sbc: Back to Reality (Tahoe Race Report)

The worst part about taking a vacation is when its over and you realize you have to go back to work. This past 10 days has been awesome and it was the coolest race trip / honeymoon that I could have asked for. We flew out last Thursday to Reno where we picked up our rental car and then headed over to Incline Village. For a Floridaboy I think I drove pretty good in the hills but i did get passed by an 80+ year old guy in a cadillac on those mountain roads (along with the other 10 cars that I was holding up! ) I guess I was too busy taking in the scenery!! Probably not a smart thing to do, but oh well. We stayed at the Hyatt - which was the host hotel and the race venue was literally out our back door - so it was really nice to be able to check out the expo and preride and be back in our room within minutes.

Here's the view from our the Hyatt -->

FedEx lived up to their word and got my bike to Village Ski Loft on time and without any damage. Definitely saved a couple of bux on that one cuz i heard the airlines were chargin in excess of $200 bux (one-way!!)....... After our normal room switcharoo (we always seem to get put RIGHT NEXT TO AN ELEVATOR for some reason) - we got settled in and I got in a great preride while Steph hit up the Spa....... I think that Steph would like going to races more often if there was always a spa that she could go to while i ride. It seemed to work out perfect for both of us! The trail that the race was on consisted of a long climb up some jeep road towards the infamous Flume Trail. The climb wasn't technical at all - but just relentless and long...... I knew i would have to pace myself come race time. Here in Florida our climbs are short power climbs that you can attack and just power your way through - but this was the real deal where you had to sit and spin (and spin and spin and spin and spin - you get the point) ..........

Here's some pics from the Flume Trail on my preride.......

So, after a couple of days of ez prerace workouts and some much needed chillin - the race day was here! This had been my goal race of all year -THE XTERRA USA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS......... back in last December, i had decided that i would forego the usual mountain bike racing scene and just concentrate on this Xterra series to be able to get to this race. It really motivated me this year to have this goal, as i have trained harder and more consistently than ever before. It was a lot of fun and hard work, but i feel like I made some real gains in fitness and learned a lot about training and racing. Special thanks to Shawn Burke of Velocity Multisports for settin me up at the beginning of the year with with a solid plan and some guidance to get me where i needed to be. I knew this race was gonna be a tough one, as everyone i've talked to says how different it is than the other races on the circuit. Sure enough, the cold temps and the climbing on the bike section were definitley not something I was used to, but I survived nonetheless. The swim was a lot harder than expected as I went out hard as I normally do, but just couldn't get my breath back at the first buoy, which is where I normally can recover by. At this point i started to panic - cuz i've never felt like that before and had to just tread water for a couple of minutes (felt like an hour) but eventually I got my breath back and finished the lap. Steph got a picture of me as I was going in to lap #2 and I look ruff!!! As I was walking back into the water I looked up and saw the lead group hitting the second buoy, it was definitley humbling, to say the least. I ended up finishing the swim and feeling alright once I knew that I couldn't go as hard as normal. Its funny, even though you read stuff and people tell you how you are going to feel, you still have to figure it out for yourself. Lesson #1 learned. The bike was good - just went semi-easy up the climb - still was passin a ton of people - mainly because i had come out of the water so far back from usual ..... didn't start seeing any one from my class until the top of the climb but I picked off a few guys here and there and definitely put some gaps in on the descent. That was definitely the funnest part of the trail - there was a rocky but flowing switchback section that you could just FLY down and each turn I would sling it around -- I was smiling big and just loving this section. After that was the Tunnel Creek downhill section where it was WIDE OPEN....... only had 1 instance where I almost flew off the mountain, but other than that i kept it under control. Then back to transition for the run........ this run was ez by xterra standards - pretty mellow little climbs but really twisty with a few rocky sections and log crossings but I liked it alot b/c it was a double looper so you could pace yourself a lot easier.

Steph and BigBlue were all over the course cheering me on so that was cool. At one point on my first lap, I look back and see a black and blue blur haulin towards me - turned out to be James Walsh. I got confused because I knew there could be no way i was in front of him - but then i realized he was on his second lap and me on my first - again - HUMBLING!! (That dude is sick-fast and a really nice guy btw. Good luck to him in Maui in a couple of weeks!) So, I ended the race at 3hrs and 25min - definitely a long one compared to the others that I've done.

So with this year's Xterra series coming to a close i've got some things in mind for next year already. I learned a lot and had a ton of fun so next year should be a good one. I'm gonna enjoy the next couple of weeks of unstructured training and just get in some rides and running when I feel like it. Looking forward to some nite-rides with Tony J and some ez trail running in the cooler weather (coming soon i hope)....... oh and I think the Stephanator has been building up a huge-mongous list of home improvement projects around the house........