A calm section of Clear Creek, away from the crowds.

Yesterday temperatures were nearing 100 degrees and we spent several hours wading in the chilly water.  Jordan is racing next weekend, so I was tubing solo.  I took a couple runs, flipping twice and realizing  how deep the water is under the whitewater.  After my second run we decided we were hungry so we packed up and headed home.  Walking to the car we saw a few guys jumping off rocks and into the whitewater.  Something that had always made me nervous, but for about 90 seconds seemed like a totally rational thing to do.  So, I handed my stuff to Jordan and made my way to the rocks.  Jordan stood up on the bike path, an ideal vantage point really, holding my clothes, towel, water bottle, and the reigns of two dogs.

I consulted briefly with the surly men on the rocks.  Then I jumped.  Jordan says I didn’t jump out far enough, that I kind of missed the whitewater.  It happened so fast, I only remember my foot hitting a rock really hard, then not being able to use my foot at all.  I couldn’t swim.  The creek was pulling me down stream, toward the next rapid.  I couldn’t stop myself by standing because I couldn’t put my left foot down.  I would put my right foot down, then immediately get swept away because I couldn’t balance against the current.  I yelled for help, but  no one could hear me in the rush of the water.  Everyone flails when they are in the creek, so my waving arms meant nothing.  The shore was lined with people and I thought I was going to drown!  A professional triathlete drowning in 3 feet of water.

Eventually a guy asked me if I was serious and yanked me out and plopped me up on a rock.  Then from afar Jordan realized something was up.  My friend Abbey waited with me while Jordan pulled the car around (the only reason we had driven was because we’re dogsitting Cyrus’ puppy and we didn’t think she could handle the mile walk in the heat.).  As if I weren’t embarrassed enough, Jordan had to carry me to the car.  I spent the remainder of Sunday on the couch watching horrible TV.

Today I went up to Boulder and got an X-Ray.  I was nervous because no injury has ever hurt this bad.  I couldn’t (can’t) walk at all  and I was positive I broke something.  Which, since I’m out for the season anyway wouldn’t be horrible, except that Jordan and I are getting married in 6 weeks.  All I could imagine was my Dad walking me down the aisle with me on crutches.  Maybe we could paint them white?

Fortunately, the X-Ray came back fine.  It’s a sprain and the ligaments and tendons are stretched out and messed up.  I’ll be on crutches for a week, maybe less, and then things should be back to normal in a couple weeks.

Bottom line: don’t partake in the same activities as surly men.

riptide multisports - training blog

Here’s a great blog from Jordan Jones from Riptide Multisports with some tips on balancing work and high level triathlon training.

The precarious balance between work and high level triathlon training: I left the Denver Police District 6 station at 7am Friday morning, having just completed a busy 10 hour red-eye shift. The night had been filled with the standard assortment of drunk drivers, arguing couples, and rowdy bar-goers. Forget what you think about sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts, wearing the navy blue in downtown Denver was hectic, and I was constantly moving from one call to the next. Fortunately, the night concluded without incident and I would have the opportunity to race for my USA Triathlon Elite License in Miami, Florida 48 hours later.  If I placed in the top-3 at the Escape to Miami Triathlon, then not only would I be a police officer, but I’d also be a professional triathlete. I went to the airport, caught my flight, and mere hours later I finished 2nd and was back at work on Monday.

Author Jordan Jones (center) walks down California Street in Downtown Denver in 2007.

In the summer of 2007 I made the life-changing decision to leave the Denver Police Department and pursue training and building a ski business.

Check out the Mix1 blog to continue reading

After Pyramid I switched my focus to mostly cycling in preparation for this past weekend’s Nevada Cup MTB race, the Sep 4th Regional Road Racing Champs, and the final race in the Nevada Cup MTB to determine the state champion.  Last weekends MTB was at Sky Tavern ski resort; I moved up to Cat1 on the MTB and was still able to pull out a 2nd place despite a crash in the final mile which did a little number on my face.  I wish I had garmin data for this race but my watch freaked out with about 2 miles to go and I can’t seem to retrieve the data.  I can say there was a ton of climbing and every time I looked at my HR it was over 170 for the two hours.

My good buddy and Riptide Teammate, Tate Behning, came out to visit me for about 4 days last week and we got in some good training before my race.  We rode the breathtaking Tahoe Rim trail (pictures attached).  Tate’s GF Paula also came out, which made my Aimee happy so we also spent a good amount of time eating at Reno’s all you can eat sushi restaurants.

Tomorrow is the start of the 3 day Reno Twilight Stage Race, where the overall winner gets cash and doesn’t have to pay for a single race next year so hopefully I will bring my A game.

After that it is off to Chicago to see my good buddy Jack get married, and watch Jordan tear it up at the Chicago Triathlon.

This past weekend I competed in the Diamond Valley Road Race held in NE California.  This was a USA Cycling event and I raced CAT 3,4,5 which included four 11 mile loops with back to back climbs.

I recently purchased a Garmin 405 from Boulder Running Company in the Denver Tech Center, and I have fallen in love with training again for all the cool data it provides.  You can find a summary of the race here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41691273 and now for the play by play.

I started the watch about 1min before the race start, if I leave it until the last second I always forget, and I stopped the watch a couple of minutes after the race ended; I wasn’t thinking straight after discovering a new max heart rate, 197bpm! 

The race started with about 45-50 guys on a neutral start and then long gradual down hill.  Riding at 38mph with 50 dudes in a 3,4,5 race will make your hands cramp really quick from all the breaking.  About half way through the loop we started two back to back climbs, and on the first lap I would say we dropped about 1/4 of the field.  As the loops went on, with the 101 degree temps, we continued dropping riders until 11 of us remained after the second climb on the 3rd lap.

Going through the neutral water zone starting the final lap I was liking my chances as I had been one of the best climbers in our group soI was thinking of making a move on the first climb.  The first climb on each loop starts immediately after a sharp, downhill, right hander, and coming off that turn someone else in the group beat me to the punch.  I stood up to chase and my left quad turned to rocks; between the heat and the longer race distance I was cramping and it was all I could do to survive the two climbs with the group.  Two riders got away, but thankfully we pulled them back on the long approach to the finish.  During this time I drank a ton of water and shook out my quad a bit, thankfully the cramp didn’t make a return.

Now it was time to turn my attention to the sprint that would determine the finish.  I was a little frustrated that I couldn’t get away on the climbs, especially looking at the size of some of the legs that were with me for the finish.  These guys were bigger and heavier so the climbs were definitely harder on them but they would have the advantage in the sprint.  We hit 100m to go and our pace line turned into a frantic dash for the line.  It seemed like guys were all over the place and there were only 11 of us, I can’t imagine what this is like during a tour stage with 100 strong.  I had enough fire in me to nab a 5th place finish, I can live with that.

My favorite part of the Garmin data is the finish, a long, straight road, very slightly up hill and just a touch of head wind.  You can see I hit 38ish mph, they guy who won may have been 39.  It is amazing to me that under similar conditions after 150 miles of riding tour sprinters can get into the high 40mph range.

Another cool piece of data is that my average HR kept increasing each lap.  Aside from the finish sprint no lap was really faster or more difficult than any other.  I’m not sure what this means; my best guess is that it is just fitness related and that with more time on the bike and better fitness my heart rate would become more consistent.  Please chime in if you agree or know otherwise.

This weekend is the Pyramid Lake triathlon so I’ll try to get similar data on the bike and run legs, and next weekend is the big Mt Rose TT which should provide a pretty mean average heart, 13ish miles at 5.6-7 average grade.

Best Regards,

Matt

Tim O'Donnell Running In For The Win

Joanna Zeiger getting out of the water

Yesterday I got 7th at the Boulder Peak Triathlon, 1 spot better than my 2008 finish which was my best race that season.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do this race until Thursday when I was able to run 5 miles without too much achilles tightness.  Three weeks ago I did the Thursday night Stroke n Stride then the 5430 Sprint on Sunday and that put my slightly sore right achilles over the edge.  I only ran 3 miles the following week then raced the Coteau Du Lac ITU race Sunday where my achilles totally blew up and I had to limp home the last 3 miles.  When I woke up the next morning I thought that racing the Peak, two weeks away at that point, was impossible.  I couldn’t flex my foot in any direction my achilles was so sore.  I didn’t run a step that week but then it improved and I got in three slow short runs this past week.  The Peak is probably my favorite race so once it felt decent Thursday I figured I’d race and hope that it would feel alright.

The race started off well, I finally got out well in the swim and made a good pack.  For the first time I raced in my Rocket Science Sports Rocket 2Skin SwimSkin and it felt awesome.  Nearly all the pros swam in a skin but I was still able to swim better than I have in the past.  The first half was pretty tough but then it settled down the back half and I was swimming very comfortably.  I got out with Tim DeBoom, Josh Rix, and Tim Reed.  We were 1 minute down from Tim O’Donnell, Matt Reed, and Stephen Hackett and a bit more down from Bryan Rhodes.

I was pumped to be rolling so well and went for it hard from the get go on the bike.  I moved ahead of the guys I swam with heading off Jay Rd. and was feeling good.  This race is always hot and our team’s new white color Rocket Science Sports 20BPM suit felt awesome in the hot Boulder summer sun.  I didn’t even unzip at all, the more skin it covers the better it feels like.  I got by Bryan Rhodes going up Stagecoach ( a crazy hill/small mtn climb if you don’t know the race) putting me in 4th.  Unfortunately I couldn’t stay there.  Tim Reed flew by at the top of the hill then DeBoom came back and Rhodes pushed hard on the downhill.  I was tired the last half of the bike but looking back I’m happy that I made a go of it in early on.  I got off the bike in 8th.

I ran the first lap slighly slower than normal to give my achilles some time to loosen up.  It was a bit tight but nothing too bad.  Ultimately I think my lack of running the past few weeks (21 miles in 3 weeks) hit me more than the achilles during the race itselt.  I couldn’t muster much at all, running 35:36, about 2 minutes slower than my run there on a hotter day 2 years ago.  I got by Rhodes to get into 7th.  Still a good place for this competitive race but my goal was to finish top 5.  Big shout out to all the supportive fans out there on the race course.  The fellas, Matt and Ofer along with Emily for driving up from Denver to watch the race.  Mat Steinmetz from Retul for splits out on the bike course and Amy who I managed to pump up with my swim.

Now I’ve got the New York City Triathlon on Sunday then I’ll take a short mid summer break to freshen up for the last half of the season.  My achilles feels ok after the Peak, I was able to do a run cooldown on it, so with a couple runs this week I should snap back into my run fitness and be ready for  a good one.  Surely with some Dunkin’ Donuts in me my fitness will get a boost before NYC.

Monday: 30′ bike on trainer (high cadence)

Tuesday: 2500m long course swim (mostly easy, felt terrible)

Wednesday: 37.5′ bike on trainer (high cadence)

Thursday: 3200m long course swim (better than Tuesday, but still so slow and sloppy)

Friday: 52′ bike outside (avoiding hills, maintaining high cadence)

Saturday: 2000m short course swim (careful to not push hard off walls)

Sunday: 60′ bike outside (avoiding hills, maintaining high cadence)

In the past I’ve become overzealous as soon as I start training again and it has always set me back, so this time around I am setting definitive markers and max’s for my workouts so I don’t go over them.  So far, so good.

Any injury I’ve had before had a clear rehabilitation timeline.  Not so with chondral softening.  It can take anywhere from 6 months to over a year for the cartilage to form again and get smoothed so it doesn’t feel crunchy.  Therefore, I’m on my own to devise a training plan with adequate rest, but also enough activity to provide the buffing-action the cartilage needs.

I’m approaching the end of my 9th week of recovery/rehabilitation and the end of my first week of my second attempt at training.  This one seems to be going much better than my first attempt.

I make a lot of promises regarding blog posts that I don’t keep, but I’m going to really try to chronicle my weeks of returning to training after injury.  In my experience, this is one of the most difficult situations competitive athletes face, as they are forced to hold back their own reigns.  More often than not, we’ll think we’re good to go long before we actually are, and are forced to train at less than optimal intensity and volume for longer than would normally be necessary.  Hopefully this series of posts will culminate with a race at the end of August or in October at the latest.

So I suppose I should catch up with a quick summary of the first 8 weeks, and then I’ll write a good update once I make it through Sunday.  Fingers crossed!

Week 1: Nothing nothing nothing.  When I say nothing, I mean it.  No swimming, biking, running, nor lifting.  Hardly any unnecessary walking.

Week 2: More nothing.

Week 3: Start back with some easy swimming (1500 SCY - 2000 SCY a couple days).  Also some light lifting.

Week 4: Swam 37,400 SCY and some light lifting.

Week 5: Eased back on the swimming, started easy short rides.

Week 6: Light swimming, 1 day of open water in NJ.  A couple short (<1 hr) bike rides in CO.  Attempted running 5′ on Saturday.

Week 7:  Running was a disaster.  Trouble walking the next 2 days, and I’m back to nothing.

Week 8: Nothing most days, but on Thursday swam 800 LCM at a beautiful pool in Montreal.  Felt terrible.  Also rode around 30′ on a Bixi bike Thursday and Friday.

This is a Bixi bike, in case you're wondering.

I strategically delayed aformentioned nutrition until after the race and was feeling excellent going in.  I won the 5430 Sprint last week and put in a real taper for this race.

It was a pontoon dive-in start with over 70 male starters into a fairly narrow canal.  I had a good start and played the game of being aggressive in moving into openings while avoiding any aquatic wrestling matches.  This was the first time that I got to crawl back out onto the pontoon partway through and dive back in.  Dan Mackenzie’s wife Beth said I had an “unbelievably beautiful” dive back in which I’m quite proud of.  Ok, maybe she didn’t use those exact words but she had a positive remark.

I got out of the water in decent position, 1:40 behind the 1st pack and say :15 behind the 2nd pack.  With some work on the first lap of the bike I was comfortably riding in the 2nd pack.  4 laps later I was getting antsy.  The 1st pack of about 20 was 1:40 up on our pack (thanks Amy for the splits written every loop).  Our pack seemed either content or too big to make a push to close that.  I went to the front at the U-turn and pushed out of it, earning a little lead on the pack.  I worked it TT style for the last lap and a half.  I figured that a small depletion of the 1st group’s lead and movement away from my original 15 man pack were key for a top 10 final placing.  I was executing my plan at the finish of the bike.  I had gained 25 seconds on the 2nd group and had moved towards the 1st group by the same amount.

Onto the run and I was running well until 5k when the race went sour.  My achilles has been tight lately and within seconds it felt as though an alien ship had landed and implanted a golf ball sized tracking device at the bottom of my right calf.  I could still run but I certainly wasn’t going to win the “Best Stride” award.  I tried short strides, long strides, landing on the outside of my foot, even sending messages to the aliens to remove my tracking device.

I thought about just stopping but at that point I was in 15th, good enough for ITU points, and I didn’t feel like I was tearing anything.  I slugged on and finished in 19th, 2nd to last man to get points.  D Mac got 20th and the last points, his first in a bit so props to him.  Another 100m and he would have had me for sure!

This race did make me realized that I want to focus more on non-drafting races.  Even if I hadn’t slowed down on the run, I would have been fighting just to crack the top ten.  Unless I can make the 1st pack nearly every race, then ITU Continental Cup races will always be a come from behind for 10th battle.  I can better utilize my relatively strong bike-run in non drafting races.

With that I’m fairly certain that my leg will be better by the NYC Triathlon in 3 weeks.  Boulder Peak in 2 weeks will have to be wait and see.  It was horrifyingly tight when I woke up yesterday but it loosened up significantly so now I have hopes to race in the Peak.  Surely the vitamins from my Ketchup chips will help things heal.

I'm second from the right in the back row (standing), with the killer bangs

In high school I realized my favorite part of soccer was running around, so I swapped my cleats for track spikes and stuck with that through college.  When I first moved out to Colorado I thought of picking up soccer again and maybe eventually playing for the Denver Diamonds.  Then, I found myself trading my computer for a tri bike and my dreams of playing on a grassy pitch in a big stadium were behind me.  For good.  Now my goal is to someday compete in an ITU World Cup.

But, that doesn’t mean that I am not totally pumped for the 2010 World Cup to start.  It starts on Friday, USA plays England Saturday, and yes, I’m flying to New Jersey to watch it with my family.  I’m looking forward to an extended weekend where a different sport is the focus, and while I’m looking forward to swims in the ocean, I’m really looking forward to the penalty kick contests in my parents’ backyard.

Before the festivities got underway we had the chance to check out some of the vendor displays set-up around the shop.  We did a double-take when we saw this sitting on USA Triathlon’s table:

Riptide’s Matt Balzer gracing the cover of USA Triathlon’s media guide, used to promote sponsorship for the governing body.  Unfortunately, USAT Photoshopped Matt’s uniform a bit, blacking out all of the sponsors.  However, it’s pretty clear that he’s sporting the Rocket Science Sports Rocket Racer!