Rough day at Worlds. A late flight and 7-hour delay in Los Angeles got me into Maui at 2am local time the day before the race. After nearly 20-hours of traveling and 4 hours of sleep I was exhausted. I got in a quick swim, bike and run to attempt to loosen up and shake out the travels before the big day.
Sunday morning came and I was as ready as I was going to be. The swim went better than expected and I came out of the water in a descent position. Then once on the bike I began to go backwards, which is not something I am used to experiencing. First, Brian Smith rode away from me. Okay, I can deal with that. Then some other international pros rode by me. What’s up with that? Then some young 15-19 year-olds caught up and passed by. Okay, maybe I just need to warm-up more? Then the pro women began to catch me. First Dannelle Kabush, then later Shonny Vanlandingham and later Jenny Smith. I knew I was having a bad day and had to let it go.
Near the end of the bike I was done, and so badly wanted to get off my bike. The Maui course is so hot, hilly, rocky and miserable by itself, that if you are not having a good ride you basically find yourself hating mountain biking. Or maybe that was just me? Anyway, in and out of transition I went and onto the run. I ran a solid tempo pace the first half just to see what my run legs were like and then let off the gas in the second half so not to be destroyed for the rest of my trip in Hawaii. After all I had three full vacation days planned and I wanted to be able to enjoy them to their fullest right?
Disappointing? Yes. Completely unexpected? No. After Tahoe, three weeks prior, I was pretty much done mentally and physically with my 08 season. I was hanging on by a thread with minimal workouts and minimal enthusiasm. With 10 Xterras, 6 mountain bike races, and a handful of running races and sprint tri’s, over the course of of 28 weeks I was more than ready for a break. Overall I had a solid year of racing, but know that I am capable of much more. During my rest break I will be formulating my off-season training goals and you can be sure that I will be better prepared for Maui in 2009.
Well Nationals didn’t go the way I had hoped. I finished an unsatisfying 13th place. Not bad by any means (in fact it’s my best finish in Tahoe to date) but I know I am capable of far better. I don’t have any excuses really. I felt good heading into the race, but just could never find my mojo after the chilly swim. I came out of the water about 2 minutes slower than where I had been all year. Not sure what was up with that?
On the bike I felt solid, but again not great. I moved into about 15th place by the top of the first climb and then raced pretty much by myself the rest of the way. Frustrating. Then on the run I ran okay, but not as quick as I had hoped. The 13th place finish left me in twelfth place over all for the season long series. Five spots behind were I finished my rookie season last year. Oh the Sophomore blues.
Well now I have one last race. The World Championships in Maui. How do I feel? Well, not so stellar, to be honest. I am ready to put this season behind me and look ahed to next year. Training has been sparse these last few weeks. I’m treating this final event more as a vacation than a big race. I’d like to get another look at the course and get motivated for 2009. We’ll see what happens. With no pressure and no goals, I may just surprise my self with a solid race.
CW
Chilly, windy day here in Incline Village. I took some fun videos, but blooger keeps giving me an error message when trying to upload. I’ll have to wait till super-blogger James Walsh gets here tomorrow to get some help.
Anyway, I’ll do my best without the videos. The course was as hard as I remembered. Big climbs, technical and fast descents, and lots-o-sand. Super sandy this year. Hopefully the predicted rain on fri/sat will help pack it down a bit. The course feels a little slow, but the legs feel good. The sandy conditions will favor stronger cyclists by adding an extra strength component to the course. I’ll take it.
The run course is pretty much the same, maybe a hair shorter than previous years? My GPS read 2.8 miles for the 19 minute lap I did after the bike ride. The tight, twisty, loose soil, poor footing course is my least favorite of the whole year. Despite the relative flatness of the course I find I can never get any real speed on this course. I always feel slow with all of the technical turns. I’m going to try my best to PR the run on Sunday with my good running form I have found late this year. We’ll see.
Up for tomorrow is another swim in the lake to continue to adjust to the cold and choppy water. Follow that up with a super chill spin on the bike around Incline Village including a stop for latte’s and scones. Nice!
See you tomorrow.
CW
The swim course is gnarly today. Windy and big waves pounding the shore in front of the Hyatt. We all decided not to swim in the exact swim location but rather find a quieter cove down the street a bit.
Here are some shots of the crystal clear water of Lake Tahoe. Temperatures are not too bad. We’re guessing about 60 degrees.
Big waves greeted us on the edge of the cove’s water. Fun stuff for sure!
Local water foul was wondering what we were up to…..
Now we are off for a bike ride and run. Check back for those images.
CW
I don’t know what’s up with Blogger. I can’t upload my videos from today. I’ll try later.
Last week went well. Wednesday’s Peak Workout consisted of two 25 minute LT climbs up Mt. Falcon on the mountain bike, followed by a trip over to and down Lair O Bear. Immediately following the 2.5 hour mtn bike I headed over to Green Mtn. for the final race of the Lakewood Trail Running Series. The final race is a lung buster, 1.3 miles straight up Green Mtn on the service road. Maybe 800 ft of climbing?
First the mtn bike. Like previous weeks, I did two climbs with the 15 minute-ish descent in between for recovery. On the first climb I smashed my previous best time of 25:52 with a 24:29! Whoa daddy, that’s fast! Needless to say, I felt very strong on the whole effort. After the recovery downhill I thought I would be lucky to break 26:00 for the second climb. Well forget that. I hammered up the second climb in a blistering 24:44! Now that is some serious fitness when you can recover and nearly repeat a sick effort like that. Sickie, sickie!
After cruising the rest of the ride, it was off for some fun on the run. I got in a short 10 minute warm-up on the run and off we went. I felt great and ran in second place up the first half of the climb. Then suddenly the leader began to fade and I surged. I dropped his ass and reached the summit in 10:08. After the race, I shook hands and congratulated the runner up. I chose not to mention that I just finished a sick mtn bike ride only 30 minutes prior to the run. I ended up winning the overall for the series and a nice pair of new Salomon running shoes. Look for those on eBay here soon.
After a few days of recovery workouts, Sunday was the next Peak Workout on the plan. This called for a 2 hour road ride with a tt test up Lookout Mtn followed by a 6 mile road transition run with 2 mi LT (5:45 miles) + 1 mi easy (7:00 miles) + 2 mi LT + 1 mi easy.
The tt test went well with a 20:50 up Lookout. Not a PR, but not far off my best “stock bike/non-race” time. Power is good and follow up HR recovery was good as well. Then on to the run I ripped it again. The course I use is slightly downhill on the first half and then slightly uphill for the second half. I was able to run a touch faster on the 1st interval and held strong only losing a few seconds/mile on the second interval. May I say it again? Sick!
More recovery days followed including a nice massage and visit to the chiropractor for a tune-up of the body. Today we traveled to Tahoe and all systems are firing. Tomorrow we preview the course. Check back for pics/videos and a course report.
CW
