly hypothermic. The backside of the course was great - the sun was out on the Hwy 66, we were passing neat little lakes - life was suddenly good! The rollers on the 75th Ave were fun and I hit pretty good speeds coming down. Most importantly I made up a ton of time.
The 2nd loop flew by pretty fast. I got my 2nd bottle of Infinit from the special needs station along with a cold can of Coke, spent about 45 second sipping it and was off fighting the wind on the Hwy 119.
For some reason the out and back on Monarch was very bumpy the 2nd time around and the turnaround was very tight - I actually had to unclip to make it. The climb up Neva was a lot of fun again and I really enjoyed it although it is a mere bump by the standards of Santa Monica mountains. Here's a picture of me cresting there.
By the time we got to Nelson/65th it was plenty warm, so I stopped there for a sec to take off my vest. Nothing remarkable to report on the rest of the ride, although I started feeling a tad fatigued going through the rollers on the 75th ave. By then it was almost over. I was a little bit surprised that the course ended up being short by about 2 miles - with 2 out and back segments repeated twice I'd have imagined that the organizers could have gotten it right, especially since this was the 2nd time they used this course. The finish time was 5:42. Garmin file here.
T2
This went pretty smoothly. I left the shoes on top of the pedals so that helped a bit. We had to run through a short stretch of uncovered rocky dirt which sucked, but other than that no complaints. I did change into my running clothes (shorts and a singlet) which took about a minute and I reapplied lots and lots of sunscreen, but I was out in 6:19.
The Run
The first 3 miles or so were on some country roads leading out of the reservoir area. There was one sharp hill in the 1st mile, and then it was a gradual climb until mile four. I wanted to try the idea of running faster but walking the transitions since I was very concerned with the possible dehydration from the recent cold. Have to say that worked pretty well for the initial 10 miles or so. I would grab some water in the beginning of the water station and then some Coke, walk briskly while drinking and then pour some more water on my head and shoulders at the end of the aid station. But after a while my brisk walk became a lot less brisk and I ended up moving slower and slower through the aid stations. The other thing was that the bike path we were was relentlessly rolling, and lastly it was super hard on the lower legs. After about 15 miles I was feeling super beat up. The Nike Vaporflys that I was running in provided a lot less cushioning than the Hoka Cliftons that I was so used to in racing. Eventually I started feeling the unusually crushing fatigue - probably the effects of elevation were becoming more and pronounced, on top of the nasal congestion that was still lingering. At around mile 19.5 when I finally came to the last turnaround I started playing this game in my head where I'd promise myself to walk some if I can run one more mile... and then I'd get to the mile marker and would postpone walking for one more mile, promising some walking in the future, rince and repeat.
The worst part was that we passed by the Boulder high school twice and the bags and the bikes were clearly visible from the path... but yet we had miles to go. Had a minor panicky moment when I could not find the mile 25 marker (it was for some reason misplaced and instead showed up at around mile 25.6). At that point I was negotiating with myself running in quarter mile stretches and the prospect of having to go an extra mile or so was just unthinkable, as sad as it sounds. But it turned out that the course was probably spot on distance wise - I ended up logging 26.4 miles which is pretty good for a twisty bike path with lots and lots of underpasses where GPS just does not work at all. Finally I got off the bike path, headed to the finish line, heard Mike Reilley call my name. It was all over. A 3:57 run, giving a 11:27 finish time for the 23rd spot in the M45-49. Garmin file here.
Full video:
After The Race
Have to say that I was spent - close to 100%. Like a zombie I lurched towards the food tent which was all of 500 yards away Started to feel very cold, so I threw on my finisher shirt on top of my singlet along with the space blanket I got at the finish line. Finally saw Dina and her husband and their daughter near the food tent... they started asking me about how I was feeling... I was out of it. Was not even sure where I was probably! Tried to eat some food from the tent and had to put it down - just could not digest any real food, save for some Chips Ahoy cookies. That whole plate in the picture - it was left on the bench in its entirety.
Since I was getting colder and colder, decided to go get my morning clothes and the bike. That was an even longer walk and there was a line to get to bags and bikes since you had to be personally accompanied by a volunteer. The kid who walked me was super sweet and patient, wish I had an appreciation wristband to give him. I changed right there on the grass, and decided to drop off my bike with the TriBike transport right away. That took a little while as they had trouble taking the pedals off and for some reason the front derailleur was stuck in the midshift position. Eventually the things got figured out and the bike was signed for and filed to be on the way to Burbank. After a bit more walking I made it to the car, threw my gear bag in the back and headed to Dina's house. Had a great dinner with them again which was sorely needed. I almost passed out from being low on sugar when I waited too long to eat! And then came a great black wave of sleep, with no dreams or sensations...
In Conclusion
I feel happy with the results. Sure, no PRs here, and the course was not all that hard, especially if you mad the right equipment choices. But I think that somehow I did not leave much on the table, and unlike in St George I raced to my fitness level. Kind of sad that I won't get to give this course another go any time soon, but I am quite content with how things went. And the pictures of the peaks of the Rockies that I took on the flight back are still quite stunning. Til we meet again!
