About Me

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Austin, Texas, United States
I'll make you laugh, or break my neck trying. This is usually accomplished with daily bouts of swimming, biking and running. A former "chub-a-holic," I got fit and healthy the good old fashioned way and went from a mid-pack athlete to top age group runner and triathlete. I'm a Writer and USAT Level 1 Certified Triathlon Coach. I guess that makes me part Tina Fey and part Jillian Michaels. Visit my coaching site at www.fomotraining.com

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Colorado Poster Child

We're back home and gearing up for this weekend's Couple's Sprint Triathlon, which should be a ton of fun. "Team Barrett" is locked, loaded and fresh from some serious altitude training. T3 has about 25 teams competing against each other for fun (and bragging rights) so the race will be a sea of blue jerseys. 

Colorado was, as usual, heaven on earth. In addition to the 10k race, we also rented mountain bikes, went white water rafting, swam a couple of times in our hotel's 25m lap pool, hiked and had great massages.  I swear in another life I was a mountain mama because I just love being out there.

Being back from vacation also means it's time to hunker down and get serious about my marathon training for the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October. Time to get some more miles on these feet again!  

In the meantime...
A Colorado Vacation Triathlon

We rode uphill for an hour and hit this beautiful summit at Sally Barber Mine. 
It was tough, but so worth the view from the top.

The scenery was too gorgeous not to stage your typical "yes, I'm a mountain biker" pose

I love mountains and I love biking, but apparently I'm not much of a mountain biker after all. I wrecked my bike standing still. I clipped in the right pedal and fell right over on a rock.

The next day, we went white water rafting. Both our concierge and tour guides warned us how high the water was this year. In fact, some hikers we ran into said that 6 people have already died this year from rafting. Needless to say, we were a little freaked out at first. However, we had a BLAST and the water wasn't bad at all! We hit some class 3 and class 4 rapids, but I giggled like a 12 year old at a Jonas Brothers concert!  The water, however, was a very frigid low-to-mid 40s so I would've taken an after shot, but was too freakin' cold!


On our way out of Breckenridge, we decided to take one last hour-long hike through the hills. We started at what seemed like an unimpressive trailhead under a ski lift. After twenty minutes or so, it opened p into this beautiful pond area. It was a great way to end the trip.

10 comments:

greyhound said...

Somebody please remind me why I live in Texas?

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) said...

Falling on a rock -- ouch!

White water rafting -- how fun! I've always wanted to do that.

Biking uphill for an HOUR? And I think the puny hills in Minnesota are tough.

Have fun doing your sprint!

Patricio said...

Good luck in the Couple's Sprint Triathlon!
Sorry about the fall, thank God it wasn't anything serious.

PC

Runner Susan said...

It's like a million degrees here . . . why did you come home again?

ShirleyPerly said...

I'm secretly hoping that my step daughter and her husband someday end up in Colorado so we'll have an excuse to visit our grandkids there often. Love those photos exc. for that rock injury -- OUCH!

Good luck in the couples tri!!

triguyjt said...

look at you...all casual in your dot m tee shirt....

Anonymous said...

With a vacation like that, who needs training? :)

Spokane Al said...

Your picture of the summit at Sally Barber Mine at truly magnificant. One needs to click on the picture to fully appreicate the beauty.

Anonymous said...

Wow - I am so jealous (but happy for you guys) of this vacation!! It looks so fun and gorgeous. Great pics, too...love the M-dot shirt ;)

I snorted when I read "I giggled like a 12 year old at a Jonas Brothers concert!" ...hilarious!

Gotta say, the mountain bike scratches make you look tough. I purposely show off those kinds of injuries ;)

And, you did great adjusting to altitude there with the 10K and all the activities. In college, I went to Colorado (Copper Mt./Breckenridge) with my roommate and her family...we did mountain biking, hiking, rafting, etc. I was like an old woman and passed out in a freakin Luby's!

Viv said...

Vacation pics looked glorious! Except for that boo boo. I hate those clip in out clip out accident. It just seems so short of tough. But they are usually the safest.