Ian and I got in some terrific riding, running and paddling this weekend in the beautiful fall colors. Enough said.
Autumn has always been my favorite season in Colorado and this weekend reaffirmed that.
Despite being a little sore from the Lead King Loop last weekend, I continued a hard week of intervals and training thanks to Lindsay Hyman at CTS. On Friday, I enjoyed an easy day to prepare for the Golden Leaf Half Marathon on Saturday.
I took the last two years off from the Golden Leaf but three years ago I managed to pull off a win with a time of 1:45:47. My main goal this year was to better that time by a few minutes.
Training on the road with the kids in the Chariot has helped my speed on the flats and the descents but my pace on the steep climbs has suffered. This was obvious both last week and this week as I struggled up the starting climbs in both races. As the Golden Leaf course topped out and started heading down the Government Trail, I began to feel stronger and eventually found I could to push the pace.
Axel, Sari & Juniper at the finish of the Golden Leaf
I finished as the second woman in 1:47:52, four minutes behind Stevie Kremer from Crested Butte and two minutes slower than my time in 2008. After talking to many of the racers at the finish, we agreed the course was at least a few minutes longer than a few years ago so I figured my pace still was a bit faster.
Overall, I was happy with my race and how strong I felt throughout the 13.1 miles. I even managed to get in a brick of sorts, with a mountain bike ride in later that afternoon for an hour and a half.
Sari & Ian enjoying a rare ride together
Sunday continued a great weekend as Ian and I joined about 10 other Roaring Fork locals for an amazing fall mountain bike ride. The perfect weather and spectacular views quickly cured my tired legs.
As we descended a newly built trail, Ian and I were forced to make the decision to cut out and head back home to the kids. As much as we would have loved to ride another hour or so, we figured a five hour ride together was a sweet opportunity and we shouldn’t push our luck much more.
Finishing up the day with some family time completed the golden weekend. Here’s to hoping we have more beautiful days of training before I head to Tasmania for the Adventure Racing Wolds.
Golden Leaf results here.
Perfect day in the mountains in my new skin suit I picked up in Chamonix
Elinor, Sari, Joy & Wendy pre-race
Four years ago I raced the Lead King Loop 25K a few months after Juniper was born. I barely survived the race in 2 hours 45 minutes.
This year, Elinor, Joy, Wendy and I made a girls day of it and ran the race for fun. None of us felt amazing going into the race. Joy is seven weeks post-partum, El has a nasty cold, Wendy is off the couch and I had a full training week leading up to Sunday.
For the first time that I can remember, I had zero race day nerves. Standing on the startline with my best friends as well as Jari Kirkland, Carrie Vickers and Beth Broome, I was relaxed and ready for a fun training run.
Starting at a comfortable pace, I climbed the first 3,000+ vertical feet in about 5 miles feeling sluggish and heavy. I finally crested the top of the climb to amazing views of snow covered peaks and started to feel much better as my pace went from a 15 minute mile to a sub-6 minute mile for a few fast miles.
As I passed the 110 year old Crystal Mill, I realized I would be able to finish much faster than 2007 and possibly close to the course record of 2 hours 19 minutes. I had no idea what place I was in but for once I didn’t care. I was racing myself and enjoying every step.
Great scenery in Lead King Basin outside Marble
Crossing the line in 2 hours 20 minutes 19 seconds and in 5th place, I was very happy with my morning training run. Elinor finished in 2 hours 40 minutes, Joy just over 3 hours and Wendy finished just under 4 hours after battling major stomach issues.
Finishing up the training day with a quick mountain bike ride and I’ve started my training for the adventure race world champs in Tasmania.
Back in February of this year, I flew to Los Angeles for a photo shoot when I was selected as a “fittest real athlete” by Outside Magazine. During the shoot, I sat down with Outside TV for a little interview. I just found the episode online – my segment starts at the 17:20 mark. The host messes up my name and my boxing is laughable…enjoy.
The Buzz from Outside Television Productions on Vimeo.
What to do when there are no more races on the calendar
The Leadville 100 race has come and gone (with some lingering frustration about how I performed). Then the Mt. Washington Hill Climb came and went in the blink of the eye. Now what?
About a month ago, my friend Lyndsay Meyer, asked if I would answer some questions about Post-Race Letdown syndrome for an article she was writing. I had no idea what post race letdown was and said I didn’t think I had ever suffered from it.
Fast forward a month when I have no races scheduled and wham, I think I’m experiencing PRLD. Now that I know what PRLD is, I’m wondering if I have experienced it previously and just not known what the problem was. I’m not sure on that one yet but I do know that I’m working on enjoying myself right now, having fun with the family and thinking about focusing on the upcoming skimo race season. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll throw in another mountain bike or running race before the summer and fall are over.
Check out Lyndsay’s great article on post-race letdown on ESPNW.
Thanks to Polartec, a long time sponsor of the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hill Climb, I had the chance to race the infamous hill climb on Saturday. Despite spending much of my summers as a child in New Hampshire, I’ve never been to the summit of Mt. Washington before. I had no idea just how steep the road actually is.
Racing a course sight unseen can sometimes be an advantage because I just have to keep going as hard as I can – at least that’s what I told myself before the race. I spoke to a few people who had raced here before and they all told me to use easier gearing. I managed to borrow a compact crank set, but next time I will make sure to find an easier cassette as well.
I started in the Top Notch group and quickly realized I was going to spend almost the entire race in my easiest gear. I battled with a singlespeeder for much of the 7.4 miles and 4,500 feet of climbing, thinking he was the smart one for not carrying the extra weight up the mountain.
Right from the start I slipped into third place among the women and I kept it right to the finish line. I never saw another woman coming from behind however I knew that one had to be right there and sure enough a woman finished 28 seconds back. Last year’s winner, Marti Shea, finished on the top step and her closest rival, Kristen Gohr finished in second again. I’m very impressed how fast these women are and hope I can be closer to them next year.
Speaking of next year, I hope to be back and hope I can improve my time. Knowing the course will be much better and maybe, just maybe, the weather can be as perfect as it was this year.
A special thanks goes to Ruthann Brown of Polartec for motivating me to race and treating me like a queen all weekend!
Results here.
Suffering to the finish right after the 22% grade.
Media:
Mt. Washington Auto Road Website
Women's winner Marti Shea and myself on the podium. 2nd place Kristen Gohr was hiking down. A woman after my own heart.
22% grade looks like a wall in person.
Leadville has been looming on my calendar all year long.
Ian convinced me to enter the lottery way back in January and to our mutual surprise, I got in. For the rest of the year, I tried to focus on the race and made a spot on the podium my goal. Of course, a lot of other top pro woman had the same idea. In the weeks leading up to the race, the hype and anticipation surrounding Leadville started to really get to me and I began to dread it.
Fighting through the pain at Twin Lakes
Thankfully my coach, Lindsay Hyman at Carmichael Training, has raced Leadville before and she gave me good beta on each section of the course as well as nutrition and hydration recommendations.
Friday afternoon, my Honey Stinger teammate Max Taam and I got out for a pre-race ride and a little time on the St. Kevin’s climb. As we dropped off the backside and began the short descent, my wheels slid out from under me and I went down hard and fast, sliding on my side down the dirt road. More embarrassed than anything, I jumped right up to inspect the damage. Thankfully my bike was fine, but I had pretty good road rash on my leg, hip and arm. I was shaken, but hoped that I just gotten any race day crashes out of my system. The CTS folks helped clean me up and dressed me up with second skin and lots of cheese cloth bandaging.
The race started clean and fast early Saturday morning. I was excited to finally get going and not too worried that I wasn’t anywhere near the rest of the pro women. Passing the spot where I crashed the day before and heading down the pavement, my back and hip started to seize up. I quickly realized I must have crashed harder than I thought. About fifteen miles into the race, my goal of a podium finish vanished and I wondered if I could even finish. For the next 25 miles my emotions ran the entire spectrum from total depression to absolute determination.
When I got to the Twin Lakes aid station I got off my bike to stretch my back. My support crew, Rob Russell and Scott Leonard, saw the pain I was in and asked if I was going to continue. Thinking of them spending their day watching after me, I decided I needed to go every inch I possibly could. Racing can be selfish but I knew in the long run I would feel terrible if my support had devoted their day to me and I gave up.
My back didn’t feel much better going up or down the Columbine climb, and I once again considered dropping from the race at Twin Lakes. This time though, Ian, Axel and Juniper were there waiting and cheering for me. I stopped quickly to give them hugs and kisses and that gave the strength to ride the next 40 miles.
My back started to feel a little better from that point and I focused on a negative split for the race. I found myself riding next to Elden Nelson, aka the world-famous Fat Cyclist, whose blog I’ve enjoyed for years now. Elden is an inspiration and I was psyched to be riding with him.
With a few miles to go, I found a smile for the camera
The rest of the race is kind of a blur, but I do vividly remember my friend Alissa, who ran beside me on some of the final pavement miles and helped me find the motivation to finish.
My final time was 8:19. Overall, it was one of the toughest races I can remember and I’m still disappointed about the way it turned out, but I’m proud of the fact that I finished. A big congrats goes to Rebecca Rusch, who broke her own record in the race and won her third straight Leadville victory. My longtime friend Gretchen Reeves had an awesome race and finished in second. Pua Mata suffered mechanicals and came in third, while Jenny Smith finished her first 100 miler in an impressive fourth place. Legendary olympian, Tammy Jaques came in fifth, and then Annie Gonzalez, who just turned 50 years old and got her first pro license came in sixth. I finished in seventh, proud to race with such an inspirational, strong group of ladies.
Now, I’ve got to get packing for my trip to Rhode Island. Hopefully, my back feels better by next Saturday when I’m racing the Mt. Washington Hill Climb. 4,000 feet of climbing in less than eight miles. Gulp.
Ian & Sari Anderson 2nd, Zack & Caitlyn Vestal 1st, Linda & Jake Wells 3rd
Racing with Ian is not something I get to do very often since normally one of us is on the sidelines hanging with the kids. The Honey Stinger Steamboat Stinger gave us the chance to race as a duo coed team. Originally we thought we would do the hand-off of the kids when coming through the lap and trading off but thankfully my mom came into town and was able to watch the kids. I don’t think the kid hand-off would have slowed us much but it made it much easier for Ian to warm up for the second lap without having to tow the Chariot and worry about snacks and naps.
It was decided that I would go first which I was excited about as I am not good with waiting around to race. After a quick warm up, I jumped on the line to start two minutes behind the open men. Our group caught the back half of the open men within a few minutes and I wished I had warmed up more and gone out harder to have gotten in front of more people. But I can only learn from my mistake so I sat in a long line of people all wishing they were up a few places and I passed on the short road sections when I could.
As I descended down to the backside of the course, things opened much more and I was able to pass a bunch of racers on the road before jumping back onto singletrack for the remainder of the race. I was fortunate enough to be able to climb the next four miles with Honey Stinger owner, Bill Gamber, who knew the course well.
I crested the final long climb finally starting to feel ready to race and finished much stronger than I had started and raring to go. Oh well, I hope that means I will be getting faster as the Leadville 100 miles pile up. I handed off to Ian knowing I had a few minutes lead over Caitlyn Vestal but many minutes behind Jake Wells. We would have no idea which couple would win until the finish line.
Zack Vestal came across looking as if he was out for a Sunday stroll with Ian just 24 seconds behind him working hard to sneak up on Zack. Linda Wells finished just a few minutes back making the top three in the coed duo race super close. We had a great day and were happy with our finish. The inaugural Steamboat Stinger went off ridiculously well thanks to Len Zanni, Colin Osborn, Nate Bird and their entire team of volunteers. The 95% singletrack course is on the top of my list and should be for you next year as well.
Results here.
Ian finishing strong for our team.
Sonya Looney 2nd, Sari, Sonya Bugbee 3rd
With about a month until the Leadville 100, I raced the Breck 68 yesterday as a training race. I opted not to race the Breck 100 as the time on the bike was more similar to Leadville in the 68 than it was in the 100. I hadn’t raced any of the races in this event before and was looking forward to the great singletrack that I had heard reviews of from many friends.
The Breck 68 consists of two separate laps which are laps 2 and 3 of the 100. I was very familiar with the trails of my first loop and rode well from the start. Sonya Looney and I separated from the other women and I was able to pull away a little while passing many of the men that had started ahead of us in the 68 as well as many of the 100 riders. I concentrated on drinking fluid and eating enough calories to make sure I would not bonk during the second half of the race.
As I came through the start/finish area finishing lap 1, my legs felt great but my stomach was starting to get irritated. I figured I had not eaten or drank enough so I took in another Honey Stinger bar and Nuun hoping it would soon pass. Grinding up the Indiana climb, I kept my momentum going forward despite my stomach getting worse. Knowing Sonya Looney, Jen Tilley and Sonya Bugbee were coming for me, I pushed through the pain as each bump I hit on the descent off Boreas Pass hurt like nothing I had felt before.
My legs felt great climbing back up Boreas Pass but I was not racing anymore. At that point I was simply riding as fast as I possibly could hoping I could hold my position for the last 10 or so miles. With a short detour on the descent to verify a course marking, I limped into the finish line in 6 hours and 48 minutes only 17 seconds before Sonya Looney. Thankfully Sonya had also taken the same detour and was never able to see me as she surely would have been able to catch me at that point as she was getting stronger throughout the race. Results here (I’m not sure why I’m in the age group category and not pro but…).
I have no idea what caused my stomach issues as I ate and drank the same things I always do in a race – Honey Stinger chews and bars with water and Nuun. This was exactly what I needed as a tune-up for Leadville. Thanks to Carmichael Training and Lindsay Hyman my legs were ready and felt great. I’m looking forward to the Steamboat Stinger next weekend in hopes of getting past my stomach issues and having my legs feel as well as they did yesterday.
Xterra athlete and mom Danelle Kabush has started a great website and blog for athlete moms. Danelle has great insight into training, working, racing and balancing it all with a family.
Below is a little interview I did with her:
Danelle Kabush (2nd from right) and myself (far right) 3rd and 5th at the Xterra Richmond in 2009
One of my goals in writing this blog is to share some inspiration from other active moms. This is my first interview with Sari Anderson. Sari and I met while racing Xterra. Now a mom of two, 4 year old Juniper and 1 year old Axel, Sari hasn’t slowed down much and has inspired me to keep making training and racing goals. You can learn more about Sari and follow her adventures on her blog. Sari lives with her husband Ian and two children in Colorado and is currently preparing for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race!
Here is what she had to share….
1. Can you tell me a little about your athletic/competitive background before becoming a mom?
Before becoming a mother, I raced as an adventure racer with Team Nike winning a world championship title as well as many other elite events. I also raced mountain bikes as a pro as well as ran trail races and kayaked. There was no training schedule or coaches or structure. I worked full time as a business manager for a plumbing contractor so I trained in the evening and pretty much all weekend.
2. What motivates you to keep setting athletic and/or competitive goals since becoming a mother? Is it different than pre-kids?
Since becoming a mother I have become more motivated and goal oriented as far as my athletic career goes. Before kids, I could race and train when I wanted to. I could travel for long periods of time with only a lot of work to come back to. With kids, I now have to choose my races based on our family schedule and what makes the most sense for my career. This means less worldwide travel and shorter races that the family can usually attend. However, the big difference is that if I am going to take the time away from my family and my work in order to train and compete, then I had better make it worthwhile. I’m usually there to win or prove something to myself. There is no longer racing just to race.
3. How do you balance training and/or racing with your family?
From the first week we arrived home from the hospital with our first child, my husband Ian and I figured out balance and ‘the handoff’. This means that on the weekends we usually either split days or the weekend in order for both of us to get good training sessions in as well as quality time with the kids. Now with two kids and still working part-time, I often train early in the morning while everyone else is asleep. The remainder of my training is done with the kids in the Chariot while running, cycling and skiing. Training with the kids is one of my favorite things as the kids love to be outside and it makes me much stronger. I also added a coach after having our second child in order to maximize my training time giving me quality over quantity. Despite getting in only about 10 hours per week of training, which is significantly less than my competitors, I feel that I am much stronger now than before having children. Without the amazing support of my husband, I would have a difficult time fitting it all in.
4. Did you train during pregnancy? What was your approach?
Although I ‘trained’ throughout both pregnancies, it was solely for my mental stability and to keep some endurance. I know myself well enough to know that I never could race while pregnant. I am not capable of holding myself back. I had a wonderful doctor that understood what my fitness level was coming into the pregnancies and gave me cart blanche to do what I felt comfortable with. My big guideline was to make sure I could talk somewhat comfortably while exercising. Everyone’s heart rate is different so I never wore a heart rate monitor. Some days I could run sub-8 minute miles for 8 miles while pushing the first kid and the next I may only be able to run a 10 minute mile alone. Although it was hard at times, I listened to my body and only did what felt good and comfortable which allowed me to run and cycle until the day I had both kids.
5. Any advice you would give to other moms trying to stay active (or even competitive) while balancing kids?
My advice to moms trying to stay active and/or competitive is to do what you can and not to worry if you miss a training session. A few missed sessions are not going to make or break your overall fitness and readiness for a competition. Also, learning to get out with the kids is so great for everyone involved. You are teaching your kids that exercise and well-being are important as well as giving them a chance to relax and recuperate. When arriving home from a training session with the kids, mom and kids are rejuvenated and everyone feels better ready to face the rest of the day.
