Xterra Nationals 10/5/08

It’s crazy how weather patterns can repeat themselves and this year’s Xterra Nationals got another dose of precipitation preceding this year’s event, but unlike last year’s snow the course received rain with the snow only touching the peaks surrounding Lake Tahoe. I had made a lot of trips up to Tahoe to train on the mountain bike course and the conditions were sandy and dry but with the rains we received Friday night it made for epic race conditions!

We lined up on the shores of Incline Village, NV and a little after 9 am the cannon sounded for the start of the 2008 Xterra National Championships. In the past two editions of this race I found myself going out way too hard at the start of the swim so this year I held back a little so as not to go into oxygen debt before the first buoy. I established a solid pace and felt pretty good about my swim and exiting the water found myself in the top 10 of my age group as we made our way up to transition. After a smooth transition I got on the bike and started to move my way through the field on the first climb of the day up Tunnel Creek Rd. and as I hit the famous Flume Trail had a pretty clear trail to put the hammer down on my way to Marlette Lake. I was stoked that the riders I caught gave me some space to pass so I could keep up my momentum and by Marlette Lake I’d moved up a couple of positions. After Marlette we hit the Hobart Rd. climb and I moved up a couple more places making my way to the top of the course which leads into some super fun single track descents taking us back to the top of Tunnel Creek Rd for the screaming downhill back to transition. I rolled into T2 with my fastest bike split on the course and headed out for the 10k trail run. I was going as hard as I could but was lacking the speed I needed and found myself hanging in 5^th to 6^th position. Speaking with my coach after the race he figured that the recovery month after my iron distance event put a huge dent in our build for Nationals and my speed and power suffered. I crossed the line in 6^th place and even though I was expecting more I was pleased with my progression from the previous editions of this race and managed to take 7 minutes off of last year’s time!

Thanks for reading!

Jeff

                    
                    Full Vineman 8/2/08

 

My first major focus of the ’08 season was the Full Vineman held in Sonoma County, CA. and I walked away from the event with a huge boost in confidence, some hardware and feeling of satisfaction! The Vineman is the longest running independent iron distance event in the country and has really established itself as one of the premiere iron distance events in the US and a destination of many at the core of the sport. The spirit of competition and a “family” atmosphere are at in the soul of this event.

The forecast was calling for mid 50’s in the morning and 84 degrees for the high for the run and finish line in Windsor, CA but mother nature had a different scenario in mind and the temperature soared to 96 degrees turning the run into a battle of attrition for many. The race begins in Guerneville, CA and races through the wine country ending up in Windsor. Along the way you pass a plethora of vineyards of some of the finest wines in the world, this truly is the “vine” man!

My group was the second to start and at 6:50 am we were off. When I hopped in the water for my warm up I was feeling real good and this continued throughout my swim. I was soon weaving my way through the 6:45 starters and was like “wow I seem to be passing a lot of athletes.” I came out of the water and made my way into T1 feeling the best I ever have after the swim and after posting the 4^th fastest T1 time overall was on my bike and rolling before 8 am. When I looked at my watch I was surprised to see the time and said to myself I must have smoked the swim and found out later that I had posted a personal best iron distance swim at 59 minutes and that put me at the 32^nd fastest split of the day out of 382 swim finishers! Now in my last two iron distance races in ’06 and ’07 nutrition on the bike has always been my Achilles heal so I prepared my nutrition plan to not make the same mistake this time around but like any good plan “stuff” happens and about 20 miles into the bike I hit a bump and lost over half of my food and because of cruddy water bottle cages on my bike proceeded to loose just about every bottle I through behind my saddle and was grabbing whatever I could get my hands on to keep my calories topped off! As I made my way around the course I was surprised by the lack of cyclist traffic ahead of me and thought that the 1^st wave of starters must have a pretty good gap on me after the swim but as it turned out I found myself at the sharp end of the race. As I made my way to and up the longest climb of the day (Chalk Hill) I heard something rattling and figured it was just the standard run of the mill breaking in of my lightning fast Cannondale Slice but as I was about 300 meters from the summit I started losing my rear shifting and saw that my shifter screw had come loose, yikes! I dismounted and started working the problem but didn’t have a screwdriver and was like a DNF is NOT an option today after all the work it took to get me to today! Fortunately I flagged down some riders and got a screwdriver and after 8 minutes of wrenching sorted out the problem and put the hammer down. I rolled through the first lap at 5 hour pace for the 112 mile bike and was feeling strong! I managed to pick off another 4 riders on the second loop and moved into 3^rd position overall on the road. With about 15 miles to go I started feeling my body telling me that it didn’t have the calories it needed for the run and this would play out in the marathon. I came into T2 with the 3^rd fastest bike split of the day (5:15) and was thinking how much quicker it would have been sans the mechanical and those precious minutes would have an effect on the final results of the day, but hey that’s racing. About 3 miles into the run I had the volunteers telling me that I was in 4^th place overall and this got me fired up! But unfortunately I found my energy running low and the marathon turned into the hardest run in my triathlon career and I suffered even more than I had in the double marathon at Ultraman! The run course is a three lap affair with 4000 feet of climbing so when you’re hurting and know what’s still ahead you’ve got to dig deep and I had my backhoe out for sure! At the turn a rounds I could see my relative position to the rest of the field and was maintaining my overall position with 4 miles to go. At 2 to go I was passed by the eventual winner of my age group and figured if he ran me down that he had the momentum coming into the catch that I couldn’t match but that didn’t stop me from trying to hold on but I blew up and crossed the line 3 minutes down but with a great sense of satisfaction and as I mentioned earlier without the mechanical I would have held him off to the finish. I ended up 6^th overall out of 435 starters and 2^nd in my age group out of 57 starters and my run time was still good enough for 21^st on the day!

After cleaning up, changing and getting a massage I overheard the race announcers saying that over 90% of the field were still on the course, the heat and challenging run course was taking its toll on everyone. The overall winner had raced Kona and said that the day was one of the toughest he’s seen to put the ’08 edition of Vineman into some perspective!

A big part of my preparations and race day performance has a lot to do with my wonderful sponsors and I want to thank everyone at Cannondale, Zoot Sports, Body Health, Rudy Project and The Hub for their love and support! Thank you!!!

Thanks for reading!

Jeff

Xterra Tahoe City 6/28/08

 

One of the newer races on the Xterra calendar was held this past weekend in beautiful Lake Tahoe and the smoke from the fires that are ravaging the state of California fortunately were held at bay by the sierras! The field felt like a national championship race and was stacked with some strong competition!

I arrived in Tahoe Thursday afternoon and the air was considerably clearer than in the Sacramento Valley. On Friday I woke up to clear blue sky’s as I headed out to the race venue to get in a swim and followed that up with a short bike and run to keep the body loose for Saturday. Last year the elevation really had an effect on me at high altitude events but this year it seems my body is handling the thin air much better!

Saturday morning we woke up to smoky sky’s but not the poor air quality we’ve been experiencing in the valley, even though you couldn’t see the other side of the Lake breathing was easy on the lungs. Because of the low snow pack this year the Lake level was lower prompting race organizers to opt for an open water start and taking the 50 meter beach run out between swim loops. The gun went off and we were on our way. I established a good rhythm early and the breathing problems I experienced at last years Xterra National Championship’s were not a factor. I came out of the water with the 26^th fastest swim split of the day out of 141 athletes. After the swim we had a 500 meter run to T1 and onto the bike. Right out of transition we start climbing so it’s important to not go out to hard and go into debt. As I began to get my legs turning over I started moving through the short and long course racers and getting into the meat of the course found last years 19 and under national champion, Josh Olmsted, and started working with him as we made a serious move to distance ourselves from the rest of the pack. Starting the second loop of the bike I was feeling solid and kept myself well fueled for the run and as I entered T2 I caught up to the national champion in my age group, Scott Zavack, and got out of transition ahead of him. Once again we’re greeted with an uphill out of T2 making pacing the key to success. At last years race I put out to much energy on the bike and struggled on the run but not this year! I kept a good turn over on the 2 mile uphill grind and by the top of the run course had 3^rd place in my age group in my sights. Up until today I’d never beaten Richard Blanco but today I ran past him and established a 30 second gap, holding it to the finish. I crossed the line 3^rd in my age group and 9^th overall but the best indication of my current level of fitness was that I’d taken 7 minutes off of last years overall time! I was also pleased with taking 4 minutes off my swim split and a whopping 6 minutes off of last years run split with the 6^th fastest split of the day!

After the fiasco in Alabama I was stoked to be back on track and having the proper preparation and gear made all the difference. My coach and I are continuing my build to peak in August and my racing and training is a good indication that we’re right on schedule.

Thanks for reading!

Jeff

XTERRA Southeast Championships 6/8/08

 

I flew out to Alabama for the Xterra Southeast Championships and a chance to qualify for the Xterra World Championships but every good plan can always run into snags and unfortunately I hit some big ones on my way out to Alabama. When I arrived at the Sacramento Airport for my flight I found out my flight was delayed by 2 hours… ok these things happen. Then as we’re rolling out of to the runway we had to wait another 25 minutes as they repositioned the load of the plane… ok. But when we arrived at Washington, Dulles is where things went south. First we were stuck on the runway for 50 minutes as we waited for a gate to park the plane and by this time I’m like “I’m totally going to miss my connecting flight to Birmingham, AL.” I ended up making my flight because the plane was delayed by repairs but my luggage and bike didn’t… ok… I think?!?! When I got to Alabama I spent the next 2 days trying to get my stuff which never got to me… not cool! So I ended up renting a bike and borrowing gear which through off my preparation schedule brining me into the race stressed and tired, not the best scenario going into a championship event.

The cannon fired at 9:30 and we were off. I had a solid swim exiting the water in the top 5 positions of my age group and after a smoking transition I got on the bike and the troubles began. About 5 minutes into the bike I was grabbing the tools to tighten up loose handle bars/headset and throughout the whole ride I was off the bike at least 10 times to adjust this and that. I was still managing a good ride and was still in the top 5 until a technical rock garden section (Blood Rock) and the next thing I know I’m flying over the handlebars into the rocks hitting so hard that I heard a snap thinking that I had broken my arm, fortunately there were some paramedics in this section and they checked me out and figured that I may have tweaked some connective tissue but the bone was fine. I jumped back on the bike but another five minutes later I hit the deck again and limped my way into T2. Starting the run I was pretty wiped out and my run turned into a death march as I started getting passed by a bunch of people as I lost 6 positions in my age group crossing the line in 11^th place with my lowest finishing position at an Xterra event. I was pretty bummed but took the whole thing as a learning experience and spent my last night in Alabama hanging out with friends and laughing at my Murphy’s Law weekend.

I learned that in the future I will pack all my necessary race gear and a little extra clothing in my carry on so I can at least have the pieces of race equipment that I’m used to and that fit ;0) and that if my bike doesn’t show up not to wait till the day before the race to try and jump on a rental and pre-ride the course the afternoon before the race… doh! Fortunately my arm was ok and miraculously it was a little sore and stiff but working fine!

Thanks for reading!

Jeff