Xterra National Championship

I've been traveling to races at altitude for years. My first race was Xterra Keystone back in 2000. Each time I race I come back home with my ass kicked not just by my fellow competitors, but also by the relentless climbing and the lack of oxygen at altitude.

Each time I race, I learn a little bit more about planning, preparation and pacing at altitude. Nevertheless, I always get my ass kicked and feel I could have done better.

This year, like every year, I figured it would be different. I'm in the best shape of my life. I finally qualified for the World Championship, I won a few races, and I was undefeated in my age group this year. I lost a solid 10 pounds yet my power is at all time highs.

I had dreams that it is possible to get on the podium in my age group, so despite my history of racing at altitude, still I must travel out to Ogden UT and give it a shot.

Looking at the start list I knew that was a tall order because nearly everyone on that start list has beaten me at some point in my Xterra career. Still, on any given day you never know who will have a good day and who will have a bad day.

Xterra Ogden is a unique course because it has 2 transition areas spaced far apart. T1 is near Pineview reservoir at 4000-4500 feet. From there you climb up to Snow Basin ski resort where the course tops out at about 7500 feet before descending back to the resort and T2. This gives you a course that has disproportionally more climbing than descending. The course is fun, but it is not supertechnical, so power to weight ratio will be the key factor to determine who will shred the bike course.

Once you come out of T2 you run up some steep inclines, then it levels out a little before you do some more climbing. Then after that you do a little more climbing before you basically run straight down the mountain back to the finish line. I bet most people do about a 5 minute mile for the last mile of this race which will take in total about 3 hours. That's how steep it is.

Prerace, I notice the water is cold, but not numbingly cold like at Lake Tahoe. Once the gun goes off I try to find some feet but I am constantly getting dunked, punched and kicked. This was one of the toughest starts I have ever done, and that is completely understandable. This is the National Championship, no one is messing around.

Still getting pummeled, I get to the first buoy and I notice a decent number of pro caps around me. This is bad because that means I started way too hard. About 50 meters later people are still swimming on top of me and it hits me and I think, uh oh, I just bonked 4 minutes into a 3 hour race. In my past experience I found that when I go over my limit at altitude I don't recover and a bad day is in store. I tried not to panic and moved out of the aggressive pack. After a few easy strokes I recovered and felt fine. I didn't have any feet to follow, but I felt much more comfortable.

Onto the bike I felt great. I followed my strategy and only 2 people passed me on the bike, and that was because I got off and pushed my bike on the steepest climbs at Snow Basin while they rode. Lesson learned, when riding a single chain ring, you need a ring small enough to allow you to climb the steeps.

Most years I'm the one getting passed when the trail turns upwards. In hindsight, I realized no one passed me on the bike because all the good mountain bikers learned to swim this year and they were way ahead of me. Another lesson learned, Xterra athletes are becoming more well rounded athletes. Nevertheless, it was still a pretty good bike, and if I had swam a little faster I could have easily taken two minutes off my split without much effort by not getting stuck behind riders who were the world's slowest descenders.

Onto the run and I head straight up the ski hill. I felt alright but not great so I started at a very conservative pace. A guy in my age group and 2 pro women pass me in the first half mile. After that I started feeling better and I don't think anybody passed me for the rest of the race. I just focused on a good cadence and reeling in people ahead of me.

When it was all said and done, I had a great race. I beat my time on this course last year, and this years course was 1/2 mile longer on the bike and 1 mile longer on the run. In total I would say I am faster by about 10 minutes. I finished 56th overall, 32nd amateur, 11th in my age group. I think my swim split was ranked 102th, Bike 54th, and run 52nd. Not too bad, now I see what I have to work on in the off season.

I got my ass kicked in my age group, but it was super competitive. The guy who won my age group also won the amateur overall and he beat the reigning AG National champion by 10 minutes. Last years national champ beat this dude by over 15 minutes at last years national championship. Now that is stepping up your game. That is crazy improvement.

So that's it for me. Now I'm excited to compete in Hawaii for the World Championships, but I also have to find the motivation to keep on training. It has been such a long season. I must keep on training, it's what I do.