Boulder-Longmont, CO

We have been in the Boulder and Longmont area for about 2 weeks now preparing for my first Half-Ironman triathlon called the Boulder 70.3 coming up this Sunday! This race will be my longest and biggest race so far. It will include 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of biking, and 13.1 miles of running which adds up to a total of 70.3 miles, hence the name. And over 1,600 people have signed up including Andy Potts who got 9th place in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in 2009 and 2x Ironman World Champion Tim DeBoom. I have been enjoying our stay here near Boulder, it is a big cycling and triathlon community, with the benefits of living and training at altitude (5,430 feet) while living in a city with shops that have everything you need. We have not been able to do a lot of trail exploring because its a bit of a challenge to drive around in a 37 foot long RV since the good trails and our campsite are 20 miles apart. Because the Boulder 70.3 is a road triathlon, I have been doing most of my training here on pavement and so far it has been excellent with lots of choices of roads with plenty of shoulder space or bike lanes.


My dad and me before embarking on my longest bike ride yet, 97 miles. Then I swam 2 and a half miles afterwards, almost full Ironman distances!

I'm swimming in the Longmont Recreational Center pool, its a nice facility!

My dad and I went on a ride up Lefthand Canyon road to hammer out a hill workout. Then on the way back down, we stopped at this creek to take a picture.

Riding back down Lefthand Canyon.

This is our campsite at the state park in Longmont, about 20 miles from Boulder and about 15 miles away from the race venue at the Boulder Reservoir.

This pond is right next to our RV and its called....you guessed it, Pelican Pond.

This is our "ice bath" after a hard track run session on grass. Many people believe that ice baths help speed recovery after hard workouts by constricting the blood vessels and flushing out waste products such as lactic acid from the micro tears in the muscle fibers caused by the workout. Then it is thought to reduce swelling, soreness and pain, so you may go out and work out hard again the next day. But so far, scientific research on this has been inconclusive, same with using hot water to help recovery, or alternating both cold and hot water. I haven't tried the cold and hot water method before, but I have used a hot tub after a long run, and sat in a creek after a race and it seems to me that recovery is the same with both. But in cold water my legs don't feel as boneless as after a soak in a hot tub.

We were lucky to have these trails near to our RV! The trails loop throughout the state park and all connected make up about 5 miles of nice running trails.

We went to check out the Boulder County Fair. The county fair started yesterday and will go for about 5 days. It is the oldest county fair in Colorado and is running for its 141st year in a row. The big windmill ride you see in the picture can hold 4 people on freewheeling hubs on each end and it spins at 63 mph and has a pull of about 2 G's.

Here's one of the animals at the fair! Uh...good or bad hair day?

The fair is not as big as state fairs but it still has plenty of attractions, food booths, rides, horse shows, goat shows, pig (fattened up by being fed beer and cake mix) shows, and other performing acts.

As a little treat for all of our hard work, we indulged in a funnel cake. The apple cinnamon flavor was yummy. Now, all we would need is beer and we'd be as fat as those pigs!
I'll be posting after the race this Sunday. I'm feeling good, ready to jump into the unknown and no matter what, I'll do my best!