Team Photo at Boulder Peak

Team Denver represented Polar at the Boulder Peak Triathlon. Great job. See you again at the Boulder Half IM August 12th.


-Wendy-

Ironman Lake Placid '07

IRONMAN LAKE PLACID 2007

This was my first Ironman, so the whole family came to Lake Placid. We arrived on Wed. and I tried to stay away from town and all the people. I registered on Thursday and then drove one lap of the bike course. Wow, this is a very hilly bike course! It looked like some great sections to get in a good rhythm but also some very long climbs near the end of each lap. Friday I got up early and swam one lap of the course and then rode the run course to check it out. More hills! Saturday I dropped off my bike and special needs bags and walked around the expo for about 10 minutes. It had been a solid down pour for the past tree days so it was nice to get outside.

The swim - Wow, I knew the swim would be a little crazy with 2200+ people starting at once but, It was a battle. I started in the front row about 20 yards off the dock and had a great start. I was in the front group and had a good draft. I knew I could have stayed with the front group but it was a little faster than I wanted to go. I dropped back to the second group and found a good draft and tried not to get punched in the face. It was a 2 loop swim and I came out of the water with a group of about 30, the second lap was more of the same. I was only hit in the face once, but people were constantly bumping you trying to get a better draft. I cam out of the water in 58:45 and was very happy with my swim.


The Bike - I wanted to take the first lap of the bike very easy and save something for the second lap and the run. The first lap was great and I felt fresh starting the second. I think it was close to mile 100 when I was ready to get off the bike and I was actually looking forward to the run. I finished the bike in 5:43 and was very pleased with the time.





The Run - I came out of transition feeling great and happy to be off the bike. I concentrated on keeping a good pace and staying smooth. The first part of the 2 lap course is a steep downhill. It was hard not to go to fast and blow it all. I felt great on the first lap and a half. About mile 20 I really started to suffer. The nice part about LP is that right about mile 20 you come back into town where all the fans are. This is also the time when you turn and run straight up hill for a 2 mile section! I knew I couldn't stop and walk or it was over, so I suffered and managed to run a 3:45 marathon. Not bad but I really was shooting for a 3:30. Next time.





I finished in 10:35 and was very pleased for my first Ironman.

Update from Mary

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I'd drop a line to let you know how the Runner's Edge clinic went.

As you know, Runner's Edge has a HUGE group. It was awesome being there and getting to know David and meeting the runners. I had planned to give a short presentation before their run but unfortunately that didn't happen. I was able to talk to and demo the monitors to quite a few runners and even some people at the Boulder Running Co. The event went pretty well but since I wasn't able to present to the group as a whole, David has invited me out again on July 21st. (Frankly having 17 monitors and 150+ people is not ideal but it's what we have, so, you gotta do what you gotta do.)

If anyone is interested in joining me for the July 21st clinic, it will be at Runner's Roost in Aurora. Also, if anyone has already scheduled to have the monitors that day, please let me know ASAP and I'll try to re-schedule w/Runner's Edge.

Lastly, if anyone needs the monitors, let contact me and we'll set up a time to hand them off.

Have a great week!

Mary

Updates from Jeremy, Amy, Denny and Wendy

Jeremy Ransey-As usual I've been spending my time riding and neglecting my weakness (swimming). Oh well. I don't know
about everyone else, but the high temps over the last month have been challenging for mid-day training. I hope the Peak has cooler temperatures,
especially if anyone has a later wave start.

Amy Gray- Olivia finished 1st in her age group at the Tri at the Creek Sprint at Cherry Creek

Olivia also let me borrow her full Iron Man wetsuit for the XTERRA otherwise I would've certainly froze to death at 54 degrees in Buffalo Creek Res.

Denny Farrell- Wow – you guys are pretty damn impressive!! I don’t have any medals or AG placing to report, but I can say that this has been my best year to date, and I am breaking every PR by quite a bit! And I really do believe it’s because I buckled down and focused on the HR training zones more closely than ever this year. I’ve come close to top 10 a couple of times, so hopefully next year we’ll see that change. And how about getting featured? I had no idea until I saw Olivia’s email!

This team is spectacular, and I’m pretty psyched to be a part of it. you guys are inspiring, motivating, and just plain cool!

My “A” race is the Full Vineman, on Aug 4. Not sure what kind of time to shoot for, but I do feel very prepared and am hoping to shatter another PR. Then it’s Harvest Moon, Denver Marathon, and whatever else may pop up that grabs my attention. I’m not racing Boulder Peak, but I do plan on coming up to watch, so let’s try to set a time/place to meet. Bill and I will be your athletic supporters for the day – I’ve always wanted to just go watch people fight Old Stage hill anyway.

Wendy-I am very pleased that the Denver Team is doing so well. Team photo is in store at the Boulder Peak triathlon. IM training is going well, hectic summer schedule, being Aquatics coordinator, personal trainer and coaching triathlon team, I am going full speed 24/7. My work schedule comes in a slow hault in August and I hope to be very focused on my training instead of my athletes training in August and September.

Team Update

Kudos to everyone for some great accomplishments so far this season - whether it is in racing, in promoting Polar, or whatever ! A couple things I've seen that I think are particularly cool....Jon has joined the ranks of Iron people after a solid day in CDA, Amy rocked the Buffalo Creek Xterra race course, Hank is listed on the Team Polar websites for his All American honors from USAT, Denny's our featured athlete on the Team Polar site, John racked in a stellar performance in the CC Time Trial series, Mary pulled off what I would have to bet is probably one of the biggest Polar clinics ever...and she's going back for another one, Jeremy had a top 10 AG finish at the 5430 sprint, Wendy just keeps winning and winning and winning...and Bill just shows no end to his dedication to the sport even as he recovers from his knee surgery he's truly an inspiration in the spirit he brings to the team.

It is very cool to be associated with such a great group!

See you guys in about a week.

Olivia

Fire Hydrate 5k-Wendy

I wrote my race report in May, wanted to post this picture!

Buffalo Spring Lake Race Report-Olivia

Waiting on the beach to start the Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon I found myself reviewing all of the days I got up early to train, all the hard runs I had done, and the long bike rides I really did do. I had to do that to remind myself that I was trained for this distance. When the horn sounded to start my wave I stopped all that. It was time to get down to the task at hand. As I made my way through the first half of the swim I felt comfortable in the water, and was pleased to be swimming in what was a relatively straight line. Rounding the final turn I was starting to get warm in my full sleeved wetsuit but continued in the smooth rhythm I’d established, passing swim caps from the prior waves, and ultimately seeing the shoreline and the wading volunteers who were helping racers safely out of the water. I was grateful for three of those volunteers for helping to pull my wetsuit off, I’ve been struggling with that lately and dreaded the idea of a three minute transition trying to get that thing off.

As planned, I took it easy directly out of transition so as to take on the first 7.9% grade hill without sending my heart rate into zone 4 where I’m sure I’d struggle to get it back down. I knew that the seven total climbs over the 56 mile course were going to take some planning and I was determined to manage them wisely. As I neared transition and the final 8.9% grade climb I realized that I had put down an under 3 hour bike time, a PR for me. That was a great feeling to take with me as I started the run.

By mile three in the run, though, I realized that I hadn’t planned as well for that final leg of the race as I had for the bike. I wasn’t sure how hard to push and where or how conservatively I should be going and where. My heart rate was in zone 4 for the whole run, and on some of the hills neared 5. I kept thinking I needed to bring that down or I’d really blow up. That thinking probably caused me to err on the conservative side. I ended up with a 2 hour half marathon, which was disappointing after my bike split.

My final time was seven minutes better than my last half iron distance race from last year. I was pleased to have finished 6^th in my age group and to have been offered a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, FL, which I declined. This was a challenging event which I was glad to have had the chance to race, and it proved to be a great start to my longer distance racing for the 2007 season!

Tri the Creek Race Report-Olivia

A late addition to my 2007 race calendar, the Tri the Creek Sprint Triathlon was meant to serve as a tune up race for my upcoming season. What a day it turned out to be.

The first of five swim waves was scheduled to go off at 7:00 AM, but was delayed by about 5 minutes. I started in the front of the 3^rd wave pack. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of my swim pace, but once we were underway and I started to see that the open water was truly open for me I realized that I was swimming pretty well. I was off to a decent start.

The run to transition felt like a mile; up a hill through some grass, down a concrete sidewalk, finally over the mat and into TA. Like last year I found I had trouble getting my wetsuit off. There I was sitting on the ground struggling, pulling and tugging but unable to get the thing off my lower legs and over my feet. I finally asked the guy next to me if he would mind giving a tug on the end of the suit. Finally I was free albeit after a total T1 time of an abysmal 3:35.

As I rode the fast bike course through Cherry Creek State Park I didn’t notice that my feet had become completely numb; probably due to a combination of the chill of the water and the crisp air flowing through my shoes during the ride. By the time I was in T2 attempting to get my feet into my running shoes I couldn’t feel my feet at all and I couldn’t control them very well. It reminded me of the way my mouth and face felt the last time I’d had Novocain at the dentist. I ended up having to use both hands to shove my feet into the shoes. Then when I tried to tighten the cord laces I found that my fingers were suffering the same lack of coordination. I decided to just start running and hope that I’d get some circulation back as I went.

It felt like I didn’t have feet at all. There was no sensation coming from them at all. I was worried that not being able to feel them would cause poor footing with each step and that I might end up in a heap under the feet of the other racers. About 5 minutes into the run I decided I should stop and tighten my laces to at least ensure that I was getting the full support benefit of my shoes. Once the laces were snug I told myself to stop thinking about the issues and just run.

Approaching the finishing chute I was running with all I felt I had left. I had completely forgotten about the issues with my feet, but I remembered clearly why I don’t do sprint distance races as a matter of habit. My heart rate had been well above my threshold for over an hour at that point, and I thought that if I had to keep going at that pace for much longer I would certainly be revisiting my breakfast. But one step led to the other and I finally crossed the line in a final time of 1:12:31.

In the end I was the 6^th overall female and 1^st in my age group. The thrill I felt at taking 1^st place at my “tune up” race was eclipsed though at the end of the event when my race number was called for the biggest of all of the door prize giveaways of the day….I won an Orbea bicycle!!!