Spartan Sprint and Super, Las Vegas March 2023

First Spartan of the year at a new location in Las Vegas...after a year hiatus in Nevada I was very happy to see Spartan bring back a race here.   I am a fan of dry desert races!  

Last year saw the accomplishment of a few large athletic goals for me:

100 miles in under 24 hours (23:52) in perfect conditions in March on Antelope Island.  

Ironman Triathlon in 13:10 at Bear Lake in September (Swim 1:40 Bike 6:44 Run 4:24) Still some room for improvement but that may never happen...I really hate swimming!

Marathon in under 4 hours (Finished 3:43 in Des Moines in October)   

This year my friend Tara and I are back in the same age group.  She managed to beat me in both races by what I'd like to think of as a small margin...just a couple of minutes!    The course was fairly flat but rocky and technical.  It was also not marked well...Jim and many other people managed to get a little lost in one section, but he still hung on to get 3rd in his first attempt at racing Age Group!  

For me there is nothing quite as good as racing Spartan and I hope to fit a few more in this year.  Not sure where they will be yet but I'll find some.  Otherwise, I don't have the large goals that I did last year, but that's ok too.   

Instead, I've been busy working on a new business, VIGEO Health.   

Check out my website vigeohealth.net  I offer nutrition consultations, athlete optimization, and peptides.  If you haven't heard of peptides then it's worth checking out what they are and what they may do for you!

Bear Lake Brawl - Ironman Triathlon, 17 Sep 2022

Bear Lake in full sun the day before the race

2022 is my year to attempt a few types of races that I haven't done for a while.  After a very successful 100 mile trail run back in March, I set my sights on doing an Ironman Triathlon.   I haven't done one since my two attempts back in 2008, which went ok, but my nutrition wasn't great and the marathon at the end wasn't painful.  I did more walking than running, let's just say.

What I hadn't remember was how hard it is to balance all the disciplines of triathlon.  And since I really don't enjoy swimming, it's a struggle to make myself do it.  Plus I really hate water...especially open water with those green stringy plants growing up from the bottom and sliming their way along my arms.  Yuk.  Training for the biking was fun, on a nice hot day with a pleasant breeze.   When it's cold and rainy, my bike generally stays in the garage!  To that respect, I picked Bear Lake, because the water didn't look green, its a desert so the sun should have been out, and the course was fairly flat.  

With 2 weeks to go, I fasted for 4 days.   I've always found this helps my body clean house a little.  I lost 5 pounds and kept 3 of them off for the week before the race.  Then I avoided all forms of wheat, pasta, etc until after the race was over.  I wanted my gut to be happy and I know that can be a reason it's not.  

Race day came with an iffy weather forecast.  Definitely not hot and desert-y.    Low of 40s high of 63.  As a I drove through a bit of fog getting to the race, the temperature in the car said 33 degrees.  Ouch.  The water temperature of Bear Lake was a few degrees warmer than usual for this time of year.  But still cold at 68 degrees...although that was the warmest temperature of the day, it didn't feel like it getting in.  For the full Ironman, we would have to do 4 laps around 4 buoys.   And this was my first open water swim in the last 12 years.  Dumb, I know.  First my swim cap, which I never wear, got in the seal around my goggles and let water in.   I fixed that but my goggle just kept fogging up the whole way.  It was cloudy and dark, and hard to see the buoys.  It took me 12 minutes to settle down enough to swim my regular stroke.  Still, my first lap took 23 minutes and I hoped I could improve on that the rest of the way.  No, not really.   My times stayed about the same although the 2nd and 3rd lap didn't seem so bad.  The 4th lap was horrible, my body was getting really cold, the swimmers had churned up colder water from the bottom and the water was getting colder too.  The sun finally peeked through the clouds and illuminated the buoys, but my goggles were toast.  I got out of the water at 1:40, hungry and freezing.  Then it was 1/2 mile run to transition. I had some clogs but they weren't amazing for running through sand with a body that wasn't really responding well.  

In transition, it took long than usual to get my wetsuit off and put warmer clothes on.   My usual bike outfit wasn't enough, I added arm warmers and a windbreaker and was glad to have them.   The first loop around the lake was calm, dead calm.  I settled into a rhythm and saw my average speed increasing over time.  It went up to 17.7 and I hoped on the second half of the bike maybe I would see 18.    At the halfway, the sun peeked out and I doffed the extra clothing.  I figured between 12 and 3 pm would be the warmest part of the day, and I was sick of my windbreaker flapping in the breeze.   Heading out in just my sports bra, it was nice for a while, until I saw a storm cloud heading across the south end of the lake.  Uh oh.  I had absolutely no clothing to save me from cold rain, or worse hail, or a downpour.   The storm seemed to be getting worse, the winds kicked up, and I made tough choice, turn around and face a DQ, but avoid needing to be rescued for my stupid clothing choices.   Back at transition an hour later, I explained my choice, grabbed some warmer clothes again (the time I wasted with clothing, gah!) and made up the mileage I had missed by riding a longer out and back on the north end.  The last 30 miles felt like a headwind no matter where I turned, and my average speed sunk to 17.  It was demoralizing, and everyone else had the same wind to deal with as well.  

I also found my bike seat had loosened, which was perhaps what had caused my seat to be so uncomfortable when I hadn't felt that before. I have an Infinity Seat which I have loved this year, but today it was painful and I couldn't find a position that didn't make my hips ache.    I was able to tighten it up quickly but it was another stop to make.  

Finally I was done with the bike, and glad of it.   Bike time 6:44.  At that moment, the wind also died, and we had a beautiful evening for a while.  My biggest question in redoing this type of race was whether I could run off the bike.  For a minute I could barely walk off the bike (!) but after another change of clothing and dry socks and shoes,  I did run.  And kept on running every step of the marathon.  

During the bike, I had eaten some dried mango, trail mix, a bit of gummy candy, a coke, and a couple of my drink mixes with electrolytes. I also drank an ounce of both Ketone IQ and Kava, 4 times over the whole race.   For the run, I wanted to keep it simple.   The first 6 miles I sipped from a 12 ounce coke bottle I carried with me.   At the turnaround of the first loop, I mixed my drink mix squishy bottle with water and switched to that.   At my halfway bag, I slammed the last of my Ketone and Kava (they both taste TERRIBLE!) and then I repeated the same drinks for the second half.  The race didn't have much real food.   The aid stations on the run had Gu and chips and gatorade, nothing of which sounded good to me.  I just kept running.  I loved my Saucony carbon plated running shoes, my feet felt comfy, and I literally ran every mile at the same pace the entire race.   I caught up to people who were miles ahead of me at the start of the run.  I ran my way right into first place for the women.  Granted the gene pool was small...only 3 women finished the whole distance.  The race offered every iteration of distance and duathlon so there were people swimming but not biking, etc. 

The last 3 miles, it got fully dark and then started to rain.  My little headlamp was enough to illuminate the puddles and bring me home.  Final marathon time 4:24, and I almost negative split my marathon!  I haven't come within 20 minutes of doing that, ever.   It was a great feeling of redemption.

Final time was 13:10.   Here's the results:   https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=290640

It's been a really busy summer.  As evidenced by the fact that my last blog post was in May!   Training for this Ironman Triathlon sucks up a lot of time; trying to balance swimming, biking, and running, along with the hiking I love to do, with a little weight lifting thrown in?  It was a lot.  

So was the new business I've been involved in starting.  Together with my good friend Karen Minchow, who's a PA, we offer concierge medicine.   We can advice you on nutrition, hormones, and supplements; to get you to thrive in your life and health, rather than just survive.  If you are interested and want to know more of what we do, checkout vigeohealth.net.

Bryce Canyon 30K, May 28, 2022

This race was Jim's idea, he wanted a good reason to keep training and this distance sounded good to him. It wasn't actually in the National Park, just west of it, but there were some of the cool red hoodoos that make that area so famous.  There were also 50k, 60k, 50 mile, and 100 mile options.  

Neither one of us woke up terribly excited to go for a long run that morning, but then again, I'm not usually excited to do anything that requires me to wake up at 5 in the morning!  Our sprinter van was parked way out in the back of a dusty cow pasture, along with hundreds of other camper vans and tents.   A few of them had tried to blow away the previous afternoon and the winds were forecasted to kick up again.   We set Spot to guard the van while we were gone, and chose a portapotty that hadn't blown over the day before. LOL.  They were compost versions anyway so no blue liquid everywhere at least!  

The weather was windy, but surprisingly that wouldn't be a factor in the race.   Most of the course was in pinyon pines between 7000-9000 feet, and the trees made a nice wind break.   It was cool but not cold, cloudy but not damp, and the course ended up being perfect.   If I ever designed a course it would have been just like this.  Steep uphills and nice gentle runnable downhills.   If you could catch your breath at that elevation anyway! 

We started a few minutes behind the main crowd and had to run up through all the walkers at the back.  I got stuck behind a bunch of slower people on the steep climb about 4 miles in, so my lowest heart rate for the whole race was on the steepest climb.   Ha.  

About halfway through, I heard my name and turned to find a paragliding friend Jonathon just behind me.  We passed the last climb by chatting for at least 5 miles, and then the last sections was a lovely 7 mile descent to the finish.  Wow.  I loved being able to run fast yet still feel like I was taking it easy.   In the end I was able to make 19.5 miles in 3:50, and Jim came in super fast in 4:06.   If Jim gets any faster I'm gonna be in trouble!  

Results are here: https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/42726#resultSetId-318614;perpage:5000

Big Bear Spartan Trifecta Weekend, May 15, 2022

 Well, I hurt my back a few weeks before this race, and then I was chasing the dog around and pulled a groin the day before I was supposed to drive down.   You know me.  I went anyway.   I tried not to limp walking into town from my hotel room the evening before to find dinner!  

Big Bear is one of the harder venues I've raced at.  I'm pretty sure that we did nothing but hike straight up the ski hill and then run/fall back down, over and over again.   I did the Trifecta weekend, the Beast on Saturday was 11.5 miles with 5000 feet of climbing, the Super/Sprint on Sunday were 6.5 and 4 miles with 3000 and 2000 feet of climbing, respectively.   

The weather was perfect and sunny and dry, a bit warm, and I was happy to get the Olympus wall both times!   However I was 0 for 3 on the spear....the obstacle was set on a sidehill and I missed it downslope by a hair.   So did everyone else!   My friend Andrea really pushed me on the Beast, it took all I had to pull away from her later in the race, and I ended up finishing 1st by at least 5 minutes ahead of the next few women.    The last obstacle was the bucket carry, but I was so happy to be dripping wet from the dunk wall that nothing mattered.  I could have stayed in that muddy water for a lot longer, trying to cool down a little.  

I had the passing thought on Sunday to do the Trail race as well as the Trifecta, it would have added another 6 miles of running to the weekend.   As fate would have it, I was late getting in line for the same day ticket for the Trail, and ran out of time.  Ooops.  I'm sure it would have done me no good to add more miles of hills for my groin and back.  

Anyway, Sunday morning was the Nationals race, and there were a few women who hadn't raced the day before.   I finished out of the medals, and after washing the mud out of my shoes from another cooling but disgusting dunk wall, I found a nice chair in the shade and waited for the Sprint.  At least the races get shorter as the weekend goes on.   Trying it the other way around might not be as fun.   Not that the sprint felt short by the time I was throwing myself through the dunk wall for the 3rd time.  This time the sky was cloudy and it almost felt a little cool.  

It was mostly fun to catch up with some Spartan friends and compare race notes and see where we would see each other again this year.   Next up, the heat of Utah in July for an Ultra.   I'll have to pack a cooler full of ice for that one!

Little Death Hollow and Wolverine Slot Canyons

As it happens, my friend Karen and I felt we needed an adventure, so we piled a bunch of camping gear in her Jeep and headed to southern Utah.  The weather was perfect, although a bit windy at times.   On our way down we stopped at Upper Calf Creek Falls trail for a quick hike down to the water.  It was too cold to swim but we popped our feet in the water for a refreshing break.  The winds all but blew us back up the steep incline near the top of the trail.  

From the town of Boulder, we took the Burr Trail road east, which we were delighted to see was paved, and then a well-graded gravel south south for a long ways further.   After all the threats of needing a 4x4 vehicle to reach the trailhead, in the dry conditions I think my grandfathers old Cadillac would have made it.

Once we found the trailheads at the start and finish of our proposed route, we cruised around looking for a place to camp, of which there were plenty of options in the area, especially on a Tuesday.  The whole time we were down there we saw 3 cars and 2 people.  It may not have been the end of the road, but it felt like it.  

Our campsite had pieces of petrified wood around the fire ring.  This made us begin wandering around the hills behind camp and discovering loads of it.  Lets just say that there's a whole forest of exploded-looking petrified wood pieces for miles in all directions.  Black as pitch, most of it.   It was amazing.  Not show pieces like you would see at a rock show, but it's much more fun to discover stuff for yourself anyway.  

There was also a really cool little slot canyon right off the road by our campsite.  Just a couple hundred feet long, but a proper slot with nothing technical, walk in and out at both ends.   Hanging around camp turned out to be as good as anything we did down there!  

It was so windy the first night we eschewed the fire and even gave up on our tents, electing to sleep in the back of the Jeep instead.  It howled all night but was calm in the morning and perfect for a long hike down a slot canyon.  

https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7062930/little-death-hollow-to-wolverine-canyon

The description of this slot canyon sounded amazing, but it was also a long route in unknown conditions.  We loaded up on water and had plenty of emergency supplies, too.   Slot canyons need some respect.  We started down Little Death Hollow, and the first few miles are in a wide canyon.   It gradually narrows down after a couple of hours to a proper slot canyon, just shoulder width at times.   But like the gravel road, the reports of the difficulties this year were much exaggerated.  Each year the floods in the canyons change the levels of the sand that is deposited.   Some years the water might uncover a keeper pothole where you can get in but barely get out again, and some years it's totally filled with sand and you walk down the slot like it's the Las Vegas strip, marveling at the colors.  

This was a Las Vegas year.  The slot canyon in Little Death Hollow was completely level with sand, smooth and flat the whole way.  It went on for a full 5 miles and was truly amazing.   Just when we thought we had made it through, there would be some more twists and turns.   We saw so much petrified wood that Karen got sick of me exclaiming over it.  "Look, another piece of petrified wood!"  Of course, you would have needed a crane to move any of it even an inch.   We also saw a recently dead coyote and two cow hooves.  How they ended up right near each other in the slot canyon, with no sign of the rest of the cow, shall stay a mystery.  

Finally we came to the end of the slot, and briefly popped into a wider canyon with an old gravel road and even a bit of water in it.  Had we known the rest of the route, we would have turned around there at 9 miles and gone back up the slot canyon.   But instead we slogged through some sand for another couple of miles to reach the mouth (or is it the tail?) of Wolverine Slot canyon.  It was now the heat of the day and we were looking forward to having some shade again in a narrow slot.  No such luck.  Wolverine, although pretty, isn't narrow at all really, and doesn't hold a candle to Little Death Hollow.   It was just another canyon in a place that has lots of them.  We found no shade at all, and it was tougher going as well, with uneven boulders and walking up rocky creek beds.    When we were sure we were going to get through with no problems, we dumped a little water out of our packs (I had started with 6 liters) and ate a few more snacks.  It didn't help much as I have a tendency to pick up pretty rocks as I walk along streambeds.   Rocks are heavy.  

After almost 22 miles and over 8 hours we finally made it back to the car.   We were hot and tired but felt that the slot canyon was worth seeing regardless of the difficulty.  Luckily our cooler in the Jeep still retained a bit of ice and we had cold drinks, a hot fire for dinner, and even a bit of a spitbath to wash the dust and sweat off.  I felt like a new person in no time.  

The next day started out nice and we explored a bit more of the little slot canyons near our camp, and found the actual Petrified Forest down the road.  Then we drove into Capitol Reef National Park and checked out the slot canyon trail in Headquarters Canyon.  Who names these things?!?  After the amazing slots, this one seemed kinda short.  But it might have also been that the winds were now howling down the slot and throwing sand in our face, which made it seem not quite as nice.   It was time to head home and get out of the weather.  The next day it was going to rain anyway.  Good timing!

We ended up with about 30 miles of hiking for a quick 3 day jaunt, and a great slot canyon that I'd love to go back through again anytime.  

Calf Creek Falls

Giant petrified logs

Start of the slot near our campsite.

Poor little coyote

What are the odds of finding these two together?

More slots near the campsite

Even this little petrified wood log was too heavy to carry home the last 5 miles!