As I’m starting to regain strength, each week I’m attempting something from my previous active life that I have been missing so much. I’ve gone from short walks to gentle yoga for 80 year olds  and this week it was getting on the dirt bike.

Sunday was my 26th birthday and I wanted to do something fun! After a great morning, we packed up a lunch and jumped on the dirt bikes to ride up in the mountains since it was 100* in Boulder. No, we didn’t go tear it up as it was hard enough for me to ride on straight dirt roads…plus, Bryce wouldn’t let me lead so he could control the pace!

We found a nice trail off Switzerland to stop, relax and have lunch. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a much better way to spend your birthday than with your favorite person, a gorgeous mountain view and a homemade lunch

Pretty nice, huh? I was totally exhausted when I got back but well worth it. A long nap and great dinner with friends complimented the wonderful day. I’m trying to be patient as my body recovers from EBV but it’s not easy…one step at a time.

Congrats to everyone on the team who has been doing so well this season. Keep posting your training, racing and life events as my morning routine is coffee and good reads on the Timex blog :)

This weekend I had the opportunity to do some “suffer-fest” training with Kirill Kotsegarov, last years Ironman Florida champion. What a fantastic opportunity to train with one of the best in the sport and a great guy from Estonia. Kirill is training in Colorado to gain some au natural’ red blood cells before Kona.

Fueling for 5+ hrs of suffering in the wind and hills; you saw it here first- this is how the champions do it!

1100 calories of cinnamon roll is good for 2hrs worth of energy on the bike!

On Sunday I was then able to run at one of the best long distance running trails in the area; Rampart Reservoir. It is a 13 mile loop of beautiful singletrack at 9000′ elevation around a mountain lake. Every little hill I feel like I go into oxygen debt!

To make this perfect run even better there is a snowmelt fed stream to ice the legs immediately post-workout.

I am not sure if I have more bizarre animal encounters than other people, or if I am just more likely to talk about it. Anway, the last two weeks have been more animal-ey (why yes, they did teach me that word in Journalism school) than usual.
It all started a few weeks ago when I was riding my bike down a canyon, probably in the 40ish mph range, when I hit a bird with my face. Yes, my face. It was disgusting. I didnt even realize what happened until the wing was in my mouth. As a previous vegetarian (for 18 years) this was not okay with me. I was absolutely traumatized, and am still not sure how I didnt fall off my bike backwards, despite the fact I was descending.
The next week I was riding up past Jamestown (same canyon) when I saw what I thought was an albino devil goat with a beard. The thing was fugly plus a little more ugly. As I rode past, it pointed its head down, with its big devil horns pointed right at me. YIKES! I had a hard time describing the encounter to my lane mates at the pool that day, but I think I convinced them that I had seen a majestically white ram (?!) The next day, as I told my friend Brookie Cookie (not her real name….did you think it was?!) anyway, I told Brooke what I saw and she informed me that it was a big horn sheep. They are fairly common in that area. I liked it better when it was an albino devil goat….
This leads me to today. I had a fairly busy day of run, swim, coffee date, work, strategic planning with JD and Bob (his cat), and then a bike ride. I rode up the right side of the canyon, and then up the left side, and then over the backside. I was riding down the backside of Lee Hill, a pretty screaming descent, minding my own business, when I saw a bear running up towards me. I froze. I had zero options at the moment. I could keep descending and ride right into it, or turn around and go 6 mph back up the canyon. What to do…What to do….I have a life motto. I have always lived by the words “if you dont know what to do, do nothing.” The jury is still out on this motto, but until I replace it with something better, it is how I operate. So I did nothing. And watched it charge in my direction. Just than a car came around me, and slammed on its brakes. At that point the car was in between me and the monster. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably 5 seconds, it walked in front of the car, and down the other side of the canyon to the creek.
I flew down the canyon in a blur of emotions, stopped at the first intersection in Boulder…and threw up. I cant really explain that part of the story. But that is what happened. I rode through town, shaking and hyperventilating, got home, took off my shoes, called my dad, and told him “no…I am sorry…I didnt have a chance to take a picture of the bear.” I will have to keep that in mind the next time.

Check out the review of the Timex Global Trainer GPS from ironman.com

For those Canucks looking for the watch, it is going to be sold at the Ironman Canada expo.  Timex Canada will be selling the new GPS watch at their booth.

With the race starting at 7:30 in Guntersville, I got to sleep in my own bed and didn’t even have to change my alarm clock, as 4:30 is my usual weekday wake up time.

As usual this race, like all Team Magic races, featured a TT start. Unlike in the past, when they seeded people according to swim time, today the RDs decided to let the 60 and over crowd start first, and then proceed from fastest to slowest. As a result, I had #46 and was honestly a little worried about swimming over some of the older racers. I dont mind having to swim through a crowd but I do feel pretty bad swimming over people. (Now, if only there were a way to avoid this………..)

So after the first 45 were in the water, I was off. By about half way through the swim I had passed just about everyone except teammate and uber-swimmer Bruce Gennari and a kid from the University of Alabama’s triathlon team. Bruce was on his way out of transition as the ‘bama kid and I were entering. I got out of transition a bit ahead of the bama kid and was out trying to limit my losses to Bruce.

I felt good from the start of the ride and immediately started hammering on the Ordu. Then, after a few miles, the ‘bama kid passed me, which surprised me a bit. Once he completed the pass, though, the pace slowed a bit… enough for me to start getting antsy. So I passed him back and kept pressing forward. I wasnt worried too much about him beating me but I wanted to make sure to stay as close to possible to Bruce so that I could reel him in on the run.

Coming to the end of the ride, I thought I had dropped the kid so I was surprised to see him as I was racking my bike. Although this caught me a bit off guard, I was still pretty confident I could out run him and still had the matter of catching Bruce to deal with.

We took off on the run and the kid was killing it from the gun. It took me about 3/4 of a mile to get separation, at which point I focused solely on catching Bruce. My legs were a bit tired from the proceeding week of training but I still thought I was moving reasonably well. I came through the mile at 5:21, a few seconds slower than PE was telling me but not terrible. Finally, just before the turn I caught Bruce and turned my sights for home. Second mile was 5:28 which was a bit disconcerting but not too bad considering the turn around and slight hill in the middle. From there on out, it was a race against the clock. I knew I’d be first across the line but with the TT start, no “lead” is ever safe. I opened it up, raced across the finish line, and waited for the others to see if my time would hold.

Bruce came across second, which was a bit surprising as I thought the kid would catch him after his fast start. 3rd across the line was Dr. John Krichev who started behind both Bruce and me, so I knew that was a solid performance for him.

As it turned out, I held on for first, Krichev was 2nd, and Gennari took the final spot on the podium.

It was great to see everyone out there for a warm but otherwise beautiful day for racing.