Boulder Training Camp/Vacation - Day 1

I have made my way to Boulder to visit and train with Bolder for the weekend. I have been waiting for this weekend and a chance to get away all month. I know I will miss Aimee all weekend but Bolder has plenty planned and I think he is going to send me home as a shell of my former self.

The flight was uneventful and Bolder met me at the airport. I couldn't miss him sporting a BMC t-shirt and some of the locals pointing and staring at the namesake of the Bolder Boulder 10k. He even brushed off a couple of autograph hounds.

During the drive to the HABC we talked about many things and discovered some more similarities between us. I just love looking at the mountains since I have absolutely nothing like that back home. Lunch, or mid-afternoon snack for me, was at a Walnut Brewery where I had a Salmon BLT. That is definitely a sandwich I will have to make when I get back home.

We finally made it to the HABC and I unpacked my gear in the "The Medal Room". The HABC is a fabulous outpost for training at the base of the foothills of Boulder. We let lunch settle before taking our first training ride of the weekend. Just something to loosen up the legs and let me take in the scenery during a ride up to Jamestown. This ride was great and allowed me to use a PowerTap for the first time. I'll wait for the downloaded information before doing any analysis.

The climb up to Jamestown was simply gorgeous and reminded me of the bike course at Lake Placid. The final 10 miles to LP was very similar to the ride to Jamestown with pine trees, high cliffs and a river running along the road. Plenty of opportunity to talk and relax. Once we arrived in Jamestown we made a u-turn and bombed down the road. Once I got comfortable on the Trek 2200 I was able to take the curves more aggressively.

About half way down the wind started to pickup, and not in our favor. The winds were coming UP the road. And the winds were so strong that we were actually loosing speed going downhill. At one point I looked at the PowerTap and I was riding at 31 MPH downhill and pushing 450+ Watts. I'm sorry but that math doesn't add up. When we made it to the bottom we looked at each other and couldn't believe what had just happened.

We made a turn to head back to the HABC. We had to climb again before bombing back down. The winds were still blowing and we could actually feel the extra push from the wind as we were going UPHILL. It was certainly some freaky wind. On the downside back to Boulder I was warned about a stop sign half way down. I was following Bold's leada so I knew when to brake. I certainly knew when to start braking, I only had to smell the burning rubber from Bolders brakes...and boy did it stink. I was 50 yards behind him and I could smell the pungent odor of burning rubber. When we got back to the HABC the front brakes on the BMC had a glob of rubber. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Here is the profile from my powertap.......

After we relaxed and talked about the ride, we got ready to go to a masters swim session. I haven't done a structured swim workout since before the half iron race. It felt nice getting into a pool that wasn't 88 degrees and following the workout provided by the deck coaches. I felt strong and fluid in the water. After a kick ass one hour workout we finally grabbed something to eat at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. I had a massive burrito that helped fill the void from the double workouts of the day.

I'm looking forward to the ride and swim scheduled for Saturday, but right now I am tired and ready for bed. The two hour time change is bad enough when you aren't working out.

Game On.