4 Days Until Nationals

The weather forcast for Sunday is a low of 32 and a high of 57 in Incline Village NV. That means it will probably be around 40 the morning of the race when we dip our feet in the frigid waters of Lake Tahoe. According to the Xterra message board, the trails by Marlette Lake are covered in snow. This should be fun, and by fun I mean painful. You gotta love these extreme triathlons. I train half the year in conditions much worse than this so this race won't throw any suprises at me. What I wear will be crucial to my race day performance. I don't want to wear too little and go hypothermic on the mountain descents, but i also don't want to be overdressed and be too hot on the long arduous climbs. Do I wear leg warmers, tights, or just shorts? How will I keep my core warm? Do I go with the winter gloves and winter shoes on the bike? These are all questions that can have a major impact on race performance. Today i experimented to see how quickly my tights would dry. Before I went for a ride I sprayed my legs down with the hose. It really sucked for the first ten to fifteen minutes of the ride, but after that the tights started to dry and I warmed up. They passed the test, so I think I will wear tights under my wetsuit. Now I need to figure out what Jersey to wear. I heard that at the Tour de France, they stuff newspapers under the jersey for wind protection and heat retention on cold mountain passes. Maybe I'll try that.

Chicago Cyclocross Cup Jackson Park

The Get a Grip Off Road Racing team sent out notice that they will be a force to be reckoned with this fall in the Chicago Cyclocross Cup series. Two of the teams three members raced this weekend and both ended up on the podium. In the Cat 4 race Tim rode a solid race to take 2nd place. In the Cat 3 race Ted finished strong and won a sprint to take 3rd place.

Renewed Vigor

For the last few weeks I have battled with the desire to train.

I was starting my workouts with the best of intentions. The desire to work hard would quickly fade, and I was left with a less-than-stellar training session.

Well, that was all until this past weekend. I had a great ride going on Saturday when toward the end I got dropped on the lakefront path by a 40-something on an older Trek hard tail. Time to prevent that from happening again.

Sunday came with Tim leading my run workout. According to Tim via Jack Daniels, my VDOT is 48 leading to a 7:02 threshold pace at mile intervals. Tim decided we'd meet at the track downtown and run mile repeats at 7 minutes with 1 minute rest.

It's safe to say that was hard enough to make me realize I'm not training the way I need to be. He kicked my ass, then made me ride some hills down by Soldier Field before we could rest.

Yesterday I followed the VDOT training again and did 7 miles just off of my predicted marathon pace (7:32). It felt good even though I started with sore legs.

Either way, this blog starts my VDOT training. As of today that number is 48 via Jack Daniels. The goal by the first XTERRA of '08? VDOT of 54. That would estimate my 5k time at 18:40, 10k of 38:42, and 1/2 marathon at 1:25:40. We'll see what a winter of scheduled, strict, and intense run training can do for a guy that would never classify himself as a runner.

Oh, and a big thanks to Tim in advance for some good '08 XTERRA finishes....I can already see what this winter may bring.

2 weeks until Nationals

I raced the Xterra National Championship twice.

2004
swim 36:15
bike 2:24:39
run 55:28
3:56:22 finish ranking 24/28 in my age group

2005
swim 37:49
bike 2:14:06
run 52:11
3:45:06 finish ranking 15/24 in my age group

Both times the course kicked my ass. I'm ready to step it up a level and rock this course.

Goal time 3:10

Ithaca Grand Prix

Cross season is finally here. I drove to central Michigan to put my new Blue cross bike to the test against some of the top local racers in the area. The bike feels fast, my fitness is pretty good and my cross skills are pretty good for this early in the season.

The course had a nice layout that required a well rounded cyclocross skill set. 3 dismounts per lap, a hill run, a stair run, and lots of difficult turns kept the course challenge all the way around. To top it all off, there was a rock and roll band playing in the middle of the course.

I rode steadily the whole race and ended up in 3rd. Within the first lap the top 2 guys put a 15 - 20 second gap on me and they held that same gap for the whole race. Little things like falling on an uphill switchback and dropping my chain twice prevented me from ever pulling closer. I need to work on starting more aggresively and taking practice laps at race speed. Given equal fitness, that will prevent the gap from opening up in the first place.

I'm happy with 3rd though, I took home $25 and and Alpha Q hat and it got me some upgrade points so I'm half way to getting the upgrade to cat 2.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good too. The day before the race I rode at Cannonsburg ski resort to work on my climbing, after the race i ran about 8 miles on the Ithaca jailbird trail, and on the drive home I stopped at Ft. Custer to get a little more mountain biking in.

Cyclocross

Cross season is almost here. I can't wait for it to get started. Yesterday Tim and I went to Jackson park to work on our skills... because to get the girls you gotta have skills.


Here is Tim (on the left) getting smoked by someone in a Cookie Monster jersey at the Jackson park race last year:

Berwyn All-Stars:

Not so perfect form at Jackson Park:

Xterra Point Series Champion

I am officially the Xterra point series champ for the 4th year in a row. Turns out that due to the fact I did so many races, I win the tie breaker. I need to relish this victory because the competition in Xterra racing is getting really good. Who knows if I'll ever win again. I'm going to the National Championship in Lake Tahoe so I can attend the night of champions dinner and receive my regional championship jersey. This race will also be my last chance to qualify for the World Championship this year.