10 Days until St. George Ironman

Time Flies! One year ago, I was competing in my first ever Ironman Triathon in St. George, Utah. I fell in love with Ironman and have decided to focus strictly on the Ironman Distance for 2012. Last year, I competed in a vast array of races ranging from Xterra, Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, & sprint distance triathlons, mountain bike races, and several different adventure races. I had a successful year but this year I have even bigger expectations!
The past five months, I have been working with Trismarter Coach Lee Gardner and have seen massive gains in all three disciplines. I have put in more quality training in the past five months then I thought possible. My first race of the 2012 season is going to be Ironman St. George, May 5th. Please follow me race day.
I am racing under the Ironman Foundation to gain awareness and donations for our wounded, ill and injured soldiers. Please support me in my cause by donating to the link below. Thank you so much for your support!

http://t.co/APrPeBTU

http://ironman.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1004768&supid=353618919

Murphy’s Law Bike Ride

You know those days were nothing seems to be going your way? Finally, it comes a point where the situation is so ridiculous that it becomes absolutely comical. Here is my latest story of this experience!

On Sunday, March 4, my coach Lee Gardner from Trismarter and I rode with the group ride in Colorado Springs. It was only my second time ever riding with this group so lucky not too many people know my name, yet. However, after the series of events that occurred that mid-morning and the first impression most of the riders now have of me, I am sure I will be well known around the group. J

Since it was an absolutely gorgeous day, a big group of riders congregated in front of the Starbucks off North Tejon Street. As I was standing there waiting for the ride to officially begin it dawned on me that the bike route was through the Air Force Academy and you have to have an I.D. to get through the gate. I completely forgot my I.D. and since Lee and I rode about 30 minutes to get to the group ride there was no way for me retrieve it in time. Lee and I were hopeful that I would get onto base without an I.D. and so we jumped in the pace line to the academy.

The group at this point was about 40 people, so very large. Riding in a pace line with people you’re not familiar with can always be interesting because you never know what their bike handling skills are and if they will point out things in the road, since you cannot see around them, the riders in the front are the eyes for the rest of the group and if one person doesn’t signal properly it can lead to a disastrous crash, looking like a domino effect of several riders.  

Lee and I were riding in the middle to back of the group as we approached a bridge and right as I hit the lip of the bridge my tool bag fell of the back of the bike, making several of the riders having to swerve to miss it.  Luckily, no one hit it and after everyone in the group passed by, I and went back to pick it up but at this point Lee and I had to push to re-catch the group.  Once back in the group not even five minutes later I hit another bump on the road and one of my water bottles which sits on the back of my seat post went flying out, causing ruckus in the pack as cyclist maneuvered around it, again I waited for the group to pass before retrieving my water bottle.  I thought to myself that is really weird, place it back in the cage and surged to rejoin the group. There was a slight hill so I passed a few people and then it was a slight downhill on an extremely bumpy road and right as I hit the bottom of the hill not only did one of my bottles but both of them went flying out of the cages from the back of my saddle screwing up both pace lines, now people were getting pretty upset, rightful so and started cursing. I wanted to die at this point. Lee was telling me to just leave them but I knew we had 3 hours of riding ahead of us and I would never make it without hydration so again I went back and gathered them up but now we were almost to the academy and several seconds behind the group. Lee and I knew we had to be in the middle of the group if there was anyway of me getting through the gate without an I.D. so we hammered but as we crested the hill that takes you into the South Gate we could see all the riders had already made their way through except for about two riders. I rode up to the gate and immediately the lady was a real stickler and it was apparent I wasn’t getting in without an I.D,. easily.

Lee and I told the group to go without us yet again as we figured out how I could possibly get on base. Luckily, there is a number you can call and if you get the right person they can let you on. I must say I was pretty lucky because after 5 minutes of talking to a General I was let onto the base. At this point, Lee turned to me and said you are going to have to ride a new 20 minute FTP in order to re-catch up to the group. I was so frazzled that the first few minutes I couldn’t get into a groove. Lee and I took one minute pulls and somehow we were able to catch back up, I am sure everyone was super excited to see that I was back… J

The next 45 minutes were pretty uneventful thank goodness but the fun wasn’t over yet. The bike route goes through the academy and then into some neighborhoods and then finishes up in Garden of the God’s at which point you can head home or add more miles by going into Manitou Springs. The neighborhood section has some good climbs and descents. I was back in a group of about 4 males on one of the descents and every time I would hit a crack in the road my bike would make this load creak, which made me a little concerned. Then on a major descent, I was laying on my aero bars when out of now where my hands went from parallel to the ground to almost vertical almost instantly. Somehow, my screw on my aero bar was becoming loose which caused the bars to rotate all the way down towards my wheel. At this point, I just had to start laughing. I rode up one of the hills with my bars titled completely forward and as I passed one of the males he remarked to me that this ride was extremely humbling to him and I was thinking to myself if only he know the half of it! J After another descent it was apparent that this was extremely unsafe to continue riding like this so I stopped again and as Lee rode up next to me I am sure he was thinking to himself, now what could it possibly be Danielle. But he was so nice and saw the issue. Again, another luck moment not even two seconds later a cyclist rode by and stopped to fix my bars.  I finished up the ride and rode back to my car which was in public parking space at an apartment complex to find a note lying on the wind shield saying, “We know you do not live at this apartment complex and if we see you parked here again we will have you towed.” J Oh yes, it even had the smiley face. I completely burst out into laughter, what a day!

Looking back it was a great ride which caused me to work on my surging, my weakest part of cycling and since no one got hurt it is pretty funny. I would have never thought so much could go wrong in one ride.

Trismarter Training Camp in Arizona

Have you ever had a week were looking back you wish you could relive it several times over again. Just the shear memories of the week make you smile and laugh to yourself. Well I just got back from one of those!

Last year, I was self coached and had decent success. However, this only fueled the fire to turn professional in Ironman distance triathlons. I knew in order to make it to the next level, I would have to get a coach that could provide me with knowledge, dedication and a pair of eyes to monitor my training. Finding a coach that fits your needs can be extremely challenging. I have been blessed in the past but never have I had a coach like Lee Gardner from Trismarter. I have been working with him since December 2011 and cannot believe the gains I have seen in just 3 months. 

Lee set up a training camp for Louis Tafuto and me in Arizona for a week. This way I could meet my teammate Louis and have a training buddy for one of the most intense training weeks I have experienced thus far. The timing couldn’t have been any better because I was out in Arizona for a Certification in Z- Health (S-Phase) the weekend prior, which is a whole other fantastic experience.

The Camp officially started February Wednesday 15^th, since Lee from Colorado and Louis from New York flew in the night prior we decided to make the workouts more of easy shakeout, to prepare for the big week that lay ahead of us. After breakfast we went for an easy hour run on the trails in Phoenix. In the afternoon we swam 3700 yards and finished up the day with an hour easy spin on the bike.

I was concerned since there were three off us; someone would feel like the third wheel which was never the case, the three of us worked fantastic together. We all stayed as Lee’s Mother’s Condo which was so nice of her. We truly were what you call a team, cooking all our meals together and cleaning up while laughing at various jokes the entire time.

Thursday, the real work started at the pool we swam 4800 yards and then spent several hours at the track working on drills and honing in on our 10K pace by doing 400’s at race pace on the track. We were preparing for our 10K running race we all signed up to do on Saturday.

Friday, was my favorite day of the camp and a huge confidence booster for my upcoming Ironman Race in St. George on May 5^th. Today we started our morning off with a 4100 yard swim. The main workout was approximately 90 miles on the bike out to Cave Creek with 4 x 9 miles at IM power pace with 1 mile easy in the middle of the ride, then finishing up with a pace line back to town. Once back it was an instant transition to the run for an hour at IM pace which felt fantastic!

Saturday, was our recovery day where we did the Susan 10K run for Cancer. Louis, Lee and I all won our age groups and Louis was first place overall male and I was the first overall female, you could say that Trismarter dominated the race! Then we did an easy 2000 yard flop in the pool mainly a huge kick set.

Sunday, was game on again, we got up early to beat the sun and ran trail 100 for 23 miles which is a dirt path that would be a perfect Mtn. Bike trail with difficult sections but some fast fun single track. Louis and I got slightly lost making the run longer than planned by two mile and Louis took a digger on one of the down hills. He was in mid sentence saying, “I fell like …. Then I heard him crash to the ground, which said it all!”  He got back up and seeing that he had only lost some skin and would bruise later, I told him he was fine and to finish the run with me, heartless. J He did finish the run and almost beat me. This was a total blast and the time past extremely fast! It is so much fun to run new terrain! After the run we had a major swim set at our outdoor swimming pool which I failed to mention earlier. We got to swim in an outdoor swimming pool all week, it was absolutely glorious! We finished the day with an easy hour and half spin on the bike.

Monday we got up early to hit the pool for a 4500 yard swim. In the afternoon out main workout was riding to South Mountain Park Summit were we did three times hill repeats. By the third one I was so exhausted that I reached the summit shaking; that is a fantastic feeling when you know you gave it everything you had! After the hill repeats we rode back to town totaling 65 miles on the bike and did an easy 15 minute run off the bike to wake up the legs.

Tuesday, again we started with a swim about 4500 yards and then we were planning on doing a repeat of Friday’s bike and run workouts however, I hit the wall, BAD! I had nothing left, at 25 miles out on the bike I was completely lethargic and having a hard time staying awake on the bike. You know those days were you want so badly to push yourself to perform but there is nothing left in the tank; well that is exactly what I was experiencing. I was dropping off the pace line which is extremely rare for me! Lee know I was hurting so we cut the ride short and just rode back to town easy which totaled to about 60 miles. Since I was hurting so bad I didn’t run off the bike.

Wednesday, was the last day off the camp. We swam approximately 4200 yards bright and early. In the afternoon we had our second track workout of the week. By now the legs felt completely trashed during the warm-up and I was thinking to myself how the heck am I going to get through this workout. However, they slowly started to release and it ended up being a great workout. We did 6 x 1 mile repeats with half the interval as recovery. The day was concluded with a 2 hour easy spin up and down the canal were we all laughed the entire time and sang songs.

No one wanted to leave the camp, Thursday was truly a sad day, and we all were leaving the glorious weather in Arizona to come back to snow. Being able to train all day was like a dream come true, we had phenomenal workouts everyday and got in unbelievable amounts of volume at an extremely high intensity.  I had the time of my life, it is so much fun when training is your only concern for an entire week!

I want to thank Lee Gardner for all his help this season so far with Louis and I training, we are hitting intervals and power outputs neither of us has seen prior, it will be a great season, I cannot wait to start racing!  

My first big race of the season is Ironman St. George May 5^th.

The Start of the 2012 Season

I will officially start my training for the 2012 season, December 1, 2011. This past month was a much needed break from scheduled training but now I an rejuvenated and extremely excited to start training for the 2012 season! My first big race of the season will be St. George Ironman, May 5th!

Leaving Hawaii, I Will Be Back!!!

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES DOUBLE

The Hawaiian Airlines “Double” award is given to the amateur man and woman with the fastest combined 2011 XTERRA World Championship and Ironman Hawaii Championship time, a feat reserved for the world’s leading endurance athletes.  Hawaiian Airlines presents the amateur winners with round trip tickets for two from the U.S. mainland West Coast to Maui while pros race for $2,500 cash.

URETA, KEHOE WIN 2011 HAWAIIAN AIRLINES DOUBLE
Pablo Ureta and Danielle Kehoe won the Hawaiian Airlines “Double” award as the competitors with the fastest combined times from the XTERRA World Championship and the Ironman Hawaii Championship.

Ureta had an Ironman time of 9:18:34 two weeks ago, and finished with an XTERRA World Championship time of 2:46:51. Kehoe had an Ironman time of 10:57:13, and an XTERRA World Championship time of 3:22:14, which was fast enough to win the women’s 20-24 age group.

Ureta and Kehoe each received roundtrip airfare between Maui and the west coast of the United States from Hawaiian Airlines.

There were no professionals, male or female, that completed the Double this year.

Xterra World Championship Race Report

This was my last race of a very successful and exciting, but also long season. How was my body going to feel today after only having two weeks to recover from a very brutal race that took it out of me in more ways than one?

I stayed with a teammate and great friend, Tyler Voltz, who wasn’t feeling great two days leading into the race. Was I in danger of catching the same thing since my immune system was already extremely compromised? The morning of the race I could feel a scratchy feeling in my throat, was this going to affect my performance today?  Endless questions ran through my head as I ate breakfast and made my way to the car for the race.

Once we arrived we set up our transition area, Xterra’s transition area is extremely laid back compared to Ironman. Xterra athletes are more relaxed in general and willing to laugh and be social before the race vs. Ironman athletes. This is a huge contrast because, it is almost as if the race starts right when an Ironman athlete wakes up the morning of the race and god forbid they help you or even crack a smile… J

I absolutely love Xterra for keeping even the World Championship low key because any race that I can go into without pressure allows me to do better!

After setting up transition and making a few new friends I got body marked and then it was time to wait for the start. I headed to the ocean and thank goodness it was calm waters. There had been predictions that a major storm was going to roll in the night prior bringing with it 7 foot waves. However, they were 1 foot waves at best, which was good for me since swimming is my weakest part of triathlon and Xterra.

I warmed up by swimming for about 10 minutes then headed to the beach for the traditional Hawaiian prayer and blessing. Then all the athletes lined up on the beach for a canon start. The professional males wore white caps, professional females were in pink, and the entire amateur field was in yellow. Tyler my teammate tapped me on the shoulder and said “hey, look its Lance Armstrong,” sure enough the pro male right next to us on the starting line was Lance! Dang! he looks different now; he has bulked up significantly since being in the Tour De France. What an experience to start a race with Lance Armstrong right beside you, this was truly special for me!

Bang, the canon erupted, leading to mass chaos as all the athletes ran to the water to start the swim loop of 750 meters. Once you completed your first loop you ran on the beach briefly before diving in the ocean again to do the same loop a second time making it a mile swim. I was proud of my swim because I managed to outpace a few of the professional women and exit the water before them, which normally never happens.

After the swim there is a short run up the beach to the transition area. I quickly got ready for the mountain bike and made a decent transition time. Next year, I need to work on getting this a little faster. Once on the mountain bike, I knew I would need to conserve some energy since the first 8 miles were predominately up hill. However, since I didn’t have an excellent swim I was still caught behind a few people who did not have good bike handling skills. The first two miles were really tight switchbacks and fast corners which lead to some people having to dismount their bikes. The problem was this section of the trail was very narrow and almost impossible to pass. So once they were off their bikes everyone behind them had to get off as well to avoid crashing. This caused everyone to lose their momentum and adds significant time to your race.

After a few miles on the bike it opened up to a jeep road which was my moment to shine. I was able to pass a ton of individuals on the climbs. Unfortunately, for every uphill there must be a downhill and this is where I lost a significant amount of time. I was getting destroyed on the downhills. Since I am fairly new at mountain biking, I still struggle descending at speed and maneuvering through technical terrain. Also, since the dirt was really dry and loose if you were following anyone downhill you couldn’t see a thing in front of you because of the massive dust cloud. At points, I asked myself, “Am I even still on the trail?” I had a 50 year old lady pass me on every downhill like I was standing still, she was telling me to lay off the breaks because I was killing my amazing performance. She was right, I had passed a vast amount of people the first half of the course and yet they were not working any harder than I but flying down with no fear. Since, Ironman was my main focus this year I had not been on my mountain bike for about three months prior to arriving in Maui. I know this contributed to my death-grip on the breaks. In the off season, I am going to work really hard on downhill and technical skills, so I can truly crush this course next year!

Once off the bike course, I knew it was my favorite part of Xterra, the trail run! This was a great run course with super challenging uphill and steep downhill sections. The first three miles were predominately climbing with a few short descents providing a break before the next major climb. After this you looped around a lake at the highest point on the course before making your way to a fast, steep and technical downhill section. I was passing tons of people on the run and I felt fantastic. It was funny because hurting in the Ironman so badly two weeks prior made this feel easy, “in comparison”!  “Only 6.9 miles, that’s not bad at all! I passed one male who said, “Girl, you are breathing really hard, you need to pace yourself, I don’t think you can keep that pace the entire time, you’re going to die out.” I told him I was fine and could hold the pace. He then replied, “You better not let me re-pass you on the run.” I said in a joking but stern voice, “oh, you won’t!” I continued to pass more and more people, only one male passed me on the entire run and it wasn’t the same male who committed to me earlier in the race.  I was having an incredible run and I knew I only had one mile to go. It was the hardest part of the run. There was a steep mud section that you had to use your hands to get up and over then you had a killer climb on the road. I was able to power up the hill and to the last downhill section. Finally, the trail kicked you out onto the beach and up the very last hill to the finish. Here, Kathy my teammate and great friend yelled at me to push as hard as I could. She is such a sweetheart and it was just the words I needed to hear, I ran as hard as I could passing four more males on this stretch alone. I crossed the line with such excitement. I had done it; I finished a fantastic year with a great race. I am the 2011, 20-24 year old female World Champion! But I am more excited about winning the Hawaiian Airlines Double, which is the female fastest combined Ironman and Xterra World Championship overall times. I am the only female in the world to complete Ironman 70.3, Ironman, and Xterra World Championships in 2011! 

Again, thank you to my sponsors, LifeQuest Transitions and Wheat Ridge Cyclery, without you this phenomenal adventure and unforgettable experience could have never been possible. Thank you to my family and friends for all your love and support. Thank you God, for guiding me down a truly glorious journey!

King James Version (KJV)- ⁷I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: