Well my race in Richmond didn’t go so well. I was just plain off. I have few ideas why these unstellar performances may have occurred.
Trying to extend my “Peak” phase too long. I originally planned to peak for Temecula and then attempt to extend the peak through Alabama and Richmond. It’s tough when your important races are close enough together to consider the extended peak, but not close enough to be able to easily accomplish it. Basically my training volume has been reduced for so many weeks that I was losing fitness after Temecula leading up to AL and VA. In hind sight, I should have kept the volume much higher between all these races and adjusted the intensity to match my freshness-to-fitness ratio. Lesson learned.
Extended Traveling. Traveling always throws me “out of sync” with my many schedules. This is true for just about everyone to some degree. My diet and eating schedules were different, my training routines were different, sleep habits, etc…. This is something that I need to get better at in general if I am going to continue racing a national race schedule. It’s just part of the game.
My running stinks right now. Reasons: see #1 and #2 above, lack of current run volume, and weight gain. I have only been running 3 days per week of up to 6 miles. That is ridiculous. I reduced my run volume just before Temecula to prepare to race and then never brought it back up before AL and VA. Such minimal running is not going to cut it. Big mistake on my part. In addition, upon returning home on Monday, I weighed myself and saw an 8 pound weight gain from when I left. Chalk that up to eating more than I was training. Wholly Whole Foods Salads, Batman!
The first three Xterras have not gone the way I hoping, so I need to regroup and get things together to finish strong in the second half of the series. I will be racing some local Colorado Xterras over the coming weeks while preparing for my #1 priority race of the year: Ogden. This weekend it’s off to Buffalo Creek for the first CO Xterra of the season. Should be fun. I’ve been told it is the second largest Xterra in the world, after Maui, in terms of number of participants. It would be the biggest, but the forest permits cap it at 500.
Pre-race rituals in full swing: ride the course one last time, run a few miles to loosen up, swim the course and pick up our race packets. Clean the bikes, pack the gear, eat lunch, shower and take a nap.
Tonight we eat dinner and get some sleep. Tonight it is forecasted to rain a bit. More high temps and humidity are expected tomorrow. They decided to move the start up 30 minutes to 8:30 am get us done a bit earlier.
Below you’ll find some more videos of the race course. We finally determined the line through the boulder field on the run and the official swim course which includes a long forrested run on the far side of the river.
I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Sara T. on the bike course
A view of the James River from the bike course
Running through the boulder field:
Swimming towards the far island and the forrest run:
Full on recovery day today. Slept in this morning, layed around all morning, went for an afternoon swim of the course with the guys to check currents of the river. Ate a late lunch/dinner, followed by more laying around. I hate laying around so much, but it’s necessary two days out from important races. So be it….
Sara Tarkington (EPC Team pro) gets in late tonight. I’ll pick her up at the airport and then hit the hay. One more ride of the course and swim in the river tomorrow and I should be ready to race on Sunday.
The James River swim course. We swim all the way across the river and back. The river is very shallow and filled with giant boulders that you must dodge under the water. Crazy stuff.
Wednesday we drove all morning and afternoon to get from NC to VA with a stop at the Duram, NC Whole Foods for lunch. Once we arrived in Richmond we immediately headed out for a recovery spin on the course. The course in Richmond is possibly the most technical on the whole Xterra circuit. With the urban flavor it has many unusual terrain features anlong with tight twisty rocky singletrack. After the ride we hit the mighty James River for a swim. Nice and warm (85 degrees!) and pretty nasty. I hope my shots are up to date.
Today we hit the trails again and picked up the pace to see the trail at race pace. Feeling good on the bike. After the ride we ran the run course and practiced the rock out cropping portion that can lead you astray if you don’t know exactly where to go. The run course id pretty flat and fast. I hope I can have a better run than in AL.
Enjoy the video clips below to see some of the terrain we are in for on Sunday.
Ryan DeCook weaving through the twisties. The trail winds back and forth through the woods it takes a long time to get from point A to point B:
Cody navigating the switchbacks. Tight switchbacks get you down the steep hill sides:
Rider cam. The trail feels like a Mayan jungle in a Tomb Raider movie:
James charging the Tunnel of Love. One of the odd urban obstacles:
The spiral staircase ascent. You run up this 3 story staircase twice during the two loop bike course and ride down another one just like it once:
Where’s the trail? Making sure we know where to go. Last year I lost time and two places in this section:
Sunday was Xterra National Series Race #2, the Southeast Championship in Pelham, Alabama. It was another hot and humid day in Bama. The two lap swim was a balmy 83 degrees and by the second lap I was ready to get out and hit the trails. I had a solid swim of 24 minutes leaving me about 3 minutes behind the lead group. That’s, believe it or not, an improvement for me and I was satisfied with my swim. Once on the bike I got into a good groove in the tight twisty singletrack and began to move up through the field. On the sustained climb portion of the course I powered past previous top finishers like Andy Noble and Seth Wealing feeling pretty good and hungry for more. I managed to pass two more guys in the final singletrack and came into T2 in 8th place with several more guys just up ahead. Then the wheels began to come off the wagon. I had no running turnover what so ever, and this was evident before I even made it to the hilly second half of the course. First to pass was Coasta Rican pro Rom Akerson, then Brian Smith and Ryan Ignatz blew past in tandem. Then on the hills I began to lose count of the stronger runners passing me by. I was stuggleing up the hills and forced to walk up the steeper ones.
Then to my surprise, my traveling companion and bike coachee, James Walsh was closing in on me with two hills left. I was super excited for him and his strength as he went by gave me the final boost I needed to get myself home. James has always been a solid runner and I was happy to see that his bike training is paying off by getting him to the front of the races. Well done James!
Tough race for sure. Again I am left a bit disappointed with my results (and run performance). I know I have some work to do over the summer to get ready for my A races in August and September.
After the race we packed up our gear and headed down the road to Asheville, NC. Six+ hours later we made it to our new home for the next three days. Pretty sweet place. We are on top of a mountain in a house with a deck overlooking the Smokey Mountains! Monday we hit some local trails for a planned recovery ride that ended up being a bit more work than we wanted. Followed that up with some grilling on the deck at the house and a chill evening.
After another low key day of recovering here in Asheville today, Wednesday we pack up again and head for Richmond for round three.
Day 3 in Alabama. Got up early to ride the course one more time and loosen up the legs. Everything was going well until I took a bad line through some rocks and dented my rim causing my front tire to lose air and go flat. After stopping to put in a tube so we could finish the ride, I rode carefully back to the car. After the ride we took a quick lap of the swim and picked up our packets. Off to the local bike shop to repair the rim and re-inflate the tire. Everything worked out well, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that things will roll smoothly tomorrow during the race.
Trevor Glavin joined us last night as the fourth member of our traveling circus. He will be racing his first race as an Xterra Pro this weekend. Sweet! We grabbed some lunch at Whole Foods and then headed back to the hotel to clean up the bikes and get off our feet.
I’m feeling good and Ready to Race!
Throwin’ down at Whole Foods
Picking up the Uhaul that will get all our bikes, travel boxes and gear to Richmond….. uh, insurance anyone? With James behind the wheel things could get “gnarly”
Trevor displaying the appropriate pre-race posture….. definitely looking pro!
M-U-G-G-Y, say it with me, muggy. That is the word of the day here in Alabama. Growing up in Phoenix and living in Denver, muggy, is not a word in my vocabulary, but today it was all I could think about.
Today has been a beautiful sunny day here in the southern US: 93 degrees with 90% humidity! As soon as you walk out of the air-conditioned indoors you begin to sweat. The race course here in Bama is entirely in the shade under a thick canopy of trees, you’d think that might help, but no. I’m told by the locals that this is how it is here for the next 6 months. Whoa, I’m glad I live in the west.
The 3-amigos ready to head into the AL woods
After sleeping in and getting some much needed rest from my day of travel yesterday James, Brian and I (3 parts of 5 that will be traveling together for the next 10 days) braved the heat and humidity to ride and run the race course. The bike course is a quick one with consiting of tight technical, rooty, rocky, turning single track, a nice sustained fire-road rolling climb in the middle, followed by a short technical section called “Blood Rock” (see video clip below) and finishing with more tight, twisty, wooded singletrack back to transition. It’s roughly a 70-minute race-day ride, that tests your bike handleing skills and concentration the entire way.
Navigating “Blood Rock”
After the ride we headed out to view the run. We jogged (and walked) the course so we could get a preview of the hills in second half of the race. The run course has two personalities: fast and fun, and steep and nasty. The first half is on the first section of the bike. Primarily rolling and tight twisties where you can maintain good speed, FUN. The second half contains nine, yes count ‘em 9, short steep climbs followed by short steep descents that will break your spirit if not your legs themselves, NASTY.
One of the nine nasty hills on the second half of the run course
Once we finished sweating all the life out of our little tri-geek bodies, we headed down to the lake for a refreshing dip in the cool water. Yeah right. The water temp must seriously be near 90 degrees! We same a lap of the swim and called it a day.
Lake Bathwater
Once we cleaned up we grabed some grub (suprisingly good Mexican food) and hit the sack for a nice recovery nap. Tonight we pick up party member #4, Trevor Glavin, at the airport. Tomorrow I’ll ride the course again, this time at a faster pace to get ready for race day. Overall I’m feeling pretty good and feel that a good result may be within reach. That is if I don’t melt away in the mugginess!
After a solid yet diappointing 12th place in Temecula a few weeks back (I was looking for a top 10 finish) I am off to Alabama this morning for round two of the Xterra National points series. Over the last two weeks I have been attempting to maintain, and hopefully sharpen, my racing fitness for improved results in the two back-to-back races in Alabama and Richmond. We’ll see how it works out.
This year I am staying out east between races instead of flying home and then flying back between the two races. I’ve teamed up with my Xterra bro’s James Walsh, Trevor Glavin, Brian Barrett, and Tom Obrien to rent vehicle and share accomodations as we travel from AL to VA with a stop over in NC over 10 days for the two races. Should be fun…..a southern style road trip. Look for daily training, racing and traveling reports.
