Under cloudy skies and intermittent light rain, I followed the script I wrote over 7 weeks ago to the letter (see blog entry from July 16th: Operation Ogden).

This morning in Utah the skies were overcast and slightly cool after the rains that fell yesterday afternoon and overnight. After what felt like a less than stellar swim, I emerged from the water with my usual 4 minute deficit on leader, Seth Wealing, and 3 minutes back on the Conrad Stoltz, Mike Vine, Josiah Middaugh, Michael Simpson, Greg Krause group. Unofficially, I was in about 30th overall leaving T1.

Once on the bike, my race officially began with a full-throttle assault on the bike. As you may remember from my original tactical goals for the race, reaching T2 in third place was necessary if I was to have a chance at the podium. I quickly gained my climbing rhythm on the bike and began to steadily decrease my 4 minute deficit on the leaders. Per the plan, I gave it everything on the bike and drilled it up the final long climb clawing myself into 4th position, after finding Stoltz and Vine with flat tires, and bringing the leaders into view on the final switchbacks and within 2 minutes. On the final descent into T2 I closed the gap on Greg Krause and moved into 3rd place heading into the run. After posting the second fastest bike split of the day, only 20 seconds off Brian Smith’s fastest split, I was left in the ideal position I was looking for.

Once on the run, I was running scared. I knew that Krause should out run me and I also knew that Brian Smith wouldn’t be too far behind and could also run me down along with not to mention several other fast runners that I left in my wake on the bike. I hung with Krause on the initial climb but couldn’t hang on the rocky descent. Next to come by was Smith. After that I was determined to hold on and give it my all to the finish.

Extremely pleased, I crossed the line in 5th place to meet my main season goal of a top 5 finish in a national race and potentially secured my other goal of a top 10 overall ranking for the national series. Hoo-ah!

.

Yesterday was my travel day. Eight hours of driving (food/rest stops included) I found myself just outside of Ogden and I crashed in a cheap hotel in Heber City, Utah. This morning after a couple blueberry muffins, two bananas and a 2% cappuccino with extra milk from the local cafe, I was Snowbasin bound. Snowbasin Ski Area, 15 miles outside of Ogden, is where the actual event takes place. This race is unique in the fact that there are two separate transition locations. The start of the race and T1 is at Pineview Reservoir.

Pineview Reservoir

Down here it is 90+ degrees, there are people water skiing and sunning themselves on the sandy beaches lining the lake. Once on the bike you climb, climb and climb some more, before the final descent into T2 at the Snowbasin Ski Area 2500 feet above the reservoir below. From T2 you run a 5+ mile loop run mostly on trails and dirt service roads. As you would expect there is more climbing from the get go and finishes with a long steep descent into the finish back in front of the ski lodge.

My Peak Workout (PW) plan was to park at T2, ride down the paved road 8 miles down to T1, ride the course back up to T2 before changing to running shoes and previewing the run course. The ride/run would be mostly at an endurance pace with a few short (5-10 minute) race pace efforts along the way to keep the legs fresh and test the equipment. From T1 the bike starts with 1 mile along a paved road before putting rubber-to-dirt. No time is wasted once on the dirt and the climbing begins with a 15 minute gradual grind up a rocky double-track.

Opening rocky climb

Once up the double-track climb you cross a paved road and hit the single-track. The terrain is very arid, dry and dusty. After a short bit you round a turn and Snowbasin come into view for the first time from below. The towering rocky peaks remind you how far remains and how much elevation gain lays in front of you.

Snowbasin and T2 looms in the distance

After many miles of gradual, fast paced climbing you reach Snowbasin for the first time. However you’re not done yet. There is still a 6-mile loop yet to be ridden that takes up much more severe climbs above the ski area before the final descent back down to T2. The final six miles are by far the most difficult. The climbs get very steep and I found my lightweight climbing tires I have chosen have some difficult maintaining traction on the steepest, loosest stuff. This may require brief dismounts and run-ups during the race. I still think I will be faster with the lighter tires and running the steep stuff rather than using heavier tires and possibly riding the steeps. Once reaching the higher elevations of the course you are rewarded with aspen forests and great views.

Nice aspen lined single-track

Panoramic view from the top of the course looking down to Pineview Res. from whence we came

The final few miles of the course consists of fast, tight and sometimes technical descending. The descent will only continue to get rougher over the course of the week from braking of the many riders riding the course. Again, my lightweight (ie. minimal tread) tires selection left me wanting a little more rubber under me. However once again, I figure the lightness will payoff over the longer climbing sections compared to any time lost on the shorter descending sections.

Saturday was my second to last PW before Ogden. I started with a 30 minute open water swim followed by a 90 minute mountain bike ride, with 3×10 at LT, followed by a 30 minute trail run, with the first 20 minutes at LT. All said and done, it was a solid effort in the heat and I feel that all systems are go! I feel ready to put in a great effort next Saturday and reach a new finish PR.

Today was a complete rest day, which allowed me to go up to Boulder to watch the 5430 Long Course triathlon. It was fun to watch. I found myself really missing the road tri’s this year. Next year I will certainly add more of those to my schedule. Not only are they great training, but good tests against other top athletes.

Tuesday I am off to Ogden. It’s a 7 hour drive, so I figure I will get it over with earlier rather than later in the week. Wednesday will be my final PW with a pre-ride of the course to make my final tire selections and get the kinks out after the travel day on Tuesday. The big day is less than one week away. Getting excited!

CW

PW #3: 30 minute LT effort on the mountain bike followed by 30 minute LT effort transition run. I perform this workout on the same course and record my times for comparisons to previous PW’s.

My course of choice is the Chimney Gulch trail that climbs lookout Mountain in Golden. I ride for time up it on the bike, ride easy over to and down the Apex trail and back to my car. From there I transition to a timed run back up the Chimney Gulch trail and then jog back down.

Things are coming around after the previous two lack-luster PW’s last week. Today I managed to reach PR’s on both the bike and run TT’s that were both new PR’s the last time I did this workout in June this year. I took exactly a minute of the bike with a time of 30:30 and just shy of 30 seconds off the run with a 32:05. That means I’m two and half minutes faster up that climb on the bike from last year at this time and nearly two minutes faster on the run! That signals continued improvements in both areas and gives me much needed confidence heading into Ogden.

Peak Workout # 2, this last Saturday, was to consist of a 25 mile cross-country mountain bike race followed by a 45 minute transition run with the first 20 minutes at LT. The mountain bike race was the 5th race in the Winter Park mountain bike series held in, you guessed it, Winter Park. The course had about 4000 ft of climbing over 25 miles so I figured it would make for a good Ogden training day. Apparently I wasn’t alone in that thought, as fellow Xterra competitor Greg Krouse was up there along with a U23 mountain bike National Team member and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (JHK) for a good training session. For those of you not familiar with JHK, he is the top US mountain biker and one of the top racers on the World Cup circuit and will be also representing the US in the 2008 Olympics. So, you could say he is no slouch.

Anyway, as you could imagine when the gun went off it was full speed ahead up the first climb. Luckily, despite not being know for having the best starts (I always hated the starts of mtn bike races) I managed to hang onto the back of the 12-man train that formed from the 35 or so starters up the opening fire-road climb. Once the road transitioned to singletrack the race blew apart and it was every man for himself. Over the first half of the course I clawed my way into 4th place after Greg Krause had mechanical troubles. Three quarters of the race down and I began to fade. I discovered that I didn’t bring enough calories on board and with no feed zones on this point-to-point course I was beginning to bonk. Over the final climb and descent I managed to slip a few places as I was in survival mode just to reach the finish on fumes. At one hour, fifty-five minutes I crossed the line in 8th place, exactly 10 minutes behind the Olympian that took first.

After the bonking experience, I knew the run was going to be difficult. I took few minutes to get in some calories and fluids so I could at least continue on with my run. However, I made the decision it would be best to shorten the run a bit, rather than run the full 45 minutes in a depleted state (as it was, it was going to take a few days to recover from this without the run). After 15 minutes of 6:20 miles on rolling dirt trails I decided to jog back and call it good.

So once again, my Peak Workout didn’t go exactly as planned, but I still feel that I am on track for a solid Ogden performance in a week and a half. Top 5 will certainly be a challenge, but I figure if I aim high and miss, I’ll still most likely manage a personal best finish.

After taking Sunday off to recover from the bonking episode and easier skills workouts Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday will be Peak Workout #3. I plan to hopefully break PR’s on my Chimney Gulch Hill Climb on both the bike and run. That will confirm my readiness for the big show. We’ll see on Wednesday.

CW

Well, my first of 5 “Peak Workouts” leading up to Ogden didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. No doubt I still had some residual fatigue from the Crested Butte race effort on Sunday. At least that will be my excuse. Here are the details:

Objective of “Peak Workout 1″ – LT power test up Lookout Mountain on the road bike, followed by 3×2 mile LT run efforts separated by 2 minutes of rest. The test data should confirm my progress on the bike while getting in 30 minutes of LT work (test plus warm-up) on the bike. The transition run will be more race pace work on tired biking legs totaling 30 minutes of LT work.

Results of “Peak Workout 1″ – After warming-up properly on my way out to Golden, I conducted my LT power test to determine current FTP (functional threshold power, Coggan). Results were 271 avg power in 20:29 with avg HR at 172 bpm. That is 4 watts less and 40 seconds slower than same test performed back in June. Still pretty close to what is expected, but I know I was feeling tired about half up the mountain, indicating fatigue from my race on Sunday. I was looking for 280+ watts to get close to my previous bests. I’ll consider a possible re-test in the next few weeks to confirm.

After the lack-luster bike effort, I decided to shorten the run effort to 2×2 miles with the first interval on the lower side of LT to see how I feel. I ended up running pretty well on the first one, 6:20 miles, and ramped it up to 6 minute miles on the second one. Over the final 2 miles I threw in six 18 second strides with 60 foot strikes each to keep the leg speed up. Leg speed on the run is something I need to work on for next year.

The bike was a bit disappointing, but the run was good, so overall it was a successful peak session. The next two days will be recovery in nature, some swimming and easy riding and running. Then Saturday will be “Peak Workout 2″ consisting of either a local sprint triathlon or a mountain bike race followed by another LT run. I’ll let you know how it goes.

CW