Category Archives: Cycling

2013 Ironman Brasil – The Bike

Posted on June 13, 2013 by goSonja| 10 Comments

Once on the bike, I started into my fueling right away. My mouth was salty. The first few miles of the course, getting out of town, was so congested. Combine that with some really interesting characters and I found myself constantly fighting to stay legal and to keep the gas on. It was a cluster! So many of the men simply refused to move right after passing. Drafting was happening, but the blocking was the main problem. Even on the narrow sections you could fit three bikes across but these guys would sit left and not let anyone past. Then a drafting pack would form because nobody could pass the douchebag, and that’s when it got psycho.

The draft marshals were there, but I didn’t see any penalties happening. And granted it’s a narrow section, so I don’t know how they would have fairly enforced anything, other than citing the dude for blocking. So I just had to calm down and let it (them) all pass. This one guy in a teal speedo was really bustin’ my chops though. He was so aggressive and rude and blocking. And he was in a speedo, which is all fine and good, but it was teal. Okay, not judging, but it was teal AND he was ignoring the rules. If you are going to block everyone behind you and force us all to stare at your behind, at least wear some tri shorts. Actually his butt was pretty nice, but I digress….sorry, back on task…

30 minutes into my ride I took a peek at the time of day. I don’t wear a watch in the swim and the clock on my Garmin said 8:35am. I was shocked and I got a big smile on my face. That meant that I was on bike bike and riding 1:05 into the day, which meant swim+T1 was 1:05-ish. I didn’t know if they started the race on time, but I was jazzed. Especially after thinking I swam 1:20. Something inside me clicked then and I knew I was going to fight for every bit of time today. All systems were GO!

The hills were no issue, not hard, very basic. I got passed by like 50 people on each one. I was watching my wattage and heart rate and I wasn’t going to ride up those things at 100 watts higher than I was going to average for the day, but apparently everyone else felt okay with that tactic. Literally 50 people passed me in 4 minutes. Got back some of them on the descent though. It was actually good because the pack that had developed behind teal speedo motored up the hill at like 1000 watts and they were now out of my sight. After the hills I just settled in. People thinned out and we were at the tunnels near the turn around before I knew it.

One crazy thing out there that you DO NOT SEE in North American races is that closing the roads for the race brings out all the Brazilian roadies. I saw so many people riding the course who weren’t in the race. They were in full cycling kits, usually groups of two, no packs or anything. You know those little fish that hang onto other fish….parasite fish…yea, we had parasite cyclists out there.

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When I started seeing the women coming back the other way I started paying attention to them and all the sudden a drafting marshal was yelling at me. I think I had gotten too close to the guy ahead of me, but he seemed to still be 3+ bike lengths ahead so I was a bit confused. So I just started yelling back. I have no idea why this was my reaction, but it’s just what came out. He was yelling in Portuguese and I was yelling in English. I backed off a bit more and the dude drove away. Who knows?

There was one girl that I was sorta going back and forth with. It was strange. I went by her the first time demandingly. Then like 10 miles later she comes by me and is kinda on a guys wheel. Not right on it, but pretty close. I sit back and watch. She’s riding pretty legal. But going pretty slow. So I repass several minutes later. I look back a few minutes later and she’s way way back there.

I hit town feeling really great and really in control. Then the girl comes by me again. She misses a bottle handoff, screams at the volunteers all angry like, and then this guy brings her his bottle. What? I mean she was Brazilian and pretty hot and all, but where was my personal bottle retriever? I would have thought that perk was reserved for those wearing a teal speedo??!!

I went around the turn around in town at 2:29 and was like “Holy shit, that’s sub 5 hour bike pace.” but that was all the thought I really gave it. I was riding my plan, and sticking to it regardless of what it yielded. After the turn around in town it’s time to ride back into the narrow section and this is when CRAZINESS happens. Like the worst part of my day craziness! The congestion is bad and there are some packs and I just want the heck out of it all. So I start riding harder. I ride my way up to the girl (the one with the bottle hander guy) and she’s sitting in the left of the lane. I yell “Left.” She doesn’t budge. I yell “left” two more times. Now I’m on her ass. There is an official with us. I yell “passing, left”. I yell that five times. She starts yelling at me….in Portuguese. I yell at her to move over (there is space) in English (duh). I’m on her ass, screaming and pointing to the HUGE space on her right that she can move into.

I start screaming at the official “She’s blocking.” She starts screaming at the official. I scream and she screams and the official just looks at us. I back off her ass and get over to the right. Now I have just failed to make a legal pass and that worries me. We are both screaming at the official. I’m screaming “Give her a penalty, she is blocking” She’s screaming at him too, I don’t know what she’s saying. I can’t even imagine what she can say when she is clearly blocking.

I’m yelling at the official and then I look forward (from looking at the official) and right as I look forward I see that I’m headed straight for a traffic cone. Yea, a big one too, just like this:

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I have no choice, there are people, officials, everyone around. I hit the cone dead on, and it’s a BIG ASS CONE. The only thought that goes through my head is “There goes your Flipping race” (except I didn’t think “flipping” I thought the other word). I hit the cone, I employ some Herculean efforts to remain on top of my bike and by some stroke of luck I do not crash. Then I look at the official with my best “See what you just did?” look. And his eyes are wide open.

Meanwhile the lady is still in the left lane blocking. I look at the official very calm like and I say “Do you understand?” and he shakes his head “no”. I say Azule (because she is wearing blue) and I point to her. And I say “BLOCKING PENALTY”. Then the dude makes this hand gesture to me……

Click Here to see the hand gesture

And he rides away. I look down and my heart rate is 172. Oh my lanta! I stay right and have a SERIOUS conversation with myself to calm down, and to take deep breaths. In between the breaths I’m saying to myself “Holy crap I hit a cone.” I watch Azule continue to stay as left as she possibly can for the next 20 minutes and then we hit an aid station, she goes for fluid (not sure where her personal bottle retriever has gone), I make the pass and then I ride much harder than my Ironman race pace for 20 minutes so that I never ever ever ever ever EVER have to see this woman again. And I didn’t…until the Kona roll down where I gave her my best “You’re a disgrace” stinkeye as she claimed her slot for winning her AG. She will need to learn what blocking means before Hawaii.

Back through the hills and suddenly there are a lot less heros out there. Through the tunnel and I’m by myself with plenty of space between competitors. I’m in my element now. Head down and just snuggle into the the bean bag chair in my pain cave. I don’t see any AG women left ahead of me. We turn around and I notice that the wind has become a factor. I enjoyed the nice headwind back to town and played the “try to guess my bike split” game. I was thinking 5:10 and that got me pretty excited. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. The last 10 miles I happened upon a very tired looking man in a teal speedo. That felt good as I passed him with a little eyebrow raise.

Into T2 there were a handful of bags in the hallway. I didn’t count but grabbed a seat and again dealt with my business and got out of there. As I ran out of there I looked at the finish line because I knew the race clock would have the race time. I think it said 6:17. I was jazzed. Mental math said under a 3:43 marathon would get me under 10. Let’s do this.

Bike Split: 5:08:57

Bike Placing: off the bike: 1st in my AG, 14th woman (including PROS), and 175th in the race.

Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Race Report, Travel, Triathlon

I’m just going to go do it

Posted on February 14, 2013 by goSonja| 2 Comments

Wow, you know you haven’t blogged in awhile when you forget how to log into your blog.

“I’m just going to go do it”

My final words of my last post, 6 weeks ago. Yup, folks, I meant it. I am all about the “doing” right now. Not about moaning, not about over analyzing, or feeling uncertain. I’m about going into the world, meeting new people, interacting, training, experiencing, finding joy, enjoying the process.

The last 6 weeks have been PACKED! I was super stoked to head to California for 9 days of training. I left a little uncertain as to how my body would hold up through it but I was, yet again, utterly amazed at just how easy big weeks of training are when your attitude and priorities are in the right place. I had ridden as long as 2 hours on the trainer before going, but was able to ride 555 miles in 8 days….happy as a clam.

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The Coast Ride. It was awesome. I think I only had about one twenty minute “rough patch” and the rest of the 3 days was total perm-a-grin. We rode 365 miles from the San Francisco bridge, to Santa Barbara in 3 days. Along the way there were times when I knew I was pushing myself really hard, and other times where the pace was relaxed, where others were leading and I could just chill and soak up life. I even got a few patches of solo riding which I also enjoyed. The best part of the trip were the friends that I made and the people I got to ride side by side with for many hours. Thank you to my riding buddies for sharing your lives and joy with me: AmyO, Kendra, Grant, Jess, Hailey, Beth, Steve, Will, Zach, Noah, Christine, Faith. I’ll share with you a few stories of the trip.

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Going All Out

On day 1 I missed heading out from lunch with some of the girls I knew. They were just a few minutes up the road, I could see them and I decided to go for it, bridge the gap, as you would say. I did an all out effort for 10 miles to catch them, and couldn’t. Haha! Note to future riders, all out efforts should be saved for day 3! BUT, as luck would have it, I was able to hook up with 3 awesome guys, Will, Noah, and Zach and was treated to 60 miles of “man-wheel” (my favorite), flawless route finding, and awesome entertainment (and views). Sometimes the hardest efforts don’t yield what what you hoped for, but instead they yield so much more (like new friends).

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The Limiter

10 miles into day 1 my chain fell off my cassette to the inside of my hub, so between the spokes and cassette. My shifter is a little funky and my bike mechanic hadn’t noticed there was one more gear there, and therefore the limiter screw was improperly adjusted. When this happens your bike comes to a screeching halt, since the rear wheel can’t move and the chain gets lodged and VERY stuck. It happened 3 times on the trip before I hunted down a mechanic to fix it (Thank you MARK). It’s a crazy feeling to get dropped by the group and then stuck on the side of the road. The emotions I had were surprising and very telling. Incident #1 I was like “You’re okay, let’s figure this out.” #2 I was like “crap, not again, okay, you can get yourself out of this”, and #3 I was like “boys, please help me”. #3 was the only time on the ride that I got flustered, and I’m proud of that. I handled it with grace and a positive attitude, and I problem solved to the best of my ability.

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So Close

Another day I was riding with lots of my friends (new and old) and we had been climbing all day up and down hills in Big Sur. It was fantastic, like seriously the best scenery I have ever seen on a bike. I noticed pretty early on that compared to my ride-mates, I don’t climb at their level. So I get dropped on the hills. I was on one such hill and trying with all my might to hang onto them and I was really getting tired. The heart rate was going up up up and I was trying so bad, but struggling to hang. I finally looked up and realized that I was sitting in with 4 PROs. All 4 of them ahead of me in my little group that I was about to get shelled from had the infamous Elite Triathlon card. It was like a light bulb went off and I said “you don’t have to hang with them” and off the back I went. None of us knew when the climb would end, and sure enough, a mere 50 feet later we were at the top. I gave up with 50 feet to go! Lesson learned, stay in the moment, you never know when the end is right around the corner.

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The Tour Team

On the final day Jess, BethS, and I had really become quite the little riding threesome. Yes boys, keep dreaming. BethS and I had this little joke amongst ourselves that we were putting together our tour team. So I started calling Beth “George” and she started calling me “George” because really neither of us wanted to be Lance. In the end, Beth stuck as “George”, Jess ended up “the rabbit” and I was definitely “the map”. We worked so well together and my most cherished moments on the Coast Ride involved the two of them, hands down. Never underestimate the power of ladies who are strong physically AND emotionally.

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Being part of a ride like this adds to the fitness bank for sure, but for me, it wasn’t about that. It was more about making sure that I was in control of my attitude. It was about the adventure and the process of going from one place to another. I really watched others, and saw how their attitudes effected their experience. Some people seemed to be fighting some demons out there, maybe some ego too, and I’m fine with that 100%. It was just a nice change of pace to be able to watch how others were responding rather than to be all up in my own head. I would love to do this ride again…soon!

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After the Coast Ride I was lucky enough to remain in San Jose at my parents house for another week of training. I had so much fun. I got to meet up with new friends and get in some great training. Lots of highlights during that week, especially the time I got to spend on Mount Hamilton. I absolutely love this climb and could climb it every day. It was really interesting to see how my legs continued to respond day after day. I swear they shouldn’t have had much left in them, but they continued to perform like champions. Whenever I thought they wanted to stop I would just nicely ask them to keep on going, I would remind them what the views looked like, and how calm and peaceful my mind was, and before I knew it, they had an extra gear.

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I had a blast training with my new favorite PRO Jim Lubinski. We did a fun ride where he let me lead on the way out, and then hang onto his wheel for dear life on the way back. Actually I spent a fair amount of time that week hanging onto Jims wheel or shoulder while running. He pushed me that week and I am ever so thankful for his kindness. That bit of kindness from him continues to show up in my fitness and I look at some of the runs I did with Jim and know that they added a layer of confidence that I plan to utilize in a few short weeks.

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Also, I got to be on Jim’s Podcast. It’s called “Jim and the Other Guy.” You can find it on iTunes and it’s a lot of fun. Good information, but in an easy going way. Check it out!

When my week in San Jose ended I headed back home to snowy Colorado with a bright fire burning in both my belly and my metabolism!

It’s times like these that I know I am grabbing this life by the you know what. I’m soaking it in, not making it anything more complicated than going out and playing outside. The data has taken a complete back seat, I don’t even know where my heart rate strap ran off to, and it’s been worth every second.

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PS: Noticed a new cycling kit? I could not have made it through the Coast Ride without my new sponsor. Amrita is a Plant Based Bar that literally fueled me the entire coast ride. Water in my bottles, Amrita in my pockets. I have been living on these bars and am just very fortunate to have found something that hits the spot for days on end, doesn’t have ANY crap in it, and is good for MaNature. Thank you Amrita!

Amrita Website, Amrita Facebook, Amrita Twitter

PPS: for the next week (until 2/21) you can get 15% of Amrita bars with code “Love15″. Visit the Amrita site and pick some up! PLANTS!!!!!

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Posted in Cycling, Triathlon

2012 Kona Ironman Swim Bike

Posted on October 21, 2012 by goSonja| 4 Comments

Race night I slept like the dead. I was tired. Our room didn’t have AC and was rather hot and we were right on the ocean with the waves crashing all night in the windows so I dreamed about swimming in rough waters.

Before the race I was more relaxed than usual. I went through the usual body marking, bike pumping, nutrition downing, portapotty using routine. This year was nice in that Michelle and I were participating in the Korey Stringer Institute study so we got our own loo on race morning. That perk was worth the extra time in data collection.

We found Laura too and she hung with us pre race. I did my typical Kona routine and got a good spot on the wall. We ran into Jen C and that was awesome to have a friendly face there to make eye contact with in those final minutes.

When the guys started drumming, I started dancing. I was definitely more happy than I was nervous, excited to get things started and to get the show on the road.

Into the water we go. I always swim over to the sea wall and wave to my family. It was awesome to see everyone there, especially PICs kids and Annie. I blew some kisses and then swam off to get my spot on the canoe. Check out my awesome TYR goggles that I got to custom design. They are orange, and red, and pink. LOVE!

On the canoe we ran into Grant just like we did last year. I gotta admit, I missed Kendra a bit at that point, but knew I would see her out on the course cheering. Before I knew it we were lining up and the whole “continental drift” was beginning. Every year it’s the same thing. Mike Riley yells at us to stay back, the officials on surfboards yell at us to stay back, and the crowd of 2000 drift forward. Same thing every year.

The cannon didn’t work this year so Mike just yelled GO GO GO GO and off everyone went. Then I felt like the cannon sounded a few seconds later but I could have been imagining things.

Swim swim!!! Here I go. I got out well and actually found clear water in the first 500 Meters or so. Then the bashing began. Next time I am definitely stealing a mens blue cap because I swear the pink cap is a target for bullying.

Let’s just call it like it is, I got brutalized out there. I got booted off the feet I was swimming on, I got run into from both sides, I got decked in the head repeatedly. I just got harassed.

A few times out there I just wanted it to be over, to stop the physical bashing, the stop and go, the speed up and slow down, and the maneuvering that I had to do. But, alas, it’s the way these things go. I’ll keep practicing my swimming so maybe some day I will be amongst less people. I own it completely.

Oh, there was current out there. On the way out it drug us right and the way back it drug us left. In fact when I hit the pier, I actually ran directly into the end of the pier rather than the side of it. Then I had to turn right and swim along the end of the pier before making a left to swim along the pier.

The conditions were no worse than last year, but the water was a bit less clear than last year. I remember trying to relax from a particularly bad bashing and telling myself to look at the fishies and not being able to see them.

I got out and saw the clock and felt fine about it. 1:07, little slower than last year, but not too much worse for wear.

T1 was really quick. The only thing I had in my T1 bag was my sunglasses.

Out onto the bike I felt good. I stuck directly with my nutrition plan and also with my pacing plan from Dirk. I was calculating my time as I went along and felt solid with how I was feeling.

There was a lot of drafting, and a good amount of red cards being given out. This was cool to watch in action. As I have said before I try very very very hard to remain legal at all times. I will share with you something. At a race of this caliber everyone is fit, and everyone wants to have their best day. Most people in Kona have a race plan, and it usually involves some parameters on power or heart rate or effort or whatnot. Riding legal will often cause you to impact your ideal race plan. This is why I think a lot of people don’t think they are drafting and don’t think they deserve their penalty. (PS: I really dig my bike fit, Thank you Scott)

I talked to a woman who was an official and she said that 50% of people who come into the tent with a drafting penalty don’t think they deserved it. So, here’s why. In order to stay legal, you will be forced out of your plan. There will be times that someone passes you and then they slow down. Sometimes they even coast and stretch. To stay legal, you have to drop out of the zone before repassing or you risk a penalty and if the dude is coasting, you may have to break to do so. He will not receive a penalty for coasting, you will get one for drafting. See, it’s a game and sometimes it requires your heart rate or watts or whatever to go WAY below your plan. Just play the game and you won’t get a red slash through your fancy dandy bike number.

The flip side happens too. I had 3 situations, and you can see them on my power file where I passed the person at the back of a group and thus committed to passing the whole group. My heart rate went to 170. My watts were 230, but that was what I had to do to remain legal. It was on me to do so. Was it part of my optimal plan, not at all.

So, these things happened, I watched a lot of drafting, I watched people stay legal, I watched people try, I watched people get penalties, and all along I rode the race I needed to ride. It was a beautiful day out there, although, there were white caps on the water which is really bothersome to see when you are racing, because you know your day will become very hard at some point.

The wind up to Hawi was in your face. But it wasn’t cross like 2 years ago, so I was fine with it. I’ll take the wind in my face any day. Coming down was fun and fast, and then the 2 mile climb from Kawaihae to the turn onto the Queen K gave us a real taste of what we were in for. HEADWIND.

I have riden this section quite a few times and it was the biggest head wind I have experienced. It’s always a head wind, but usually I can cruise in the 19-20mph at race intensity. This year I was at 17mph for 2 hours. Boo. A lot of people just gave up on remaining legal through this section, the drafting advantage on a steep headwind like this is big, and the officials are extinct at this point.

I passed Michelle in here and she looked really good. I mean we were both in the headwind so we were working hard, but all signs looked good to me. There was an official with me at that point and I know he stuck with Michelle for about 5 minutes. Because we were in the same kit I think he thought we might work together, but he had nothing to hand out, because we don’t.

Into T2 I was really excited. I felt quite good coming off the bike and my tummy felt good. I wasn’t tired of my nutrition and all systems felt a go. Into T2 I saw Hailey! It’s not the first time this year we have been in T2 together. That was awesome to see a familiar kit.

On with the Newtons and the hat and I was off to run a marathon. I was pretty jazzed to get into the meat and potatoes of the day. I felt like I was strong and that it was go time.

Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Race Report, Swimming, Travel, Triathlon

You’re Good

Posted on October 5, 2012 by goSonja| 6 Comments

Ahhhh!! We are 9 days out now! Not nervous, nope, really, not nervous (total lie). I guess it’s more excitement and nervous energy. Every session I have on the training schedule seems to be hard and fast and short. I see high watts and fast paces with lower than expected heart rates every day and it gets me all jazzed up. I am finding myself with more and more energy each day this week. Nervous energy is starting too. All those Kona tweets and FB posts get my heart pumping.

The race wheels are on the bike! Race Day Wheels actually shipped them to my house on Monday so I get to ride with them for 2 weeks. Love those guys, they are great. I have used their services for all my Kona races, and CDA this year as well. The product (wheels) that they deliver is always consistent. The tires come brand new and you don’t feel like you are riding anything used, more like brand new.

I have an 808 with a Power Tap on the rear, and a 303 on the front this year. Last 2 years I have ridden a 404 on the front in Kona. But we have had two pretty good wind years, so I’m assuming that this year will be a doozy.

Ryan at Kompetitive Edge got her all gussied up and ready to go. She is shifting nicely (there’s still 9 days for me to mess that up) and she’s all clean (again…9 days, who knows what will happen).

Swimming! Oh my gosh. I haven’t really talked about Coach Nick, so I thought this would be a great time to do so. A little over 3 months ago Troy and I started working with coach Nick for swimming (Nick Levine with Open Water Coaching). He’s the kids swim coach at our club and we have seen him on the pool deck almost every day for the past few years. He’s a 2X channel swimmer and he knows open water swimming really well. He’s also really chill and relaxed and it’s nice for Type A athletes to have someone like that in their lives!

So on the 4th of July Troy and I did a 1500 time trial with Nick where Troy almost beat me, but I still prevailed. Whew. Then Troy got faster than me and went 1:05 in Wisconsin. I was proud. Then Troy had an off season and I kept swimming, so now I’m back to being faster. All along Nick will take the guidelines that Dirk gives me in my schedule, and he will write the actual swim workouts. Before Nick I just made things up and it was okay but hard to hold myself accountable all the time. So Nick writes workouts with the goal of getting me faster. This I like!

Last week I struggled in the pool big time. I actually quit 2 of my workouts. I had trouble hitting my intervals and I got frustrated and I got out. I was fine when I was swimming with others, but on my own, just me and the black line, I was like “it’s so cold, I’m so slow, poo” and would get out. I called Nick on Sunday and lamented. He told me not to swim Monday and to meet him at the pool Tuesday.

I get there Tuesday, 1500TT. No warm up, no cool down, just get in and do 1500 TT. Suddenly I’m nervous! Really nervous. I get in, he tells me to go whenever I want. I’m stalling and he yells “GO”. It was just like the cannon at Kona, unexpected, and the first 100 was spent yelling “swim swim swim” in my own ears.

Then I settled in for the long haul. I found with the swim the same thing I am finding with my biking and running right now. I can’t get myself to a total exhaustion place. I wasn’t panting or on the verge of puking. It seems that my top end is this strong, steady, and under control place. It’s not wild, or frantic, or at risk of an epic kaboom. But it’s efficient, and positive, and relentless.

I get to the wall and Nick says, “you swam really well”. I was like “Oh good”. He said, if you swim like that for 2.4 you can break 1:00 in Kona. I yell at him “There is no way I can hold that for 2.4, and if I did I wouldn’t bike or run very well afterwards”. We laughed. Then he said “Do you want to know your time?”. I said “yes please” and he said “22:37″.

I just stared at him blankly. I said “you mean 23:37″, he said, “No, 22:37″. I was in shock. I’ve only dreamed of holding 1:30 pace in the meter pool which yields 22:30. I thought, maybe sometime in my life I can hold 1:30 pace and swim a 22:30. It was a life goal, a life dream more like. I just took 50 seconds off my 1500TT in 3 months.

Then he looked at me, totally dead pan and said:

“Calm down Sonja, you are going to be just fine”.

No shit! Wow! Thank you Nick!

I’m still smiling over that swim. I was talking to my mom yesterday and I was telling her, I’ve have had so many successes in training the last few weeks I am probably going to walk the whole marathon in Kona and have an epic blow up. It’s just been so good lately. She got mad at me for that, but this is a woman who refused to wear her seatbelt while going through radiation for cancer treatment despite being driven around by her teenage daughter (=bad driver). She said, why do I have to wear my seatbelt, I have cancer. So, we allow each other a bit of sarcasm. Mom is honestly the only person on this earth I am sarcastic with.

So, hate to say it, love to say it, whatever….the stars are aligning. What this means for race day is completely up to me. But at least I can say I flew to Kona in the best shape of my life. Whether I have the wits, and smarts to turn that into performance on race day has yet to be determined, but man, all I can say is that this journey is freaking crazy. It’s the roller coaster of all roller coasters!

Posted in Cycling, Swimming, Triathlon

Radtasticness on a Bike

Posted on August 1, 2012 by goSonja| 11 Comments

Last week was an adventure. For some reason this year seems to be progressing in much more of a hiccup fashion. Traction, derailed, traction….derailed. Repeat. Hiccup! Luckily last Thursday and Friday were as flawless of a two days as I’ve ever had. My body was strong like bull, the company was some of the best I’ve ever had, and we worked together better than any group I’ve ever been with. Poor Jeremy was our lone dude, but I think even he would admit that it was A-OK.

Okay! So what did we do that was so radtastic? On Thursday we met up with Jocelyn and Jeremy in Vail at the parking garage at 8:30am. The plan was to ride our bikes to Aspen going through Copper, Leadville, Twin Lakes, and up and over Independence Pass (103 miles). Then we had reserved a hotel room in Aspen and we had shipped a box with spare clothes and flip flops so that on Friday we could ride back to Vail via Glenwood Springs and the famous Glenwood Canyon bike path (108 miles). That was the plan, and honestly, I’m delighted with how smoothly the whole trip went.

Here we are looking fresh as daisies. I must admit, when you are heading out for 2 days, and 211 miles with just your bikes and your friends, the start of the trip is the most stressful. It’s easy to think about what might happen, what might go wrong. Once you get knee deep into it all, you realize that you can handle what’s dished out to you, it’s just taking things one pedal stroke at a time.

Riding up Vail pass from Vail never gets old. It’s amazing scenery and I don’t know how many times I thanked whoever built that bike path. It’s such a gem…a classic really. The Pro Cycling Tour did a TT up Vail pass last year so there were all sorts of spray painted names on the path that we yelled out and laughed about. We were positively giddy.

At the top of Vail pass we cajoled some nice girl into taking our photos. She look like 20, it was hilarious. Already, I could tell our little gaggle of girls was going to mesh so well. Jeremy was long gone off the front, which left the three of us to 200 miles of girl talk!

Fremont pass was on a bit of a busier freeway but the shoulder was nice and wide for the most past. The climbing is steady and consistent, one of those climbs that you just have to make your way up in your own time. Luckily all three of us are darn near the same ability so it made for fun times. It was such a treat to be surrounded with supportive women who love what they do on a daily basis. They inspire me, and make me feel stronger just being in their presence.

For some reason, as nick names seem to go, every time I thought about Jocelyn on this trip I would call her “DJ Jazzy Jocelyn.” Who knows why my brain came up with this, but in my mind, she will now be DJ jazzy J for some time. PIC…well, she’s PIC. Man was I happy to have her on this trip. Having PIC with me makes me feel like we can do anything, go anywhere, conquer any problem. Without her, I might just sit down and cry during adversity, but with her, we just laugh, and deal with it. Luckily, this trip didn’t require either.

Leadville is a quirky little town. For some reason I always feel a little uneasy being here, like something just isn’t right. We filled up our bottles, bought candy, and headed out of town.

Downtown Leadville is old-timey, and cute. But in a weird way. Get me outa here…

After Leadville we had this 15 mile section to Twin Lakes that Jen had told me there was often a head wind. I was a little apprehensive about this section because I had never been on the road (there aren’t a lot of roads in Colorado I haven’t driven at one time or another) and we needed to make a turn to Twin Lakes (there is always the chance I will miss something). Despite my slight nerves, we were treated to an extreme tailwind, it literally took us 25 minutes to go 15 miles on that road. AND, the turn was super obvious. Before we knew it we were at Twin Lakes.

We pulled into the Twin Lakes general store and Jeremy was sitting there waiting for us. This was awesome. We got to catch up, hear about the dirt detour he happened to take (oops) and refuel. They had jerkey and PIC and I inhaled some of that. PIC was also about to have a roast beef sandwich before we cautioned her. Independence Pass was next up, we didn’t want her puking roast beef, but clearly the girl needed some salt!

BFF Love this girl.

Well, here it was, the pass we had all been secretly dreading the entire ride. Independence pass. We all knew we would be proud when we got to the top but we were all a little scared of the process. We had about 60 miles in our legs and it was time to CLIMB for 23 straight miles.

None of these pictures even do it justice. It’s one of those climbs that is just awe inspiring. There came a point where our little threesome broke up and we all climbed at our own rates. We each had some alone time, and some peace. I treasure times like this in my life. Where I have a task, but within that task my mind can wander and ponder. This year has been more of a fight than years past, but I have learned more this year about myself too. I thought about why I do this sport, why IMs, why Kona, why not just adopt a shopping habit (the mall is air conditioned). At times like this, I realize this is in my blood, it’s what makes my insides smile. It’s where I loose myself and find myself all in a matter of miles. I feel like I belong when I am riding up these hills. Like I am right where I should be.

Major probs to Jocelyn and Jeremy who are from Pittsburgh and yet they took down Independence Pass like mountain goats. It was 23 miles of pure awesome, I can’t wait to get back to it!

At the top we hung out for a bit, chatted, took pictures, and refueled for the 20+ mile descent down into Aspen. We had a headwind on the descent (fine by me) and we girls all stuck together and took things conservatively. Jeremy did the opposite and passed cars and stuff, but we figured that as the sweep crew we could pick him up off the pavement if needed. Boys will be boys!

We rolled into Aspen and quickly found our hotel. 103 miles for the day, about 6.5 hours of ride time, and lots of vertical. Our box had arrived, and even though we had parted with it a mere 2 days prior, we were so excited to see it!!

We all showered, had a leisurely dinner, and then crawled into bed for a night of chatting. You would think we got it all out on the ride, but no, 4 Kona qualified athletes in a hotel room for the night together equals WICKED FUN CHATTER! I slept blissfully that night, trying not to spoon Michelle…mostly because she complained that I didn’t shave my legs.

The next morning we headed out. The hardest part of the day was getting out of Aspen. Where do we go? We had heard that part of the bike path was gravel so we were trying to skip that part which we did. We stopped at the airport when DJ Jazzy J dropped her vest and then we stood there for awhile with our jaws on the ground as we surveyed all the private jets. HOLY PRIVATE JETS BATMAN!

From Aspen all the way to Glenwood Springs (44 miles) there is a wonderful bike path. We rode about 34 miles of it and it rocked the house. It’s downhill and we averaged a pretty good pace even though there wasn’t a lot of power behind the pedals. Jocelyn lead most of the way and I just sat back and took in everything. It was really peaceful, and I was just really happy.

In Glenwood Springs there was Jeremy waiting for us and we all stopped at the quickie mart together to refuel. The miles were starting to add up at this point, but we were all looking forward to the 16 mile Glenwood Canyon, which has a bike path through it and is probably one of the prettiest stretches of path in Colorado.

Entering the Canyon. I love these two shots. PIC is in the first one, I remember being SO excited!

Again, the pictures don’t do it justice, but sufice it to say that our necks hurt after these 16 miles. We just sat up for most of it and enjoyed the scenery. You couldn’t hammer (Jeremy could), we just had to take it all in. Steep cliff like canyon walls, and the colors were awesome.

The Colorado river runs through this canyon and it’s neat to think that the water you see will eventually go through the Grand Canyon. The water was really brown and I’m not sure why. I’m used to it being clearer.

The bike path in itself is an engineering marvel. It snakes through the canyon with the freeway going overhead repeatedly. It was clearly in the master design of the freeway to have this path included. Just such a special place, as you can tell by Michelle’s smile.

Once we were done with the path we had about 40 miles of frontage road until Vail. We looked behind us and low and behold, the “weather” was a-comin’. Jeremy threw out the “we need to average like 25-30mph to keep from getting dumped on.” CHALLENGE! haha! Just kidding. But, again, we were so lucky and we were blessed with a TAILWIND! The whole way back we flew. We had a nice pace line going with Jeremy at the helm. PIC and I were in heaven since we love to ride “man-wheel” (in training…not racing…that’s a no-no). DJ Jazzy J doesn’t like man-wheel as much, but she was strong like bull and fought the whole way home. Nails!

Finally we let the man-wheel go so that the girly-gaggle could focus (and didn’t have to ride at 200 watts up all the hills). Then the skies opened and rained on us. It wasn’t cold, just wet. We stopped and put on the gear and took care of ourselves, and then put our noses down and RODE.

I led most the way to set tempo, and PIC and DJ Jazzy J ended up with mud and grit ALL OVER their faces. This is Michelle trying to get the mud out of her teeth, and J is cracking up. This photo makes me laugh and smile.

Finally on the Vail bike path. We had parked in East vail which meant the longest miles of the entire trip were the last 5 thought Vail where your brain is on an infinite loop of “Are we there yet?” Finally we were there, back home, safe and sound, unscathed, and happy as Jay Birds!

Day 2 was 108 miles, making for a total two day mileage of 211 miles. I’m just so impressed with how well the 4 of us meshed. This trip was flawless, it was fun, we laughed so much and saw some amazing sights. I did something I haven’t done before and now it has me thinking about all these new “two day” rides I could do.

Thank you PIC, and Jeremy, and Jocelyn for agreeing to go on my crazy adventures. You all are top notch and no matter what happens in October, we will always have this week. You are each winners in my eyes, not as just athletes, but as humans, as people, and as friends.

Happy Riding!

Posted in Cycling, Travel, Triathlon

All grown up

Posted on July 24, 2012 by goSonja| 5 Comments

I made her take this picture. It was right after she said to me “Just think, you are never going to see this face again.”

Sounds harsh, but she was right. Her front two teeth have been wiggly for sometime and then all of the sudden one of them got really loose. After she said that to me, I started crying. It had been a long day and I just wasn’t ready for my baby girl, my only baby to take that next step. So I made her pretend that tooth wasn’t about to come out and to let me take one last photo.

She’s a little doll. Especially recently, just so much fun to hang out with. Such a nut too. Here she is with the evil snaggle-tooth. It reminds me of that weird movie with the nanny and the tooth that sticks out. What one was that again? I kept tell Annie “Don’t lose it, I’m not ready” and she would say “Ohhh mom.” Am I that mom now? The one begging for time to stop.

She wiggled and wiggled and spent about 2 hours in the bathroom in front of the mirror admiring her snaggle-tooth. She pulled on it but it wouldn’t come out. At one point she got it all turned around and the sharp part was digging back into her gums and then it got stuck that way. She started screaming “Ouch” and I ran into the bathroom, got a piece of tissue and pulled it out. It was barely hanging on. She looked at me and said “That didn’t even hurt.” It’s true that the forethought of pain is usually worse than the actual pain. Not just with teeth, but in life.

And then I cried, and I cried, and I cried. I just can’t handle the fact that now a big tooth is going to grow in and she’s not going to look like a little girl anymore. Michelle has been preparing me for this and Troy tells me I’m silly, but I just can’t get over it. This tooth has made me want to have another baby more than I have wanted to in the last 6 years. I just lament the fact that I only get to go through this all once. Time please slow down. I beg you.

But it won’t. I’m screwed there.

While the munchkin is rip roaring around summer camp, I’m keeping myself busy with Kona training. I am challenging myself more, I am loving my training and I am doing lots of fun things, especially on “Friday Funday.” This past week PIC, J&J and I went to Glen Havn. Actually, half the J went to Estes and missed the cinnamon rolls, but us ladies are all about sweets and rewards, so we weren’t about to miss them.

We had one of those remarkable days where there was a tailwind going uphill and a headwind coming down. MY FAVORITE! If you are going to have wind, that’s the wind to have. And the cinnamon rolls did not disappoint. We had a good day and the fitness is coming along nicely. I’m so glad to have PIC back on the bike and I’m going to miss J&J when they go back to Pittsburgh, but they said I can come visit. I’ll have to take them up on that.

On the way back to Boulder jacked up on a sugar high I decided that a mid ride swim made a lot of sense. It was amazing to take a dip in the little lake on the Big Thompson river. I would do it again, hands down. Especially since the temps here in Colorado have been blistering. It’s been perfect Kona training, now if those temps can just last through October…I doubt that!!

This last weekend we said goodbye to the trusty VW. We beat that car to smithereens. Like bad! I’m pretty sure they are going to have to total it. We traded it in for a new one, something I’ve wanted for a long time, a Honda Element. This bad boy can fit both Troy and I’s bikes upright inside it without taking any wheels off, and can still fit Annie in the back seat. It’s awesome and I feel so lucky to be driving it around now. I’m going for 300,000 miles on it! that’s the goal….275,000 to go! I heard this guy on NPR, he hit 3,000,000 miles on his car recently. Insane!

Have a great week, I know mine will be. The end of the work week PIC, J&J and I are going on an epic adventure, and then this next weekend Troy has his first ever triathlon! The HITS “half ironman” in Sterling Colorado. It’s supposed to be like 100, I hope he doesn’t melt. I can’t wait, I’m so excited for him!!!

 

Posted in Cycling, Family

10 years

Posted on July 11, 2012 by goSonja| 3 Comments

Last week Troy and I celebrated the 10 year mark of being married. 10 years! It’s gone by so fast. When I look at the photos I feel like we were so young, but I feel like the same girl that was in those photos. I guess I talk a bit nicer to myself nowadays, and I am a stronger woman, and thus able to be a better partner. I think the years have been kind to our marriage. Sure we have our gripes, but 95% of the time we are happy come home to each other after our days work.

He still looks at me like that every day. And also…I was plumper… hey..it happens.

In the last 10 years we really have been busy making this:

And we have done well. She is a doll and the best work we have done together has been to raise her and show her the world. So many wonderful years to come with this as well.

We decided the new anniversary tradition would be a timed mile in the pool together. Coach Nick counted our laps for us. I am so impressed with Troy, over the last 6 months he has basically caught up to me in swimming. What took me 5.5 years, has taken him 6 months. I get a little sore about this every once in awhile, but alas, I will just have to swim harder. You can see below I swam a 23:31 and he swam a 23:44. dang! Boy did he swim it “wrong” though. I can’t imagine how fast he’s going to be when he learns to pace. I wonder what our 11th anniversary will be…

After the TT in the pool we realized that with all the fire bans there would be no firework shows. It was the first year since our wedding day that we didn’t watch fireworks on the 4th. Therefore I headed out for a late long ride. I don’t know how I’ve never made it up Loveland Pass from Idaho Springs, what a mistake on my part. It’s my new favorite ride and I can’t wait to get back up there. Here are some photos, it’s just gorgeous, and with 4,500 feet of uninterrupted climbing in 47K, it’s no slouch!

I think you can do the entire descent…30ish miles, without pedaling…but you would have to have mad skills to do it. I pedaled…like 30 times…if that!

Well, Troy, we made it 10 years. What can I say that hasn’t been said? We work, we found that other person in the world that makes life fun and rewarding. We are in for the long haul and I’m really lucky to be your wife.

Happy Anniversary!

Posted in Cycling, Family

Ironman CDA 2012 – The Bike

Posted on June 30, 2012 by goSonja| 6 Comments

So I really had nothing to lose in this race, which still didn’t stop me from being scared of losing something (I don’t know what…face maybe). In line with that, I love this interview with Lauren Fleshman, especially the part about understanding that failing doesn’t mean you are a failure. It’s a good one!

Part of why I signed up for CDA was as a dry run for Kona under Dirk. I wanted to see how I felt under Dirks tutelage, how my legs felt after his taper, it was a big experiment of sorts. Also I had executed 5 Ironmans with basically the same race plan and I was excited to try the plan that Dirk had suggested. This meant going quite a bit harder on the bike. It was a risk…a big KABOOM could happen. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have this quote in my little quote book, it says:
Nothing Started,
Nothing Experienced,
Nothing Learned,
Nothing Finished.

I was going for it. I hit that heart rate he suggested and drilled it. But here’s the deal. I could not wipe the biggest smile off my face. I rode though town giving shakas to EVERYONE. Like…EVERYONE. I was smiling, hamming it up, waving, shaka all over the place. Like the complete opposite of normal focused Sonja. It wasn’t that I wasn’t taking things seriously, it was just that I was having SO MUCH FUN.

I encouraged everyone around me, told them good job, talk talk talk. I gave shakas to the volunteers, to the bag pipe players, to the lady dancing zumba on the stage. I smiled, I made eye contact, I had fun. But I also nailed my plan. It was an odd turn of events for me, I had nothing to lose, and I was fearless.

The “happies” did not leave me, they stayed with me the entire bike. CDA has a 15 mile out and back along the lake and then the new course goes out to a highway for a 42 mile out and back. Then you do it all again. The way out is mostly up with 4 distinct climbs. The way back is generally more downwards, with 3 climbs. Of course I was watching my time gaps to Katy B (AKA uber studette swimmer, fastest swim split of the day in 53 minutes, my Team KE possee, and eventual 2nd in our AG and 5th woman overall, PROs included) and PIC (who you all know). At 6 miles in Katie had 16 minutes on me and PIC had 5. I had my work clearly cut out for me, but those two kept me motivated and kept me pushing for higher watts.

Starting into the first big climb I came upon Keith. He’s one of my closest friends (Moab 100 pacer extraordinare, AKA has seen me at my worst) and he said “Great swim Son” when I passed him. He said I was talking before I passed him, talked as I passed him and talked all the way until he couldn’t hear me. Dang I was happy. Every photographer I gave a big smile and a shaka! Totally Jazzercised!

At 35 miles in at the turn around on the highway Katy had 11 minutes on me and PIC had 3:30. I kept the pedal down, legs cranking, and a smile on my face. I had a group of guys go past me and there was a bit of a loose pack dynamic going on with them. I talked to a nice woman and we reminded each other to stay away from them because they were trouble, with a capitol T!

I loved the way back on the freeway. The descents were awesome, you could pedal down most of them and I was flying and smiling and loving the scenery. My QR CD0.1 was feeling great under me and all I could think was “awesome.” My legs felt really really good, and strong, and ready to shred. I was just cranking and happy to boot. I can not say enough wonderful things about my bike. It’s amazing how much of a difference a comfortable and well fit bike can do for your races.

Coming back through town was total hilarity, I hit the 1/2 way point at 2:42 and was a little shocked. Another one of those would make for an awesome bike split! I came upon Jocelyn who would eventually win our AG and take 4th woman overall (PROs included). I went through town waving, smiling, giving shakas, so freaking happy and jazzed to BE ALIVE. People were yelling my name, I was doing fist pumps. It was rather funny looking back. Jocelyn pulled up next to me and said “You know everyone here.” Actually I had only seen a few I knew, I was just loving up the crowd. I hadn’t seen Troy which worried me. I came up with a few crazy stories in my head, mostly involving Tony (AKA big brotha Beeson) not making it out of the swim (he was fine). I found out later everyone was worried because they couldn’t find me…all because of my green vest (green dress vest…that’s cruel).

We got out of town, onto lap #2. I felt like I was sitting really good, I was with Jocelyn, we were making our way up to the front of the race, I was ready to get off the bike with uber runner Katy B and Jocelyn and to go for broke. I told Jocelyn, “Now is where we get to work.” Lap 2 is where the poo hits the fan usually, where you have to dig deep on the bike because it’s not as easy any more. If only I could wipe this huge smile off my face and get serious here!

Then I started to feel like my back tire was squishy squashy. Humm? I kinda bounced on my seat to see if I could feel the rim hit the pavement and I did. Then I tried to look at it, but that’s always tough. I thought about asking Jocelyn because she was right there, but I didn’t want to interrupt her race with my issues. As we went up an incline I watched her pedal away and I was pedaling really hard. I knew I had a flat.

I pulled over next to a really nice family sitting in lawn chairs. They all hopped up to help and I said “No, I don’t want to get DQed.” Sure enough, I was flat but it was a slow leak and just squishy down to the rim but not totally flat. I also was on a set of rented wheels so that I could have power data.

The story of the flat is kinda long, but I’ll make it short. The valve extender kept me from deflating the tube all the way, so I’m trying to change the tube when the tube is rather inflated (to maybe 30-50psi). It was challenging and there was blood involved, and it slowed me down badly. My spare tubes and CO2 were WELL taped to my bike via electrical tape, this slowed me down badly too. I got it done! It’s all goooood! I think I said that like ten times to the family in the lawn chairs “It’s ALLL GOOOODDD!” I was fearless changing that flat, I knew I could do it, I knew I was quite capable, if only I could get the darn tube out.

Right when I finished inflating it with my CO2, the flat changing moto pulled up. He said to me “If you give me 1 minute I will check your work and pump your tire to 120psi”. I thought about it and said yes…what’s 1 more minute? So he did that, pumped it up, and put my tire back on. I almost asked to do that myself, because, really, I did change it all on my own, and I was proud of that.

Ten thank you’s and a few more “It’s all good”s and lots of smiles later, I was back on the road. A guy on a mountain bike rode up and said “Your looking good, Dirk is watching” or something like that, and I said “Well then tell him I just flatted” but I said it with a big smile and even maybe another “It’s all good” and probably a shaka or two….

I got right back to work straight away. It was time to drop the hammer. I saw Katy at the EXACT same place I saw her first loop. That was funny, back to 16 minutes back, doh! I saw Michelle was now 12:30 up on me. I thought I lost about 8 minutes to the flat. Turns out looking at the Garmin it was 11 minutes almost exactly. I won’t be hired on any sort of tire changing pit crews any time soon!! Hahahah!

(PS Since then I have come up with about 10 things I should have done differently, but I’m sticking to the fact that I problem solved the best I could in the moment…lessons learned. AND, not a single ounce of frustration the whole time, thinking about this a few days later makes me weepy. Because positivity is not positivity unless it remains in a difficult situation)

I got back to the plan, smiles abounded, even the next time we went through town. Shakas and fist pumps, smiles, and grins. Back to my favorite section of the course. I really had fun those last 40 miles. I felt better at mile 80 than I ever have. Mile 90 I was like “It’s on”. Mile 100 I was cheering for everyone around me going up the last climb, telling them “This is it, let’s do this, pedal hard boys, be tough, be fearless.” Also in the last 20 miles I passed most of the guys in that original pack, they were all solo now, fighting it out on their own. I even gave them “Good Job”s. I know, cheering for drafters…I don’t even who know I am?

Back into town, out of my shoes, hand off the bike, goodbye Blackjack, and run into transition with a big fatty stupid grin all over my face. Bike Split of 5:44, and I’m darn proud of that one. It was a quick T2 for me. Socks, shoes, wrist band, watch band, new race belt with EFS liquid shot in it. Off I went. I hadn’t seen Troy the whole bike, and yet there he was at the exit of T2 cheering. I apparently looked like poo, but BOY was I happy, although the photos don’t do it justice. I yelled to him “I flatted” and he yelled “I know.” Nothing more to say there. Off I went, putting on my new PxRx hat (AKA HAPPY HAT) and getting situated and ready to run.

Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Quintana Roo, Race Report, Triathlon

2012 NOLA 67.3

Posted on April 24, 2012 by goSonja| 20 Comments

DUDE!!!! I don’t even know how I’m going to blog about this weekend. I think it was the most fun I have ever had at a race weekend. NOLA is freaking awesome, so much fun fun fun fun, I can’t even explain it. So many amazing stars aligned this weekend and it was more than just the swimming biking and running.

Mama Willis (my maiden name) came with Michelle and I on this trip, we shall call her mama PIC. We also enveloped M into the fold, she’s officially PIC 3 or Trouble 3 or my favorite…Dr.PIC.

I’ll admit, I got a long pep talk from the Dirkinator before the race and it rocked so hard core. I got off the phone feeling like a beast and I felt so ready to put it all out there. Also, since I chopped off my hair, my alter ego has come out. It’s mostly a Justin Bieber, 16 year old, teenager sort of attitude. I’m not sure Michelle is so fond of it, especially after a tweet from Mac that said “It looks like Michelle is dating a rapper” (best tweet ever).

I was really not taking things very seriously before this race, which is good for me, it’s definitely not my norm. Ususally I am sorta Type A planner, organizer Sonja, but this trip I was 16 year old, hat on backwards, whatevsssss, Sonja. The awesome part was that because my mom was there, there was no fallout from my lack of organization. I feel like I can be a kid when my mom is around, she is seriously the most nurturing woman you will every meet.

Friday morning and we woke up and put our bikes together caught a cab to get beignets. They were everything I always hoped them to be. Sugary, fried, dense, totally wonderful. I think I had 4, maybe 5 of them.

We visited the French Market after that and picked up souvineers for the kiddos. PIC and I also found shirts that we had to buy immediately. This PIC thing has really gotten out of hand. WAY out of hand. But that sort of thing is allowed in NOLA, believe me here! Everything is way out of hand, and I love it!

Packet pick up, race meeting (swim canceled and replaced with a 2 mile run), bikes put together, nap nap nap, eat eat eat, bikes dropped off at transition. It was so windy things were blowing around like crazy. This was one of my favorite transitions due to this awesome and photogenic lighthouse in the middle of it. It was a good marker to run to.

We were settling into bed and getting those last minute things taken care of when PIC realized that her heart rate strap didn’t seem to make it into her bag. Crapitty Crap Crap. I could tell she didn’t want to inconvenience anyone because heading out at 9pm to procure a heart rate strap in one of the most dangerous cities in America was not her idea of a fun time. No worries!! We all hopped in the car and went on a heart rate monitor hunt in our jammies. Luckily we were successful!

Race morning was cold, and windy, and cold, and I had to poo. We got that taken care of and then I was in a great mood. Michelle and I ran the 2 mile run course as our warm up and I think we were the only ones. I’m glad we did recognizance on it, it was good to see it. It was quite windy on one section and I’m glad I wasn’t surprised.

The really cool thing about the DU format was actually seeing all the Pros take off together in one group running. You never see that, and it was really cool. Hard to explain but it got me super hyped up. I got to see the PRO men come in and go out on the bike, and the women as well. I tried to cheer for every one that I knew. I saw Michelle go out on the run and she was right with Dr.PIC. With the AGers they were letting us off two at a time in a time trial format. So you started with a buddy.

When I got in line for my turn I found Hailey. I knew going into this race that Hailey and Libby would be the ladies to watch. Libby is coached by Dirk and is insanely strong. Hailey beat me in Kona by several minutes. See, the 30-34 women have this special bond. Twitter/blogging has really helped it, but we have this really cool thing going on. We are fierce competitors on the race course, but afterwards we follow each others blogs, we train with each other when we are in each others towns, and we have deep respect for each other. That’s why it was extra extra special when Sarah P. won the PRO race at NOLA, because she’s one of us, she raced 30-34 last year and we are really supportive of the ladies that were 30-34 and are now PRO. Might I mention we are so so glad they turned pro…

With the TT start Hailey and I just slipped in the front. We were the first two to go off in the AG, and we went off together. It was a bad idea on our part. We should have gone last, but we ended up racing off the front the whole day and then wondering if anyone snuck in there.

How do you run 2 miles before you know you have to bike 52 (course shortened due to storm debris) and run another 13? I don’t know, you just run your ass off. There’s no great way to put it other than…RUN!!!

Hailey and I came into T1 about :20 seconds apart. I was leaving as she was entering. I got on the bike and took off. Hailey caught me 10-15 minutes in and I just consider her a stronger rider than me. When she went by, a switch flipped in me. Usually I am very into “race your race” “don’t let others dictate your pace” “etc etc etc” but a switch flipped and I thought about the fact that this was a duathalon, and that none of it really mattered and I could take some risks. So I went with Hailey. I sat about 5-10 bike lengths back, and when I say “sat” what I mans is…”I biked so insanely hard I thought I was doing an olympic distance race”. But I figured, why not!? Go for broke. Hailey had me against the ropes for the better part of an hour before I got comfortable in the pain. The good thing was that my legs were 100% ready to go, and while they hurt, they also didn’t want to let up either.

If Hailey lost her focus and I saw my heart rate go down, I would pass her, and try to set a harder tempo until she passed me back with an even harder tempo where I would have to fight to hang on. Also, having never ridden like this I was concerned with the drafting. I wanted to make sure I was riding 100% legal because I usually spend most races continually passing people, not sitting behind. I was actually really stoked to be passed 4 times by course marshals and each time they had nothing to say about my position. I was like “Sweet, you are doing this right”.

Hailey set a hard tempo all the way back to T2, and we came into T2 together. Like literally we ran across the timing mat side by side. I could feel both of our competitive juices flowing. We had the fastest female T1+T2 of the day…pros included. We were racing!

Out on the run, we ran shoulder to shoulder for some time. The course was challenging with some causeway type hills, several on each loop. There were two turn arounds per loop and one roundy-round…you know, like in Europe. The “hot corner” was essentially the “hot circle”. I found a way to somehow slowly drift in front of Hailey, she was fierce, and tough, and it was such a highlight to race her neck and neck.

I made my way through the first lap getting passed by all sorts of PRO women, and age group men. I tried to go with all of them. I heard the announcer saying that Sarah P was winning and then I saw her race by on the other side of the road with the 1st place female lead biker. I was so jazzed and inspired! I saw Beth Shutt out there too, she looked so strong and solid, I was happy to see her in her element. My mom was all over the course and it was so great to have her there cheering, and cowbelling. The second loop I started looking for Michelle at the out and backs. I saw her once and she wasn’t too far ahead, but she wasn’t coming back to me very quickly either. She ended up running 2 minutes slower than her open 1/2 marathon PR that she set 3 weeks ago. PICs running is soooo BACK!

In the final mile I saw her in front of me and I picked it up. I wanted to run in with her. But with every step I realized I wasn’t catching her. I tried harder and harder to pick it up. My legs were beat, I tried to pump my arms faster and faster, and I made a small gain on her. As we were probably 100 feet before the finish shoot, I meekly yelled “Ford” and SHE PICKED IT UP. I was hoping for some mercy! I picked it up as hard as I could and coming into the chute we were side by side. I asked if she wanted to hold hands, and she said yea, and that’s how we crossed. What are the odds??? Time trial start, and yet we found each other in the finish chute. I will add that she was 3rd in her AG by 2 seconds…I’m going to go ahead and take credit for that one (just kidding Ford, that was all you honey).

I was really happy with my race. I didn’t know the result. I didn’t know if someone starting behind me had gone faster, but without knowing any of that I was happy. I RACED in the truest sense of the word. I took chances and I gained confidence and I surprised myself with those risks. I have more work to do, it’s April, but I learned that I can go a harder and still survive. I was really happy. I also had a lot of fun. Sure it hurt super bad, but it was really fun too!

Syd, PIC, Dr.PIC, me, Hailey

Mark, Brandon, PIC1, PIC2 = KE CREW!

My racing yielded an Age Group win and also and overall Amateur win. That was icing on the cake really. Or powdered sugar on the beignet! Mmmmm beignets! Oh, and my Kompetitive Edge teammate Mark Hillers, he won the amateur mens title. KE was in full force!

run: 13:29, bike: 2:18, run: 1:33, overall 4:07

Womens 30-34 podium, and the only girls that posed with their arms around each other. Mad respect for each of these ladies, Jocelyn, Libby, and Hailey.

That night we went out and CELEBRATED! We had a twitter/Womens 30-34 REUNION with lots of friends that involved food, drinks, jazz, Gelato, and awesome conversation with great people. I think there were like 13 of us, and we ate like champions! It was such a treat to celebrate Sarah Ps win that evening, so happy for her! After ice cream it was time for Bourbon street. Oh my lanta. There are no words. What happens in NOLA stays in NOLA, but here are a few photos….a la Hangover style!

Dr.PIC, SarahP, Hailey, Stephanie

gelato!!!

Hand Grenade!!

 

 

First off thank you MOM! Not every mom will hold your drink while you….what happens in NOLA stays in NOLA….

Thank you to my sponsors Kompetitive Edge, Punk Rock Racing, First Endurance, Quintana Roo, who are all probably a bit disappointed with some of those last photos!! Also, thank you Troy and Annie for being you… love you both!

Posted in 1/2 Marathon, Cycling, Duathlon, Family, Quintana Roo, Running, Travel, Triathlon

Odds and Ends

Posted on April 10, 2012 by goSonja| 8 Comments

I don’t have any clear and concise things to tell you all, but there are a lot of odds and ends I wanted to share.

I got a splinter the day before Galveston. It was in the tip of my right index finger. I couldn’t type on my phone with that finger. I almost died. Clint and Clints dad looked for the splinter and poked around with needles and such, both determining there was no splinter. 5 days later, I got it out. Amazing how much a tiny fleck of wood can rock your world.

I met Biju Thomas and Allen Lim. I found out through twitter that they were going to be at an event less than a mile from my house! I had a ride to do so I threw my Feed Zone Cookbook up my jersey, rode out to meet PIC and we went and met the guys. So awesome!!! I got to talk to Biju about the recipes I have made and get a few tips on the one that flopped for me. We talked to Allen about the secret drink mix, Skratch Labs, how he developed it, and how he means for it to be mixed. These dudes are pretty freakin’ awesome and I’m stoked I got to meet them and pick their brains.

Biju, Michelle, Me, Allen

They even signed my book for me, then I rode around with it the rest of the day up my jersey…not an easy feat.

The funny thing about it all was when I started cooking from the book and tweeting pictures of the food I was making I said to someone…was it Beth, or PIC?? I said…”Mark my words, I will meet these guys” I just knew I would. I’m sure it’s only the first time. Oh, and if you ride in Boulder, you have to swing by the corner of Broadway and 36 on the weekends, because Allen is usually out there with his rice cakes.

This last weekend my athlete Katie was in town visiting and we had some fun rides. On Friday we went to Ward with a fun little group. The descent down through Raymond to Lyons never gets old, but the howling wind from Lyons back to Boulder got a little old! It was one of the top 5 windiest days I’ve experienced out there, but at least it was warm wind!

Then on Saturday Katie got to ride again, but I drove the car providing SAG support this time, Troy rode as well. I have a whole new appreciation for all the times he has driven support for me, it’s boring! I spent some good time with Annie laying on the roof of the car looking at the clouds, that was fun!

At the top of Highgrade I had to take a picture of these guys. There were so many jokes that I wanted to make here, something about writing your phone number on your ass…dating advise…that sort of thing. But then I started wondering why on earth these guys were painted and I put it together. We just had a really bad fire near here with 900 homes evacuated, 27 homes burned, and 3 people died. So when you ride up Highgrade there are all these signs saying “Thank you Firefighters for saving our home.” I realized these animals were probably quickly evacuated in the fire and they just spray painted numbers on them so they could track who they belonged to. Such a hot and dry spring this year, everyone who lives in the mountains is already worried.

On the way down from Highgrade I saw a sign for eggs. EGGS!!! Like farm fresh, happy chicken eggs! Yes Please! I bought three dozen and will be bringing a backpack every time I ride Highgrade from now on. Fresh eggs…so happy!

Then, since I had all these wonderful fresh eggs I had to make the Frittata from the Feed Zone Cookbook. It turned out really well. I made it in my cast iron skillet, super yummy! It has a red pepper sauce on it that was really easy to make, just some EVOO, roasted red peppers (the ones in the jar) salt and lemon juice in the blender….whirl…and done! Nom!

I had the strangest ride yesterday. I am definitely still recovering from Galveston so every ride feels like a threat to my ego! Haha! Michelle dropped my ass (not the Donkey kind…but oddly on the same climb that the Donkey lives) last week. I always think I should recover quicker than I actually do. The wounds heal, and the legs aren’t sore, but there is always still the hidden fatigue, the kind you can’t see until your really strong training partner drops the hammer and you are left with choices…ride all out to keep up, or get dropped. Off the back I went, to wallow in self pity as we all do when we get dropped.

So yesterday, still nursing my legs and my ego I was out riding some hills when I passed a turkey on the road. Man, you can imagine how disapointed I was when I couldn’t get my phone out quickly enough to take picture of a turkey on my wheel. So sad I missed that one.

BUT THEN, I’m climbing up and I get passed by a girl like I’m standing still. That’s cool, I’m cool with that, you can’t stress when others pass you, especially if you don’t know them, heck, they could be Chrissie Wellington. At least you can convince yourself of that. But, here’s the deal…she’s wearing a boot. YES A BOOT. You can bet that I was pulling out the phone, and riding my tail off to get a picture of this. I don’t get passed by a girl on her bike in a boot without photo evidence. OFFICIAL BAMF!

Wait…here it is a little closer….

So, let’s just assume that my my ego was dealt the final blow on that one. I am reminded daily in this sport that if you take yourself too seriously, you will be humbled beyond belief. Just look around. You may pass a turkey…but then a girl in a boot will pass you back.

Lastly, spring has officially sprung here in Colorado. The pollen count is 5X higher than last year due to the early spring and my allergies have been worse this year than in the last 10 years. I’m not a fan of taking anything but I had to break down and take some medicine. We did have one random snowstorm and I got this shot on my phone. That tree is in full bloom, with snow all over it, I thought it was pretty.

Well, folks, that’s all I’ve got for now! 2 more weeks until NOLA 70.3. 2 more weeks of finding my legs again!

Oh, and Kompetitive Edge is doing a Newton clinic this weekend on the 14th. I’ll be there for sure, sounds so fun! Come out if you are in the area and have fun with us (click to enlarge)!

Posted in climbing, Cooking, Cycling, Triathlon