Boulder Peak Triathlon and the moral dilemma

I completed my 4th Boulder Peak Triathlon today – an Olympic distance triathlon consisting of a 1.5km swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10k run. These events are done one after the other, with a quick change of gear in between the events. I had no idea how I had done compared to prior years but I felt good about my race because (1) I didn’t walk my bike up any part of Old Stage Road and (2) I only walked through the aid stations on the run.
So, this is where my moral dilemma comes in. I’m basing success on whether or not I can ride my bike ALL the way up a steep hill and whether I run the whole 10k. With this as my measure of success, am I worthy of calling myself an athlete? A triathlete?

The logical place to turn is my Websters Dictionary… wait… we don’t have an actual hardbound, paper and cover dictionary (now that I think about it, I’m not sure my kids have ever had to use an actual book dictionary to “look it up”. What a tragedy of parenting to not be able to tell your kids to “look it up” when they ask you how to spell something.) So I browse to www.dictionary.com and find this:

Athlete: ~noun. A person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise or game requiring physical skill.
Breaking this definition down into parts to answer my question:

A person: ok, I’m in
Trained or Gifted: I think we all know the answer to Gifted. Trained is debatable. No one trained me. I read a few articles and Steve wrote a training plan for me once. As a coach, he tells me what to do and I never listen to him, so I’m not sure if I qualify as “trained”.
Exercises or Contests: I can answer this one definitely yes
Involving physical agility, stamina or strength: If agility means well coordinated, then that’s a “no”. My dad didn’t call me “grace” when I was a kid for nothing. Stamina – I’ll give myself this one. If I can ride a bike for over 6 hours, that counts. Strength – maybe. I made it Old Stage Road without getting off my bike didn’t I?

I’m surrounded by people who fit the image I’ve had of an “athlete”. They compete. For real. For stuff like age group winner, podium spots and spots at World Championships, a Boston qualifier and stuff like that.

So, what do I compete for? Well, I’m in a different category of competition. Unless I outlive my competition I’m not likely to get a podium spot. I do compete though: I compete for PRs, to do something I’ve never done before, to challenge myself, to push myself and do something I didn’t think I could do. Am I an athlete who is gifted at a sport? No. But I am a person who participates in a contest involving agility and stamina and strength. And that’s enough for me to call myself an athlete.

2011 Bike MS

Another great Bike MS this year!

TriForMS Team Members: 18
TriForMS Team Members not injured who rode: 16
TriForMS Team Members volunteering this year: 01
Michele’s Progress: $2625
Steve’s Progress: $1295 (help get Steve to his goal of $2k!
Team’s Progress: $21,245 (you can help us get over 25k!)

Day One by the Numbers
Distance: 78.00 mi
Elevation Gain: 2,692 ft
Calories Burned: 3,298 C
Calories Consumed: >3,298
Time: 06:41:09
Moving Time: 05:21:52
Elapsed Time: 06:41:09 (a few too many rest stops??)
Avg Speed: 11.7 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 14.5 mph
Max Speed: 36.3 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,692 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,960 ft
Min Elevation: 4,953 ft
Max Elevation: 5,775 ft

(I bet YOUR watch won’t tell you all this Arlene! So what if mine doesn’t tell time; who needs to know the time when you can get all this cool info??)

Day Two by the Numbers
Distance: 72.80 m (Good thing I rode an extra 6 miles yesterday or this wouldn’t have been a 150 mile ride)
Elevation Gain: 2,484 ft
Calories: 3,266 C
Time: 06:17:08
Moving Time: 05:02:02
Elapsed Time: 06:17:08
Avg Speed: 11.6 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 14.5 mph
Max Speed: 37.3 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,484 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,173 ft
Min Elevation: 4,980 ft
Max Elevation: 5,775 ft (got Oxygen??)

The details… the good, the bad and the ugly

3:45am: I’m supposed to get up at this hour and be in a mental frame of mind that will allow me to drive 90 minutes, get organized, sit on a tiny apparatus that is smaller than my butt for over 6 hours and ride my bike 75 miles today? This calls for full strength coffee with extra sugar. Fortunately I have an anal husband when it comes to preparing for races and rides, and pretty much everything was packed in the car and the cooler so all I had to do was brew the coffee and grab some yogurt to eat once my stomach woke up. I haven’t stooped to sleeping in my cycling clothing but I will consider that option next year. One less thing to do a 4am.

Being the HIGH ROLLER that I am, we got a premium parking spot – no waiting in traffic congestion and right next to the luggage drop off and the porta-potty. You all think I’m working hard to raise over $2000 to help fight MS, but really, I set my fund raising goals so I can get VIP parking and short porta potty lines! OK, not really. I’d ride to fight MS even if I couldn’t make fun of Arlene waiting in the long potty lines but it is nice!

Most of the team gathered for a few minutes of conversation and a group photo before we headed to the start line.

We got off about 7am with great weather, slight cloud cover and warm enough to need only the fashionable arm warmers and no jacket. Steve and Jay were off before we hit the first street light and the rest of us settled in to our pace and pedaled comfortably along. I had the pleasure of riding with my colleague Jamey for most of the way. Time flew by as we chatted about work, life and kids and enjoyed the beautiful scenery at the base of the Rocky Mountains. We passed the first rest stop and hit the second one where I discovered Spelt Sticks and was overjoyed to not have to wait in line for the porta-potty. With all necessary things taken care of we were off again. Another 20 miles and we were at the lunch stop. If you’ve never ridden in a Bike MS, you’ve got to ride in one for the food! Yummy lunch (perhaps a bit too much lunch as I found when I hit Horstooth Reservoir). Off we went again with the sun high overhead by this time and almost 90 degrees. Not long before we hit Horsetooth Reservoir my stomach was telling me that I if I didn’t drink more and slow down my lunch would be making another appearance. About that time I saw Steve on his return trip – he has finished and came back to ride the rest of the way with me. It is at once both very sweet to have a partner ride his ride, turn around and ride with me, and humiliating that I’m so slow that he ~can~ finish, turn around and when he finds me, still have a decent ride left. Most days I’ll well adjusted and don’t dwell on my lack of athletic prowess, but then there are days when it’s just downright embarrassing. I seem to pass through those times though because I keep on doing my version of “athletic events”.

I have learned that it takes years to get faster and stronger on the bike. This year’s Horsetooth Reservoir climb was done without whining, whimpering or complaining and I was at the top. My lunch had settled and wasn’t threatening to come up any longer and I was ready for the wonderful descent to the finish. Until…. we got about 4 or so miles from the finish and Steve rides up beside me and tells me “I have to do about 6 miles after we finish to get to 100 miles today”. And I looked at my odometer and realized I was only going to be at 72 miles at the finish. Shit. I’m gonna have to ride more too. I can’t stop at 72 miles. As is our tradition, we rode across the finish line together, me the non-athlete riding my bike 72 miles and my husband, 57 years old with MS. And we kept riding. We meandered through the streets of Fort Collins near CSU and were now close to the house Steve lived in when we met. We rode by his old house in Fort Collins and reminisced about when we first met 23 years ago. The tender reminiscing was cut short, overtaken by hunger pains, sweat rolling down our faces and the butt screaming for something to sit on with some cushion.

We enjoyed our afternoon at the team tent visiting with the other team members and other riders. It’s an amazing event! Our dorm room at CSU had no A/C, was stark, bare, and dismal. It’s so good not to be a college student!

Day Two:

Up at a more reasonable hour; 5:30, but still, it’s not 3:45. Up, dressed, packed and off to breakfast in about 10 minutes. Steve isn’t one to let me wake up slowly and linger. We hit the breakfast line and Steve obviously chose the wrong line because he got the French Toast nazi. Steve is not a big person, but he can pack some food away. Especially after riding 100 miles and facing another 75 today. He politely asks for eggs, sausage and French toast. You only get 2 the breakfast line Nazi tells him. He sulks away, eats the first breakfast and goes back in line, opting for a line with a friendlier looking French Toast server. French Toast please. Slap. One piece on the plate. Can I have another piece? Only one piece of French Toast. I guess today isn’t going to be the day when Steve relieves my mom’s concern about him and finally puts on more weight.

Tom is our team's top fundraiser. He's already raised over $4000 this year to help find a cure for MS and to find a way to reverse the damage of MS. Go Tom!

Several of us started together and off we went. The good thing about Day Two is you get Horsetooth Reservoir over with right off the bat and then you can kick back and relax for the next 65 miles. Today was all about drafting which can be a blast, but can also be a lot of work too. I was riding along and a group of cyclists rode by and since it was still early, I had some energy, caught on, and drafted with them. They were riding at a pace that was just faster than me, so I had to work to hang on, but it was a blast for the 3-4 miles I was able to hang on! Steve found me and then rode with me. I was anticipating an easy rest of the ride since I was going to make him do all the work and draft. I had visions of gliding along, putting out so little energy and effort that I wouldn’t even break a sweat. After about 2 hours of drafting behind him, I finally cried Uncle and made him ride beside my sweaty, hot, and tired body. “Why am I working so hard at not working hard?” Drafting behind Steve turned out to be more work than riding my own pace. Even when I had him slow down, it was still too much work. He keeps a constant, steady pace, and I have to stay focused the whole time, staring at his butt and keeping just far enough behind so that I don’t ride into him but not so far behind I don’t get his draft. We switched and I set a blistering pace (not). No offense to the scenery when I was drafting off Steve, but I get to see a bit more when I’m not drafting. The day got hotter, I got more tired and my butt screamed even louder. It was 98 degrees when we finished but I did it again!

Last Training Ride before Bike MS

I have one last opportunity to get my legs and butt in shape for the Bike MS next weekend. Steve is coaching several triathletes this year and one of them is doing the Boulder Sprint Tri so we decided to come watch him race and spend the weekend in Boulder. I wanted to ride Old Stage Road before the Boulder Peak and get in one more long ride. I had myself all pumped up and ready to show Old Stage Rd that I’m not the wimp I was last year. Old Stage Rd hill is about 1.3 miles with 800 ft of elevation gain. Riding Old Stage last year was not pretty; it’s rather embarrassing having to walk a Cervelo up a hill. My hormones and I were not on the same page last year and I’ll use that as my excuse and spare the rest of the details. I’m stronger, better adjusted and most important, medicinally treated this year and I was ready. I downed some liquid substance that came in a small bottle and is supposed to naturally get all your neurons firing (Trigger), and we headed out from Boulder Reservoir. We got to Old Stage Rd and I was feeling even better, until we hit the road closed sign. Construction. The road is torn up. Not to be deterred, I kept riding. It was hard packed after all. No reason to stop. Steve, on the other hand, is very fond of his bike and wouldn’t ride on the dirt road. Challenge thwarted. We went on a nice long ride anyway through the back roads of Boulder.


I took Monday off work, so we had another day to play. Play for Steve and I means we sleep in until maybe 7am, get up and have a leisurely breakfast, change into some sort of training gear depending on the activity and head out. We love running in Chautauqua Park right below the Flatirons so that was our running location today. Boulder has gotten a lot more rain than we have and it was green and lush and cool.

                                              Riding the roads around Boulder.

My view when I draft off Steve 

Running in Chautauqua Park

That which doesn't kill me....

I’m not sure if I’m stronger, and I’m not convinced that this ride didn’t kill me. I don’t remember feeling as tired as I am now after a ride!


Saturdays are long training ride days so I sent a plea to my cycling friends to join me for a long ride, because we all know misery loves company. Cosette and Molly were in and the plan was for a 50 miler from Sedalia to Palmer Lake and back. Cosette wanted to start in Palmer Lake and go north and back so we didn’t have to drive as far and I explained to her why that’s not the preferred way to do the ride. We did it backwards anyway and about ½ way in the return route, she had no doubts about why you start in Sedalia and when we finished she was offering conciliatory beers and profuse apologies. Read on and you’ll know why.

Being Colorado, it was still chilly at the start (55 degrees) so we donned our fashionable arm warmers and windbreakers and headed out of Palmer Lake turned North on Highway 105 which turns into Highway 85.

The highway follows the Front Range and you have views of the mountains the whole way, rolling green hills from all the spring rain and farms and ranches and houses bigger than mine. Waay bigger than mine (not that I’m envious). We were going much too fast to enjoy the view though, and were having a blast riding with a light wind at our backs while the elevation was mostly descending. Top speed was 45 miles an hour and we covered the 25 miles to Sedalia in an hour and 15 minutes. As I was cruising along I reminded myself that an easy ride headed this direction means a thigh burner on the way back. That wasn’t enough to make us turn around though and we kept cruising. We stopped at a little market for a potty break and since you had to buy something to earn access to the toilet, Molly got a Resee’s flavored coffee and I got a chocolate milk. A small price to pay to not have to pee in the trees. A 15 minute break and off we went, retracing our route back south.

It wasn’t so bad the first 5 miles… and then the wind picked up and it was hard. And the wind picked up some more as we kept climbing and it was harder. On the way back I was going so slow that I had plenty of time to view those houses that are way bigger than mine and fantasize about my intended lottery win and which house I would buy. Maybe the one on 50 acres? The price was JUST REDUCED! I took some breaks to capture interesting scenes along the way distracting me from the pain and the thoughts about how far I still had to go.

You know how when you want time to pass quickly and you watch the clock and it crawls? Only 5 minutes have passed??? It was the same experience on the ride back. 39.4 miles. Glance at the odometer hours later --- 40.7 miles? You gotta be kidding me. Hours later – 43.3 miles. I’m never gonna get there.. It’s not going to be any easier if I bombard my mind with negative thoughts. I’m going to get there when I get there. I can hear Steve’s voice in my head (this one happened to be his angel voice) “OK. Hunker down, relax and just ride. Don’t fight it. Don’t waste your energy trying to hammer through it.” It really does work when you clear the negative chatter from your brain and just quiet your mind.

What took just over an hour to go out took over 3 hours to come back. Thanks Cosette for the training aid of doing the route in reverse! I’m sure it made me stronger.

Elephant Rock Ride, where I get to be Hannah for a day

As a HIGH ROLLER (yep that’s me!) from last year’s Bike MS, I was registered for the Elephant Rock bike ride compliments of the MS Society. They figure they need to get our butts out there training so they sign us up for rides; no excuses left. 6 of us from the TriForMS bike team were signed up to do the E-Rock ride. We arrived and I went to the packet pickup area and there was no Michele Vaughan officially registered. I RSVP’d – didn’t I? Or is that one of the hundreds emails sitting in my Inbox unread? Calling for a response? Waiting for attention? Too late now. Thanks to the good people at the Colorado-Wyoming chapter of the MS Society, they were quick to come up with an alternate plan. Wait a bit and someone who has registered will likely not show and you can have their number. And that is how I got to be “Hannah” for a day.

With my Hannah helmet sticker on and my Hannah bike tag on, we were ready to roll. I was anxious to be Hannah for a day and see if she was up for the 62 mile ride.

Tom, Jay, Arlene, Tom, Darren and I headed out and started pedaling. It was a beautiful day, smoke from the wildfires coving with the sky with a slight haze and not too hot. The first rest stop had Pop-Tarts and fortunately I did not bring food, so I HAD to have some pop-tarts to keep fueled up. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a pop-tart in my life, but I may have to consider this sugar loaded, no nutritional value, will survive a nuclear fallout snack as a good option when I’m in need of a quick sugar high. We stopped at about the half way point for a relaxing break and rest on the grass in Palmer Lake. As we headed out we approached Radio Guy, blaring 70’s square dance tunes from the back of his bike. That was enough incentive for Arlene and I to give the pedals a little more power and pass him. If the pop tarts weren’t going to make me sick then the square dance music surely would.

We were clipping along at a comfortable pace when the 5 green jersey guys riding as a group came sailing by us. One of the guy’s calves must have caught Arlene’s eye, because she took off and hung on to the guy in the back of the pack. I answered and hung to the back of Arlene and we drafted off the green jersey guys for a while. I encouraged Arlene to hang with them with “you got ‘em Arlene! Hang in there! Don’t let the calves out of your sight!” It wasn’t long before my legs were screaming and my heart was beating faster than it probably should so I yelled “Arlene, I can’t hang on any longer!” She slowed and gasped out “Oh, thank GOD! I’m dyin’!”

At the bottom of Tomah road, we ran into Radio Guy again. Not a good time to be behind Radio Guy because we’re about to climb a hill with about 500ft in elevation gain in a short distance. We gotta overtake Radio Guy or I’m gonna get sick on this hill. With the challenge in front of us, Arlene and I passed Radio Guy and climbed that hill. Up and over and a sweet descent!

We hit the I-25 crossover and it was a fairly flat Frontage Road for 8 miles back to the finish. I was feeling pretty good and wanted to push it all the way in. I called to Tom that I was pushing it in and he and Darren worked with me, and I had a great time pushing that last 10 miles.

A great ride with a great group of people! Thanks for keeping me laughing Arlene!

Bike MS Training Has Started!

It’s that time of year already – time for fundraising for our annual Bike MS and time for some SERIOUS training! The ride is 7 weeks away and I was about 20 weeks away from being ready to ride 150 miles. Steve and I spent a week on Turks and Caicos Island (British West Indies) this past week and we were able to make up some serious gaps in our training while we were there.


The hotel has several high end Trek Bikes that you could ride around the island. We took advantage of this and did some intense riding. We eased into it the first day with a ride to the bakery 2 miles from the hotel to buy a baguette. What, with the really hot weather and all, we came back and had to have a nap after that first day of intense training.

For the 2nd ride we worked up our time and mileage (in fact, we DOUBLED the miles we rode the 1st day) and rode to the Gourmet Grocery to get a gallon of ice cream. The sun was really intense there, so having ice cream on hand was imperative for post training recovery. Since we doubled our miles from the first ride, we needed some serious recovery so we had our ice cream and spent the afternoon recovering on the lounge chairs on the beach. We were pretty worried about muscle soreness from the long ride, so we made sure to keep the blood moving by getting up every hour, walking the 20 yards to the water and floating in the ocean for a bit. The salt water and buoyancy (and definitely the ice cream) really made all the difference in the recovery.

We knew we had limited time on the island to get some miles on, so we really pushed ourselves for our 3rd ride and doubled our miles AGAIN! We really challenged ourselves this time and pushed it with a ride farther along the island to another hotel rumored to have a nice reef with good snorkeling. Exhausted as we were riding the long 4 miles to the reef, we were still able to snorkel for an hour or so. I wasn’t sure I was going to make the 4 miles back, as by then the sun was up and it was oh, 80 or so degrees. I knew I had to push myself though to get ready for the 150 mile ride, so I manned up (woman’d up just doesn’t sound right does it??), put on my sunhat and drafted behind Steve on the way back. You can imagine how beat we were, so a double serving of ice cream and a nap inside with the air conditioning on was the only option.

Since we’d really increased our mileage, we decided we shouldn’t push it so much on our 4th ride. We grabbed the bikes and rode 4 miles to dinner. We were famished by the time we reached dinner and had burned so many calories that we had the works at dinner. The long ride back about did us in and we had to go right to bed.

 

Now, training for the Bike MS isn’t just about the biking. It’s also about the eating. For those who have done a Bike MS, you know that we joke that it’s the only bike ride where you GAIN weight because there is so much food. Which is why this ride is so suited to me. I love to eat. You start off with breakfast before you ride. During the ride, there is a rest stop every 10 miles well stocked with snacks. About 50 miles into the ride, there is a huge lunch. Then more rest stops. When you arrive after day 1, there is more food. And then you have dinner. And then you repeat the next day. It was imperative, then, that we trained for the eating as well.

Rest is also a vital part of training and of the ride. We did exceptionally well with this part of the training while we were on vacation. We practiced resting in many different locations and many times a day; a morning nap in the room, an afternoon nap on the beach, a rest in the hammock. It is really very important that you train your body to rest in any location.

Now that I have a jump start on my bike training, I think I’m ready for at least a 10 mile training ride this weekend! And after being at sea level for a week, that just may be all I’ll get done!