Xterra SE Championship race report (Richmond, VA)

Today I completed my first Xterra race ever. What a blast! This experience is very different from any road/"normal" triathlon. The three biggest differences to me were:

1) 100% pure adrenaline for the entire swim and bike. 85% adrenaline and concentration required on trail run. You have to be focused and there is very little pacing, especially on the mountain bike.
2) Dirty. Makes for great fun. Crashes, dust, water crossings. Huge variety.
3) Friendly. Egos are waaay down. No elitist mentality. The pros are hanging out with everyone giving tips and very approachable. Everyone else is trying to help each other understand the swim challenges and helping fellow mountain bikers out of ditches.

I learned a great many things about Xterra and triathlon in general today. Here is my version of my day.

The sport version of the race began at 8AM. Because I was with a friend who was racing that race I arrived early to rack my bike for my Xterra Championship race at 10:30AM. I immediately learned that I had nowhere to put my e-tabs as it was going to be 94 degrees by afternoon. I solved this problem with some tape borrowed from the bike mechanics. I also learned that laced mountain bike shoes are not good for triathlon. Can't believe I missed that one. I was able to rack my bike very close to the bike in/out because I was so early. I also racked about 10 feet from the pros - Melanie McQuaid, Jamie Whitmore, Conrad Stolz, etc. Very cool.

Once my transition was set up I grabbed my camera and went to body marking. After body marking I headed over to the start of the sport race. 500m swim, 15k mtn bike, and a 5K they had to do. Got some cool pics of the swim start then proceeded to get good pics of my friend Missy Grant who went on to take 4th overall in women! Congrats Missy!

Once the sport race ended it was time to get to the swim start for the Xterra, a 1200m swim, 40K mtn bike, and 10K trail run. I made sure all my gear was set including my spare shoes which I took out of T1 since they would be waiting for me at the swim exit. It was, after all, about a 400m nasty run from swim exit to T1. Somebody recommended I put my bike gloves with my shoes so I could put them on as I ran to T1 to save time. Great idea it seemed.

At 10:33, just two minutes before the first group was to begin, a train went across the bridge directly over the swim start area. It was surreal as the train blew its horn and the cannon to start the first wave sounded. My start came 4 minutes after the elite start. Bang!

As usual, I began a conservative swim using my mediocre bilateral breathing technique. And, as usual, I stopped swimming bilateral about 50 yards into the swim. Let me tell you about this swim. It was unique in that its in the James River so there is current. And the race organizers have to get very creative to get the 1200m fit in. And there are many spots you can actually stand up in the swim (and many people do). Thankfully I had done a swim clinic on Friday so I knew a few secrets. One was to keep swimming and don't stand on the rocks. Despite all the advice I had received it was all neutralized since I quickly fell into my horrible habit - the left breathing "comfort" stroke where my left arm crosses the centerline weakening my stroke. This slows me down tremendously. After rounding a few buoys I began breathing right and improved my stroke slightly. But now I had to contend with a lot of sighting since I have no idea how straight I swim with right breathe. To make a long swim story short I'll tell you two things. One, this was the most confident I've ever been in an open water swim. And I had no wetsuit. That is good. Unfortunately I neglected to execute several of the tips I had received on how to swim in specific areas that have heavier current. This meant a more zig zag swim with some real hammers into river current. Overall swim time 31:10. About 2/3 back in my age group. Got passed by many 40 and overs as well as a few women. But learned a lot.

Upon exiting the water I had a good run to T1 and felt great. I had put my gloves on only to discover I'm the only fool with lace up shoes on his bike. T1 turned into my longest transition ever due to this and complications with my camelback. I was glad to get out of there.

Once I was on my 12 year old Specialized Stump Jumper things got better. The course began on the parts of the trail I knew well and I began the passing game with a ratio of about 5:1. I passed 5 for every 1 that passed me. Pretty good I thought. And remember that its a lot tougher to pass on singletrack which comprised about 75% of this bike course. Overall my bike was pretty good I thought. After all this was the fourth time in 5 years I had been on a mountain bike. I had to run my bike 6-8 times and I only had one minor crash. I was even able to hammer all the way up some parts that riders with fancy mountain bikes were walking up. My bike strength and general endurance definitely helped. About 1/2 of the entire 40K was on a stretch of pretty challenging singletrack I had never rode. But I kept up and kept passing.

The bike was great too because I talked to riders, stopped to help those who were crashed or broken down, and just generally enjoyed hammering through the hills and trees. In some areas there were crowds cheering riders as they attempted challenging descents. I never embarrassed myself in front of the crowds. I even got a few "you go honey" and "looking strong" comments. They probably say that to all the old guys on old-fashioned hard tail bikes. The end of the ride came faster than it felt like it took. 1:46 total at over 10MPH average.

T2 went waaay smoother than T1. Nothing notable there.

The run is my fun. While I didn't scorch the earth I did feel pretty good about my 10K. A far cry from the 38-42 minutes I can pull off on flat earth but solid for the weather and the terrain. I was never passed on the run and I suspect I made up 30-40 places with passes during the run. I kicked it into high gear for the last 1.5miles and finished very strong and not feeling blown up. Run time 50:49.

Nutrition during the day:
T1 - none
Bike - 3 gels, 40 ozs gatorade endurance, 15 ounces water, 2 e-tabs
Run - 30ozs gatorade endurance, 20ozs water

I finished #21 out of 45 in my seemingly-ultra-competitive bracket. I was mildly disappointed in that until two veterans of Xterra I was racked up next to told me that is great for this race considering the competition that travels from all over to do this unique race. That made me feel even better about the day. I will be curious to see my overall standings.

I loved Xterra. I will be back to that lifestyle after IM Wisconsin.

The Art of the Mangled Xterra Taper

Triathlon has a lot of words associated with it. Some words I have learned (or words that have been re-defined) over the past year that have become near and dear to me include but are not limited to:

T1, T2, VO2 max, turbo spin, tubulars, clinchers, catch-up, lactate threshold, Max HR, HR zone, Xterra, periodization...I could go on...low GI, electrolyte tabs, brick, t-run...

My favorite this week is the word "taper". I have several friends competing next week in an Ironman (CDA) and they are tapering now. What is a taper? I think its when you systematically back off your training in a methodical way before an event in order to rest your body. This is because your event is one requiring a significantly greater than normal effort and you want maximum performance.

This week I am personally abusing my own mini-taper due to poor planning and even one or two circumstances beyond my control (no such thing in triathlon training?). Its a story about how I've decimated this week's workout and taper. I have my first Xterra event Saturday which will likely be difficult. And I would like to do well (against myself). As a result I had a very carefully planned taper this week.

On day 1 of my taper week, Monday, I did a short, easy spin and some weights but I missed my regular Monday swim thinking I would move it to Tuesday. Then I got busy (self inflicted problem) Tuesday and did a mountain bike ride only. Today, I missed my swim and my road bike due to thunder and lightning so I have done nothing (this too is self inflicted as I could have at least rode inside or in the rain between storms). Tomorrow, previously scheduled as a ride-only day, I am thinking about making up a bike, short run, and moderate swim to catch up but I only have from 5:45AM-8AM to cram it all in. Then I travel all day Thursday and Friday. Oh, did I mention I'm not running right now due to injury?

So, in order to ice the cake on this anti-taper I think I need to go eat a big dinner and have a glass of wine to celebrate my missed workouts. Bring on the weekend and Xterra so I can end this mess and have some HUGE FUN!!!

Kerr Lake Times Adjusted

Since they adjusted times for everyone its was all relative so I kept third in my age group. But it did give me a faster swim (and run) which is always nice. And it gave my friend Joe his coveted finish in under 2:40! See here for times and details.

Kerr Lake Int'l Distance Tri Race Report...and ugly feet.

Sunday, 4:30AM: Wake up to thunder and lightning. Fall back asleep
Sunday, 4:50AM: Wake up and put watch under my pillow thinking I'm plenty awake...and trying not to let the sound of the alarm at 5:05AM wake my wife.
Sunday, 5:22AM: Miss alarm, wake up and realize I'm going to be late if I don't get to my meeting spot in 8 minutes for the hour ride to the race. Yikes.

That's how my day began. Luckily it got better. I quickly took care of my business upon awakening since my bike was already loaded and my gear prepped. Jumped in the car and got to the meeting spot 15 minutes late. Grabbed the rest of the crew and hit the road.

Arrival at the race site was met with rain and wind. I DECIDED TO LEAVE MY HR MONITOR/WATCH IN THE CAR. This was a "C" race, after all, so this gave me a calmness regarding the effort I would exert. Registration and transition set up went fine despite the weather. I had brought plenty of plastic gear storage bags. And my non-racing friends there cheering helped me get my gear to and from the car.

OK, lets skip to the race. Swim start went smoothly. As usual it didn't take me long to end up at the back of my wave. I did stay with a handful of other blue caps the whole time, but I noticed many, many yellow caps passing me as well as a few pinks. Yes, I was getting hammered as usual by the waves behind me. I kept my weak pace and thankfully swam pretty straight. Swim exit at about 34min for the 15000m. Slow.

My wetsuit removal got challenging in T1 so I sat down and took it off somewhat casually. My bike shoes were clipped in so it was just a matter of strapping on number and helmet then running through the mud barefooted to my first shoeless bike start. Shoeless transition was a major success as my strap in went outstanding once I got up to some speed!

Passes on the bike were few and far between. I estimate that I passed about 20 bikes, including two friends, and got passed by 3 or 4 bikes. The rain only slowed us down marginally. Just rolling resistance slow down, not puddles or rain in your face. I did back off slightly during the bike but remembered my discussion with my coach - if I wanted to go hard on anything in a C race it should be the bike. So I did put out a strong effort with a likely negative split. Not the greatest result but solid. Bike finish at about 1:07 for 40K. Half a bottle of gatorade endurance and one gel consumed.

T2 smooth. Drank some more gatorade and chose to go no socks since it was so sloppy. Turned out to be a fine choice during the race but I'm paying today. See feet. Run started off marginal with a missed turn at the end of a long road. Maybe 10 seconds cost. From there, after seeing some of my friends who were obviously positioned to finish near or ahead of me, I picked it up. Hammered the last mile for a certain negative split. Run time about 1:41 for 10K. Cytomax sips all along the way on the fly.

Overall results about 2:26. Good enough for third place in the 35-39 age group. My first "medal finish"!!!!

It was a great day despite the weather. Many of my friends from the Finley YMCA had outstanding races. Congrats to all of them!

I'm a Global Athlete Now

About a month ago I received an unsolicited email from Carlos Pinto. Who is Carlos Pinto you ask? Carlos is the mind behind www.endorphinum.de. Yes, Endorphinum. Not a "dot com" or a "dot org" but a "dot de". Based in Germany I believe (Ein Bier, Bitte?). The caption you see here explains the beginnings of Endorphinum.

Carlos had stumbled across my globally available LuckyTri blog which, to date, has given me a stunning amount a feedback and commentary from at least 7 citizens of our globe. Carlos must have found something compelling because he asked me to send a few photos and answer a bunch of questions (in English thank goodness) about myself and my sports background. And now I'm proud to say I've been published yet again (the first time was in Endurance Magazine a few months back). This time, however, I'm published IN THREE LANGUAGES WITH GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION! Check out my profile on page 48 of Endorphinum's June issue. A very cool global interest magazine using some great technology! Endorphinum is now on my bookmarks to peruse each month along with my hard copy of Endurance Magazine. Thanks Carlos and keep up the good work.