Bib number seven proved once again to not be such a lucky number for me. Flash back to mid-June in Richmond, VA with a less than stellar performance as No. 7. Coming into Tahoe I was once again “lucky” No. 7. Well, that didn’t pan out as I had hoped either.

Here is how the day went down. I had my usual lack-luster swim that left me mid-pack in the pros and with several amateurs in front of me on the bike. The cold water swim (58 degrees!) left me pretty chilled starting out on the bike, but once I got warmed up I got in a solid groove. A few minutes up the Tunnel Creek climb, mountain bike phenom Brian Smith caught up to me and I gladly latched on to his wheel. I was climbing well, right on his wheel up the 25-minute 1600 foot climb moving rapidly up through the field. Once the climb was behind us, we absolutely flew across the Flume Trail, blew past Marlette Lake and hammered the last climb up to the Tahoe Rim Trail.

I thought things were looking good and I might just climb my way into the top ten before the day was over. Then trouble number one occurred. I was ripping the Rim Trail descent at full speed just trying to stay in contact with Smith. Then I blew my rear tire! I kept my cool and made a quick rear tube change, unfortunately letting two other pass me in the process. Once back on the bike, I had lost my mojo and wasn’t able to descend quite as fluidly. Then at nearly the end of the single track, I lost control of the bike and went over the bars at high speed. I hit my head pretty good, cracking my helmet and leaving me dazed for a short bit. I got up and got going as quickly as possible after having Jimmy Archer pass me in the mean time.

I made the final fire road decent into transition and headed off on the run. I was bruised and battered and morale was fading. I tried to push it on the run, but the hard breathing was hurting my ribs a bit. I knew I had to hold strong and finish at least 15th position to secure my 7th place series finish.

Well, somehow I managed to pull it off and finished 15th on the day. Despite the disappointing days result, I was happy to hold onto the 7th place series overall as a first year pro. So with the season coming to a close and all my goals having been met, I can say I am satisfied with my performance and find myself already thinking about next year and what might be possible. Time will tell.

Suprise, suprise… I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. I slept right threw it all so it was a chilly suprise.

The view from my bedroom window this morning

The plan was to head out early before the sport race took off. I put on all of the clothes I had brought and off we went. The snow was sparse around Incline Village but as we headed up the climb the snow began to become more and more prevelent.

2/3 of the wayup Tunnel Creek Road

Once to the top of the climb and onto the Flume Trail snow was everywhere. Our feet and hands were frozen so we decided to bag the ride and turn back before the Sport racers make their way up.

The snow covered Flume Trail. What a difference a day makes.

Okay, sorry for the delay in PW reports. I’ll get you caught up.

PW #3, performed last Thursday, was a TT test up Lookout Mountain on the road bike followed by a 45-minute run off the bike with 2×15 minutes at race pace with 3 minutes easy between efforts. Well, my bike test didn’t go as well as hoped. Despite feeling good for the first half of the climb, I was 2 minutes off my times from earlier in the year. The run after felt good and leg turnover was high.

PW #4, performed last Sunday, was another bike test. This time on the mountain bike up Lookout Mountain on the Chimney Gulch trail. Again, I was feeling good, but ended up nearly two-minutes off my times from earlier in the year over the 30+ minute climb. I followed this up with a run TT up the same trail. Running felt good and was less than a minute off best times, so running not so bad on the run.

Now this week….

Monday and Tuesday were easy swim days to let the body recover. Wednesday was my travel day to Lake Tahoe (day off from training). Thursday was my final PW, on the race course. I rode the bike course including two 15 minutes race pace efforts on the climbs. Again, I feel good, but the power is lacking a bit. After the bike, I ran one lap of the two-lap the run course just under race pace and again felt pretty good. I also threw in a short swim in the lake with Trevor and James, two racing buddies from California I’m staying with, to test the water (quite chilly) and loosen up the arms.

So there it is. Bike power is little low (which was to be expected after only peaking 6-weeks ago) but my run actually doing pretty well. Today (Friday) will be a low-key rest day with little to training at all depending on how I’m feeling. Then Saturday will be my race warm-up day and then Sunday is the big day.

Enjoy some photos from our ride yesterday below. The terrain around here is so beautiful and the bike course covers some of the nicest singletrack I’ve ever ridden with the Flume trail, over looking the lake with dramatic views and big drop-offs on one side, and the Tahoe Rim Trail that goes for 165 miles high in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

The historic Flume Trail

Views from the Flume…..

……more views from the Flume

Fire road section around Marlette Lake, halfway up the climb

The Tahoe Rim Trail, we only get 6 miles, imagine 165 miles of this!

The final descent down Tunnel Creek Road (same road we climb at the beginning to get to the Flume)

Here are some sweet videos (credit James Walsh):

Peak Workout #2 went off as planned. Two hour mountain bike ride (Mt. Falcon/Lair O’ Bear Loop from Morrison) with a 25-minute LT climb and fast singletrack descending followed by an 8 mile flat, twisty single track run off the bike with 3x 10-minutes at race pace with 3-minute recoveries in the first 40 minutes finishing up with 20-minutes easy to round out the three-hour session.

The bike went well. I equaled my time up the Mt Falcon climb from recent previous attempts (just over 25′ from the gate to the ramada), so my bike power seems to be reasonably good despite the extra running over the last few weeks. Coming off the bike and onto the run felt great. Good leg speed right away and feeling pretty snappy on the run.

The next 2-3 days will be very light with a few swim sessions and recovery rides and a short run to rest up for the next PW scheduled for either Wed or Thur next week. PW #3 will be a formal power field test on the road bike to see where I’m at power wise on the bike, followed by another race pace transition run. So far things are looking and feeling pretty good. I’ll keep you posted.

CW

If you’ve been following my blog for the last few months now, you are already familiar with my Peak Workout Phase of training leading up to priority events. If not, I’ll refresh you’re memory.

The final phase of training leading up to an A-priority race I implement what I call the Peak Workout Phase, or PW Phase. In this 2-4 week long phase I incorporate Peak Workouts (PW’s) along with plenty of recovery between sessions leading up to my big race. I find this allows me to develop race specific intensity with 2x/week bike-run combo sessions helping me stay sharp followed by 2-3 days of easy recovery/skill based sessions to allow for adequate absorption and recovery hopefully leading me to a “peak” level of fitness come race day. For past examples of what I’ve done in this phase check out my training log link along the right side of this page or read archived posts from early June and August of this year.

Yesterday was PW #1 of the five I will be doing over the next three weeks leading up to Tahoe. My workout consisted of 2 hour hilly road ride with 4×10 minutes at LT power with 5 minutes of easy riding between. Immediately following the ride, I hit the trails for a 60-minute run with 3×10 minutes at race pace with 5 minutes of easy jogging between.

I felt a bit sluggish on the bike, which I think is stemming from the faster running I’ve been doing over the last two weeks. The run felt pretty good, especially after the the first 15 minutes. Overall, not a bad first PW. Sunday will be PW #2 which will be on the mountain bike and again on the trails. Until then, I’ll get some good swim sessions in and a couple easy recovery bike and run sessions. This way I’ll be fresh and ready to go for the PW. I’ll let you know how it goes.

CW

Last week I finished up my short 2-week prep phase for Nationals. The final weekend included an endurance swim followed by a 12-mile endurance trail run on Saturday, and then an endurance mountain bike ride of epic proportions on Sunday.

Putting on the leg warmers for a chilly 8 am start

OK, I’m back. Since Ogden I have been very slack on keeping up with the blog as well as my training logs. I’m now getting caught back up and on track for my final races over the next eight weeks. What are my plans to get me ready for these events? Read on.

Now…. the way I had my season developed last November was to come to an early season peak in June for the Alabama/Richmond Xterra races. Then recover and rebuild to an even higher peak for my A-priority race of the year, Ogden, in August. Two peaks in one season is usually considered the max any athlete can truly achieve. However, as it worked out for me this year I have two final races after my A-priority race that are big events that I’d like to do well in: Xterra National Championships in Lake Tahoe (end of Sept.) and Xterra World Championships in Maui (end of Oct.). It’s unlikely that from my big peak in August that I will be able to reach a higher peak (or even an equal peak) in September or October. There just simply isn’t enough time to do the necessary training to get there. So this leaves me with the option of attempting to take a short rest following my A-race to recover, follow that with some higher volume maintenance work and then try and repeat the Peak Workout Phase that worked so well for me in August and hope that I can come somewhere close to the form I had in Ogden.

So…. after Ogden I took a week real easy with very little training, just a few short bike rides and runs to allow myself to recover from the race, a trip to the chiropractor to get the kinks worked out, time to review my results and progress and finally devise my plan for Nationals and Worlds. After that easy week, I was left with five weeks until the National Championships in Tahoe. In all honesty five weeks isn’t really enough time to make any significant gains in fitness or speed so what I was into maintenance mode before entering my Peak Workout phase in the final weeks before Tahoe.

The plan basically has/will consist of two weeks of higher volume training. In the weeks leading up to Ogden my volume was reduced each week allowing me to gain freshness or “form” for a peak performance. Well it obviously worked well for the race, which was the priority, but the reduced volume over time will lead to loss of fitness. This is why volume is the main focus in the first two weeks.

Each week has/will consist of the following: three swimming sessions (one long endurance, one race pace intervals, one above race pace/speed short intervals); four bike sessions (two long 5+ hour endurance climbing rides, two shorter recovery/skills rides); three to four run sessions (one long endurance, one race pace intervals, one speed intervals).

After the two higher volume weeks I will move into my Peak Workout Phase that I utilized to reach peak form for Ogden (see early August posts for more details). Basically I will do one mid-week and one weekend bike/run combo session each week over the last three weeks leading up to Tahoe. The sessions will have a race pace (i.e. lactate threshold) emphasis to prepare me for the race.

That’s the plan, and I’m sticking to it. With Tahoe being another high-altitude climbing bike course, I feel I have a decent chance of cracking the top-10 one more time this year. Maui will be just a crap-shoot. The bike course has lots of climbing and I know I can do well there if I can avoid punctures and crashes. With the increased international competition in Maui a top-10 finish is unlikely, but not out of the question. One thing’s for certain, I will be trying to pull it off.

Stay tuned for progress reports as the days count down.

CW