run this amazing day

The weekend that my grandmother passed away, team amazing day was hosting training camp in Boulder.  My third and the largest one yet, and Colorado weather made sure to teach me a good lesson about planning.  Unlike camp in February, where we had cracking 65º weather through the last day when we were treated to a few inches of perfect fluffy snow, this time we got hammered with rain, flooding, hail, snow, thunder, wind.  By the end of the weekend, I think the only workout that we had completed as originally on the schedule was the race.   Regardless of all of that, I love hosting training camp; to spend time with athletes in person is priceless.  But also to watch how they work through a challenging weekend, to see how they fare and react as the fatigue piles up, I know, your crotch hurts and you’re tired of eating and then a road was closed so everyone got lost , when it stops being easy and fun and starts been plain old hard work, those are special moments...

I had a lot to talk about, a few weeks ago.  My parents came through town, we went shooting, I hosted the biggest training camp yet, ironman training has been different some more, Hunter is getting big and fat, all the normal things of my life.  And then last Sunday, my grandma passed away, and none of that exactly seems to matter right now. I was up to my neck in camp, crazy weather in Colorado meant that almost every single session on the original schedule got moved or altered due to pouring rain and then snow, I thought I was holding my shit together okay though but I woke up Sunday morning and saw that my mom had called at 3:45am and I knew.  My grandma had been sick for a while, she had Alzheimer's which I know affects a lot of people in a lot of different ways but the disease is disgusting, it steals precious moments from everyone that it touches.  But I don't want to talk about the last two years of her life and how she suffered.  I don't even know...

A few days ago, I went back and re-read some of my posts leading up to Coeur d'Alene back in 2012.  I used to post every weekday (exhausting).  Now I only post race reports and the occasional babbling missive on training and/or puppies with a hefty side of selfie.  I often feel like I have run out of anything even remotely interesting to contribute to the internet; I look up and notice that a month has gone by and I haven't spent any time in this little corner of my existence.  And I've realized that maybe I shouldn't worry so much about saying anything that has any value (ha!) but instead just scribble down the crap I want to remember if I decide to poke around in the time leading up to ironman number six a few years from now.  (It is very lucky that you cannot smell this picture). I want to remember that I bought a new bike this spring and I love it and it has been a colossal pain in the ass.  I've been on my CD.01 for four years, it has tak...

I love this race. It's early, it's windy, it's flat and hot and I always have a good time.  This year I flew down late Friday night instead of Saturday morning as I've done in the past.  It didn't net me any more sleep after flight delays but it did make the pre-race logistics a bit easier to navigate Saturday morning.  I met up with several of my athletes for brunch, and then we made our way through packet pick-up and down to the race site.  For the first time, I used ProBike Express instead of flying with my bike and after this weekend I am officially a convert.  Wes parked at the race site and made life so easy, plus we had a place to meet and hang out all weekend and I didn't have to pick a fight with a single airline representative over how many times they were going to charge me and for what. Tapering for this race had a normal amount of I really don't think I can hold this power/pace for an entire race  workouts, but similar to last year, I fe...