Thru Endurance We Conquer!

Took me a bit of time, but I finally got the race report finished. It's a little long, but it's a long race! I also have photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/TracyThelen.triathlete/24HoursOfOldPueblo # I think I'm finally getting fully recovered from the race. My tempo run yesterday was decently fast, but I didn't wear the heart rate monitor. I'll start getting back into full on training next week. It didn't make sense to try to train through a 24 hour race and then just be shot for the entire month of March. Race Report for 24 hours in the Old Pueblo – February 14/15 2009. Coed Duo division 4th place, 16 laps Racing in the coed duo division was our compromise. Nick had raced solo last year and wanted a better finish then last year. After 24 Hours in the Sage last year, I also wanted to try my hand at the solo division. Without a good support staff, there was no way that we could both race solo and neither one of us wanted to make to drive to support the other....

Well, back from 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. We had a really fun trip and a decent race. Despite Nick getting the stomach flu, we still placed fourth among a highly competitive Co-Ed Duo group. We finished with 16 laps, two laps off first and one off second and third. I’ll have a full race report as well as photos on my website soon.

I got the DVD from Silverman this week. After watching the coverage from Kona in December, I was concerned that the DVD would be nothing but a pity party because of how hard Silverman is. Happily, I was wrong. Silverman is a challenging course, with over 9000 feet of climbing on the bike and 3000 feet of climbing in the run. The weather has also made the race difficult in the last three years, with 2008 being no different. The DVD – Champions of the Silverman brought the reality of the course to everyone watching. As someone who competed in the full distance triathlon, there was a little too much focus on the half, but that’s where the race was. Chris McCormack has participated in the half the last two years and the interview he provided on the DVD was really good. He really is an articulate speaker. Another major interviewee was Dave Scott. He did the swim and bike the first year of the race and has been a major figure in the race every year since. Having experienced the brutal hills ...

I decided to do a trail run for my long run this weekend and take advantage of the decent weather. The cold front forecasted for Sunday didn’t materialize as drastically and the sun was still decently warm. Since this was an easy 16 miles, doing a trail run seemed like a good idea – get away from the cars and the people rushing round like crazy. Running on time in the woods is also a good way to make sure that the run is actually easy. No mile markers or split locations to tempt a faster then needed pace. We’re also pretty lucky – just a few minutes out of town Cheyenne Mountain State Park ( http://parks.state.co.us/Parks/cheyennemountain ) has miles of trails for running and riding. It’s one of the newest state parks in Colorado and still really quiet. There are some technical trails in terms of rock gardens or climbs, some really good sustained climbs and generally rolling trails. It’s impossible to get lost even with the amount of trails and intersections. Every intersection is...

Welcome back to winter time! After a week and a half of nice, warm weather, Colorado is back to the teens. I was riding in jersey and shorts on Tuesday, working on my tan lines. On Saturday, I was bundled up with wind-proof bibs, Craft wind blocker shirt, heavy jersey and Gore Jacket. I just got the Gore Wear Oxygen jacket a week ago and wow – it works great. Normally, I would have been stuck inside on the trainer at 20 degrees. The hubby conned me into riding outside and I got in the whole three hours I had planned without even noticing the temperature. This is good, because we have 24 Hours of Old Pueblo coming up in just a few weeks and he’s freaking out. Last year when he raced solo, the weather was horrible. I flew down to Phoenix for a marathon on the Sunday of the race and drove to Tucson to say hello. There was snow in the mountains around Tucson, and it rained the whole time. One of those 35 degree rains that just chill you to the bone. Everything was covered in mud. The road ...

Finally, most of the race dates for the Xterra series have been announced. I was hoping to race the minimum needed for full scoring in the series, but I think that's going to be too much travel. All the Cup races are clustered together and I would be off a week, work for a week, off a week. I would be so burned out on travel that I wouldn't race well. Besides, I commited to racing the MSC series for Feedback Sports, the mountain biking team I joined last year. So it's down to three cup races for the Xterras - the West Cup in Las Vegas on May 2 nd , the Northwest Cup in Coure D'Alene on June 6 th and the Mountain Cup in Beaver Creek on July 18 th . I will also race in Odgen at the National Championships and at the World Championships in Maui. Las Vegas should be fun. I have a stay at the Wynn that I won at Silverman last year. This seems like the perfect time to use the certificate. It will also give me a chance to do a few short rides on the Silverman course....

I submitted the paperwork for my elite triathlete license in the middle of December. I got the email yesterday that my application was approved. It's a big step, but one that I look forward to taking. I'm only planning a few races this year - a few Xterras, 5430 Long Course and Silverman. My boss looked at my list of days off requests rather cross-eyed. I have a lot of work to do if I want to be competitive. My bike is still weaker then I'd like, but I'm focusing on that over the off season. I've also decided to do a VO2 max and Lactate threshold testing later this month, get a good baseline for training. This is only the first year - I have a lot to learn, I'm sure.