Xterra, Tapering and Gravel

One of my focuses next year is the Xterra series. It appears I am not the only one attracted to them. None other than Lance Armstrong is taking the series by storm - A Whole New World for Xterra

I will not be a the World Championships this year. I doubt I could ever quality, but you never know. Instead I am heading south to the compete in my first long distance off-road triathlon. Better know as the Xterra Iron Mountain. This new bred of Xterra that is gaining steam. I think the distances equate to a half Ironman distance triathlon on the road. Look to see a few more on the calendar next year for those of us who just don't have that speed anymore and enjoy a longer distance challenge.

Two weeks to go so it is taper time. After many years of competing in events the "Art of Tapering" has never been a forte' of mine. I am usually a coaches worst nightmare when it come to putting the final touches on hard months of training. I know better now and hopefully will listen to myself over the next two weeks and will have a peak performance.

Backing down your training is always hard to do. You know you need to, but you feel compelled to get your butt out there and continue to train so you do not lose any fitness. You feel like you need that one more hard workout to be truly ready. I am got that feeling last night when I went over the course details for next weekends Iron Mountain. This will be my first long course off-road triathlon. My last Xterra was the Red River event which was about 1/3 the distance of the Iron Mountain. So basically I am doing 3 Xterra events in a row. When you think of it like that it seems kind of hard. It makes me feel not ready. Like I need to do a couple more hard runs to harden up my legs.

The next 10 days I plan to cut my training in 1/2 but keep the intensity. Not that it was all that hard to begin with. My only distance I have planned is Sunday's Gunn City Gravelrie The pace will be moderate and the weather is looking fabulous. Cue sheet for Sunday's ride. I hope to see many of you out there to kick off the Gravel Grinding season. The list of attendees is growing daily. Should be fun.