Weekend of Racing

What can I say? Every once in a while you just have a great weekend doing what you really like to do; having fun and hanging out with great people. This weekend was one of those weekends.

We started out on Friday night to race the F1 in southern New Mexico. This is a great draft legal race, probably one of the most fun events in the entire state. You start off with a 400 yard swim, get out, run across the beach and do another 400 yard swim. Enter T1, get on your bike and head out for an 8 mile – draft legal – bike. If you are lucky enough you can get a group of folks that want to work hard and take turns pulling. Since there were a ton of outlaws at the race there wasn’t a problem hooking up with people. Then pulling into t2 you get to head out to the 4k flat run. Then just for good measure you get to do the bike and run one more time! That’s T3 and T4 for those that are a little transition challenged! The surprising thing about this race is the second bike always seems to be a bit faster than the first bike and the run is only a few seconds slower. This a great race and I would encourage everyone to give the format a try.

It seems I picked up some hardware at the race, first in the age group, third in the overall series (which still shocks me) and I received a city cup trophy. Three pieces of hardware from one race. That’s pretty cool. It must have been my lucky socks. Get it, Roswell, aliens… (you might have to blow up the picture a bit)

After the race and eating lunch with a bunch of Outlaws we headed up to Chama, where SWTriGal and her hubby H have cabin – In Northern New Mexico right next to the Colorado border. The next day we headed out to Race the Train into Colorado. Wow, it was a tough ride. We started out at an altitude of about 7500 feet and climbed the next 16ish miles to over 10,000 feet. This took a little over an hour (ride time) with a rest break and a Facebook update at the “Leaving New Mexico” sign. Oh it took about 23 minutes to come back down, yeah it was worth the climb J

Major thanks to Debi and Hartley for hosting us at their “cabin” for the weekend, Thanks!!!

A few Pic’s from the trip:

IronOutlaw showing his form at foosball – yeah he just scored a point – against DPR’s twins, BTW he lost the game!

At the “Leaving New Mexico Sign”

At the halfway point looking down the first climb

Here’s a little proof we beat the train!!

And a picture of my son, he was a super trouper, as we dragged him all over the state

I seem to be a little slow on the draw this morning. While making my morning oatmeal I couldn’t find the oatmeal container. It’s not in its usual place on top the fridge. Where is that darn thing? Did the kids move it? Maybe it fell and broke? Did the kids drop it and throw it away? Humm, where is it? Oh there it is, right where I put it three minutes ago, next to the pot, just sitting there waiting for me to measure out my gruel for the day. Wow, I need a little more recovery time.

This weekends fun began on Saturday with a nice 50 mile ride. It was supposed to be 65 but we turned around early to ride with the rest of the group with the intention of added on the extra miles at the end of the run. Weeelll, when we stopped to drop off the other folks, I wasn’t exactly excited about getting back on the bike so we stopped for coffee! Much better than riding don’t you think?

Later that day I followed up the ride with a 2500 yard swim, wow did that feel good, it’s been a week or so since I’ve been swimming so I needed to make up some yardage.

Later that day we walked around the Salsa Fiesta for a couple of hours and had one of the best quesadilla of all time. Of course, maybe I was hungry from working out twice and walking around for a couple of hours, nah.

Saturday night, was dessert at Flying star, yum, Strawberry Rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream. And good company to boot, what more can you ask for?

Sunday’s Workout was the run from hell! That is if you have to run up a mountain to get to hell. It seems the Dread Pirate is a little challenged when it comes to guestimating mileage and grade. Her 5 mile hill run turned out to be 8 miles of soleus bashing, quad busting 14% incline fun. The plan was to do the “Hill” run and then run another hour or so, right….I didn’t want to take another step right then so the next best move was to do what triathletes do so well, eat! Yep, we all voted for breakfast every except the Iron Maiden who keep to her plan and finished her run, kudos to her!
This is a picture of the "hill" we ran up, no, it's not the little hill in front. It's the big hill above and behind the clouds. Okay we didn't really run up the entire mountain, but we were above the clouds!

Being the type A personality I am meant that I was really feeling guilty about not putting in the extra miles. Soooo, I conned my son into going for a 6 mile ride in the bosque to keep me company on, yes, my second run of the day. Wow, did the legs feel heavy, what fun!

It turns out that I have good reason to be a little slow on the draw today. Yep, It was a tough weekend.

Running at night

We went on our first group run last night in preparation for the Colorado Relay. Some folks think it’s a good idea to actually train and prep for the races you are signed up for and with this race it’s probably a good idea to do some proper training. So off we went to run in the dark. I’m not sure running in the dark was much fun but it was sure nice to run with a group of folks. The trail sure looks a lot different at night, and it even sounds different, guess it’s all the night critters coming out. Even the coyotes sound mare eerie in the darkness.

This Sunday we get to run the foot hills and that should be a lot of fun! Oh wait, I think there was a reason I avoid ‘em. If I remember correctly they HURT, guess my memory will be refreshed on Sunday.

Darn, my legs are still tired from last weekend!