Life As A Pro: Colorado Edition

'Tis my second day in Colorado visiting my friend Randi in Highlands Ranch, about 20 minutes south of Denver. Today was a good 3500 meter swim in a long course pool with two damn fast swimmers, one a former 1:52 200 butterflier and the other a 2004 Olympic Trials qualifer; not quite the peeps I want to do my first workout at 5800 feet elevation. Warm-up was fine and I didn't feel the altitude too much but during our first pre-main set, I definitely felt the lack of oxygen. I backed off a bit but by the time we got to the main set, I felt good and was able to really push it and was able to hold the intervals and catch back up to the other two. It was then off to get some food to fuel my run later that afternoon. I opted not to do the Boulder Stroke and Stride [swim-run]race just because I wasn't in the mood to drive all the way out to Boulder and the weather looked like a storm was coming. I opted to do a 10.5 mile run instead where I did a 1.5 mile loop in this awesome park 7 times, my favorite type of workout--monotonous, repetitive, and lots of splits! I felt awesome and it ended up being a great tempo run and altitude was not a factor. I got home to Randi who had dinner waiting for me [an awesome bean/olive/cheese salad and chicken cacciatore], can it get any better? The weather in Denver is amazing, it's hot but not too hot, it's not humid, it stays warm until late evening so you can walk around in flip flops and shorts and though it sprinkled on me during the run, it was warm rain and it reminded me of the warm rain when I was in Kauai [And Boyd, Randi's husband wanted me to add that there are no bugs here!]. I think I just may have to plan a training camp some time here next summer. Did I mention that I'm eating really really well? This morning, Randi and I finally did what I wanted to do all summer, buy a juicer and add any and all types of green veggies [kale, broccoli, celery, swiss chard, spinach, and cucumber]. We drank the juice and I swear, I felt any inkling of potential cancer leaving my body. Now this is a vacation.