Quiet Month

Fall season, gorgeous weather, time off from training, no racing.

We were so excited to be the leading Team with the number of clinics completed this year.

Waiting to hear from Jon about the Vegas Event.

Taper for Kona has started for me. I will be leaving October 8th, very excited.

Thats all the news I have.

Outward Bound Relay Report-Wendy

My team, Running Divas, placed second in the Outward Bound relay this weekend. 170 miles, 10 or 5 person run relay from Idaho Springs to Glenwood Springs. Out team consisted of 10 runners. I ran 3 legs totaling about 17 miles. Lots of Fun, No sleep!

Next year it would be fun to have Team Polar do a 5 person relay. Team polar should also team up to do 24 hours of Triathlon next year and go for Team GO FAST, the 2007 winner!

Next up IM Kona in 20 days.

Harvest Moon Race Report-Olivia

Had I not suffered from temporary stupidity on the morning of 9/16, I might have turned in a PR at the Harvestmoon Triathlon. Thankfully, the fact that I seem to have left my brain sitting in transition for the bulk of the race, didn’t result in a personal worst either; though it easily could have. Having raced all but 12 minutes of this entire half iron event in HR Zone 4 I am surprised that I was able to do as well as I did (5:32 – the same time I posted in my first half iron over a year ago).

My swim in the frigid Aurora Reservoir felt solid and smooth. After T1, as I got comfortable on my bike I focused on making a plan for taking on nutrition and hydration over the course of the 56 mile course, and at the time I also focused on bringing my HR down to zone 3. Some early hills in the course served to send my HR up to 4, I noted that it was rising, but figured it was OK. Though my HR was up in zone 4 I was feeling good on the hills. And, since as noted above I had left my brain with my other stuff in transition, I couldn’t go through the cognitive process of reminding myself that in order to feel good later in the race you have to race conservatively (a.k.a. not in zone 4) early in the race. I started the running feeling a little worked over, but no more so than I usually do in the first few miles of a long distance race. When at mile three I was still not hitting a solid running cadence and was pacing myself with a 60 year old guy, I knew I was in trouble. Luckily running along the dam with the breeze providing relief from the heat, and the turnaround point in site I felt some relief and was able to pick up a little quicker step. I still didn’t feel great, but I slogged along. In the last mile Polar teammate, Amy Smith flew by me. For a while she actually tried to have a conversation with me. She couldn’t have known that when I didn’t respond it was because I was starting to have heaving sensations in my stomach. Nonetheless, true to my brainless racing strategy that day I tried to stay with her and power to the finish. That didn’t work. I didn’t care. I was just so glad to be nearing the word finish where my husband was waiting for me.

Though I already know that racing this way is wrong, this event served as a refresher lesson. I scolded myself a bit for not being smarter than that. What’s done is done. With this lesson, I can now refocus my training toward next season’s long distance racing.

Team Denver Wins Clinic Contest

The August Team Denver rally paid off and we were awarded the $1000 prize for completing the most clinics. Congratulations Team Denver, I am proud to be part of a group that has so much motivation, especially this time of year, with the racing season winding down, you are still dedicated to your Polar sponsor!

What shall we do with the money?????

-Wendy

Team Update

Team Denver rallied and did an awesome job of getting extra clinics done in August, I hope we win the grand prize, $1000 bucks!

I hope you're all well and winding down from your great race season or tapering for your A race of the year.

Jon will be headed out of town on Thursday at 12am on a flight to New England to race his last tri of the year and then to Vegas to Interbike. He is going to try and sneak in a cycling clinic on Tuesday and maybe a running one too. He did two cycling clinics last week

Olivia will be presenting a clinic on September 20th.

Bill is recovering well and managed to get some clinics done with his students.

I am still training strong, on the road to Kona!

8 hours of Triathlon report

Format:

There were a dozen or so solo women and the same for men in the 8 hour event, lots of teams and the same for the 24 hour event. The only requirement was that each person/team complete 800 swim, 9 mile bike (8.85 miles) and 3 mile run (2.8 miles) in that order then you could do whatever order the rest of the time. My goal was to complete 7 triathlons. after each half mile swim, bike and run loop, we had to run though transition around the clock to deactivate chip and run out of transition to activate our timing chip to count the loops. i.e. Demount and mount our bikes after each loop, and run uphill then downhill after each half mile swim. That was the toughest part.

What I did:

Swim, bike, run one loop. Then I continued to run 4 more loops, total bout 15 miles. Then I biked 3 more loops at goal IM pace wattage (175ish), good opportunity to refuel. Approaching noon, while watching the dark clouds roll in I decided it was time to get in the water. I swam 6 loops, 3 miles, in rough waters. The rez was open to boating creating waves and bodies chaotically swimming from buoy to buoy, only two buoys, so people were swimming into each other. Each loop plus the transitional walk/run took about 15 minutes. After my long swim, it was 5.5 hours into the event, I was ready to be done. Still short on biking, I took my time transitioning, put on sunscreen, fill Gatorade bottles and proceeded to bike my final 3 loops, still able to maintain IM pace intensity. Final dismount and with wobbling legs I finished my final 2 loops of running event time, 7:45, I had time to do one more swim.

Total: 8 swims, 7 bikes, 7 runs

61.25 mile bike, 21ish miles of running and 4 miles of swimming. I tied with the first place solo male winner.

Very fun event, which attracted people from all over the nation, cant wait to participate next year. I can improve with quicker transitions and prepared Gatorade bottles, they only had cups of gu2o and water so you had to refill yourself. If they have the same course next year, my goal is 8 total triathlons!