Boulder 70.3 - All Streaks Must Come to an End

Triathletes all know that ending up in the med tent means you pushed yourself a little bit, way too hard. Every race for the past year, I have gotten dehydrated, and ending up laying in some sort of mini hospital while doctors try to figure out what is going on with my body. I've puked, passed out, and everything between during races. Turns out, triathlon isn't about killing yourself as fast as you possibly can when the gun goes off...

Riding with Erik Nau and Rachael #instagramfamous Norfleet

One of my goals for 2016 is to be competitive in races where there are a lot of fast people. Boulder 70.3 seemed like a good place to start after blowing up at Collegiate Nationals. Leading up to the race, longer bikes/runs were becoming a part of my regular routine, and I felt confident that I would be able to push through the first half of the run. During a half, the last 10k is pretty much up to how well you hydrated and ate.

We did very little "race specific" training, and a lot of hills. #Fitness was the main focus. It was tiring, and the first 30 minutes of most sessions were spent waking up and feeling sorry for my legs. Eventually, they would come around and get moving. Having a lot of training partners in addition to Steve has been a great change from last Summer. 99% of my training in Bend was done alone. It's much more enjoyable to train with other people.

Rist...

New bike is awesome :)

After a hard hill run w/ Steve

Estes Park is always fun

After a swim/sauna at the rec in the morning, we headed to Boulder for a quick ride with Conrad and Scott (U of A TriCats), before checking in my new bike and headed back to Erik Nau's house. Erik is a friend of ours who let us stay with him the night before the race. He was very hospitable and was so laid back you wouldn't have known he was racing if it weren't for his disc wheel and tri-spoke set up on his bike.

not peeing.

Race day:

We got a ride over to the race site pretty early to avoid the traffic. My transition area was right next to a Dimond, so I figured it'd be pretty easy to find my bike coming out of the water. After dropping bags off with my parents and hitting up the porta-potties, it was go-time.




Swim: I ran into Paul Stevenson, a former ASU teammate who now races for Team EMJ just before the swim start and we wished each other luck. I started out on the far left, hoping to avoid some of the chaos. After sprinting the first hundred or so, I couldn't see any other pink caps. Either I had gotten dropped really really hard (which has totally happened before) or I was in the lead, which has never happened before. Several times during the swim, I felt tired and wanted to stop but then I would realize that I would still had to swim back to the shore, and that I was already halfway done. I honestly felt like my heart was going to explode more than 5 times. Out of the water I asked if I was ahead of Paul (an extremely strong cyclist) but wasn't really able to get any sort of split or lead time. Since this isn't a pro race, and my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my wetsuit, I majorly chilled in transition.

Just thankful that part of the race is done

Bike: On the bike my legs felt good (for about 10 minutes), so I started to push. The Cervelo P2 was #dirtyfast. I can't thank Patrick at Rocky Mountain Multisport enough for getting it ready to go in less than 2 weeks! After a few minutes, I was able to calm myself down and keep the effort under control. I didn't have any specific target heart rate, power number, or anything to target. My goal was to just race by feel, stay conservative early, then if I felt good on the second half I would pick it up. Hydration has been a major issue in the past. The forecast was in the upper 80s at the time I would be running, so I made sure to stay topped off. For the most part, I kept myself under control for the whole ride. I was still racing, but knew that my body was probably working harder than it felt. Focusing on nutrition and hydration was key, so I let my body go however hard it felt like going.

"I only do it for the bike sick pics" - Julia Jankuski

Giving Mark Bowstead a tow - Just kidding

My legs felt worse at mile 10 than they did at mile 50, so I pushed the final few miles into transition. The bike course was awesome. I went through 4 water bottles (one of them for cooling purposes) and a few packs of Clif Bloks. Rolling up the hill into transition, I finished up a water bottle and took in a few extra bloks. Somehow my shoe went flying off backwards before the dismount line, but a quick thinking volunteer grabbed it and threw it to me... Clutch. T2 was spent pounding the rest of my water and taking my sweet time, because I knew I had a hot run ahead of me...

I started the run with a few female pros and just tried to stay in control of my breathing and have good form . I kept looking down and seeing a pace that was a little too fast to be sustainable and slowed down a bit. I told myself to settle in by the first aid station. During long runs, I tested out running with a bottle in hand and holding a gel flask. As someone who sucks at drinking out of cups on the run course and hates slowing down at aid stations, this turned out to be a great idea. Being able to drink whenever I wanted was great. The gel flask worked great and tasted terrible. Every aid station consisted of a pace check to make sure I wasn't going too fast (for the first lap), 2 cups of ice down my top, and a few cubes in my mouth. I would take the cubes, suck on them for a bit, then move them to both of my hands. Around mile 3, Steve came strolling up by me. He was looking solid, and I knew he could see Mark Bowstead up the road in 7th place. We ran up a hill together before he went on his way. About 10 seconds later, another pro came rolling by, absolutely crushing the run. He ended up catching Steve, and putting him in 9th, just out of the money :(. Steve had a great race, though, and most importantly, didn't implode like he has in previous years. Seeing some legendary pros out on the run course supporting the people racing was super cool. Callum Millward, Tim Don, and Ben Hoffman were super encouraging out there.

Beginning lap 2!

Seeing Patrick (with the chicken-head hat), my parents, Coach Mace, and the rest of the Noco/CSU people as we rolled through on the second lap was awesome. After going by, I felt recharged and ready to go. During the first lap I told myself that if I felt good, I could go hard starting at mile 9. Mile 7 I started to feel pretty good, so I picked it up a bit. By the time mile 9 came around I was beginning to struggle and was scared of blowing up, so I chilled out a bit and told myself to wait till mile 11 to run really fast. By mile 11, I felt crappy again. There were a lot of ups and downs during the second half of the run, but I was ready for them and confident in my pacing that I would be able to crush the last two miles. I chilled through the aid station at mile 11, thanked some volunteers, and managed to negative split the run with a strong last couple miles. Running down the finishing stretch was special. It was all downhill, and I smiled and made sure to stop my garmin BY MYSELF for the first time this year. I had finally not blown up during a race (even though there were lots of times I thought I would) and didn't need to go to the medical tent.

Sorry finisherpix, but I'm not paying $59.99 for these.

I got some pizza and just sat there smiling, clinging to my finishers medal and redbull. We didn't check results until we got back to Erik's place, and we realized that I had won the overall amateur race. It's funny, because this is the first time I didn't even think about time or placement goals going into and during a race. I just swam the swim course, biked the bike course, ran the run course, and trusted my body to do it fast. Sugar, maltodextrin, and ice played a major role in me being able to do this. It's a great result, and I'm pumped about it, but I am still humbled that I was beat by the top male pro by over 20 minutes... Everyone in the top 10 (Jake Montgomery had a 5 min. penalty) biked under 2 hours, and crushed me on the run by a few minutes. Nonetheless, I'm still happy and feel like we're on the right track!

Awesome sunburn line post race

We've jumped into Lake to Lake prep pretty quick with a training camp this week.I'm excited to race for the NoCo Tri club on my birthday in Loveland! After that, I'll be doing the swim leg (lol) in a relay team at Boulder Peak where we're competing for $25,000 in prize money - you read that right - against some of the best pros out there.

Thanks to everyone who made this race possible!

Erik Nau - thanks for letting us crash at your place, and great job out there!
Steve - Thanks for letting me train with you all the time, eat your food, and annoy you! Congrats on a great race!
Mom and Dad - It's always special to race in front of you guys, thanks for coming down! I know you're having fun on your bike trip right now :)
Patrick - Thanks for setting that bike up, and your on course support is amazing! You've got the best tri shop out there too. Now go drink a beer.
FAST Masters and...
Everyone I've trained with over the past month here in Fort Collins
Volunteers -Having ice on the course is clutch

If anyone wants to buy this bike it's $1800!