EX2 35-39 Age Group Podium

IMG_0017
Originally uploaded by ex2adventures

On the podium with my sleepy and fidgety training partner.

A game...

The A game was brought out for my A race. All three legs of the EX2 off road triathlon were solid. The swim, the ride and the run. The decision to scale back the number of races was the right one to make earlier this year. I have had enough racing in my legs to build me up for this race, but never felt overtrained. The great training plan from Jeff at Allez Training Systems had me at peak performance for this race.

I lined up in the second row at the start and was right in the thick of the scrum at the start. Just like Frazz says, it's Australian Rules football in a washing machine. About 50 meters in, I took a foot to my face and my left goggle filled with water. I swam a few hundred meters with one eye closed, but was in the pack so I didn't worry about sighting. After clearing my goggles, I was back in the pack, feeling great which is a completely novel experience for me in the swim after 3 years of tris. This swim is a two lapper and as I was running over the peninsula to start the second lap, Rich a racer I met here last year complimented me on my swimming. He said that I must have been swimming a lot, yep I have, Thanks Connie. Out of the water after the second lap, it was a short sprint to the bike and the fun trails of Rocky Gap State Park.

The bike leg starts with a short section of road and then the rocky trail. The bike was solid, I never went into the red zone, consciously thinking that I needed to be steady and not go into the pain cave. Only a few people came around me on the bike, and I passed a bunch of people on the trails. On the back side of the second lap I came up on John, who I've raced with in a bunch of races. He's always fun to race with, as we are closely matched. He came around me on the road section but I made it around him shortly after that. I did have some trouble with lapped traffic on the end of the second lap. I was caught behind a girl and a guy on the narrow single track and told them I would like to get around them. A little ways down the trail the girl bobbles and stops off of the trail and the guy stops right in front of me. "God Damn", and he says he would appreciate it if I wouldn't cuss. I shrug it off and motor on to transition 2. Coming out of T2, John and I are together and we pass a few guys. I tell him about the easily offended chap and he said he heard it and laughed. I told him that the guy got off easy, because as an ex-Marine I could've dropped a bunch of F-bombs. John then lets me know he's also a former Marine, yeah that's why we get along. Ooh Rah Devil Dog.

So we shuffle along the run leg, just pacing each other. John fell back a bit after the drink station at the camp ground. After Evitt's Revenge the course drops you down into a rocky technical trail. This was the section that caused me a host of trouble last year with leg cramps. I backed off a bit here, watching my foot placement and before long I was at the bottom. Up the other side to the bouldering section, it has to be seen to be appreciated. Climbing up through the rocks, I hear John behind me. Shawn T is at the top and I asked him where Denelle was and he said she's a few minutes behind. I wanted to stay in front of her so she wouldn't get trash talking rights after this race. Shawn was all over the course and gave me a bunch of encouragement, Thanks bro. John came around me right before the road section and gave me a great pace to finish the race with. I finished 5 minutes better than last year. If I keep this up, I may win this race in 12 or 13 years. :-)

After the race, I cleaned up and stowed my gear. When I checked the results, I had to do a double take. My name was in fourth place in the competitive 35-39 age group. Huh, wow. I found Holly and Parker and told her we would have to hang around for a while because I had made the podium. And to add the icing to the cake, John came in 3rd in the 40-44 age group and Denelle won her age group, Great Job.

After this race last year, I knew this one would be the one I would focus on this year. I also wanted to make this trip a family race and have Holly and Parker there with me. It was awesome to hear them cheering for me and Parker was spreading the IF Love in his Independent Fabrication jersey. He was on the podium with me. He is my training partner. Every time a hill looks steep to me in a race, I always think to myself that it's easier than pushing Parker in the BOB up Staunton's hills.

Thanks to Jeff at Allez Training Systems, Independent Fabrication and IFRacing.org for the best bikes and support, Connie for all the swim help, Jon with The North Face, the guys from the Thursday Night Augusta County World Championship ride for pushing me and the encouragment and mostly I couldn't have done this without all the love and support of my wife and son. Thank you Holly and Parker.

I'll try to find some photos, sorry we left the camera at home.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

enduro James...

Nice ride at Hilbert Race #3. Way to go James!!!

We could read about it if he would update his blog.

A Race...

My A race for the season is this weekend at Rocky Gap State Park. It'll be my second time on this course, so hopefully I won't have a repeat of last year's extra mileage from a missed turn. The 1200m swim is followed by 14 miles of mountain bike, with some pavement (time trial sections). Nothing too technical on the bike, but there are a few solid rock gardens that the ti Deluxe will eat up, not to mention Evitt's Revenge hill. It's a two lap course so I have a bit of concern on the second lap with having to deal with lapped traffic on the one narrow single track area. I'll just be polite until I shouldn't be polite. Most of the racers know to cede the line when another racer comes up from behind. So far this year I haven't had any issues, and I hope that continues.

The run uses some of the bike course until it hits the narrow and most technical sections on the course. This is a great run course, grass, trail, some pavement and a hand over fist bouldering section. Then it is a short trail to about a mile on the pavement and then it's back to the finish. I'm planning on taking time off of my result from last year. I know the course, I'm better trained, rested, and motivated to do well. Plus, Holly and Parker will be there with me. If I am alone in the finishing chute, Parker will get his first XTERRA finish. If someone is trying to sprint me to the line, well daddy's gotta do what he does. He will of course be pimping the IF Jersey that Jon Bruno sent him last year. Looks like it'll just be Parker and I spreading the IF Love as I haven't heard from Steve if he's racing.

I wonder if Denelle is racing... Maybe she's scared...(jk) She's been rocking the XTERRA and mountain bike races this year. Hope to see her, Shawn and the Bike Factory crew at EX2.

Wish me well, I'll need some postive energy directed to western Maryland on Sunday morning.

Have a great day and thanks for reading.

If you ride a triumph?

IMG_4978
Originally uploaded by ngc

you should have a kilt...

my bro Neil rocking the kilt and the Triumph...

quick hits...

- ran a 5k this morning with Parker. He didn't actually run, but was chaffeured around the course in his BOB jogger. We took almost 2 minutes off of our time from last year. The legs are ready for next weekend's A race.

-the trails at Montgomery Hall Park are expanding. Queen City Cycling Club has been helping a local Boy Scout on his Eagle Scout project. We completed a 1.25 mile trail at the park that is all single track. The city Parks and Recreation department brought in a convict labor crew for two days to chainsaw and bench. And they built a rock wall. That was a huge help. The new trail adds to the 1 mile already in the park, with plenty of land available for more trails. These new trails will be built this winter as soon as cyclocross season ends.

-training has been hit or miss this week as family obligations have taken precedence. I feel strong so I'm not too worried about it.

-did a open water swim with Keith on Monday at Todd Lake. It was nice not to have to turn at a wall every 25 meters and stare at a black line for 45 minutes. It was an early morning as we met at 6am to swim. It was tough to get up at 5, because...

-went to C'ville to see Modest Mouse on Sunday night with Brian. Damn that was a great show. Isaac Brock crushed it and I got to hear/see Johnny Marr on the guitar. WOW it was incredible, high energy show, plus the copious amounts of Starr Hill Ale were delicious. yeah yeah this is a cycling blog not a music blog, but I did see someone with a bicycle tattoo so that counts.

Catching up...

I've been putting off this post as I've been waiting for some race results to be posted. It's Thursday and the race was on Saturday and still no results, what's up with that??

The weekend presented a choice as to where to race. There were three triathlons that I could choose from, Charlottesville Sprint, Bath County Sprint or the Davis Health Sprint in Elkins WV. I've done the C'ville Sprint the last two years and have done well, but I wanted a new challenge. The Bath County race is highly regarded and I knew a bunch of people racing. It's always fun to race with friends but I couldn't take the plunge into Lake Moomaw this year. Elkins was the choice, free place to stay (thanks Matt) and I could hang out with fraternity brothers. Plus Elkins is one of my favorite places, the gateway to the mountains. Elkins is where I went to school, at Davis & Elkins College. The campus hosted the race with the swim in the pool where I lifeguarded for work-study. When I got my registration, I checked to see if the ceiling tile had been replaced. Back in college there was a tile that was missing above the deep end and we would climb up into the steel rafters and drop through the tile into the pool 25 feet below. Ah memories. The run was on the trails that I raced on while on the cross country team. Yeah, I ran cross country in college, actually it was more of a jog. It was a great experience to run for Coach Will. These trails were also the first ones on which I rode a mountain bike, a purple Trek 930. Ah memories.

The swim was 8 laps in the pool for 400 yards. I'm terrible at counting laps, but there were volunteers there to count and let you know when you were on the final lap. Well, the lady counting for me was as good at it as I am and as I jumped out of the pool, I heard "you did an extra lap." That's okay, it's a training race and if it had been an open water swim, I would've zig zagged my way to those extra 50 yards.

Jumping on the road bike, I knew I should've ridden it more than once in the past few weeks. I would have been more comfortable in the aero bars. I quickly got into a rhythm and started reeling in people from my wave. After the turn around point and the screaming downhill I had moved pass everyone who had started in the wave before me. What a fun course, even with the hills. I like hills, I keep telling myself that. One day I may believe it.

Off the bike and onto the trails I pushed it, trying to keep my leg speed up. All I could think of was how much fun I was having on the run. Damn these trails are fun. I was cracking jokes with the race volunteers as I went by them. The run finishes with a long section on grass which was soft from the rain the day before. Quick Feet. Quick Feet and then I was done. I packed up and waited for the awards. My goal was to win this race, I was highly motivated to do well on a course that bestowed a lot of great memories. My name wasn't called for the overall winner and they didn't do awards for second and third place. I did win the 35-39 age group, I think my time would've placed me second overall, but that's the first loser. I'll be back next year for another go at the overall.

Back to Elkins.

(iplayoutside.com has photos here)

XTERRA East Championship

This year's race was a helluva lot better than last year. I took over 20 minutes off of my time from last year, when I completely blew up on the run. Faster on each of the legs this year. The hard work and great training plan from Allez Training Systems is paying off.

This year's run hurt, a lot. But not as bad as last year. I had a solid swim and bike leg and if I could've had a better first half of the run, I would've taken even more time off. But that's XTERRA, it's hard to have all three events of the race come together. The swim has a lot of rock scrambling, and even with that, I sighted well and stayed on course. I felt good the entire time i was in the water, and came out ready for the ride. The bike was pretty much the same course as the off road duathlon nationals in April, with one extra section tacked on in the beginning on Belle's Island. I went over the bars once, and was happy to give the spectators a good show of it. I landed on my face, but somehow was able to knock my right brake lever out of position. Nothing too bad though. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.

I caught up with my IF teammate Steve on the second half of the course. He was rocking the Deluxe singlespeed on the tight sections, but was spinning out on the power sections. That's the only reason I saw him, I had the luxury of pushing a big gear. He crushed the run while I didn't. I had some stomach issues from the last gel I ate in T2. It threw my stomach into knots and it wasn't until the halfway point that I started feeling better and could stretch mystride out. I pushed it across the 'dry way' where we had to run across the dry river bed and passed a few people. Then I started to feel the onset of hamstring cramps. I knew they were coming, but kept my pace high, nothing to do but keep moving forward. At the top of Belle's, the cramp hit with a fury and I hobbled along till it subsided. I followed a couple of racers off course and once we realized it was the wrong way, doubled back and got back on track. I was pissed and even with the the hammie on the verge of seizing again I pushed the pace again on the bridge back to the north shore and the finish.

After the race, it took a while for my stomach to finally settle down. Luckily it did by the time Steve, Jeff and I went for burgers.

Speaking of Jeff, he laced up running shoes on Saturday and beat his goal in the 10k trail race. Nice Job, now he just needs to put the run and bike together in a duathlon.

That's about it, i'm going to bed.





edit:


here are a few images from the race, thanks Shawn.