Cary and I made it to Temecula on Thursday morning. That afternoon we headed out to the Xterra West Championship course for a preview of what’s to come on race day. The course here in SoCal is a pretty good one for me. Hot, dry, hard climbs and fast singletrack on the bike. The swim is held in the private Vail Lake. Water temp is expected to be low-to-mid seventies, perhaps a non-wetsuit swim. The run is wicked steep. Steep ups, steep downs. Exposed and hot conditions make it one of the tougher runs out there in Xterra.

Views of Vail Lake from the top of the climb

Cary on the fast rollie ridgeline descent

Thursday’s ride/run combo session was my last Peak Workout, #6, before race day. My plan was to ride the full two lap bike course followed by one lap of the 1.5 lap run course. On the ride I opened up the throttle to full on the only significant climb of the course on both laps (2×15 minutes) at race pace. On the run I started hard up the monster opening climb (8 minutes) and hit hard two more time for another 2-3 minutes each. The intention here is to keep the fitness fire stoked and all cylinders firing for the big day. I can say I felt quite good on both the bike and run and feel that I may have timed this peak pretty well.

Yesterday (Friday) was a recovery day with no workouts planned. Stay off the feet, hydrate and replenish glycogen was the name of the game. After catching up on some work in the morning, Cary and I drove down to San Diego for the day. We met with my coach, Arnie Baker, for lunch and a visit. After that we headed over to Barnes & Noble for a coffee and computer/magazine time. Then later grabbed dinner before heading back to pick up Julie at the airport and welcome Ed and his brother Dave in from their long drive from Denver.

Me and Arnie (how about those man-pri’s? I figured I was in California)

With half of our newly formed Xterra Team we here in Temecula, we headed out early for another course pre-ride to loosen up after Friday’s recovery day. Man was it HOT! 100 degrees according to the temp. guage in the car. With no reprieve in sight, it looks like tomorrow will be a tough one with the added heat.

Half the Xterra Team and Ed’s brother Dave (from left: cody, dave, ed, cary and julie, nice duds!)

How to prepare for the heat tomorrow? Water and pretzels all day. I figure a gallon of water and 4000mg of salt will come in handy tomorrow.

All of the big names are here for the season opener. I’m feeling fresh and anxious to get things under way. I’m not one to make predictions on results, however I do like to have a goal and a plan heading into my races. Tomorrow it will be all about the bike (as it usually is for me). I plan to have an improved swim coming out of the water within 3 minutes of the leaders and 2 minutes from the second group. I am going to pretty much lay it all out there on the bike, with the goal of coming into transition in the top five. I’d love to grab the third fastest bike split after Conrad Stoltz and Steve Larsen. After that I will switch from attack mode to survival mode and try to limit my losses and come finish in the top-10.

So there you have it. Enough talk. Let’s do it!

CW

Today was Peak Workout #3: Chimney Gulch TT on the mountain bike followed by a Chimney Gulch TT on the run. This is a session I do the week before my A-priority races every season. The TT test on the mtn bike and run allows me to compare my fitness from season to season. The course is a 4-ish mile singletrack hill climb gaining about 2000 feet of elevation.

Today the bike took me 31:03 and the run took me 32:15. My previous bests from last year were 30:30 on the bike and 32:05 on the run. This was in mid-August before Ogden which ended up being my best race finishing 5th place on the podium. This means I’m about 30 seconds off my bike pace and basically the same on the run. I’ll be honest and admit that I was hoping to break my previous PR’s but I came up a bit short. However, I’m pretty satisfied with the results. I don’t feel 100% yet as it’s still early season, yet I’m already right up there with my best fitness from last year.

The next few days will consist of more recovery sessions before a tune-up sprint tri on Sunday. Look for a quick report Sunday night.

CW

MSC Podium Shot

I managed to pull off another win in the semi-pro Mountain States Cup race held last weekend in Nathrop, CO. Entering my first week of Peak Phase training I had the 28 mile cross country mountain bike race on my schedule as a hard race pace effort to be followed by a hard run. I toed the line feeling pretty good and was able to pull off my second win in the XC series. It feels great and really boosts my confidence heading towards my first series of A-races.

After a few days recovery, I’ll be repeating a similar workout on my own mid-week, and then follow that up with a local sprint distance triathlon on Sunday with one week left till my big race in Temecula. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

CW

Last week was my first Xterra of the season in Mesa, Arizona. Some things went well others not so well. It was hot in AZ and coming from Colorado where we’ve been in the 50′s and 60′s for highs, the 90+ degrees in the desert was a rude awakening.

Despite some delays with the shuttle bus that takes athletes down to the swim start and having absolutely no warm-up, I still may have had my best ever swim. I felt strong and in control the entire time. I started off the line in the deep water start and found some feet to draft off of early and managed to pass people and find faster feet ahead. Out of the water and up the rocky beach I ran into 7th place.

My heart was in my throat after running to my bike and sprinting out onto the bike course. Immediately out on the bike course you hit a wall of a climb, steep, loose and hard to maintain traction. I lost traction and came off the bike early on. I struggled to get back on the bike and decided to run up the climb. I could see five guys ahead of me on the climb and quickly picked them off one by one by the top I found myself in 2nd. I took over the lead about 2/3 of the way into the bike course and proceeded to pull away and put about another minute into second place before the starting the run.

After a speedy transition, I was off to try and hold off the faster runner behind me, Ben Hoffman. When I passed Ben on the bike he had his name printed on his butt and I noticed some ITU rings on his speedsuit, so I knew he would be a faster runner than me and all I could hope is that I could put enough distance beween him and I on the bike before the start of the run. After leaving transition I didn’t see him nor did I hear the cheers of the crowd signaling his arrival into T2. I thought I might just have a chance!

Well, it turned out to be no chance as about 2 miles into the run Ben caught me. I was having some stomach cramps due to dehydration. Looking back, I made a very foolish decision of taking only water bottle with me on the bike. I could have easily drank two in the hot dry conditions. I was used to drinking one bottle an hour at home, but two per hour is necessary in this heat. Ben patiently waited and sat on my heels through the tight singletrack. I slowed down a bit so I could try and recover a bit and hope the cramps would subside, waiting for him to make his move and maybe I could hang and give him a challenge.

When we hit an open section on the run he made his move. I tried to pick up the pace, but my body wouldn’t allow it. I saw my first place finish disappear into the cacti and sand. I finished second on the day and was just happy to sit in the shade and have a drink. Overall things went well, I had the 7th fastest swim, 1st fastest bike and 2nd fastest run splits for the day. If not for the dehydration mishap who knows, perhaps I could have held Ben off to the line?

Next Xterra is Temecula in two weeks. I can’t wait to try it again.

CW