San Jose, CA to Ely, NV

Bay Area to the far end of Nevada…575 miles, about 9 hours of driving, one gas stop and several dog walk/sightseeting stops!

Donner Pass

Nevada Desert

Nevada Mountains!

Rain/Thunder/Lightning

Happy to be in the hotel for the night!

Happy Trails

Saturday we celebrated my the end of my days in San Jose with friends and family.

Stanley was just helping her clean that food off her face

With my dad 

With the crew from my old job

Dog residents and visitors

BFF!

And with that…there was little left to do but recover from the party, do my last big workout for Nationals, and load the car.  On Monday, the move to Boulder began!

Down To The Wire

Our time living in California is rapidly coming to a close!  While last week was frantic and crazy…this week has moved at a slightly more relaxed pace.  A few tasks to complete each day but otherwise time to just enjoy.

These showed up out front of my house last Friday.  Jeff and I had 70% of the boxes and furniture loaded by Friday evening and 95% done before noon on Saturday.  We are nothing if not efficient; I hope the same can be said on the other end with unloading!


The ReloCubes now fully loaded and locked up and waiting for UPack to pick them up and drive them off to Colorado.  (SUCH a better choice than PODS, in so many ways!)  In the meantime I'm living out of a suitcase with just a few dog supplies, important paperwork and of course swim-bike-run gear traveling with me.  See you in a week, all my material possessions!

Stanley wants to know where his afternoon nap bed went. And why no one will come in the room and nap with him.  That's about the extent of the concern the dogs are showing about this whole thing.


Last night was our last agility class at Fortis - we've trained with Tania for 10.5 years! With the news that USDAA Nationals will be in Morgan Hill in fall 2014…we will definitely be back to visit :)


Of course there was cake!  And it was spectacular.

At this point all that remains are fun events like visiting my former co-workers at their summer picnic and throwing one hell of a goodbye party.  Monday morning, the drive to Boulder begins!

Dog Days of Summer

Lest anyone think the dogs aren't experiencing fun and excitement while I am unemployed, they've been as busy as I have!

A few weeks ago we met up with our best beardie friends for one last trip to the beach.  No beaches in Colorado but I'm hoping the endless hiking in the mountains makes up for it :)

Six beardies and a wannabe

Look out, Jeff!

Beatrix, Maude, Stanley, Max, Beckham, and Loki, with Puck behind

I took Max in to the vet last week to get a little wart on his lip checked out and they did a full exam while he was in anyway…he says "prostate exams suck but the cookies here are good!"

This past week was like the California farewell tour…I had lunch with a different friend every day and drove all over to see people!  On Wednesday, we visited Beth, who has Stanley's sister and mother (who is also Max's half sister) and her new puppy Hazel (who was the little brown girl puppy from our visit in April).  The dogs had a great time running around with their buddies and Hazel and I played chase!

Hazel thought Uncle Max was pretty awesome

From oldest to youngest - Max (11yo), Maude (10yo), Stanley (6yo), Beatrix (6yo) and Hazel (3mo)

Thanks to Beth for insisting on a photo of us all together.  We are going to miss her!!!

June Lake Triathlon Race Report

Forgive me, internet, for I have been a lazy blogger.  I raced on Saturday and have sat around all week (actually it's been totally nuts but anyway) without bothering to write a report.

Last Friday I did my pre-race workouts and then headed out on my 5 hour drive to June Lake, located in the Eastern Sierras on the backside of Yosemite.  On the way out, I chose to drive right through Yosemite on Tioga Pass.

Half Dome

Tuolumne Meadows

Rapid scenery change tells you that you are headed for the Nevada side of the mountains

Eventually, I rolled into June Lake, a small town on the shores of the lake by the same name, at an elevation of about 7600 feet.  This is pretty typical Sierra scenery - cool clear lakes, big mountains and forests.

Saturday's swim course

I chose to camp at the Oh Ridge campground just above transition - it made for an easy race morning roll down the hill.  Rather than deal with taking down a tent before or after the race, I just took all the seats out of my car and slept in the back with my bike.  I slept surprisingly well and could have stayed in bed longer when my alarm went off.  I had some cereal, a banana and beet apple juice, pumped my tires, and headed down to transition.

View from transition on race morning

The 1/2IM was scheduled to start at 7am, the Olympic at 8 and the sprint at 9, so I had a long time to hang out and wait.

Men 1/2IM wave goes off

Last time I swam at altitude was backpacking with Shannon last summer and I had real trouble.  So I was a little concerned but at least it would be a short swim.  I really had no idea how my body would respond to an entire sprint at altitude but just had to hope for the best.

I got in the water about 20 minutes before the sprint start to take my time warming up and immediately felt…totally OK!  I built my effort a bit, then did some short sprints and I had NO problem breathing at all.  Phew, OK, this day might turn out alright after all.

Eventually they kicked us all back out of the water to walk across the timing mat and then I lined up in front.  The sprint started off with a bang as I went hard and tried to just maintain a strong effort.  I could *feel* I was at altitude, just by the way I was breathing really hard, and I tried to stay right on that edge of effort that kept me panting hard but not blacking out.  Our course had really easy sighting and totally clear water and I wish it'd gone longer!!!  I had to swim wide around breaststrokers and walkers in a few spots but it was all good.  Before long, I was headed out the finish arch and running up a hill in deep sand to transition.

Swim - 9:44 including the run to transition (~0.32mi total), 1:44/100y pace, 7th in AG.

Transition was set up as one looooooong row so I had to run past all the 1/2IM and Oly racks, to the far end where I was racked.  Pre-race, I had marveled at the crazy number of people in the sprint racks setting up water basins to wash their feet off…that plus the amount of rack space these people took up had me a bit worried that transition would be a complete clusterfuck and I'd show up with my entire rack collapsed.  Thankfully my bike was still there OK!  After the long run to my spot, I think I'd lost most of the water in my wetsuit which made it stick on one leg and took forever (!) to get off.

T1 - 1:46, 2nd in AG

The bike course was a challenge and a delight.  It felt like I was either on the verge of geared out going downhill or in my smallest gear going uphill the entire time.  If I felt the altitude at all, it was just that I panted hard going uphill but it's a sprint so I was going to be doing that anyway.  As Coach had predicted, my average power was lower but I still maintained a decent speed given all the climbing.

Bike - 28:47 (8 miles), 16.7mph average, 2nd in AG.

Back through transition, again running all the way from one end to the other, hurry hurry hurry.

T2 - 0:47, 1st in AG.

And then it was time for the leg this race is most known for…one serious trail run.  As I saw the athletes wind their way straight up mountainsides on trails, I was quite happy to only be doing the sprint.  Still, we had plenty of steep segments and all on trail made entirely of slippery sand.  I think I was sliding backwards at some point while trying to go uphill.  Once I hit the turnaround on the 2nd out and back, I kicked my effort up knowing I just had to get back downhill to the finish…great fun then leaping downhill in the sand (less so running down the beach in the deep sand to the actual finish line). At least, it would have been fun if I hadn't been pushing all out trying to wreck myself.

Run - 21:04 (2.25 mi), 9:22/mi average (yeah, THAT'S how hilly it was), 2nd in AG.

I kicked off my racing flats and went to sit in the cold lake for a while and cool down - now the temperature felt perfect!  Then I went to check out the post-race food Triathlete magazine rated as "one of the best finish-line spreads you’ll ever enjoy."  I wasn't really hungry but with a long drive home ahead I ate a little of everything and YES it was not your typical post-race fare…it was really good, really healthy food.  I checked the results multiple times before I left, because I was fairly sure there hadn't been that many women ahead of me, but the posted results said I was 4th/28 in AG.  Given how hard I worked myself out there, I could not possibly complain.  I took my bike back up to the campsite and loaded my car, changed into dry clothes while listening to the awards ceremony - nope, definitely didn't call me up there for the 35-39 podium.

Well…as it turned out…*someone* spilled one of those basins full of foot wash water over the timing mat during the race and there was a snafu with the race results.  When the official results were posted on Sunday night…guess who was in 3rd in AG???*

Total Race: 1:02:05, 3rd/19 in AG - only 50 seconds back from 2nd place too!

*Given that the race prizes looked AWESOME (beautiful artwork of the lake), I have a message in to the RD about getting my award.

And then it was time for the 5 hour drive home again…this time I took the Sonora Pass, which is by far my favorite route through the Sierra Nevada.  The scenery is unparalleled!!!

Bonus Report:
On Sunday Jeff and I knocked another item off my CA bucket list with a river rafting trip back up in the mountains.  We chose to do a full South Fork/American River trip with American Whitewater and I can't say enough good things about how great it was!  Even as I had the distinct "privilege" of being the person who got dumped out of the boat in a rapid only 2 minutes into our journey and then pushed UNDER the raft by the current.  It's a good thing I am comfortable in water these days…  But really it was a super trip and a great way to say goodbye one more time to one of my favorite areas!

Bay Team July USDAA Trial

This past weekend we did our last California agility trial, the Bay Team's USDAA trial in Prunedale.  I've decided I officially love USDAA best.  I'm not sure why it's taken me 10 years to figure this out.  But it's cheaper by the run and we get more of them in the day, plus I just like the relaxed atmosphere.  Rumor has it that USDAA Nationals next year will be back near my hometown, in which case I know what kind of trials I'll be signing up for in Colorado trying to qualify…

So here's how our weekend went…

Max
I ran Max only in Veterans Jumpers each day.  Just a little something so he could have a good time and feel like he was participating.

On Saturday he decided he REALLY wanted in the off-course tunnel and he was too darn happy for me to care.

On Sunday, I was glad it was Max (no pressure) I was running on this tricky course and he nailed it for a 2nd place.


Stanley
Stanley had the full dance card for the weekend, as I'd entered him in nearly everything I could (except the Masters Challenge classes, I didn't even know what those were).

First up on Saturday was PI Gamblers.  Always nice to take an energetic dog out on a cold cloudy day and run gamblers first to wear them out a little.  I ended up with more time than I expected in the opening so I had to improvise and add a couple jumps, but happily Stan got the gamble nicely too and 1st place.


After that was PI Snooker - always my favorite class!  We did a 4-6-6 in the opening and got through the entire closing for 1st place.  I might have pulled a glute muscle sprinting around the ring in this one.


I was really happy with his PII Jumpers run, even though he took an off-course tunnel (that was a tough one to pull off from).  I loved how nicely the threadle worked for us - he ended up in 2nd with a faster run than the 1st place dog who ran clean, even after doing the tunnel twice.

I didn't have especially high expectations for Steeplechase/PSJ with 2 A-frames but we actually put a pretty nice run together with just one knocked bar.  Our time plus faults was still low enough to land him in 5th place and make the cutoff for the finals on Sunday.


Finally, we had PI Standard to end the day.  There were good things…like his contacts.  And there were less good things, like the knocked bar that NQed us and the ridiculous amount of time it took to convince Stan to down on the table.  But he hasn't had to do that in a long time, so it will get better with more USDAA trials.



On Sunday, we started the day with Steeplechase/PSJ round 2.  Again, I'm quite pleased with how this run went, especially for the first of the day.  Stan finished in 4th and won me some money (just enough for a lap swim at the local pool LOL)!



After PSJ, we raced over to run PI Pairs with Shannon and Beckham as a beardie duo.  Somehow I didn't get video of this run (perhaps that was intentional) but given how competitive our boys are and how much they each hate sitting by idly while the other runs, they did great.  Despite a few bobbles, we qualified and placed 3rd.

Even though we ended up one point short, I was even prouder of Sunday's snooker run than the day before.  I chose an aggressive opening of 5-7-7 and accomplished it while dodging many off-course obstacles around.  If we hadn't dropped the #6 bar, we'd have qualified and as it was they still placed us in 1st.


By the time PII Jumpers rolled around, we were both clearly a bit fried mentally…Stan qualified with a 2nd place but it wasn't exactly my favorite run of the weekend.


Finally, there was another Standard run and it's NO mistake in this case that I didn't get a video.  Our overall exhaustion caught up with us and it was not especially pretty, in particular the contacts that had been so nice all weekend.

Overall though, I'm just thrilled with how well Stan's trial performance is coming along and excited to get out in Colorado and work him some more!

Relaxing at our house after the trial

Please no more agility today.  But maybe tomorrow.