EnduranceCorner Summer Boulder Triathlon Camp

This post is not about a race, but it does involve Triathlon. :)

For a couple of years now, I have always wanted to go to Colorado and do some training, such as ride in the mountains and put in some quality training time with other triathletes. So. . the chance to go to Gordo Byrn's (http://www.endurancecorner.com/) camp came up and after getting the ok from Amy to do it and for the whole family to go, I made our reservations.

The camp took place in Boulder, CO and the surrounding countryside/mountains. The camp is a full 7 days long, but Gordo mentioned that if people could only come for certain days then he would pro-rate it. GREAT! This is exactly what I was looking for. . .so I booked 4 days and on July 7th Amy, Kloden and I loaded up the Minivan and headed west. If you want details of the family portion of the trip then go to our family blog and Amy does a great job of telling about it http://www.amyandjaredblog.blogspot.com/

My tentative schedule for the camp was something like this (with the biggest worry on my part being the Wednsday ride).
Wednesday: Boulder to Wiggins Colorado. 160 mile bike ride
Thursday: Boulder Reservoir Swim and Bobby McGee Run clinic (Afternoon open)
Friday: Mount Evans Climb (56 miles) with 28 miles all up the mountain to 14,100 feet!!
Saturday: Big Day Training: Master's swim in the morning with bike ride after and short run if wanted.

So we roll into town on Tuesday, get unpacked and hop back in the Quest to drive 8 miles to Boulder, so I could see where I was suppose to meet everyone for the ride on Wednesday at 5:45 AM. We were staying in Louisville, CO (which turns out to be Money's #1 place to live in America) since the hotels were cheaper and the drive was still doable each day. We found the launch site (Gordo's house) and then headed to Pearl Street for some shopping and family time.

Wednesday: Well, I arrive at Gordo's at 5:15 AM, get all of my gear ready, get the bike out, pump up the tires, get everything arranged, check my watch, fiddle with something else, worry a bit, check my watch, look around and then about 5:40 AM Gordo comes strolling out of his house. I tell him I am Jared and am here for the ride, "oh. . well they are meeting someplace else, but no worries we can roll-up on them. So we hop in the car and he calls the others and we find them at some intersection that I have no idea where it is or how to get back.. . Gordo says he will take the van back to his house and I can just ride back to there. . .Great! :) That is a worry smile.

Long story short: I meet up with Justin Daerr (http://www.justindaerr.com/index.html), Tony an elite camper, and Todd. Well, I have no idea who is who, but Justin stops the group after 5 miles and gives us all a talking to. Basically saying, this is a 160 mile ride, it is fast and if you are not sure of have self doubts, then you might want to turn around now. :) Of course no one does.

So. . we head out. Below is a shot of where we were and we got so far out that you couldn't even see the mountains. Even though we headed East we were still at 5000 feet or so.




Just got a flat at about mile 25 or so. We did a quick swap and were back on our way. Long long story short, Todd (the guy in the red/white Jersey) turned around at mile marker 50 because he was toast. At mile 56 Justin made the decision that we would all (3 of us at that point) turn around and head back. The head/cross winds were just too much for just 3 of us.
I ended up getting in 123.1 miles with an average of 21.14 mph. It was a good ride, but I was toast by the end. The travel day before and the elevation made my heart rate a little higher than desired, oh and their hills are about 10x as long as the ones here. . not as steep, but longer.

Day 2 (thursday) was the Bobby McGee run clinic. We all met at a local Junior High and did about 2 hours of lecture and running drills. I learned a lot. This was suppose to be a "recovery" day for the camp since Sun-Wed was pretty hard for them.

Picture of: Left to right: Alan, Gordo, me


Bobby McGee in green (below pic) doing his thing. Awesome run coach. . .the thing is he gives a free clinic every Wednsday morning. . hmm. . 9 hour drive. . ..so if I left at 10:00 PM. . . :)



Friday: Friday was the day that I was waiting for. The Mount Evans climb!!!! We were to start in Idaho Spring, CO (7000 feet) and ride up to the top of Mount Evans (14,100 feet) which is basically 28 miles all up"hill". The half way point is echo lake at mile 14, where we would get some more food/liquids and hit the road again.

Here is a picture of the Sportsmobile and everyone getting ready.

Picture of Todd and I at Echo Lake (halfway point). Note that there are still trees here. . but in about 2000 feet, the trees go away. :)
Ken Welsh and I at Echo Lake. Ken is a Triathlete Coach based in Kansas City. http://www.midwesttriathloncoaching.com/index.html



Climbing up Mount Evans (or any mountain for that matter) is completly different than a hill in Kansas City. Keeping the heart rate in check and staying mentally sane is the top priority. You have to tell yourself that you will be climbing for 3 hours, so just take it easy.

With about 5 miles to go and at 12,000 feet you start to really feel the affects of less oxygen. You can see the top (about 8 switchbacks up) but you know you still have a ways to go.. maybe another 45 minutes of climbing. Oh and it gets colder the higher you go and windy. .very windy. The temperature at the top was 40 degrees. You basically stand long enough to get some pics, put the cold weather gear on (jacket, beanie, etc) and head back down. (Notice that there are not any trees to be seen!!). Oh, I saw a family of Mountain Goats, a Mormot, and a Fox on the way up.


My Garmin has never been that high before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bottom right hand corner 14,068 feet
Ride time: 3 hours 25 minutes My heart rate is low though! :)
Picture of my 2008 Specialized Tarmac SL2 at the top . . .she is a good bike. Got me all the way up and down safely.

Picture of Gordo Byrn and myself at the top. You can tell who the rookie is. . the guy with no head protection of jacket on. Once Gordo got to the top he put on his gear and said see you guys at the bottom. We were like, why so fast? You will see, he said. Well, you cold very very fast just standing around . . .and on the way down.



Starbucks at the bottom at Idaho Springs, CO. It was nice to be back in civilization! Funny thing is that every year we go out to Colorado for Snowmobile and usually stop in Idaho Springs and everyone wants to go to Starbucks, but we never do. .. so I made a point to stop there. Hung out there with Laura and Ken till Amy came and got me and Gordo got the other two. It was nice just relaxing after a hard day in the saddle.

Saturday was the last day of the camp, and the only day that I had NO idea what we are doing. When I got there, I asked Gordo what we were doing. . his response in typical Gordo fashion "Swim, Bike, Run". :) Great! That cleared everything up. So the first thing on tap was Master's swim with the Boulder Master's swim club. Great, this shouldn't be too bad. . well 5200 meters later in 1 hours 5 minutes and I was worn out. The best part is that after, Gordo says to me. . "do you know who you were leading in your lane?" Nope, I say ..well, that was Tim DeBoom. I couldn't believe it, I even talked with him for a bit and had no idea. Tim DeBoom is a two time Ironman World Champion (yes the one you see on NBC every fall).

After the swim we hit the bikes. The initial plan was to do a 2-3 hour ride and then run for an hour or so. . well 4.5 hours later of 4 hours of climbing through the mountains and I was done. I was happy though, because I wanted to ride in the mountains and see the countryside from a bike and that is what I did. Also, we went places that were waaaayyy out of the way and I had to take a picture of the name of the town so I would remember.

Riverside, Colorado. Stopped here and waited for Ken so I took some pics of the river and bridge.

We ended up stopping again in about 5 miles at a one man grocery store. Seriously it was about the size of a large cubicle, but it had all the necessities. Pop and candy. :)

All in all it was a great time and a great camp! I learned a lot and can't wait to go back to hit the mountains again.