Xterra World Championships; Maui, Hawaii

This field was stacked, but I was part of that stack!  Yes, that’s a confident thing to say, but after this season, who knows what could happen. The field contained multiple Olympians, (including  the reigning gold medalist from Beijing.   It also contained multiple Xterra World Champions.

The stage

The course was new this year, on a different part of the island.  Race nerves were omnipresent the whole time we were there.  The calmest time I have the week before a big race is when I warm up.  I love getting into water for warmup, it calms me.  It was especially nice to have Josiah Middaugh with me since we train so much together.  I’ve never seen him so nervous setting up transition, but as his wife put it “Wouldn’t you be?”  Josiah is America’s best hope for winning Xterra Worlds almost every year.  We went through some drills to prep us for a rough water swim and came out of the water feeling  much better.  That’s when I found out Lance Armstrong would be there.  He was there at the USA champs, but this was MY race.  I got fired up, said some strong words, and got ready for the start.

The start was rough.  Last year, I easily slipped into the lead group... not this year.  There were too many Olympians to deal with.  I swam alone to the turnaournd, avoiding massive chaos since I took it wide.  The current was making it very hard to get cleanly through for others who were in packs.  On the second lap, I found my normal swim pack with Branden and Conrad and exited the water with them. 

Checking out who's up on me at the halfway point

 1st Transition

I swam fast and efficiently, but saved plenty for the rest of the race.  My transition to the bike was flawless and found my rhythm immediately.   I was able to pre-ride the bike this year.  The bike contained over 4000 ft of climbing and was VERY steep in sections. I crashed 1 mile into the bike.  It wasn’t hard, and I saw it coming.  I went over the handlebars but landed on my feet in some chest high weeds..  I was going downhill and had a stroke of genius to grab the weeds to arrest my fall.  To my surprise, it worked!  None of it ripped out of the ground and I was back to my bike in no time, only to discover after remounting that something was wrong with my rear derailleur.  (It turns out I bent my derailleur hanger)  I didn’t have my top and bottom gears.  Also it would shift erratically.  This wasn’t too bad, but I had to run my bike up a steep section because I didn’t trust my gear to hold.  I stopped for a quick assessment and tried a quick fix to no avail.  “Good enough” I thought to myself, “lets get on with racing!”  Cresting the largest climb of the day, one of the Xterra Media crew said “Lookin’ good.  Are you the first Female?”  I know I shaved my legs and everything but really?  I saw Trey Garman moments later, told him what just happened and of course, him and everybody around him started giving me “encouragement”.  

  

On the long descent, I knew I would make up time on these little guys that had been outclimbing me.  Unfortunately, my derailleur problems reared it’s ugly face and jammed my chain.  It was painful to see these fast sections and not be able to pedal downhill.  (and it was a LONG downhill)  When it finally stared up again.  I unjammed my chain and prayed it would hold.  It did.  I came off the bike extremely well even with my problems.  I was within striking distance of a slew of guys I knew I could outrun. 



Transition was a breeze.  As I started the run, Tina was screaming at me to “GO GET THEM!”  The run suited me well.  It was a steep uphill (climbing over 1300ft) for 1/2 the course and a steep downhill for the other half.  I was slowly catching runners on the climb, but chomping at the bit for my strength... the descent. 

Chomping at the bit

As I neared the top, there was this really, really, really steep section.  I had been feeling a bit of fatigue leading up to this, but I knew the top was near.  This was the final push... and it broke me.  I couldn't charge up like I normally would.  I was forced to walk... yes WALK.  It hurt so much.  I tried to regroup on the descent, but my legs just wouldn’t go.  I had to do damage control, hoping my body would start working better.  It just got worse.  People started passing me, on the descent, ouch.  I was fighting as hard as I could.  Coming into the finish I tried to hold off as many as I could.  I was so tired when I crossed the finish, I had to use the volunteers to drag me through the chute. 

The Final Push towards the finish

The run destroyed lots of people.  Dan Hugo (2nd) collapsed crossing the finish.  Melanie MeQuaid was winning the women’s race and passed out within sight of the finish line.  She had to be carried off to an ambulance with a DNF.  Lance Armstrong also blew up on the run.  

Looking back, it was still a good race.  I would have liked to place in the top 20.  I was 29th, but only 12 minutes behind the winner.  Last year I was 23 minutes behind!  I figured with a descent run, I would have been 2 minutes faster placing me 24th, and Lance was 23rd!  With an outstanding run (such as at the USA Champs), top 20 could have been possible.

Days later, as I write this, I’m still sore.  I’m reassured by this knowing I left everything out on the racecourse.  What a great season.

Sept 30th
Xterra USA Championships!
Coming into this race, I’ve had the best season ever.  I was pumped, preped, and ready for the 2nd biggest race of the season.  When I found out Lance Armstrong was going to be there, I got really nervous, but excited at the same time.  Tina and I arrived at the course 2 days before the race and I pre-rode the bike course while she scouted the run course for me.  That helped a lot. 

I took a look at the start list and the field was STACKED!  Placing top 10 would be an outstanding achievement.  Having LA there added to the hype, and that was cool.  It’s nice to see your race getting lots of press, not to mention your name near his on the list.

I was very nervous before the race, but they were all good nerves.  Pre-race nerves are a fine line that you have to walk.  Being too nervous is bad, as well as being too calm.  It’s also very hard to control. 

Transitions were set, I felt warmed up on the swim and it was go time.  The swim started out well.  I found myself in the lead pack and held it there for most of the time.  Sighting was difficult with the lighting, but that didn’t bother me much.  I was knocked off some feet for a while, but fought myself back upto the pack.  As we exited the water, it turns out I was on Lance’s feet!  That really impressive for him to be swimming with us.  I ran to the bikes behind him and was psyched that he was racing for real.  It really got me going.  I had a quick transition and it was biking time!

Lance caught me quickly (no surprise) and I got onto his wheel.  As he dropped me, (I have no reason to ride with him, it’s a long race and I don’t want to blow up)  I told him to “Rip Their Balls Off”.  As some of you know, that is what my friend, Philbrick and I wrote on the pavement of the Alp d’Huez during the 2004 TDF time trial.  I climbed and climbed and climbed.  (this course has a lot of climbing).  As I neared the top of the mountain, Cody Waite passed me.  He’s an excellent biker, so I jumped onto his wheel for the final bit.  I was very happy to be following him on the descent because we were FLYING.  He can really go, and I was loving his line.  Much to my surprise, I heard Will Kelsay call out “HI BRAD!” halfway down the descent.  Will is reputed to be one of the best descenders in the field.  He passed us so smoothly he didn’t even need to call out a warning.  Cody jumped on his wheel and I went with them both.  I don’t know how, but we accelerated from an already blinding speed!  It was fantastic.  We were racing for 8th!

We came into transition more or less together and it was off to the run.

As per Tina’s scouting, the run started VERY steeply the first 3/4 of a mile then leveled off.  I absolutely drilled it on the climb.  I opened up a gap on Cody and Will and kept the hammer down.  I checked my rear after a few miles and Cody was right there.  I’m impressed with that since I usually can out run Cody.  I pushed harder and I couldn’t shake him.  Cody and I traded the lead many times during Xterra Lory, and he was due for a good run.  I’m happy for him.  Once the descent started towards the finish, I caught a glimpse of 7th place, Ben Allen.  I turned on MY descending skills and passed him.  I try to not get into a sprint in the end so I really mashed the pedal to the floor and created some breathing room..  He somehow worked back onto my heels and stuck there.  With about 1/4 a mile to go, I rolled my ankle on a rock.  (it turns out I sprained it)  My friend Malaika Homo (one of MANY Purdue grads who turned Pro in triathlon and just WON a big rev-3 triathlon) snapped this picture of how much it hurt. 




I just couldn’t go anymore.  It put a seed of doubt in my mind exactly when I didn’t need it.  Normally, I can race through any pain, but this was “bad” pain where I was doing damage.  David Henestros passed me here as well.  I finished 9th!  I’m so happy with this result.  It hurts to loose 7th place in the last 1/4 mile, but I have to be VERY excited with this place.  It also turns out that I had the 4th fastest run!  This was simply an amazing race.

Notable locals...
Josiah Middaugh flatted, otherwise in my opinion he would have given another great person, Nico Lebrun, a serious run for the title.

Tamara Donalson.  She smoked the amateur field and won it.  She was 12th overall!  Watch out for her in Hawaii, and next year as a professional. 

Henry Reed was 3nd in his age group and 51st overall
John Klish was 4th in his age group and 35rd overall
Ryan Sutter was 13th in his age group and 90th overall
Dawes Wilson was 2nd in his age group



Sept 15th

Great.

So I get to race Lance Armstrong next week at the Xterra USA championships.  It’s great for the sport... not so great for me.  I at least hope to beat him out of the water, but after the bike....  well it's Lance Armstrong.  It is exciting, but he’s going to make everybody more jumpy to go fast.  That’s fine, and it will be cool to race him, but it’s going to hurt even more now! 

I’m doing well on my training, and have not seen any bears for a while, but the weather here is like it is in spring… sort of.   Lots of rain, but at least there is not snow at the elevation where I live.  (A-basin and Breckenridge got snow last night)

 http://goo.gl/pp06a

One more thing to note, I hope to get to ask Lance if he saw my painting on the Alp d’Huez.  “RIP THEIR BALLS OFF LANCE”.

VICTORY!!!  This is my first Xterra win!  I’m so excited about this.  2 years ago, when Xterra Indian Peaks was my 2nd Xterra ever, I never thought I would be winning this race, but last year when I got 2nd I started thinking….

I took the lead about 200m into the swim and looked back a lot!  I never relinquished my lead throughout the entire race and held strong to the finish.  I felt great and everything went great.  This is a huge confidence booster for the upcoming USA and World Championships.

transition setup with the Gatorade commercial crew

  swimming biking

I want to give a special thanks to Tina, my wife, for supporting me so much with my Xterra ambitions, and of course my sponsors, Streetswell, Rudy Project, and 2XU.

It was also great to have so many friends (new and old) there to be a part of this.  I’ll give Ben Madden a special thanks for housing and feeding me the night before, and John Klish a thanks for giving me a ride to race site and showing me the best lines through the course.  (he got 2nd overall!)

1st and 2nd place

August 4th

Xterra Indian Peaks is this Saturday.  I love this course.  The entire race is above 9000 feet, so it really works your lungs.  I love that.  The swim is in cold and possibly rough water, the bike is the right mixture of technical and fun, and the run is super technical.  Last year we had to run through knee deep water.  Excellent!  I can’t wait.  I’m not sure if livetriathloncoverage.com will be there, but check them out if you can.

Racing at altitude + Xterra Mountain Championships =  6^th place! 
I am very pleased with this result.  I was worried my 6^th at the East Championships was a fluke, but these two courses couldn’t be any different.  East: 160ft elevation.  Mountain Championships: 7400ft STARTING elevation with a peak of 9400. 

The swim started out just fine, and I swam comfortably into a 3^rd place out of the water.  I finally had a good 1^st transition (only 2 seconds slower than the fastest of the day, Branden Rakita who is having an amazing season) and was off to the mountain. 

Finishing the swim…

I got onto the wheel of fellow Boilermaker Patrick Valentine up the climb and was able to stay with him.  It was great.  I usually don’t get my cycling legs going out of the water well, but this time was different.  Probably the altitude….  I knew I was riding well when Josiah Middaugh caught me at a later position on the climb than last year and didn’t blow by me.  I also knew he was riding well since Seth (the current leader) was, at times, in sight.  Josiah is a great guy, and I train lots with him.  He had lots of confidence in me for this race, and I for him.  I gave him info on who was in front of us and approximately how far away they were.  We stayed with him for a bit before he went off to win the race.   Patrick set a good tempo for 2/3 of the climb and I took over when we got to the pavement.  When Nico Lebrun passed me, (again later then last year) I jumped on his wheel and held there until the dirt started again.  He climbs as well as Josiah so there was no chance of staying with him this race.  At the crest of the climb, Brian Smith passed, and I bombed the descent to catch up with him for the flat part of the course.  Having ridden this course so many times, I know it well, so there is definitely a home field advantage for me.  I tried to stay with Brian, but he was too quick on the short punchy climbs.  (Brian ended up having the fastest bike split of the day) 
 

On the final descent, I knew I had thrown down a great bike, and was snarling at gravity to pull me down to transition faster.  I felt great.  Probably the altitude….

Into the trees…

I had the quickest 2^nd transition (T2) for the 2^nd straight race (beating Branden by only a second) 

Runs hurt up at Beavercreek.  Running off the bike really hurts.  Needless to say, this run hurt, but only for a while.  Tina told me I was about 2:30 down on 5^th place.  I really wanted 5^th place but there were some great runners ahead of me.  I knew this course well as I had run it a couple of times leading up to the race, but that doesn’t make it any easier.  There is a serious climb followed by a long descent… to the halfway point, and then we do a similar climb and descent on the 2^nd half of the run.  At the halfway point, Will Kelsay of livetriathloncoverage.com informed me I had cut my deficit down to 1:45 behind Branden.  I was surprised it was him in front of me since I expected him to place top 3 from the way he was racing this year.  I decided I could either cruise to 6^th, or turn myself inside out for 5^th.  Jonnyraceday woke up and made that decision for me.  Thank goodness since Jason Michalak nearly ran me down.  I love this run course and really had no choice but to hammer it into the ground.  On the final descent, Mike Kloser was driving up the road we were running down and recognized me.  He stuck his head out the window and told me to “Go get him!”  I then caught a glimpse of a runner ahead of me and hit the turbo.  I knew it was a long shot but I had to go for it.  I nailed it to within 17 seconds but crossed the line 6^th very happily.

Starting the run…

I immediately went to Josiah to give him a bear hug for winning.

It was a great day and I’m so happy to have a great season going.  My next race is Indian Peaks in about 3 weeks.

Tomorrow is raceday!  I’ll be competing in the Xterra Mountain Championships here in Beavercreek.  I’m hoping for a top 7 finish.  I’ve gotten lots of great press lately.  I am on the cover of the Vail Daily today as seen on this link: 

http://goo.gl/1Z7ax

or

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20110714/SPORTS/110719900/1078&ParentProfile=1062

I also was doing a shoot for Gatorade (not a sponsor, but I’ll be happy to get exposure for my others sponsors) a few days ago. 

You can follow the race that starts at 9am Mountain time on twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/LiveTriCoverage

Next week is the Xterra Mountain Championships.  I’m ready for this race and I live on the course.  This week has been fun.  We (my wife, Tina) and I competed in both the Vail hill climb and the Davos Dash MTB race.  The Vail hill climb was Sunday and consisted of a run up a dirt road from Vail Village to the top of the gondola.  Here’s a picture of me running up from the gondola.  It was taken by one of my old rowing teammates who was visiting for the weekend.

  It hurt as seen here:

 but not as painful as the MTB hill climb which I bettered my time from last year.  This was Tina’s first MTB race and she loved it.

Here’s a new helmet I just received from Rudy Project to match my racing shoes.  It shouldn’t be too hard to spot me out there.

Last week I entered the first of the Vailrec mtn bike series.  It went pretty well, especially the registration.  I was paying for my single entry, when I ran into Warren from The Riverfront Club (at the Westin where I swim) and he had a teammate drop off his team THAT DAY!!  Warren offered me that spot, and now I'm a dual team member Street Swell and The Riverfront Club.  Awesome.  I get to have my cake and eat it too.  It's a win win for everyone, I get to earn series points for The Riverfront Club team, and race as part of Streetswell also!

A quick review on the Rudy Project Maskerna.

First, Rudy Project makes some of the best glasses out there.  Their optics are their specialty and it shows.  If I ever have any problem with mine (very rarely, but I am very, very hard on glasses) they are quick to fix the problem.  The Maskerna is no exception.  This is a sweet pair of shades.  They are the lightest pair of sunglasses I've ever seen.  I worried they would bounce around on my head since they were were so light, but they don't at all.  There are no rims to obstruct vision and I wear them anytime I do a time trial where my head is down most of the time.  Also, they look "normal" enough to wear as casual sunglasses.  I can wear them to an outdoor lunch at a restaurant without looking like I just got off my bike (which I probably did).  The only downside I've found is that the nosepiece is not as comfortable as my other Rudy's.  Since they are so light, this only becomes an issue after about 4-5 hours, and all I have to do it shift their position on my nose and the problem goes away.

Xterra Moab

The course was very long time wise.  The bike was technical, thus slow, and the run seemed long as well.  My total time was close to what I did in Maui last year at Worlds, and that was at the end of the season, with much more prep for that distance.  The swim was great.  I had a new wetsuit from 2XU that fit well.  It seems every time I get a new wetsuit, they get more comfortable in the shoulders.  Being able to stretch out for long strokes in a full wetsuit really helps.  I was very comfortable and came out of the water first.  I had a nice transition and started the bike.  I turned around at the top of this hill before the technical parts started and saw I had a HUGE lead.  I was surprised that I had gained that much so quickly.  I was psyched.  The mountain bike course was very technical, but my Superfly 100 handled it beautifully. I was loving it.  I have improved so much over the last year in my mountain bike skills and loved the high speed technical descents.  The course was an out and back with the peak elevation being halfway to the turn around.  I hammered away feeling better and better as I went.  At one point about half way to the turnaround, I heard the tell tale sign of a puncture after hitting a rock.  I didn’t worry too much since I was so far in the lead.  I kept riding hoping the Stan’s fluid would seal it.  Soon, I had to stop and check out what had happened.  It looked like I had lost air out of a puncture and where the tire seals on the rim.  I filled my tire with my CO2 canister but it kept leaking.  I spent some time trying to get it to seal holding my tire on it’s side and shaking with some success.  Eventually I decided it was good enough and started riding again.  Air kept coming out.  I flashed back to what happened to Josiah at the World Championships and hoped I was going to have better luck.  As I rode, the leaks eventually stopped and I had about half of the pressure left in my tire.  If I rode gingerly, I could keep the rim from bottoming out on rocks.  I decided since I had such a lead, that I would keep going like this.  I stopped and asked one of the Jeeps out on the course  if they had a pump.  He said he had an air compressor, and it would take 30 seconds to get ready.  I hesitated, and then found out it would not work on my valve.  I started off again.  I told myself I would use my tube with my other CO2 if anybody caught me.  When I got the the turnaround of the out and back course, I asked if they had a pump and got the same reply as before.  I also stopped because we were supposed to ring a cowbell at the turnaround point and it took some time to figure out where it was.  I had wasted too much time by that point because 2^nd place was suddenly right there.  I tried to stay with him, but my tire was holding me back too much so I decided that since the air was holding, I would take the risk and use my last CO2 without the tube.  It worked, and I hammered to try to catch him.  

I didn’t and came into transition about 2 minutes down.  For some reason, I have been a bit slow coming off the bike this year.  I still put in a good effort up to the part of the run course where it doubled back and I saw the leader.  I figured I had made up some good ground.  I got to the part where we run around the lake and couldn’t see him.  It was confusing though since there were 4 different races going on so there were lots of other runners on course.  I didn’t like this too much since I usually count on being able to see clearly where I stood in relation to my competitors.  On the 2^nd lap of the run, I was flying.  I felt much more myself and ran very well.  I never saw 1^st place, though, and I finished a 2^nd.  I’m not happy with this result, but if I’m going to have a bad race, this was the one to have it at. 

I'm featured as one of the background images for the Teva Mountain Games GNC Ultimate Mountain Challenge: (you may have to hit F5 to refresh to get to my image.  Originally, I was the only background)
http://www.tevamountaingames.com/event-detail/Ultimate-Mountain-Challenge.aspx

I’m going to do a review on…. Socks!!!  I figure this will be a unique review, since everyone else wants to do the glamorous stuff.  2XU makes a great pair of Performance Low Rise Socks.  I have a size medium and they fit my 10.5 foot very well.  When I first slipped them on, they felt great.  Sort of like silk, (I think, since I’ve never had silk socks) and they stayed in place.  I tried them out first on a run in cold wet weather and my feet stayed warm.  They are thin so I’m sure my feet will be fine when (if) it ever warms up here.  Some of the socks I have that are also low rise will fall down into my shoe around my heel and this does not happen.

I also tried them out on a bike ride, and my only complaint is that there is a very small gap where my ankle bone sticks out (actually part of my tibia) that can allow some road debris to fall into.  Other socks that I have also allow this and it is probably due to my boney structure, although with a thicker, higher cuff on the sock, this would probably be prevented.

Durability is the only thing I have not tested, but with time I will follow up and see.  In the past, my 2XU products have always held up well, so I expect the same with the performance low rise socks from 2XU.

                                                                                 

Normally the top Xterra athletes finish the ride in over an hour.  The directors are going for an average ride time of 2 hours, so they are thankfully shortening the course.  I’m looking forward to this Saturday’s race.

On another sad note, the Belgian sprinter Wouter Weylandt died yesterday during Stage 3 of the Giro de Italia.  I’m very far removed from the grand tours of Europe, but it still strikes a note with me.  I would like to send out my love to his family and friends.

The Beavercreek snowshoe race series concluded almost a month ago.  The series consisted of a total of three races.  They add your cumulative total time for the overall series.  (the final race was at a painful 10,000ft)  After putting a huge deficit on me in the first two races, I could not put the performance to move into second place above fellow local John Klish.  When you can’t beat em, join em.  I did exactly that.  John and I took a training trip to his hometown of Grand Junction, CO.  It was nice Mountain Biking on his home trails where he could school me in how to ride them faster.  I’ve got a sweet new Superfly 100 for racing that I took on this trip.  It’s a great ride and I hope my training helps me to ride it well this year.

Here is a picture of Klish in Grand Junction

 The Xterra West Championships take place in Las Vegas, NV in two weeks.  Last year, that was the first race of my season, and it showed.  I’m hoping to race much better this time around with the winter tri’s and snowshoe races.

Here's a review I made for some Rudy Project RX sunglasses:

I had the opportunity to try out the new RX program from Rudy Project.  My particular model is the Noyz with Racing Red lenses.  The employees at Rudy Project were very careful to get my exact prescription correct.  I had to actually go back to my eye doctor since they didn't do all the necessary measurements when I got my prescription!  (at no cost)  It paid off, though.  The clarity of vision I have through the Racing Red lenses is exceptional.  (or standard Rudy Project quality.)  My prescription is with a strong astigmatism, so the thickness of the lens changes quite a bit from the center to the edge of the lens.  This thickness variation does not affect the consistency of shading of the sunglasses.  If I look straight ahead or to the side of the lens, the vision is the same in both.  It is sharp and with the exact same light filtering.

There is one thing of note, and it pains me to say it, but I didn’t listen to ALL of the advice Rudygave to me.  My strong prescription does not mix well with the base curve of the Noyz.  They recommended I get a model that was a bit flatter.  I did not heed their advice so there is a bit of a problem when I shift my eyes around a lot.  I tend to see double briefly.  When I remove the sunglasses, I’m a little dizzy.

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