Now Its Time For Something Completely Different!

Now Its Time For Something Completely Different!

Greg Welch has yet another entertaining installment of his monthly column ... this time describing a great way to kick off your final Kona preparations ... if you're into something "completely different!"

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Now that Kona is just around the corner, your training is probably hitting top gear, but is it the same gear?

 

Generally yes.

 

I used to try and break things up a little, bring the fun back into training, and even add some adventure.

 

For instance, back in 1991 a group in Boulder, Colorado, decided to go on a whirlwind adventure of sorts.

 

Now, it wasn’t your ordinary group.

 

Take Mark Allen, Norman P Huddle, Scott Tinley, Scott Molina, Ray Browning and myself, throw in a couple of cooks like Paula Newby Fraser, Erin Baker, and Julie Moss … now don’t beat me down, I was KIDDING about the cooks! I know I’m Australian but I was kidding. Actually, Julie was the cook and tour sag. That group alone combines for over 70 Ironman wins, and PNF has 24 of them, Smarty Pants!

 

Kona was 12-weeks out, and this little quest was the start of all our push toward the Ironman. For five days we smacked each other upside the head, played head games, in which Mark always won, and dragged our sorry asses over 12,000 foot mountain passes for days on end! Did I mention running off the bike?

 

OK, let me give you a run down on how the week faired.

 

Tour De Trout, 1991.

 

‘Twas the night before, and Norman P. and myself arrived home from Vancouver, with the little Aussie carrying the hardware and Huddle carrying the video camera full of memories that will last a lifetime. A little trashed I might add – we sifted through our stuff, trying to be quiet as we both bunked at Mark and Julies for the night. We fumbled like Lloyd and Harry from Dumb and dumber (Huddle the dumberer one) as we tried to unpack our bikes and prepare for the long week ahead.

 

Huddle and I awoke to Tinley pouring water over our heads at 0700 hours. Like a military sergeant, Tinley was right to it and ordered us “outta” bed.

 

We drove to Golden a half-an-hour up the road, just to take the ugly road out of Boulder out of it.

 

We started up, yep, straight up, over the top of Golden to get our trek on the way.

 

The first test was going to be the climb up over Loveland pass. As we passed through Idaho Springs, I noticed Mark slipping to the side of the shop, secretly going to the refrigerated section and guzzling a choccy milk. So I did the same. Cunning little bugger that I was, I always watched Mark like a hawk. He was the man who I modeled myself after -- too bad he was good! (Like I wasn’t, ha ha ha!)

 

Anyway, back on our treddlies we hopped, and off uphill again. This time through Georgetown and the dreaded Loveland pass.

 

The pass isn’t that difficult, it’s just high at the top, like nearly 12,000 feet high! Settling into a nice rhythm the climb got steeper and steeper, and the pace faster and faster, when POP, I blew a gasket, out of fuel and an early bonk was on the cards. Erin, Paula and even Tinley passed me!

I suffered the rest of the way up to the top where we all gathered and licked our wounds. There was a small break after the gnarley climb as we descended as a group to Keystone and had lunch at Frisco, a beautiful spot on the way to Breckenridge and Vail.

 

After a nice lunch we then made our way to our first destination, Vail. This heavily toured town and winter haven for the skiing enthusiast sits perched up at 8500 feet, but you have to go over Vail pass to get there, so for the second time in the day we climbed up the center of the Interstate 70 freeway, and headed toward the Pass. The Pass is at over 11,000 feet, and I have gone through it many times in summer where I have been snowed on. After the climb we pretty much raced into Vail and ran off the bike.

 

In case you’re trying to figure out what this has to do with your training … this is a fantastic way to get your training going, with a group of people keen to share a life experience.

 

Back to the action. This was one of the highlights of my young pro triathlete life, being asked to come on this trip was awesome, but to take on a trip of this magnitude and beauty was just insane.

 

Night 1:

Julie had gone ahead with Virgina Tinley and checked us in at the Vail Racquet club.

They put on a spread that my mother would be proud of, let me tell you mate! It was a feast and I went back for seconds.

 

As day two dawned, the temperature was a little frigid, 40 degrees outside but a swim before breakfast was on order.

 

We swam at the Racquet club indoors but after a while I couldn’t breathe and resorted to the outside pool. Although the outside temperature was lower, the pool temp was the same, and I much preferred swimming on my own and not having Mark and company kick my behind every second of the day. Today was going to be an epic day. The sun had just started to rise and a beautiful day was upon us.

 

Brekky time, YES, I was famished as the travel and day before was catching up. French toast … gotta love it! We loaded with that, threw on a gallon of syrup, and we were away for day two in the saddle.

 

The first part of our ride was sensational, down through the Vail Valley, where the rich and famous spend their winters lapping it up. I strolled through on my one thousand dollar push bike with barely a cent to my name, but loved every minute of it. We then descended into Minturn, where we chucked a hard left and that’s where the day began. A nice climb again toward Leadville.

 

At over 10,000 feet, Leadville is the highest city in the US. OK, I’m an Aussie, and I know all this crap, I’m the king of knowing everything you need to know about nothing!

 

After a brief stop for water, the climb that everyone feared was just ahead. We were stopped by road works for about 20 minutes, so that gave Tinley a chance to catch up. (KIDDING Scotty)

 

Independence pass as to be one of the most beautiful passes in Colorado, not that long, but the scenery was amazing, snow on one side, mountain goats on the other, and then came Molina!

 

The climb for me was starting to get nasty, half way up I noticed that my nose was getting dry and then it turned on like a tap, I was bleeding like crazy. I suffered this quite a bit at altitude, but it was great for a pub story.

 

“So mate, what happened to you?”

 

“Mate, I was in a race up Independence pass and this guy pushed me off me bike. I fell two thousand feet into a ravine, climbed my way out, and kept going!”

 

If you think my story is crazy, then you go climb the mountain and see what goes through your head. It’s hard holding your thoughts together!

 

We then descended into Aspen, a 25-mile fun filled corkscrewing ride, something motorbikers live for.

 

At the very bottom of the road, as you head into Aspen, was where we were staying. I shacked up with the Tinley family that night, including Torrey, their daughter.

 

Day Three:

We drove to Snowmass, the mountain adjacent to Aspen, and ran a 16-miler back to town where we met for “brekky.” This day was the “easy day” as we were to drive straight to Winter park for the final two days.

 

Did I mention that I had to fly to Toronto that weekend to race? No, thought so. Ah well, you only live once right?

 

Norman P. and myself decided we were going to “one-up” everyone. We rode to Glenwood Springs, a 55 mile downhill, “city-limit-sign-sprint-ride.” Picture this: the married couples spending blissful time in the Rockies, while the two bachelors duel it out on the highway, trying to use up senseless energy.

 

We arrived into Glenwood Springs to find everyone bathing in the natural Hot Springs -- what a treat! We then drove to Winter Park, a two-hour drive to the east, and set up camp at Molina and Erin’s condo for two days.

 

Day Four:

Another swim and “brekky” saw the start of the day. Molina, in my eyes, was one of the first to know about altitude training and its effects. He tried many ways of testing triathlon’s boundaries, but he was so far ahead in knowing this little secret!

 

We did a 112-mile ride at breakneck speed and ran off the bike.

 

The next day, day five, and the final one, we rode mountain bikes for 80 miles over the pass to Boulder, a magnificent way to top off the most majestic week for me in triathlon.

 

I did travel to Toronto. I was second, with the fastest bike and run split of the day, just got flogged in the swim by Brad Bevan who took line honors that day.

 

To finish off, I love the idea of little adventures, even if they are for the weekend. Grab a friend, fed ex your stuff to a hotel, meet your spouses along the way, get out there, be creative, that’s what life’s all about.

 

Top your glass until next time, Cheers.

 

You may contact Greg Welch at greg@ironmanlive.com