88 Days To Glory

How does my Post Title strike you for being positive? I have been away from the blog and over 5,000 miles from home so I have a bit of catching up to do.

Thursday 7/26 After flying all night and 4 hours nap in my hotel room I walked down to this really fantastic park and ran for 50 minutes and 5.18 miles at a 9:39 pace.

Friday 7/27 Forced rest as I didn't have enough time in Rio to get a run in.

Saturday 7/28 a one hour run on the treadmill at the hotel in Sao Paulo. I was attempting to duplicate the Striders workout for that day. The TM was metric so I had to listen to my body to figure out my tempo pace. After looking at my downloaded workout I found that I came very close to the correct pace. 6.22miles/10K in 1:00:43 including 6 x 5 min tempos

Sunday 7/29 Jet Lag Induced day of rest! I was wasted more from flying all night as Brazil is only three time zones east of here.

Monday 7/30 LSD west on the Dry Creek trail to Wadsworth. 12.0 miles in 1:56 at a 9:42 pace. I felt really good except on the climb up Cotton Creek during mile 11.

The OF

Strong from Courage Classic

Well after a few days of rest...Oh I forgot that I swam 1/2 hour each day of the Courage Classic.
Fri 7/27-AM fast run on Treadmill before work 3 miles (better than nothing) saved a frog that was trapped in the window well.
Sat 7/28-Cool AM run-8 miles Cherry Creek Trail south to turn around HR avg. 145 out and 154 back
Sun 7/29-Coolish AM bike ride-47 miles without stopping! I felt like a Tour rider. rode out to the Pinery and then Deertrail around Tomichi Road to Russleville Road and back. The FUJI is all cleaned up and lubed!
Dad-
I got the HR monitor to download! I will try to download more frequently. :)
-Hez

Chris 89 Days out

Sunday July 29, 2007
89 days to the MCM
6.5 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
~12 Mile Long Run. 1:58:11 (9:50 pace). Airline Trail South from Hebron with Ray. 7:00 am warm and brutally humid.
First run on this great crusher fines trail. It is an old rail bed so any slopes are flattened out. That said it does slope gently down for the entire first 5 miles. The 6th mile was uphill (and a bit more sharply) to the turn around at the 6 mile post. That profile makes the return downhill for a mile then 100% steady uphill for the entire last 5 miles. Very tough. The trail has exact mile markers on the whole length and we walked about 400 yards to the first mile post so the distance on the run is exact. That 400 yards was also a great warm down at the end. I suffered some blistering on the arch of my right and on and behind the outside toes of my left foot (probably due to the humidity, I had to ring out my socks). Not too bad though and all in all a really GREAT run. We went out in 54 minutes (remember that was mostly downhill) and we felt great. The return was a lot tougher and by the last 2 miles I was a bit in survival mode, but not too bad. I brought recovery drink for us on ice in the truck and Ray is now as much of a believer in Endurox as the rest of us. It is amazing how in just seconds you can feel the Endurox start to begin your body's recovery. I drove home and went strait into an ice bath and after some more replenishing fluids and a good brunch I think that I have no ill effects or unexpected "pains". DAD & Hez - You must come out for a run on that trail, you would LOVE it!!! and MOM you would too, 100% shade.

Nutrition:
Pre run at 5:30 am - Toast (should have put a bit of peanut butter on it)
Brunch - eggs and sausage and waffles (not too much, but enough)
Dinner - TBD

Chris 90 Days Out

Saturday July 28, 2007
90 days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight

I had a training slip. I kept missing my morning runs on Wednesday and Friday (also missed my xtraining day on Thursday) and was just too tired to go after work. Feel terrible about it, but I will just have to go for it next week and turn it around.

Training:
~5 mile fast tempo (42 minutes) road, rolling hills, hot and humid, 8:00am
~mowed the lawn (right after my run) it took 2.5 hrs and I kept my heart monitor on and my heart rate was between 130 and 140 the whole time (I thought I would pass out afterword)


Nutrition:
Breakfast - toast
Lunch - grilled meat and cheese sandwiches
Dinner - grilled meat and cheese sandwiches
snack - sugar free/fat free ice cream sandwich

Mike 93 Days Out

Easy 1 hour run with the Striders along South Boulder Trail. 6.16 miles at a 9:44 pace. HRave 129, HRmax 138 - just about right! 11.21 miles WTD
I am off for DC and then Sao Paulo tonight so I have about 6,000 miles to go before I sleep. I'll get a run in along Ipanema Beach in Rio, but will have to wait until Monday to do my weekly LSD. (I return home Sunday AM)
Happy Trails, Roads, and Pools!
Pops

Chris 94 Days Out

Tuesday July 24, 2007
94 days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
~4 miles easy 37 minutes
6:00am, cool, road hills
felt great

Nutrition:
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - buffalo chicken wrap
Dinner - chicken Cesar salad
snack - popcorn

Chris 95 Days out

Monday July 23, 2007
95 days to the MCM
5 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
Rest Day

Nutrition:
Breakfast - Starbucks breakfast sandwich
Lunch - Salad Bar
Dinner - Grilled Cheese Sandwich (2) cheese and home grown jalapeno casadilla

Mike - 95 Days To Go!

I haven't blogged since Wed so this is a catch up entry.

Thurs --SNA Easy 50 min 5.5 mile run on a community college track. Boring, but a great surface to run on! 9:11 pace

Friday -- Rest (and fly my arse off)

Sat -- Tempo run with the Striders. We ran 4 x 5min tempos along S Boulder Creek trail. 45 minutes and 4.57 miles.

Sun -- LSD in Wichita. 1:36 min and 10.2 miles with David accompanying me on his bike. 9:27 pace in heat and high humidity. Yikes! I wilted in the 2nd third, but finished strong.

Mileage for the week hit 30 miles.

Tue -- Easy run around Margaret's Pond. 46 min and 5.05 miles at a 9:06 pace

Happy Trails!

Courage Classic

Another awesome year riding the Courage Classic with Mom, Marty and Kim! Thanks sponsors (Chris); The Children's Hospital Foundation is a great cause to ride for!

Saturday-July 21- Rode 58 miles in the first day of the Courage Classic. We left from Leadville and rode over Tennessee Pass (10,404 ft.) and then past the 10th Mtn. Division Memorial at Camp Hale (we thought of Chris). Then we went over Battle Mtn. and through Minturn and Vail. We had a nice lunch at the rest area along the river. Then we climbed over Vail pass (20 miles of climbing to 10,666 ft.!) and then finished in Copper Mtn.

Sunday-July 22-Rode 88 miles on day two. We left Copper Mtn. and went down 10 mile canyon to Frisco/Silverthorne. We did the option route and rode out along the Blue River and up Ute Pass and then back. Slogged through Silverthorne (very hot, steep and traffic). Then we climbed over Swam Mtn. and went into Breckenridge for lunch. Then we rode back up 10 mile to finish in Copper. Whew, we were beat and hurting!

Monday-July 23-Rode 45 miles on day three. We left Copper and rode up Fremont Pass (12 miles of climbing to 11,318 ft.). Then a fast descent and into Leadville (48 mph was my top speed!) Then it was around Turquoise Lake (lots of up and down, more up than down) and then back to the High School in Leadville for the finish. We met Gail there and had lunch.

What a great time!!!! Thanks for riding again Little Mountain Goat (aka Mom) (aka Dilly)
-Dally (aka Hez)

Chris 96 Days out

Sunday July 22, 2007
96 days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
~11 mile LSD, 1:40:00 (negative split by 2 minutes), 7:00am, Trail, Felt only OK but I made it.

~18 holes of golf

Weekly Training totals:
Total Work Outs - 7
Running work outs - 4
Running miles - 27
Running time on legs - 3:54:00

Nutrition:
Breakfast - Cereal & oat an toast
Lunch - 2 tacos
Dinner - finger food appetizers (wings, calamari and nachos) at the golf course

Chris 97 Days out

Saturday July 21, 2007
97 Days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight
THINKING OF THE GIRLS ON THE TOUR DE CLASSIC!!!!!!!!

Training:
~6 Mile (54minutes), brutal, hill speed workout.
1 mile steep uphill w/u, 1 mile down, 1 mile up (hard), back down again, back up (harder), then back down to the house. 11:00 am; sunny and cool. really good work out.

~ 9 holes of golf

Nutrition:
Breakfast - 2 slice oat bran toast
Lunch - Cobb Salad
Dinner - Chicken breast (roasted), w/ a few roasted potatoes

Chris 98 Days out

Friday July 20, 2007
Man am I upset that I missed workouts on the days that I would have seen the "odometer" roll over from 100 to 99 days to go, but my training schedule had to be flip flopped this week due to meetings.

So I was off for 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) missing one run and one cross training. In order to get back on track I will have the run hard 3 days in a row this weekend (Fri tempo, Sat speed, Sun LSD) and do a Xtraining session of some kind.

Training today:
5 mile 40 minute hard tempo run (1 mile w/u 4 miles tempo with an ending kill climb)
6:30 pm, sunny and warm It felt good and strong

Nutrition:
Breakfast - coffee cake
Lunch - burger and fries
Dinner - sushi

Mike - 100 Days Out

Wednesday July 18

I ran a hill workout with the Striders this AM on the Eagle trail at Boulder Rez. After our warmup we ran a 2 minute uphill at a steady pace followed by 2 sets of steps (45 sec, 60 sec, 75 sec, 60 sec and 45 sec) . I started out wondering if I could even finish the workout, but actually ran quite well. I'm stronger on the hills than I used to be thanks to Darren's sadistic hill workouts!
I plan on an easy 50 tomorrow in Orange County, a Strider run on Sat and a 9-10 miler in Wichita Sunday.

9.91 miles total this week& 1:39 hours

4 days to Courage Classic

Sorry guys for the delay in blogging. I meant to log in this weekend.
Friday-July 13-rest day

Saturday-July 14-run 7.5 miles in the AM. Cherry Creek Trail south. Slow on the way out, but faster on the way back. I have been fighting off a cold for a week now and was pretty weak and tired this weekend. Light yard work -3 hrs.

Sunday-July 15-bike 45 miles . Rode out to Deer Trail where it was cooler and scenic with the forested areas. Had a nice break in a meadow in the shade of a tree with a Larabar energy bar near my turn around point. Pretended I was in the Tour on riding stable and antennae hills.

Monday-July 16- swim in the evening 55 min. with several stretch breaks. I guess I was stiff from this bug I am fighting off. No swim team so no lane lines :( Just tons of waves from the many families playing in the water. Lots of Dads with their kids.

Tuesday-July 17-rest day-got enough sleep at least. Another late night P&Z meeting, thus the 11:15PM blogging.

Chris 101 Days Out

Tuesday July 17, 2007
101 days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
~40 minutes trail run hill work out (ran the long loop to the summit, back door to yellow, to yellow blue, to yellow, to grey, to yellow, to back door) 6:00pm, trail, hot and humid (but not too bad in the shade of the woods). felt OK after the warm up, ran every hill hard (even the tiny ones), but started to gas a bit in the heat at the end.

Nutrition:
Breakfast - coffee cake
Lunch - subway tuna on wheat
Dinner - Cobb salad

Mike 101 Days Out

Tuesday July 17

This is a no run day so I headed to the basement and did a round of upper body weight training! Tomorrow I plan on running with the Striders on a hill workout at Boulder Rez.

Chris 102 Days out

Monday July 16, 2007
102 days to the MCM
9 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
Total Gym 20 minutes

Nutrition:
Breakfast - sweet roll
Lunch - burger and fries
Dinner - shrimp scampi and a chicken breast (small, thus the snack)
Snack - bowl of cheerios

Chris 103 Days out

Sunday July 15, 2007
103 days to the MCM
3 hours sleep overnight

Training:
70 minute LSD run
5:45 am, trail, hills
Good run, but had to keep moving the whole time like crazy because I was getting attacked by deer flys. Felt solid and for the distance it felt really short and easy. That would seem to bode well for future long runs.
(total training time for the week: 3:07:00 Running, 8:27:00 total training time)
(total running mileage for the week: 21 miles)

Nutrition:
Brunch - sausage and eggs
Dinner - steak burgers on multi-grain buns

Got mom off OK at the airport in the morning. It was such a great visit. Thanks, Mom for coming out to CT.

Training Update

Monday July 16
I ran an easy run of 45 minutes this AM at a 9:43 pace covering 4.6 miles. It was hot and my legs were tired, but the run got better (as usual) as it went along. Yesterday I ran 50 minutes on the TM in SFO before going flying. I logged 5.o miles and ran 4 4 minute "pickups" at half marathon pace (8:41) with two minutes recovery between sets. I felt great even BSing with the fireman EMT next to me.
I ran 17.8 miles Sat thru Monday and 24.5 miles for the week. (Monday thru Sunday). It will be many weeks before I see so few miles!
Tomorrow is a rest day so I WILL do an upper body weight workout. Chris is right about cross training BTW.
Pops

P.S. Good Luck to the "Girls" this coming weekend in the Courage Classic! You've trained hard. Now go out there and enjoy yourselves!

Chris 104 Days out

Saturday July 14, 2007
104 days to the MCM
7 hrs sleep overnight (plus a nap yesterday)

Training:
5(-) mile hard Tempo speed play 40 minutes
alternated random distances from .5 mile to 1.5 mile at 10K or better pace with 1-2 minutes at marathon pace
8:00 am, warm and humid, road, hills
It was a solid run I really had some good tempo stretches and felt strong

Nutrition:
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - chef salad
snack - ice cream while walking all around Stockbridge
Dinner - 1.5 dinner rolls, scallops (appetizer), dinner salad, pork prime rib, baked potato, carrots, rhubarb pie ala-mode

Saturday SFO Run

I just got back from my SFO long run. It has been a long day: up at 4:30 AM in Boston, fly six hours to SFO and then run 8.25 miles in 1:20. I really tried to take it easy. Tomorrow I plan on running on the TM in the hotel health club before we head to the airport. I'll do 4 x 4 minute pickups at half marathon pace. You may have noticed that I flip-flopped (apologies to Sen Kerry) the weekend sessions because of my schedule. The run went well, but there were a ka-zillion touristas along the Embarcadero NONE of whom were paying attention to anyone else! Agile (and hostile) Mike missed them all!
Hope that you all enjoyed the play in Stockbridge.
Pops

Chris 105 Days Out

Friday July 13, 2007
105 days to the MCM
5.5 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
3:30:00 mountain bike epic with Mom
what a great time. we started off on some easy double track and rode out and backs on 2 side spurs of the main trail. Then we looped back home over the top of case mountain on a super technical single track. We ended with a wide track downhill then a mile long category 2 climb to the finish.

Nutrition:
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - 2 small roast beef sandwiches
Dinner - steak burrito with 2 extra small tortillas and a handful of chips with salsa

Higdon Intermediate -I training plan for Saturday July 14th:
5 mile pace

LAX Airport Run

I found a new and much better run from our airport hotel. I ran for an hour west along the north boundary of the airport. My hammies were really tight at first, but they loosened up and I gradually felt better. I also had a stiff headwind on the way out. The following tailwind was a gas! One hour of running resulted in 6.75 miles - a 8:54 pace.
Chris, it's time to kick up the running volume. Wt trng on the rest days is a good idea.
Pops

Chris 106 Days Out

Thursday July 12, 2007
106 Days to the MCM
6 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
1) 25 min Run, 7:00am with Mom (She did about 1/2 skipping and I ran intervals looping back to her easy after 3 light poles), road hills, cool and dry.

2)1:30:00 trail ride with Mom, 7:00pm

I bought a "guest Mountain Bike" for guests to ride when they visit. Mom said she had a blast and that it was a total adrenaline rush (then i told her that we had ridden the smoothest trail I know of).

Nutrition:
Breakfast - breakfast taco
Lunch - chicken salad wrap
Snack - med movie popcorn
Dinner - turkey burger and salad

Pops,
I am feeling my weight work out from the other day. I think that we need to keep the high rep low weight weights and core workouts going in the training . They make a huge difference to my overall feel. When I am regular with the weights I just feel much more solid running and I can hold my form much better and for much longer before I start to feel like a wet noodle running along.

Two evening swims

Mon. July 9-Swam in the outdoor pool with the kids team, well not really with them, just in the lane next to them. But at least there are lane lines and some company. 45 minutes but felt the strongest I have all year! I wish the pool wouldn't have been closing, or I would have swum longer.
Tues. July 10-No work out-Late night P&Z Commission meeting
Wed. July 11-Another good swim in the outdoor pool in the evening. Not quite as strong as on Monday, but I think I am weakened by this cold I am fighting off. Still swam 50 minutes until the pool closed.
Thurs. July 12-Rode my bike to work (11 miles to the Lincoln Light-Rail Station). Had to ride pretty mush all-out the whole way, but I caught the 8:04 train, which was amazing considering I left the house at 7:22!!! I pretended I was in the Tour (the closest thing I had to a spectator in my way was a woman with two dachshunds)! Iwill ride home tonight the whole way, which is 16 miles.

Chris 107 Days out

Wednesday July 11, 2007
107 days to the MCM
6 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
2 miles slow, but not easy
Hills, road, 6am, hot and humid, 18 minutes
felt sluggish

Nutrition:
Breakfast - oat bran toast
Lunch - burger and onion rings (in the car to Boston)
Snack - small roast beef sandwich
Dinner - grilled chicken green salad

Picked the mom up in Boston and we are looking forward to some good visiting and some good training for MCM and the Giro-de-Courage

Chris 108 days out

Tuesday July 10, 2007
108 days to the MCM
6 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
1) 34 min run
7:00pm, Hills, road, hot, humid, terrible, but I did it.

2)Total Gym; Upper Body (about 20 minutes) 8:00pm

Nutrition:
Breakfast - Starbucks bacon and egg sandwich
Lunch - Sausage and peppers sandwich w/ fries
Dinner - steak fajitas (2 beers)

Chris 109 Days out

Monday July 9, 2007
109 days to the MCM
5 hrs sleep overnight

Training:
Rest Day (should have x-trained or lifted, but had to work until 9:30, had a dinner meeting). I think that we need to not forget core training and lifting in the program, I know that it will make a big difference.

Nutrition:
Breakfast - cereal and oat bran toast
Lunch - a roast beef and a tuna sandwich
Dinner - Buffalo wings and nachos with 3 beers

It finally rained!

Sun. July 8-It was much cooler today. I had a great 40 mile bike ride 2.5 hours out through the Pinery to Flintwood Road and then Deer Field, all the way to Tomichi Road (yes Dad, Tomichi). There is the very cute little log cabin house tucked in the woods that makes a good turn around spot. The weather was very nice for riding, only a slight headwind on the way back. Legs and lungs felt very strong. I was able to stand up the whole length of "riding stable hill" (nice horses and picturesque barns and pastures). Then on "antenna hill" which is very steep I was in one gear up from "granny" (this will make sense to Mom).

Chris 110 Days out

110 days to the MCM. (I may be off and need to recalculate)
Training:
Well Dad if we are not on the same training program yet, at least we are thinking alike!
1) 10 Mile LSD
1:38.00 Trail hills* (with about 2.5 miles of road in the middle).
9:00 am start, Hot and humid (and yes I got dehydrated and the last couple of miles were a bear)
* A note on hills around here, there is no such thing as a flat run if i start at my house.
* Another note on hills, I have discovered that i live on the top of a mountain. Even if a run feels like it is just rolling hills on the way out, it is always generally down, down, down (you get the point) which makes every run back up, up, up.
I felt great! I think that I am over whatever it was I had.
$$$$$Here is a trick on an LSD when you have to run by yourself; Run a "modified out and back". Regular out and back can be so tough because you spend the entire time coming back seeing the same things and you know how far you have left, what hills are coming up, etc. The "modified" part is to deviate, at some point, on the way back and come back by a slightly different rout. It is like doing a loop for a long run, with new scenery almost the whole way, without having to map out a 10 or 15 mile loop, which can be hard to find.

2) Walked 18 holes of golf int he heat (and shot 81 by the way with 3 birdies and 5 pars thank you very much)

Nutrition:
Brunch - cereal and recover shake, with strawberries (good addition)
Linner - steak on the grill with grilled onion and steamed broccoli & carrots. strawberry shortcake and 4 beers.

Sunday LSD Run

Hi gang,
I ran a ten miler this AM along Dry Creek. The temp was cool at the start, but warmed up to 77F by the end and I could feel the heat, believe me! My time for the "Easy Ten" was 1:35 for a 9:30 pace which is still a little too fast for the LSD. My HR ave was 137 and calories burned was 1322. There were lots of runners out early trying to beat the heat.
Pops

Buenos Aires Run

I had a great run after my "all-nighter" to BA (EZE). We autolanded in the densest fog that I have ever landed a plane in (250 meters)! I slept for about three hours in my suite at the Hilton (complete with two flat panel Sony TV's) and then dragged myself out for a run through the nearby nature preserve. I ran 5 miles in just under 45 minutes at a 8:56 pace. My HR ave was 134. I felt GREAT at the end. It feels good to "blow the cobwebs" out after an int'l flight!
Pops

Chris: 111 Days Out

I had a hard time remembering what i had to do to get a title on this post. I guess it has been too long since my last post (ha,ha)
Seriously it has been a weird week. Every old injury I've ever had has hurt even if I did not use the joint (my ankle feels like it had crushed glass in it, just like it did 4 years ago when i broke it. my knees have been bad going down anything and u stairs. my shoulders feel like they did in at their worst in swimming etc, etc, etc). Whatever I had i hope it is over and if it is not I am going to just start ignoring it. Because I have not felt that bad otherwise.

Anyway, I'm back.

111 days to the MCM

Training today:
Mowed the lawn (believe me it is a workout
1 hr mountain bike ride (what a killer on the hills, and my front derailleur is out of adjustment.
felt terrible but hung in there) (still feel bad from whatever it was that I have had for the last week.)

Nutrition:
My nutrition has been OK during the last week because I have rarely been hungry.
Today,
Brunch - Egg beaters w/ sausage, cheese and salsa
Dinner - 2 roast beef, Cheddar and Romain sandwiches

Wish it would rain

Thur. 7/5-Rest Day
Fri. 7/6-Swim in the morning at outdoor pool! 45 minutes. Met a new friend. She is half marathoner and has done 2 sprint triathlons
Sat. 7/7-Run AM 6.2 miles. South on Cherry Creek Trail to mile marker 10 (storage shed). Pretty warm on the way back. Kept my pace around 9:15 on average. Still feel fast from last week's triathlon.
-Hez

Biking on the Blue River and up Ute Pass

Wed. July 4th-Mom and I spent the 4th up in Silverthorne. We had a great bike ride in the morning, riding along the Blue River and then up Ute Pass and back, 46.5 miles total, with 3 significant climbs. On the way out along the river we saw a pair of nesting bald eagles and 3 baby eaglets! We watched them from the side of the road for 10 minutes. It was amazing and a very symbolic celebration of their delisting and of Independence Day! We had a great view of the peaks in the Eagle's Nest Wilderness from the Ute Pass road. The steady climb provided great training for our upcoming Courage Classic. My legs were still pretty tired from the Tri on Sat. as evidenced my my HR being higher than Mom's for most of the climbs. We went down the back side of the pass and discovered the Henderson Mine, a large instillation with a very long conveyor belt running along the valley and several tailings settling ponds. The ride back was very nice along the beautiful Blue River. The climb up the hill to the condo was excruciatingly hot and steep! My HR was 170 as I finished hard up to the condo. We felt very satisfied with our effort and enjoyed the rest of our 4th, shopping in Silverthorne, eating at Carlos Miquels in Frisco and watching the fireworks over the hill from the condo balcony!
-Hez

Training Update

Hi All,
First I would like to congratulate Hez for her performance this past weekend at the Loveland Triathlon. Great job!
I ran an easy 30 minute run yesterday (Monday). I am still recovering from last week's workouts. Today I felt much better. Rather than drive to Boulder for a Strider workout I ran it on my own running east along the canal. I ran a three mile tempo run at a 8:35/mile pace. My average HR was 144. It felt goooooooood!
I plan to run a five miler around the nature preserve in BA (EZE) Thursday morning and an LSD on Sunday of at least 1:15.
Chris, what marathon training program are you planning on using? It would be fun to use the same one and compare workouts. Let me know what you think.
W

Loveland Lake to Lake

Well I had a great race! The weather never go as hot as projectedand not a breath of wind on the bike.

I was 16th out of 61 in my age group. Total Time was 3:03.51 (right aroudn my best ever in this race and 5 minutes faster than 2005 (2006 was an anomoly because of my DVT). The water was not as cold as past years and visibilty was good as were the course markings. My Swim time (15ooM) was 25:52 the 2 minutes up the beach to the transition area. Off with the wetsuit and on with the bike shoes and helmet (2:13 transition time). Then onto the bike, riding in the beautiful foothills outside of Loveland. We climbed up to the south eand of Horsetooth and came back on Harmony to Shields in Ft. Collins, which turns into Taft in Loveland. The view of the reservoir was beautiful and the sheep at Bliss Ranch were quite cute. Only saw one guy with a flat tire (I saw the piece of glass he ran over). All in all a good ride. A little trouble getting into my big chain ring (new equipment). My legs felt great. Kept my heartrate around 150 to 155, except on the downhills. My Bike time (30 miles) was 1:36:45. Then off with the helmet and bike shoes and on with the run shoes. Grab my hat, waist bib number and a goo packet to put on while I run (1:23 transition time). The run is a flat, out and back 10K, thankfully, with some shade in the neighborhoods to the east of the Lake. The view of the lake was great. It was tough to see the awesome triathletes already on their way back, when we were headed out. But I was in the 4th start wave. My legs got under me by mile 2 and I started to pick up the pace. I kept my heartrate around 162-165 and then finished hard the last 1/4 mile, up to 176 max at the end. My official run time was 55:37.

It was great to have Mom, Pam and Bill there to cheer me on. They were enjoying a day at the Lake. Our local legislator (Rand) and Kathy stopped by to see me swim, but then had other important events to get to. Thanks for all the support gang. It was a great race!
-Hez