This is it guys and gals…

2009 XTERRA USA & World Championship Training Plan by Yours Truly

This plan is intended for the XTERRA athlete who has qualified for the National and/or World Championship races for 2009. By following this plan you will reach peak fitness for both races to complete your 2009 XTERRA season with the results you are looking for. The very same plan that the EPC XTERRA Team will be following to continue their individual successes and dominance in the XTERRA Team competition! That’s right, follow the same plan as “Hairy” Jason Michalak, Luke “va-jay” Jay, “Furious” Ed Oliver, Rickey “the rookie no more” Tolliver, and the rest of the crew as you build towards the finale of the 2009 season.

The plan consists of an 8-week build to Nationals on September 26th followed by 4 more weeks of recovery/build to the World Championships on October 25th. Follow day by day specific workout details that will get you the results you are looking for. The overall theme of the plan breaks down like this:

• 2 Weeks Strength, Endurance and Speed work in individual sports
• Recovery Week
• 2 Weeks XTERRA USA Triathlon Specific Combo-workouts
• Recovery Week
• 2 Week XTERRA USA Specific Peak/Taper
• Recovery Week
• 1 Week XTERRA Worlds Triathlon Specific Combo-workouts
• 2 Week XTERRA Worlds Specific Peak/Taper

Designed around the athlete with an 8-5 work week, the weekday volumes stay below 3 hours, while utilizing weekends for longer workouts in the 3-5 hour range. Weekly volumes range from 10-15 hours. In addition to the detailed online training plan you can feel free to email me, anytime, with questions as you go. Are you ready to live the XTERRA lifestyle and reach the goals you desire?

The choice is yours. Train Smart, Race Hard!

Coming off my best race to date I can’t help but be fired up for my next challenge. Historically, the Ogden event (previously the Mountain Championships the last three years) has been my best race of the year the last three seasons. I have not missed the top-ten since it’s inception in 2006. As an amateur I raced to tenth overall in 2006, raced my previous career-best result in 2007 to 5th place (3rd off the bike), and settled for a 7th place finish last year. Needless to say, I like this course and it suits my strengths very well. I intend to have another great result come the end of September!

There are exactly 10 weeks from the finish of Beaver Creek to the start of Ogden. This is enough time to re-build for a second, hopefully larger, peak performance this season. Before I get started on Operation Ogden III I have a week off from training. This rest week was scheduled way back in December to allow for a break before I begin the re-build process. It’s necessary for me to take this rest as I’ve been pushing hard for the last 8 months to get to this point. I need a break not only to recover mentally and physically, but also to come down off my Peak so I can attempt to climb to a higher peak in the months to come. The XTERRA season is a long one, May-October, and requires a carefully planned schedule to stay strong throughout. During this week off I will get myself prepared to hit it hard for the next 9 weeks leading up to Nationals and another 4 weeks to Worlds.

So I’ll lay it out there, here is my plan I’ll refer to as
Operation Ogden III:

Following my rest week this week I head into a 3-week BASE Phase. I will focus on rebuilding my endurance and strength in all three sports individually. After the BASE, I have 4 days of recovery planned. Not a full recovery week, but four days of very light training. This will allow me to get a few more RACE PREP Phase days, about 2.5 weeks worth. In the RACE PREP Phase I train as a triathlete with bike-run combo sessions at higher intensities, while maintaining endurance. More recovery and then into my PEAK Phase I go. This will be very similar to what I’ve done these last few weeks leading up to the Mountain Cup.

Sound good? Overall volume will be reasonably high with 18-24 hours per week of training. There are several races included in the plan to provide some race-pace training with some final “tune-up” sprint tri’s in the final weeks leading up to main event. Of course things can change, but this my general plan to get me to my goal of a top-five in Ogden at the XTERRA USA Championships!

CW

Check out the XTERRA Race Report….

http://www.xterraplanet.com/news/press_article.cfm?id=2491

Check out complete results….

http://www.ccrtiming.com/races/results/2009/09BeaverCreek.htm#males

Last Saturday, I managed to pull off my best race to date, the Mountain Cup in Beaver Creek, Colorado. If you’ve been following me recently you know that this was a target race for me. I picked this race back in December as my first peak and priority race of my 2009 campaign. Well, I feel like I nailed the training and build-up to perfection! I raced to a third place finish amongst some of the best international Xterra talent in the world (minus Conrad Stoltz and Dan Hugo who both chose not to compete in this high altitude, 5000 feet of climb fest). Sadly I managed to acquire a 2-minute penalty for missing a short piece of singletrack in the final half mile of the run that was very poorly marked. At least a third of the race missed the same section, including other pros. I was the only one to acquire the penalty because it changed the race by me “passing” second place in the 30 second stretch of missed trail. Had I been a few seconds slower, or the second place a bit faster, the change in place would not have occurred and the missed trail would not have even been noticed by me or anyone else.

Here is how the race unfolded:

SWIM- For me, one of my best swims. Funny though that during the swim I didn’t feel like I was swimming all that well. I expected my usual 4 minute deficit out the water, but was surprised when Kathy yelled I was only 3 minutes behind Branden Rakita in first place. We were both stoked! I made a quick transition and was off to chase down the leaders.

BIKE- I was able to get going right away on the bike. The first mile is flat and on pavement. Then the climbing begins, about 40 minutes of steep climbing. I just bent down, bit the handlebar and powered away. I quickly moved through the field. First the few amateurs and women that out-swam me. Then remnants of the lead swim group, Seth Wealing, Tyler Butterfield, a pair of road trigeeks, and sadly Josiah Middaugh with mechanical troubles (who was able to get going again and chase back up to me). By the top of the climb I found myself with Josiah in 4th and 5th place with only Nico Lebrun, Mike Vine and Branden Rakita ahead.

RUN- Josiah beat me to T2 and grabbed a 20 second lead on me in the beginning of the run. I refused to give up (although the thought did cross my mind as Josiah is a better runner than me) and kept on running hard. Through the opening rollers I held the gap. Then we hit the steep climb in the trees. I clawed closer and closer until I made a pass on a tight switchback. Holy shit! I’m in 4th place. I kept the pace over the top of the climb. Out on the downhill fire road descent I could see Branden just a head. Why not? Let’s pass him too! I bridged up on the long downhill while Josiah held tough and was only 20 seconds behind. Into the second climbing singletrack I pushed even harder, passing Rakita and gaping Josiah further. Several minutes later, over the top of the climb I was alone in third place. I was running scared on the downhill with everything I had. I didn’t realize it, but I nearly bridged up to Mike Vine in second by this point, only about 20 seconds behind (had I only been able to see him!).

This is where I missed the side singletrack as I bombed down the descent towards the finish. The 30 second bit of trail I missed was enough to allow me to “run past” Vine into second place. Vine pops back out onto the road only to see me just ahead of him. I cross the line in 2nd with Vine only 20 second back. It was quickly realized what had happened. Josiah came in another 30-40 seconds later in 4th. Fearing disqualification, I was happy to hear I would only receive a 2-minute penalty, but disappointed that I missed the course and subsequently gave up a third place finish.

Regardless of the circumstance, I was pleased to have earned the second fastest bike split (to Nico Lebrun by 1:15), the third fastest run split (to Olympian Butterfield and Brian Smith, by less 40 seconds, even with 40 seconds added on for the missed bit of trail) and a solid swim.

Needless to say, I am psyched for Nationals!

CW

Kathy and I headed up to BC a day earlier than originally planned when we got an invitation to a BBQ on Thursday night at the Middaugh’s house. It was fun to rub elbows with many of the top Xterra Pros in an off-race setting. In attendance were Nico Lebrun and his girlfriend Alex, Mike Vine and his girlfriend Anna, Renata Bucher, Sam Gardener, Emma Gerrard, of course Josiah and his wife Ingrid among other friends and family of the host and hostess. Kathy and I felt like one of the cool kids for sure!

This morning I hit the trail for one more preview of the course. I feel like I know the course better than anyone, except for Josiah, having ridden it once a week now for the last three weeks. I rode it pretty easy, most of the climbs in the small ring saving the power for tomorrow. Legs felt great!

Equipment:

I’m going with the ASR Hardtail without a doubt on this one. The course is mostly smooth and with so much climbing (3500 ft on the bike alone) the lighter the better. At 18.5 pounds this bike climbs furociously and descends solidly. Tires, I’m running the Schwalbe Furious Freds. These are the ticket. 290 grams of pure speed!

18.5 pounds of climbing furry!

Holding nothing back with the Freds!

Wish me luck!!!

CW

The Xterra Mountain Cup at Beaver Creek is only days away! I have been in full on Peak Mode for the last two weeks. Some highs and lows have occurred, but overall I am feeling strong and ready to race this Saturday.

I decided to do a full three week Peak Phase leading up to this race, my first A-race of my season. For mid-distance events (2-3 hours) I often do only 2 weeks of Peak Phase training leading up to A-races, but I opted for a full 3 weeks since this is my first one of the season and I have had a long steady build-up to it. So what do I do in the Peak Phase? If you’ve followed my training in the past you may already know, but if not, or you don’t remember every little detail I post, then here it is again.

For my Peak Phases I find that reducing overall volume while keeping intensity as high or higher than race-day intensity the key. With the lowered volume you are able to begin a taper and bring your freshness up and fatigue levels down so you are ready for a full effort on race day. The timing of the “intensity days” is the second key to the Peak Phase. Too many and you can’t recover between them (thus counteracting the reduced volume intention), too few and you lose the snap and power you want on race day. I find for most moderate to well trained athletes a schedule of every three to four days ideal for the intensity days or as I like to refer to them “Peak Workouts” or simply “PW’s”. Very well trained (higher volume, longer training career) athletes can sometimes get away with PW’s every 2-3 days for the first week to 10-days, due to their better recovery abilities. The PW’s should be “race-like” in intensity, while volume can be longer for the first few and gradually reduce in volume with each suceeding PW leading up to your main event.

Here is an example of what I’ve been up to the last two weeks:

• PW #1 (Sat. 27th June), Winter Park XC mtn bike race followed by a 40 minute transition run with race pace segments.
• PW #2 (Wed. July 1st), 2.5 hour mtn bike ride including a 20 min, 10 min, 5 min LT climbs followed by a 60 minute hilly trail run with two 15 min LT climbs.
• PW #3 (Sat. July 4th), 2 hour mtn bike ride w/ 30 min and 10 min LT climbs, followed by a 45 min trail run with 2×12 min LT climbs (done on race course)
• PW #4 (Wed. July 8th), 90 min mtn bike w/ 30 min LT climb followed by a 60 min trail run with a 30 min LT climb.
• PW #5 (Sat. July 11th & 12th)*, Winter Park Mtn bike race on the 11th + 1:45 mtn bike w/ 2×20 LT followed by 40 min trail run w/2×10 LT climbs (on race course) on the 12th. *This was split between two days due to a wedding that I attended on Saturday and had to skip run after bike race. Honestly it was a bit too much as I felt it more than I wanted on Monday.
• PW #6 (Wed. July 15th), 90 min mtn bike w/20 min LT climb followed by 30 min trail run with 2×8 min LT climbs.

In between these challenging workouts were days of light active recovery rides and runs. Swimming volume and intensity can remain fairly high during this phase since it doesn’t require a lot of recovery time. For me lately, I have been making Masters swims 2-3 mornings a week and trying to swim open water once a week.

Most of the workouts above went fairly well. The first Winter Park I finished fourth in a strong pro field including JHK. I did a Mt Falcon climb in a new PR of 23:35 in the first week. Beat my PR time on Lookout on the bike by five seconds in 31:25, but missed my PR on the run by 45 seconds in 33:15 in the second week. Last weekend I was again in 4th place at Winter Park before I flatted two times in the final 8 miles due to a cut sidewall. Then today I beat my Falcon PR again by over a minute in just two weeks time in 22:20. F***ing flying up that hill in the big chainring!!!

I feel ready to roll strong on Saturday. Looking for a top-five podium spot. Tomorrow I recover and Friday I get one more look at the course before race day. I am pumped!

CW