Thinner Air

We took a vacation to Vail last week -- actually Jeremy had a conference to go to, and Hunter and I tagged along. I've never been to that area in the summer and it looks completely different than wintertime. It was cool and green and beautiful. Walking a few blocks to the coffee shop to get breakfast every morning in our pajamas, hiking in the creek, taking the gondola to the top of the mountain, and walking the streets just to see the sights are some things we will definitely miss back at home. We miss Charlie too, since we got to see him while we were there. Funny how you can meet up with a friend from 1000 miles away when you're 500 miles from home in a different direction. 

Jeremy found me a race on Monday night about 10 miles away that included one or two times a half mile swim, racer's choice, then a 5k. It's a series, and this was the fourth of five, so I saw in the results from weeks ago that a certain world champion Xterra pro had done the run plus transition in the high 23s. So I wasn't expecting to be speedy. I had  a few concerns about swimming in an unfamiliar lake, since I tend to panic if the water is too deep, too dark, too murky, too clear, there are too many other people, too few other people, etc. The water was nice and cool in the 60s -- warm for them -- and the perfect combination of murky and light colored for me. I didn't really warm up, since I had things like Hunter baby to tend to (nurse) beforehand. But I got in the water with time enough to stick my head under, realize my ring was too loose, run back to Jeremy to give him the ring, and line up again. 

I think there were about 50 of us, and I was to the outside near the back, so I didn't get too many punches in the gut. However, the new combination of a heavy duty sports bra and a larger chest in the same small wetsuit meant I couldn't breathe. Usually I panic for some reason, then get short of breath, then panic more, repeat. But this time I only started panicking when I couldn't breathe to begin with. We went straight into the sun for a while, and my goggles fogged bad enough that I had to stop and wipe them several times. So it went like this: stroke stroke breathe breaststroke try-to-sight breaststroke gasp stroke breathe... for almost the whole lap. By 2/3 of the way through, having not calmed down much at all, and still unable to get a full breath, I decided that I was most certainly not doing the second lap. I really didn't want to be the last one out there. As it turned out there were several people behind me, but they didn't do the second loop either.

This is my "that was the worst experience of my triathlon life" face

Onto the run, I was very upset with myself for being such a bad swimmer, and I kept thinking about how I won't get many, if any, opportunities to do open water swimming again before that half ironman I've signed up for next spring, which will take place in the Pacific Ocean. I felt like I ran ok considering that I was at a higher elevation and had nobody to catch except a random few racers and some joggers out on the paved path by the river. I enjoyed the sights and was impressed that the Westin had a ski lift coming right out from the lobby going straight up the mountain. Very nice. I ran just under 7:20 pace for a little over 5k. It seemed to be one of the faster runs (transition time is included in the results), and I wasn't too far off the pro's time :). 

With that out of the way, I ran every other day we were there. There was a path along Gore Creek going both ways from town, so I alternated. 

The scenery wasn't too bad along the trail

The last day, I found an off road trail on my way back, which of course I had to follow for a bit. I was surprised at my legs and lungs doing well and letting me run relatively fast for being up in the mountains. 

Hunter loves being in the Bjorn these days, so we spent a lot of time hiking and walking. We could definitely feel the thin air when carrying him up stairs and hills. 

We took the gondola up to the top of the mountain, and two of us hiked while one of us slept. 

We did a little swimming in the pool, which Hunter has realized is what he's been training for in the little bathtub all this time; he loves to kick and splash. We're trying to make him watch lots of Olympic swimming.

It was hard to come home to the hot, dry, boring neighborhood where we can't walk anywhere fun, but it's also nice to be home in familiar surroundings. Hunter seems to recognize his things already.

I was hoping the altitude training had given me a little boost, but it seems just the opposite from my swim and run. Oh well, time to focus on the bike power anyway :)