After London I flew back to Colorado Springs. I’ve been trying really hard to make this my home, but for someone who violently detests sprawling, track-hone infested, overly automotive based suburban sprawl, it’s a tough town to love. So when I returned I decided to spend the rest of the week with friends in Boulder. (Yes, it’s technically a suburb, and it has plenty of oversized malls, separated by wide roads that require u-turns to get around the unnecessary medians – but there are traits that make up for those unfortunate features.)

I haven’t spent any time with Rory in a few months, and I was excited to stay in the fancy new apartment he got with his girlfriend Mojdeh. Unfortunately, Rory works in a restaurant and our schedules don’t mesh up well. Over 5 days we saw about 15 minutes of each other.

The training, however, was better than I expected. I swam at Scott Carpenter – an outdoor 50m pool – where I ran into several other pro triathletes. I ran around the CU Cross Country course, and saw some pro runners. I rode up through North Boulder and saw some pro cyclists… It’s strange to me that there are more athletes to train with, and better tromping grounds than the Olympic Training Center. But then again, there’s no Matt Chrabot.

So after a very pleasant week, I gave in to obligation (to get my MBA class schedule squared away, show my face at the Elite Development Camp USAT is holding, and to get free massage) and drove back down to Colorado Springs this morning. On the way I went to Tri-For-The-Cure, a very large all-women’s sprint triathlon with 3000 women competing and raising money for cancer research. Courtenay was racing (just for fun) and I figured it would be an excellent way to recover from the monster training day I did on Saturday. (Note to anyone who suffers from training plan stubbornness like me – if you’re supposed to run off the bike, and it’s over 90 degrees and you just did a long ride up to 9300 feet for the first time ever and you don’t have a water bottle holster – take a nap and run later in the day, that hour-long slog will make you tough, but certainly not fast.) So I played Super Fan for an hour while Courtenay rocked the socks off the elite wave. She was wearing a Wonder Woman suit that was designed by Taigraphx and printed by Splish. The coolest part of her outfit was that it matched her K-Swiss KRuuz perfectly, and after the race she couldn’t stop complimenting my sponsor, “I LOVE these K-Swiss SHOES!!, they’re AMAZING!!” (is it the shoes or just her?) Tai does my suits as well, and I’m a little bitter that my race uni doesn’t look nearly as supremely awesome. Perhaps if Splish starts making men’s triathlon racing apparel (or if the ITU makes their uniform rules less strict) then I can rock a superhero look. But which Superhero am I?

Sunday I raced in a local “biathlon” put on by the Waikiki Swim Club which consisted of a 5k run followed by a 1k swim. This “Christmas Biathlon” was supposed to be held last month, but lucky for me they had to postpone it until I was here on the island and ready to race. These local community events are really fun, and a great way to reconnect with other athletes in the area. Equal in enjoyment for me, however, is the ability to bring humor to a race where the primary goal is to have fun.

[Above: Can you guess which one’s me?]

So, I wore a pink Splish suit with big bubbly eyes on the front and my K-Swiss K’Ruuz. I figured nobody wanted to lose to a guy in a little pink suit, and with my K’Ruuz it would be pretty hard to beat me. One guy, Brandon Laan (6th at the Honolulu Marathon this year!), did outrun me, however, and the swimmer of his relay was Bill Goding (we used to duke it out at swim practice a few nights a week). They beat me, but nobody else did!

[From left: Todd Iacovelli, Stefan Reinke, Ben Collins, Bill Goding Brandon Laan]

From the gun I followed the lead of Todd Iacovelli and Brandon, both very good local runners. I did my best to stay on their heels, and when Brandon put in a surge at mile 1 my legs shouted at me for not having done any speed training since early November. Brandon gained a few meters on us and I pulled ahead of Todd to try to close the gap. I didn’t see Todd again, and about the time I got back in Brandon’s draft he surged again, creating a 20 second gap over the next few minutes, which remained for the rest of the run race.

I crossed the timing mat at the start of the swim in 15 minutes 50 seconds – 23 seconds after Brandon tagged Bill to start the swim. Jumping into the water, I felt like an old rubber tire trying to swim. Running and swimming are different muscle groups, so I didn’t realize how much of an affect one would have on the other. Somehow in triathlon there’s not so obvious a connection between swimming fast and running fast. It took me a long time to start swimming smoothly, my tummy felt like it was dragging on the bottom, my arms couldn’t seem pull any water, and every wave knocked me around like a turd in a toilet bowl (sorry, for some reason that was the first image that came to mind).

Coming back into the finish I finally started feeling a bit stronger. Bill was LONG gone, but my legs were able to kick again, and my arms were able to pull again, so I kicked and pulled as hard as I could and when the bottom came up to meet me I stood up to hear my fans shouting and telling  me to go away. Apparently, in the pre-race briefing when they said, “keep all the buoys on your  right” they meant “keep the two turn buoys on your right, and the final buoy on your left”. So I went back out and swam around the buoy, I lost very little time and it didn’t make a difference at all in the outcome of the race. After a few more people went to the wrong side, however, they sent some volunteers out to direct the swimmers to the other side. All was well.

[Left: Bob Havrilak drove me to the race and took pictures. As you can see, I’m more worried about what’s going on in the pre-race briefing than looking at the shutter. Pictured is Me, Courtenay, Sarah, and Than (Courtenay’s sister and brother)]

Courtenay raced as well, and we were both the first individuals of our respective genders. Go us, right?

On January 17th is a the second race in this 3-race series. Same course, so it would be an excellent way to judge improvement, or get in on the fun if you missed it the first time around. Check out the WSC website (linked above) for entry info.

This week I decided to stay in LA for a few days before heading to Dallas for the Toyota Cup Lifetime Fitness Triathlon this weekend. It was either that, or head back to Seattle right after the race, train at home for a few days, then fly to Dallas. The extra travel time would probably negate the benefits of being at home for training, and since I was able to stay with a former roommate / teammate / lab partner (current friend) in Los Angeles I figured it was better to enjoy some California Sun. Training away from home can be logistically challenging, but I have a few pointers for making your travel training a success.

Finding a pool is pretty easy. Look at the swimmers guide and find the pools closest to where your staying. The search will tell you if the pool is public or private, and often will have admission fees and lap swim schedule. Sometimes the pool is at a health club, which can be costly, and gym pools are not normally the greatest aquatic facilities. When I was in Miami I swam at a Bally’s Fitness Center where my host was a member. He gave me a free 7 day pass and I used their 2 lane 25 yard pool for four days without any trouble. In Austin I scored a 7 day membership to Life Time Fitness, where the pools were all really nice. In Hollywood last week I used another 7 day free pass to 24 Hour Fitness, but had to put down a credit card deposit because they were going to charge me if I didn’t cancel after 5 days. When I called to cancel I was given a new number to call four times before talking to a “membership cancelation services” person, then the conversation went life this:

“How can I help you?”

“I was using a 7 day free membership while I was staying in Hollywood, but I’d like to cancel it because I”m no longer in Hollywood and I’m not going to be using that pool anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that sir, can I ask why you are canceling your membership?”

“Really? Like I just said, I’m not in Hollywood anymore and I’m not swimming at a 24 Hour Fitness anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that sir, is it alright if I put your account on hold for 6 months instead of cancelling it?”

“No, I would rather cancel it now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that sir, your membership will continue for 30 days, and will be cancelled after the next bill.”

And so on until the guy finally gave in and gave me a confirmation code and said I would not be billed for my free pass.

When I do these passes I’m always up-front with the gym employees. I tell them I’m only in town for a race, and I would really like to use their pool for the week. Then I ask if they have a 7 day pass I can use, or if there’s a way I could use the pool for less than the standard $15 – $30 day pass fee.

Here in Dallas I went into the Downtown Dallas YMCA where there’s an eight lane 25 meter pool. When I called it seemed like it was unlikely that I could use the facilities for less than their $20/day, but since it was my only option I rode my bike over to check it out. When I came in the lady at the front desk, Gracie, recognized my voice from the phone and – seeing me walk in looking like a beach bum, wearing board shorts and a yellow Rudy Project backpack, sporting an afro under a helmet and carrying my bicycle – offered to make me her guest for the three days I would be using the pool. Now that was unexpected and wonderful!

The YMCA pool is really neat. It’s a converted parking garage, so it’s 9 lanes wide, but only 8 lanes are usable because there are big rectangular pillars in the center lane. Out the windows you can see the Dallas Skyscrapers, and rather than giving me weird looks for my pink splish suits, the lifeguard gave me a ticket to the Texas State Fair! She told me if I went I could get just about any kind of fried food I want: fried butter, fired snickers, fried banana, fried ice cream, fried marshmallow, etc. Makes me wish I were staying another night after the race!

More than 115,000 people received the summer issue of Triathlon Life magazine this week. If that includes you, flip to the gear spread near the back. There’s a cute picture of me above a pink man-suit, the Garmin Forerunner 310xt, and a Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit.

Next to the Splish suit is a paraphrase of what I remember saying, but it’s much funnier than I could have said it myself. It says , “My girlfriend gave me a suit with a pink unicorn on    the front, but I also like the hearts and flower patterns.” It goes on to mention that you can make suits that do not cry out fairy-tale princess, but lacks any examples. Here are a few of the “manly” designs I really like.