ER and Franti and Bears, Oh My!

We had planned to leave town for the Taos Solar Music Festival when the Waldo Canyon Fire was blazing in the Springs. We decided to go on with our journey, since there wasn't really anything that we could do, besides moving important stuff out of the house. With that complete, we headed to New Mexico for a bit of camping and music with Aspen, our camper, and a bunch of diapers in tow.

 Camping with a 2 year old is a great way to introduce Aspen to a life as an outdoor steward of the environment. She'll learn a deep appreciation for a variety of ecosystems and learn about the diversity of western wildlife, right? Eh, she'll more likely skip meals and naps, endo backwards off a picnic table after countless other falls and shovel a lot of dirt. I did good bringing a box of cute band aids, knowing that she'd fall a million times. Band aids seem to make every boo boo better.

The three hour drive was mostly fantastic, because we bought a minivan. Not just a minivan, mind you, but a minivan with a tow package for our popup camper and rooftop racks for our bikes. The best part, however, is the backseat DVD player complete with Bluetooth headphones so that Aspen can watch Winni the Pooh a million times while we listen to various podcasts and tunes. The only moment of discontent was during my effort to replace Pooh with another kids movie. Shame on me. Apparently, Pooh gets better every time.

Aspen didn't nap today, which made us feel like we were just killing time until we got a break with bedtime. She didn't eat, either, making her a complete joy to be around. I'm kidding, really, because we did have some fun around camp. She took some time playing by the lake, using a stick to pretend fish. Casting the stick back and forth, she shouted, "Fish! Fish!". She was terribly disturbed when I stopped doing the same.

We also took a hike around the lake. She's quite the little hiker, because Duane has been taking her since she's been able to walk. It was difficult to get her going, since she was so enthralled with fishing, but Duane convinced her that we were looking for a moose. She'll be looking for a moose on every hike for the next two weeks, now.

Getting her to sleep is getting easier every time. We have a camper that allows us to have a few beds. On our first night in the camper, sleeping in the driveway, we all tried to sleep in the same bed. This was a major fail. We put her to sleep, watched a movie on our iPad, and tried to discreetly creep into bed when the movie was finished.  She had been out, completely dead asleep, before we went to bed. With the three of us, it became a party of prying eyes, patting bellies and petting hair, with a constant chorus of "Momma? Momma?". After a couple hours, I gave up and brought her into the house.

 We tried again a few nights later, with complete success. We put her down in the other bed, with dividers drawn and our own quiet game of iPad backgammon. She woke up with a few hours of sleep left in the night, and I climbed in with her. A couple of nights later, we did the same before my triathlon and she and Duane slept in until 8. She fell asleep easily on the first night of camping with a little fussing, leaving some much deserved mommy and daddy camp chair wine and reading/writing time.

 Aspen began stirring at 630 a.m and I made the mistake of crawling into bed with her, waking her up completely and telling me, "Shhh, moose!".  We started the morning with a warm breakfast and headed out for a long hike. We chose a trail that claimed to have waterfalls and ample wildlife viewing opportunities. The trails in Cimmaron State Park are poorly marked, lacking any information about destination and distance. The hike began with a pretty beautiful log feature that we debated as to whether it was nature or man made. I think we settled on both. We continued with a couple of fun bridge crossings, and Aspen made her way through the trail confidently searching for a moose. We began hearing some loud rustling just off of the trail, and assumed that a hiker was finding a spot to pee. It isn't uncommon for Duane and I to out hike people, though it is strange with Aspen out of the pack. Duane and I discussed the noise as I continued on behind him, awaiting to see the brightly colored gear of a hiker. After a few steps, Duane confirmed that it was a bear. I scooped up Aspen, as he decided to stay and take some pictures. I rushed off and waited for him with Aspen in my arms. Duane returned, after taking a few decent shots and scarring the bear up a ridge. As we began hiking out, we encountered a group with a dog that decided to continue their hike. We decided to follow a ways after them with Aspen in the pack. We approached the original site and tried to look at what the bear was feeding upon, but heard some noise off to our right. Sure enough, the bear was hiding in some grass off of the trail. We backed up, sang songs, and gave up on the waterfall hike.

After that, we found another trail that summited Blackjack Peak. We tried summiting, but the trail was poorly marked and less travelled. The area was evidently affected by wildfire years ago, and the trails were rather washed out. We settled on turning around at a grassy field below the summit.

The remainder of our day centered on wrangling a two year old to sleep, which failed at nap time, but was finally a success at 830 pm. Also, a couple of downloaded movies on the iPad are essential for some downtime in the camper. I love Barney.

 We left camp for Taos on Saturday morning. Packing up camp was a two person job, one on the trailer and one on the baby. Once we were ready for the road, we popped in a DVD and ventured on our way. The drive between Cimmaron and Taos is beautiful. We wouldn't visit the same camping area, again, because it's great if you want to drink, party and fish...but not if you enjoy quiet time with scenic hikes. There was a ton of traffic through our site by adults and kids, alike.

In Taos, we had a few errands to run before heading to the music festival. After the errands, Aspen ended up falling asleep, and we were stoked. We delayed going to the concert to sit in a parking lot, pack our concert bags and gloat about nap time. Duane assumed that she was zonked, and tried to grab a few things from below her seat. This, of course, woke the sleeping dragon, so we drove to our favorite lunch spot where Aspen finally ate something. Afterwords, we headed to the festival, where we ran around with Aspen for awhile, then walked back to the hotel to check in, swim, and nap. We didn't have any luck on the napping portion. Back at the festival, she had a lot of ups and downs, so we returned early. We didn't see or miss any musicians that we were excited about today. Hopefully she behaves tomorrow for Franti.

Our second day of the festival was more successful. We roamed Taos in the early morning hours with Aspen in my Boba carrier, stopping for a juice along the way at a local coffee shop. We swam for a bit, but having gotten sunscreen in her eyes, Aspen wasn't much fun in the pool. It tired her out, nonetheless, so that she fell asleep in the carrier on the way to the concert. Luckily her ear plugs were already in place, because she slept through the first thirty minutes.

 Upon waking, we shared some lunch, played with the "water tree", danced, and kicked around a beach ball. This wore her out enough to fall asleep in the hotel room for an afternoon nap. After the nap, we walked to Eske's for a smothered burrito and local brew, then schlepped over to the concert. Matt Kearney was excellent. Aspen enjoyed dancing, playing and eating ice cream. She became a little restless before Franti, but I was able to put her in the Boba and dance the night away with her in my arms and Duane at my side.

We all slept in this morning. I woke up the earliest and enjoyed a bit of Mockingjay. Once everyone woke, we headed to breakfast and enjoyed a swim, before driving to the sand dunes. The dunes are awesome. There is no river, which wasn't much of a surprise with this drought, but Duane dug a hole and I built a sand castle, and Aspen found little jobs in both creations. I told Aspen that daddy was digging to China. If you still ask her, "Aspen, where is daddy digging to?". She'll exclaim, "China!"

 The camping here is much better for us, because you can hike into the Dunes and do a ton of other hikes straight from the campsite. The site is covered in red ants (encouraging us to get out and hike), and it has a lot of warnings about an active bear in the area. Each site is equipped with its own bear box for food, and the dumpsters are across the park, but with any luck, the bear will bug the yahoos down the hill and leave us alone.

This evening, we left for a quick pre-dinner hike into the Dunes. Aspen wanted to climb to the top. That is a pretty long hike for a 2 year old, and we had only planned on something short, because it was dinner and we hadn't brought water. We told her that we would hike to the top of the first big hill. I ran up, as her and Duane crawled. Once she saw me, she ran to me with opened arms. I'm so proud of her hiking abilities. We watched Duane roll down the steep side of the dune, a move he soon regretted, having lost the brain cells left in his head in the process. When we decided that it was time to leave, Aspen became upset pointing and shouting, "top, top!". She wasn't quite finished, and began running up the dunes. I chased her, grabbed her arm, and swept her up to head back to camp. She was unusually upset and grabbing her arm, when I realized that something wasn't right. I gave it some time, but she kept exclaiming, "boo boo!". She cried the whole way back, completely out of character even if she is tired. So, at camp, I asked her to give me a high five, put her hand in mine, put her arms up high and so on. She refused, so I began my inspection. Both arms are the same length, but I palpated and this caused her a lot of pain. I was sure it was nurse maids elbow, and couldn't for the life of me remember how to reset it. We headed in to Alamosa, because what is a vacation without an emergency room visit? The doctor set it in a second, and I'm sure we'll need to get a bank loan to pay for all of the excitement. It was a relief to see her pain subside so easily, as she exclaimed, "fixed it!". That has to feel good as a doctor. The adventure was a great excuse to visit the San Luis Brewery for dinner and an IPA. The food wasnt worth the price, but the beer was a nice end to the evening. It was good to be back at camp to view the stars and full moon shining upon the monstrous Dunes.

We had planned to hike on the next morning, then pack up camp.  Aspen, however, was not willing to hike and threw a major fit within the first 20 yards of the trail.  We decided to pack up early and head back.  She was really tired and fell asleep immediately in the van.  We drove straight for the Gator Farm in Alamosa, which was awesome.  She enjoyed holding a gator, petting a tortoise, and seeing a variety of strange animals that people once thought would make great pets.  Clearly, they were incorrect.

After the Gator Farm, we hit up some hot springs and headed back for Colorado Springs.  All in all, the trip was excellent, but I wouldn't consider traveling with a two year old much of a "vacation" at all.  We all had some amazing learning experiences, and I'm sure our week at Shoshoni will be just as fun.

Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon...and the space in between

I haven't updated this blog in awhile for many reasons, but mostly because coaching track stole a lot of my free time.  I didn't really race during the spring, and used most of my time to train for Lake to Lake.  I competed in a few short events after placing 2nd in the long Winter Series.  I ran the Take 5 in the Garden, finishing 7th, 4 for Mom finishing 2nd and Sailin' Shoes finishing 11th.  I was hoping to break 20 minutes during Sailin' Shoes, but I truthfully hadn't worked on my speed enough, being that my focus was finishing Lake to Lake.  I finished in 21:12, rather disappointing considering I thought breaking 21 was a given.

For the summer, I've decided to focus on getting fast.  I'd really like to break 20 minutes in a 5k, even though that goal makes me feel overwhelmed because it means a lot of hot track workouts...which are mostly painful and frustrating.  In addition to working on speed, I'm going to slow down with a stronger yoga practice and end the summer with a stay at Shoshoni.

I felt really prepared for Lake to Lake this year.  Having many multisport days, I would swim in the early a.m. and immediately take off on a distance ride or run.  I also had a long ride day followed by a 5 mile run about three times before the event.  My longest day was a 30 mile ride on the USAFA and a 5 mile flat run two weeks before the event.  One week before the event, I mostly practiced yoga and had a short swim, ride and run all on separate days.

I completed the same triathlon, last year, finishing in about 3:10 and somewhere over the 100th female.  I loved the bike course, that wound around Horsetooth Reservoir for a grueling climb and speedy downhill.  The course was completely different this year, because of the High Park Fire, but the ride was still beautiful.  The ride was reduced to 24 miles, while the run was reduced (because of construction) to 5.1 miles.  I finished the race in 2:23:58.  A significant amount of the time difference is because of the shorter course, but I think I also made a great improvement athletically, which is evident from comparing my paces and places.  I swam the 1500 m. in 35:17 compared to 38:54 a year ago.  This was the greatest surprise and biggest focus of the year...now if I could just get below 30 minutes.  My ride was 18 mph last year, and improved to 21 mph this year.  I'm attributing this to Velma (my bike).  Finally, I ran a 7:19 pace this year and a 7:42 pace last year.  Overall, I finished 45th, which is a significant improvement.

Before the race, I thought to myself, "I love being a triathlete, but I hate triathlons."  I really like to swim, bike and run in any combination at any time of day, but waking up on a cold morning to endlessly swim in a lake towards buoys that I can't even see in the glare of the rising sun makes my nerves tingle.  I felt great immediately after the race (especially after running straight for the lake to cool off).  I even considered competing, again, this summer.  Truthfully, I would if someone would pay my entry fee :)  I still feel great and never felt sore or tired from the event, which is alarming.  I think I could have pushed harder on the bike course, while still maintaining my pace for the run.  I was mostly riding within my comfort zone during the ride, and being that my swim was so slow, I was trying to pass without being overly aggressive.

I won't compete in a triathlon, again, this season, and I'm hoping to be pregnant for next season.  I'll continue being a multisport athlete, but I will be sticking to running races for the upcoming year.

Winter Series III (shoulda been 10, weather made it 5)

I was SO ready for 10 grueling miles.  In truth, the weather wasn't too bad at the house.  When I set off for Baptist Road, I wasn't prepared for quite as much cold, snow and wind.  I wore 30 degree running clothes in 10 degree weather, with a 0 degree wind chill.  Sitting in my car with the heat cranked to 90 and the seat warmer full blast, I thought to myself, "We're all freakin' crazy."

On my walk to get my bib, I regretted leaving my warmer running jacket at home, but tried hard to convince myself that it wouldn't feel so bad after my warm up.  Frozen fingers pinned my bib to my shirt, as I hopped in line for the restroom.  A few times, I wondered if anyone would notice if I hid from the wind in the porta-potty, but I decided to take a jog, instead.  I ran north, and after 0.5 miles, I could feel the cold peeling away from my body.  Then, I turned around.  The wind was brutal.  I couldn't see or breathe, but fought to run.  Upon my return to the start, a volunteer looked at my face with fright.  "I hope you brought a face mask," he stated while peeling ice off of my face.  I almost hadn't brought a jacket.  I most certainly didn't have a face mask.

A few moments later, a friend mentioned that the race was reduced from 10 miles to 5 miles.  I guess Search and Rescue encouraged the change.  A weight lifted off my shoulders.  Five miles was easy.  On a normal day, so is ten.  Today, not so much. 

I raced pretty hard and finished in 3rd place with 38:01.  This is definitely a 5 mile PR, though I don't think I've ever raced 5 miles before.  I'm now a solid second, overall, in the series.  I'll never catch first, but I've never seen second, so I'm feeling pretty accomplished.  First place is out of my league.  Over three races, she is ten minutes faster. 

This has me questioning the difference between those runners and the rest of us.  Part of it is mass.  I didn't have the body of a dancer as a kid, and I don't have the body of a runner as an adult.  But a big chunk of it is discipline.  I'm a pretty disciplined athlete.  I wake up at 4:15 a.m. to swim or spin, and I typically end the day with running, riding or yoga.  (I do have rest days worked in)  The difference is that my workouts aren't focused.  I have incorporated some speed work on a treadmill, which I moved to the track this week (motivated by these thoughts).  But, most of the time, I'm just out there.  Today, my run didn't have a destination, focus or plan.  I just hit the trail and started running.  I'm not sure that I'm ready for a change.

Winter Series II (8 mi)

My goal for today's race was to beat 1:00:34, my 6.5 mile time on the first race of the series.  The first race is mostly grueling trail, but today's race is flat, slightly uphill on the way out and slightly downhill on the way back.  I anticipated running a 7:30 pace out and 7:00 pace back, without worrying about place.  In the end, I was pleasantly surprised.

I ran a comfortable 6:30 for the first mile, and let my body decide when to fall into pace on subsequent miles.  Watching my Garmin, I was continually faster than my anticipated mile times.  While I was nervous about burning out early, my body felt good at the current pace, so I decided to go with it.  I had no idea where I was in the standings for females.  I really hadn't paid any attention to the people around me.  Though, I began falling into place with a couple of younger guys at the third mile.  As we approached the 4 mile turnaround, I became aware that we hadn't seen a female, yet.  I knew one woman was in front of me, and I was becoming aware that this put me in second place.  I wasn't ready for that much pressure, but quickly began to change my thinking.  Many women were close behind, and now was my opportunity to create a larger gap in the race and the series.

I picked up my speed to 6:30 again for a couple of miles.  The two young men kept close behind.  After about two miles, they passed me at a 6:50 pace.  We ran shoulder to shoulder for the remainder of the race.  I didn't care about beating them, I just knew that if I gave up a cascade would begin: my pace would dwindle and the girls behind would catch me.  My mantras became, "don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me"  and "don't lose 'em, don't lose 'em, don't lose 'em."  In truth, I was probably quite annoying.  At a 6:50 pace, they were clearly just clocking some miles for the USAFA Track and Field team.  They held a casual conversation with each other the entire way.  I kept my best to stay out of it, but I was an uncomfortably close third wheel.  I lost them with about 1/2 mile to finish, when they began pushing their pace.

I finished at 56:38, about 9 minutes faster than last year, in 2nd place overall.  I owe my finish to the cadets that brought me in.  I was sure to thank them in the end.  I've moved from 8th to 3rd in the series, and I'm confident that I can keep my standing.  People ask me how I've improved my running so much all the time.  I'm really not sure.  There are so many variables to consider.  Perhaps it's the large amount of cross training, allowing my body more adequate recovery for the few runs that I do during the week.  Maybe it's that my few runs are long distance, hills or speed.  I never do a recovery run.  I save recovery days for swimming, cycling and yoga.  I'm also listening to my body and am more apt to take breaks.  I plan on taking March, April and May off from running and racing to allow for minor repairs and rest.  I think it's also the positive mental attitude.  I had a taste of speed and a year of PR's.  Now, I am testing my limits only to find that the human body is truly limitless. 

Winter Series I (6.5ish)

My Winter Series experience began with a bout of food poisoning on Friday night.  It turns out that root vegetables sitting in the fridge for a month eventually go bad.  Come Saturday morning, I convinced myself that I was feeling fine.  Mile 3 told a different story. 

Cheyenne Canyon State Park was in its full beauty on Saturday morning.  The sun was shining, and I was wearing a running skirt and short sleeves in January.  The cloudless skies and dusty earth at the start didn't tell the story of the icy trails awaiting us in the hills.  Luckily, I had many encounters with slick ice without screw shoes this season, so I planned ahead and wore them for the race.  I had read the trails were 30% covered, only to discover that they were probably 50-60%.  The ice is sneaky this season, melting during our warm winter days only to form an ice luge during the cold mountainous nights. 

At the starting line, I didn't recognize any familiar female faces, but began discussing training and Duane's injuries with a guy that races and trains with Duane.  This was not a wise place to start.  I found myself pacing with males that are usually finishing while I'm at the 3/4 point.  Though this wasn't a bad start, it definitely left me feeling embarrassed as the front women left me in the dust.  I didn't hold first for long (which was not a goal...as this race tends to draw faster shorter distance girls).  However, when I lost fifth, I was getting frustrated.  When I ended up seventh, then finally eighth, I just didn't care anymore.  I think I would have competed a lot better if it wasn't for fighting food poisoning around 3.5 miles.  I can't begin to explain the discomfort that I felt during this event.  Keeping myself from vomiting, or worse, was consuming my focus.

My goal was to compete in and around 1 hour.  I finished in 1:00:34.  I'm satisfied with my performance, and I'm hoping to beat this time in my 8 mile race next weekend.  My "secret" goal is to finish in the top 3 of the Series.  Though, I know this is somewhat dependent on who continues to fight through the drudgery ahead.  I also know that this isn't a likely goal, since I'm typically 4 or 5.  However, I'm interested in seeing what I'm capable of when my goal is outside of my safety net and I push myself to limits that seem impossible.  It's time I step out of my comfort zone.  

Rescue Run 10K: Setting the stage for 2012

I had a rough week, to say the least.  Tackling the holidays with a toddler should be enough to sum it up, but I also had the flu for my birthday on Friday.  I tried hitting the spinning bike, yesterday, to make sure I was well enough to race and I had a tough, sucking wind kinda ride.  So, I set off to race today with the intent to run, have fun and bring in the new year right.  In the back of my head, I knew I would run my hardest, but I certainly wasn't going to kill myself over it.  Besides, I had two glasses of wine yesterday, so I wasn't expecting much. 

Aspen had the right idea, this morning.  We intended to have her run the Diaper Derby with Duane, but she was fast asleep and when the baby sleeps, we are in full support of her deep slumber.  I'm pretty sure she and Duane planned to sleep in somehow.  Duane was happy to stay home, but only because he has fallen victim to the dreaded plantar fasciitis.  We had registered him for the Rescue Run and the Winter Series, but I think he'll be taking a break from running entirely, at least until the spring.  Though this is a frustrating time for him, it has helped us devote more time to multisport adventures.  We've enjoyed a couple of great Falcon trail rides and have explored gym equipment beyond treadmills. 

As I prepared myself for today's race,  I was a little nervous that I had just gotten over the flu and haven't been running as much.  I was nearly ready to back out of the event and curl up with a good book or run the Garden, instead.  Let's face it, racing is intimidating now that I'm actually racing.  Nonetheless, I rounded up my spirit and my things and headed out the door. 

It was a surprisingly cold morning.  But the kind of cold that makes you leave your hat in the car, because it doesn't look that bad, only to wind up diverting your warmup run back to your car to get said hat.  I'm glad I did this.  I continued a great warmup jog up and down the first hill of the race (a total mile) and hit the starting line with seven minutes to spare.  At the start, I encountered the usual suspects: the really fast girl, the girls that run around my pace, the girls that will try to pace with me and die on the hill, and the girls that are vaguely familiar (they also race everything). 

I had a solid first mile.  I'm really comfortable pacing on an uphill start, being that most of my training runs begin with a long hill.  My place was pretty set after the first mile.  Like I said, some women tried to pace with me, but I lost them on the hill.  And the women in front of me were out of sight.  Around mile 3, I was passed by a woman with so much gusto, that it made me wonder why she was behind me in the first place, like she started the race with her much slower male counterpart.  The final 1.5 miles are downhill.  At this point I was passed by a few men, who most likely gave it their all to not be beat by a girl.  They probably went home and took a nap, afterwords. 

In the end, I finished at 46:53 as the 5th overall and 1st in my age group.  Last year's finish was 54:43.  I was most excited that I was ahead of women and men that typically pace with or beat me.  Either they partied too hard last night, or my cross training is paying off.  Either way, look out Winter Series!

Rock Canyon Half Marathon

Jaclyn writes:

I don't normally post so quickly, but Aspen is asleep and I have a little free time.  We love this race.  The course is mostly flat and out-and-back.  It's probably our favorite because it's typically a PR and it's pretty cheap ($35).  It isn't the most magnificent course we run, but we really love running it.  There is a warm gym at the finish with donuts, fruit and drink to refill and you get a nice warm sweatshirt for entering (with a finishers metal this year).

The weather tends to be relatively forgiving in Pueblo for the race.  This year, however, it was cold, a little snowy and really windy.  We are both happy to have left Aspen at home for this one.  We are also happy that we have really good winter running gear.

I finished somewhere around 1:40:30 and in the top ten of females.  Without the results posted, I can't really confirm either of these things.  Overall, I'm pretty happy.  I had the goal to place in my age group (I placed 2nd) and finish in the top ten (not positive...but if I didn't, I was close...so that's good enough).  I have never run in the front of an out-and-back style race.  I didn't realize how frustrating it can be when slower runners are chatting shoulder-to-shoulder three across taking up the entire trail.  Nonetheless, I found myself playing chicken a couple of times.

During the race, I decided not to run a marathon this year.  Previously, I had wanted to run a marathon and olympic distance triathlon.  I'll stick with the tri, but I just don't want to run 26.2 and all of the distances between that and 13.1.  Instead, I've decided to work at improving my half marathon, continue half marathons and maybe find a women's only event.