Denver Training!

Been in Denver, CO for the past couple of days. Heading home tomorrow morning.  It has been fun to workout in a different city and have to find routes and ways to get it done.  When I arrived on Wednesday, I had to go and pick up some equipment for the convention I am working.  After looking at the distance from where my hotel is to the company I needed to visit, I decided that riding one of the city's bikes for rent would be the way to go.

www.denverbikesharing.org

It was a 15 mile round-trip ride that ended up being pretty fun although the bike wasn't what I am used to riding.  The bike has three gears and none of them were very fast.  I was able to average 15 mph so it wasn't too bad.  But, as you can see from the picture, the bikes are cruisers meant for just tooling around town.  However, the basket feature was perfect because I was bringing back a box that would fit just right.  (You can see the route I took here: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/workout/112683427)

Thursday meant I needed to find a run.  Denver is built around the South Platte River and the city has done a great job of building a bike/run/walk path along the river and some of the waterways that run into it here in the city.  In fact, as I go around Denver, they have lots of bike lanes and things that make it very bike friendly here in the city.  Anyway, back to my run.  Headed out past the convention center and got onto the Cherry Creek Trail, headed towards the South Platte River Trail.  (Here it is: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/workout/113026545) It was a good run and went pretty fast.  I was surprised I wasn't sucking more air than I was but my heart rate was pretty high, I think due to the altitude here.

Friday meant I needed a swim.  The hotel's pool was like all hotel pools, not meant for exercise.  So, I found a club nearby that had a pool and headed out early in the morning.  The pool was saline rather than chlorinated.  Really different, and nice, to swim in.  It was also a 25 meter pool rather than the yard-length pools I am used to swimming in.  Well, because of that little bit of extra distance, my usual 60 laps put me over the 2 mile mark.  So, thrilled that I swam over 2 miles continuously during that workout.  Was swimming pretty well it seems too.  Did the main part of workout, 60 laps/120 lengths/3000m in 58:25 so that was pretty fast for me.  There is always the possibility I miss-counted one lap but even still, I felt good about the swim.

Also on Friday I went for a short run during lunch.  I also discovered that the app I use for tracking my biking and running has an office here in Denver that wasn't too far away.  So, I made part of my run a stop over at their office here just to say I appreciated their app and used it regularly.  That was kinda fun to do.

Overall, the workouts have been good.  Haven't gotten one in today but hope to by the end of the day. Race day is now less than one month away!

16th Street Mall in Denver

Loved the look of this

Where I have been spending my time