Giant Eagles, Hy-Vees, and other mythical creatures

Today was the Giant Eagle 5150 which as the blog title suggests, is not actually a real bird.  Giant Eagle is actually a grocery store chain (who knew) as is Hy-Vee (learned that last year) and both of them have triathlons named after them.  Giant Eagle was today in Columbus Ohio.

I traveled down with my friend Dan Henry from the CU tri team and we stayed with his family up in Tiffin OH about 90 min NW of Columbus.  Plenty of corn out here--it felt great to get back to some humidity and thick delicious oxygen.



Dan's dad Dean (fun to say) cooked up a great pasta dinner and we ended up getting about 10hrs of well needed sleep that night.Too bad we didnt even last through the opening ceremony of the olympics.

The day before the race was a very pleasant overcast day with another hearty breakfast cooked by the pops.  Bacon, french toast, eggs over easy <--my favorite!  That night we drove down to Columbus to set up our transition areas (it was a point to point race so T1 was 25 miles from T2) and check in to the hotel.  Oh, and I at a whole pizza to fuel up properly.

Race morning we were up at 3:30 to eat some peanut butter and banana and Dan and I sat and watched olympic reruns until leaving the hotel at about 5am.  It was still super dark and a bit chilly when we got there and I had forgotten how prevalent dew was since everything I had left overnight was soaked.  This first picture of me (courtesy of Dan's mom) was when I realized that my left brake lever was coming out of my areobars--I had to convince the bike mechanic dude to let me use his allen wrench to take out the cable so I could tighten it.  He was worried we werent going to get it back in but after about 15min it was good to go.

The race was a bit nuts from the start.  The swim paralleled the shore which was kinda weird because it was shallow enough to touch.  When I race I tend to think very simple thoughts like "oohh, thats a nice shade of green" or "turn left, swim swim, gasp for air"  or something with little philosophical depth.  Basically when it is the swimming portion of the race, all I think about is swimming, so I wasnt even considering dolphin diving although a number of others did I think.  On the second lap, I saw a few out of my right side and tried for a dolphin dive myself which basically just messed me up.  So, I went back to what I do best during the swimming portion of the race--swim.

The bike was a net downhill which helped contribute to a fast time but I also lost some time when I took a wrong turn.  A police officer was directing traffic and pointed my friend Tom straight through an intersection.  I followed realizing on the other side that it was where we had driven the course the wrong way the day before!  I flipped it hard but Tom kept riding, poor guy, he ended up not finishing.

It was a quick detour for me but I got back on track and the next shots are of me coming into T2 in downtown Columbus.

I had some trouble unearthing my shoes which I had buried the day before under a bag but got em on and started the run about 10seconds behind Michael Fox--a guy who has beaten me in every race I had done thus far.  I felt smooth during the run and held the gap until mile 4ish when I caught him, settled down, and then passed him.  (I also made some other dumb comment like "thats a pretty tree" and he didnt respond).  After that it started to get painful and I cranked it as best I could across the finish line.

I ended up with a 33:44 which was not too shabby considering the winding and kinda rolling course.  6th overall and only by 20seconds or so.  Oohh, and at the finish I saw some of my relatives who had come out to watch; my mom's cousins from the Phillippi family.  They are all super nice and it was great to talk to them afterwards.  There's just some family you cant get enough of :).

Overall it was a fun weekend, and with all the people I know in the area, I definitely have to come back next year!  Now I have a pleasant month of low commitment while everything gears up for the fall semester, whoohoo!

Rudy

Family Week Fun Times

Ahh yes, the most stressful week of the year--the week the family comes to visit me in Colorado.  I sometimes think I would rather do a Greg Bennett and pull back to back Saturday Sunday races."Stay calm" I thought, "keep a positive mental attitude" and "smile and nod as much as possible."  I like to give them a hard time, but honestly, it was nice to see them and I am glad they came.

They got here on Thursday and we cooked out a bit, walked around Pearl Street, and I gave them a tour of the new building (where the chemical engineering department recently moved).

On Sunday we loaded up the car and headed to Santa Fe NM for a few days.  On the agenda was Harry's Roadhouse (apparently it was featured on TV (and as it turns out had very good food)), the Santa Fe historic district, and the Georgia O'Keeffe art museum.  In the past few years I have become increasingly interested in art and always enjoy critiquing.

Georgia O'Keeffe was an interesting lady for sure.  According to the museum, born in 1887 she developed/established herself to 1924 when she married her BFF Alfred Stieglitz (a famous photographer who took these pictures (as well as some nude ones (not shown (for your viewing sake)))).

Although she publicly stated that her art was not related to abstract female body parts, it was still hard to ignore the stereotyped analysis of her work.  What do these look like?

But she also was influential in depicting the desert southwest at a time when still very few people lived there (New Mexico only became a state in 1912).  Some of her most famous pictures were of skulls and of the mountain Pedernal near where she lived to the NW of Santa Fe.

Honestly, her art is OK, but I am not a huge fan.  Much of it is very desolate and done in dull offtone colors.  I suppose that is an accurate depiction of the area, but I wouldnt want it on my wall.  She did spend some time at UVA though, go hoos!

Later we walked around the downtown district which was mostly loaded with trinket shops and native women peddling turquoise jewelery.  My only conclusion was that there have to be a lot of sucker tourists who way overpay for these things...

I also got some training in with a nice 2.5hr ride and 50min transition run before heading home.  Santa Fe is at 7000ft which is a tad higher than Boulder but to be honest, I didnt really notice it that much.  Maybe I am finally adapting to the altitude?

The rest of the week was more standard ending with a cookout where I ate 7 burritos.  They were delicious but the next morning I had a terrible swim.  Live and learn I guess...

Rudy

Boulder Peakalicious

Well, the weather finally cooled off here in Boulder by virtue of about a weeks worth of torrential downpours.  After last week's blazing heat and fires, this week overcast with intermittent monsoons, which at least begot favorable sleeping conditions...

The Boulder Peak Triathlon was on Sunday; the hometown race which is always fun since you know the area and dont have to travel.  The Peak is a fairly old race and is well known for the bike course which heads uphill straight from the Boulder Reservoir and eventually up a 14% grade climb adding about 1300ft.  Though it was to rain all night and more on Sunday afternoon, I figured being in Colorado, the chance of rain in the morning was approximately equivalent to my chance of getting eaten by a shark during the swim.  I'm no actuary, but as they say on PTI, zero percent chance.



The Peak is also a historically tough race due to the competition.  Every pro triathlete in their brother lives either in Boulder or somewhere nearby, so the field is always stacked; this time being no different.  For spectator viewing pleasure, the pro waves start after the age group race, so I got to sleep in and get to the race in time for the 9:35 start.  I rolled in just in time to see my friend and CU tri teammate Drew Scott come haulin in off the bike en route to his overall elite division win.

The women's wave was off at 9:20 and the men were given a 15minute deficit.  There is always a $1000 bonus to the first pro to cross the line, but a 15 minute head start for the women is a tough gap to overcome.  The water was chilly but still 71 degrees (apparently) so wetsuits werent allowed.  I was happy actually because although a wetsuit would help me tremendously, I have mentally accepted the challenge of not having one.  The Boulder Res also accepted my challenge and I came out of the water 3min behind the fastest swimmers (Cameron Dye and some other dude with webbed feet).

Oh well, I could have expected that, although my swimming IS improving, I swear.  The bike is of course the highlight of the race, as I mentioned earlier, basically as soon as you leave transition it is uphill until you hit the top of Old Stage.  I felt pretty good and kept homestay-mate Tim Reed in my sight all the way up and through the backside of the course.

Coming off the bike I lost my left shoe dismounting  and had to run back and get it meanwhile dropping my bike on the pavement/looking like a goofball #graceful.  I was in 9th or so and felt great on the first lap of the run (3 laps of out and back, again for viewing pleasure).  On my second lap I caught Laura Bennet (ie. super badass olympian) who was on her third lap.  Coming to the turnaround I was trying to stay out of her way and not breathe too hard (haha, but how bad would it be if I tripped her up or something, I mean she is going to the olympics).  Anyway, I was trying to be nimble and on the 180 degree turnaround I just fell flat on my face.  My leg was bleeding and I felt like a total goof.  From there, my dignity and pace were on the fritz not to mention that the lack of oxygen up here was catching up with me.

Thanks Dave Sheanin for the pircure!

I finished 11th in the stacked pro field, but honestly, I think I had a pretty good race.  Ive never been able to go as fast at altitude, and rather than dying like usual, I thought I kept a steady tempo throughout.  Its a bit frustrating that I am not more sore today; I mean my lungs are wrecked, my chest feels like I just benched 40 reps of 250 (cough, since I can do that cough), but my muscles arent shredded so I feel like I didnt go hard enough.  Darn lack of oxygen.  Next up for me is Giant Eagle Triathlon in Columbus Ohio July 29th.  Im flying out with my CU teammate Dan Henry who lives there; and its at low altitude.  I'll be drowning in oxygen. Whoohoo.

Rudy

Fires and other hot things...

Its been a good hot week back in Boulder after the New Orleans 5150 last weekend and of course the fires up in the mountains are stealing the show.  Colorado Springs is probably the worst case with the fires threatening to take down the city, but there was also a fire right on top of the flatirons.  The first picture is from at night, the second is one of the B-52 bombers dropping red water on the backside of the mountain, and the third and 4th are just random pictures. 

Fortunately, the fire here only lasted a couple days before they got it under control--it was never very big, but since Boulder is right at the base of those mountains, it was very close.  Plus, it was so hot last week you were stuck between keeping the windows open for a draft and closing them to keep out the smoke.  I considered sleeping in my lab office on Wednesday night actually (since it has some killer AC). 

For some reason when it is this hot I tend to lose my appetite for super sweets like ice cream.  They just dont sit well when your house is 85 degrees and you are trying to go to sleep.  Its tragic because I do love ice cream but I havent had any since before New Orleans.  I'm not too concerned though.  History tells me that one day I will be back crushing half a container at a time again.

It did actually cool off some this past weekend, or it was overcast enough that it didnt get as brutally hot.  I had an awesome weekend of training with my bud David Bobka with a long ride on Saturday and a hard ride and track workout on Sunday.  Plus summer swimming is the best.  I have been swimming at the Boulder Reservoir every Thursday morning with my Vendetta wetsuit (this week I used the swimskin and got really cold actually (whoda thought in this heat)), the outdoor pools, and of course the legendary Jane Scott (swim coach).  One of these times I will make a post just about her awesomeness.

As a fun tidbit of the week, my roommates and I went out Friday night and were dancing at Absenth House when I met a girl I went to high school with.  What are the odds?  I didnt think I knew anyone else from Virginia who lived in Boulder.

This coming weekend is the Boulder Peak Triathlon!  It will be my 3rd pro race and likely the hardest in both the course (big hill, race at altitude), and the field (basically every pro in their brother lives here) but at least I dont have to go anywhere or do anything special.  I live here, so I can sleep in my own bed, watch my friends race, and then they can cheer for me not to get lapped by Tim O'Donnell.  My race prep (naturally) includes lots of Chobani Yogurt!  It sure is a perk to promote products you like!  Until next week-

Rudy