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| Xterra Epic - Iron Mountain |
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Xterra Epic Pictures
A few photos from this weekends Xterra Epic and our pre-ride on Friday. If you ever get a chance to ride Iron Mountain do it. It is a very fun trail system down in Arkadelphia, AR and worth the trip.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Cross Out Cancer v2
The 2nd Annual Cross Out Cancer race was held again at Shawnee Mission Park. A very similar course as last years. One needed to have a good set of tires, the ability to duck around the many low limbs/trees on the course and the ability to stay out of the caution tape (due mainly to a very narrow course that doubled back on itself my times). Low tire pressure was a must with the dry bumpy course. I ran my Kenda Kommando's at 29 psi and my back was happy for it.
The Livestrong Arm team did a good job all around and hosted a well organized event. Last years affair raised over $3,000.00 to help fund cancer. Most of the money's stay local. This one reason why I came out and supported the event despite earlier stance that I would not race any more "summer cross" events with temps in the 80's. 199 other races came out as I did to support the event. Down about 20% from last year. A recent trend in the KC cross races that have been held so far this year. I told many of my friends that there would be decreased numbers this year. Why? I will get more into this in a later post, but it is one of the reasons I decided to take a hiatus from cyclocross promotion at the end of last year. Instead I decided to just focus on MTB and Duathlon event promotion.
Today (and yesterday for that matter with a couple of hours spent at Swope) was a good training day for me as I prepare for the Xterra Epic at the end of the month. I got in a solid swim, a nice short run and even got to ride one of my favorite sports - cyclocross. Prior to the event I was talking to Mr. Doug Long and we discuss a couple of things including recovering from injuries, dealing with lack luster results and poor form. His thought was you basically get out what you put into it. You now who has been training hard and putting in the time. If you are not where you want to be you know what has to be done. You have been there before. How true.
Below photos by Roger Harrison.
Cross Off Cancer Results
The masters 45+ are off. I think there were 24 in the field. I was rolling in 10th for the day.
Pushing the pace early on after a poor start. Here I'm leading eventual 6th place finisher Telford Crisco. Telford has improved greatly over the last couple of years, especially in MTB. I look forward to racing with him in the Cat 1 class next year once he cat's up.
Doug Long and I ride the "mini barriers" towards the end of the race. I think Doug has better form than me. I look like I am out for a Sunday stroll. No wait that is the below picture.
The Livestrong Arm team did a good job all around and hosted a well organized event. Last years affair raised over $3,000.00 to help fund cancer. Most of the money's stay local. This one reason why I came out and supported the event despite earlier stance that I would not race any more "summer cross" events with temps in the 80's. 199 other races came out as I did to support the event. Down about 20% from last year. A recent trend in the KC cross races that have been held so far this year. I told many of my friends that there would be decreased numbers this year. Why? I will get more into this in a later post, but it is one of the reasons I decided to take a hiatus from cyclocross promotion at the end of last year. Instead I decided to just focus on MTB and Duathlon event promotion.
Today (and yesterday for that matter with a couple of hours spent at Swope) was a good training day for me as I prepare for the Xterra Epic at the end of the month. I got in a solid swim, a nice short run and even got to ride one of my favorite sports - cyclocross. Prior to the event I was talking to Mr. Doug Long and we discuss a couple of things including recovering from injuries, dealing with lack luster results and poor form. His thought was you basically get out what you put into it. You now who has been training hard and putting in the time. If you are not where you want to be you know what has to be done. You have been there before. How true.
Below photos by Roger Harrison.
Cross Off Cancer Results
The masters 45+ are off. I think there were 24 in the field. I was rolling in 10th for the day.
Pushing the pace early on after a poor start. Here I'm leading eventual 6th place finisher Telford Crisco. Telford has improved greatly over the last couple of years, especially in MTB. I look forward to racing with him in the Cat 1 class next year once he cat's up.
Doug Long and I ride the "mini barriers" towards the end of the race. I think Doug has better form than me. I look like I am out for a Sunday stroll. No wait that is the below picture.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sedalia Duathlon - Pushing New Limits.
"What a great day for our race". I could not agree with you more I said as I picked up my packet for the 2011 edition of the Sedalia Duathlon. Morning temps were in the 40's which is perfect for racing. I have come to really enjoy the duathlons over in Sedalia. Jeff and Maria Mittelhouser do a great job of hosting these very fun events. For a small entry fee of $25 you get a t-shirt, bike racks for the transition area, food (this time pizza), a safe well marked course, fast results, awards and loads of hospitality.My goals going in were to basically do the best I could at both the bike and run. I wanted quick transitions and lastly I wanted to really put out an 100% effort and get out of my "comfort zone". I think I have become really "soft" as of late and have not pushed myself. Today was mainly about reaching a new pain threshold mentally. Like Roger Bannister said "The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."
A record turnout was on hand for this years event. A good crowd with a mix if athletes from Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, Springfield and of course Sedalia. We had a choice of long course and short course today. I would say the field was evenly split. Short course started off with a 2 mile run. Long course had a 5 K run to allow a little longer to warm-up before the bike leg.
The lead runners were long gone before I even reached the turn around on the run. My plan was to pace myself and save something for the bike and final run. It is all about averages in multi-sport events I kept telling myself, but with the lead I gave everyone on the first run I had my doubts that I would ever bridge up.
After a quick transition it was "hammer time"..... Some crazy chick came out along side of me (she is actually head of me to the right out of view) in the transition and actually proceeded gap me during the first 1/2 mile before we turned right and started to climb. I was like damn, I am in poor shape. Turns out she did not know the cardinal rule of pacing in a duathlon and soon blew up big time on that first climb out of town.....I had a solid bike and passed a few dozen running specialist to make my way up to 3rd overall. The field was really starting to spread out, but I could see Kirk Decker who was in 2nd not far ahead. The leader, Tony Rigdon, had checked out on the run (6:10 mile splits) and was about 2 minutes ahead. Time to test that new pain threshold.
I put in a very solid 2nd half of the bike leg setting the fastest bike split w/22:26 and came into T2 with a 30 second lead on Kirk. On the first run leg he was about 1 min faster per mile so I knew I was in trouble. I kept telling myself that Kirk also had tired legs and that it would come down to who was able to suffer the most. The question was can I still suffer? At the turn around he had bridged up to me and I wanted to quit. But I remembered what George Sheehan once said "It's very hard to understand in the beginning that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit."
The final 1/2 mile was an all out effort for me. I made the decision to run until I dropped. Hopefully I would reach the finish line before I did, but at that point I did not care about that nor about the runner who was gaining on me. It was all about pushing myself and finding the ability to push past my current pain threshold. I reached the finish with nothing left and a great burning in my lungs and legs. Finish time was 46:35. I was able to stay ahead taking 2nd overall and earning the 1st Overall Male Maser award. Most importantly I did not give up and pushed myself to a new limit or I should say returning a little bit to my old limit.Some pictures from the event: Sedalia Duathlon Pictures.
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