Alright Monty and fellow fish followers...
Xterra bama recap...
Very atypical bama weather. 45 degree nights and mornings lead to, as you can guess, a wetsuit swim. First time in a very long time. So, i threw on the floaty shorts and did a lap prior to the early race happening.
Swam easy and was like 23min or so.
Then I sat in my rental and cranked the heat. Trying to get core warm. It worked.
Headed down to swim start and watched the pro heats go off. All 6 women ha.
Standing there with the guy i wanted to draft off and all was good. Then suddenly... we were going. No loud speaker, no horn just the 7-8 guys who lined up in front of us took off then it was a free for all.
Swim generally was great. I was 5th fastest and content, not thrilled but content w the swim. Stayed very in control. Wanted to keep HR low and anxiety low as I got to land. A smooth transition and passed a couple guys through there and headed out 3rd amateur.
Hit the trails and this was where things just didnt work. A few pedal strikes. And slide outs. Just dumb mnt bike stuff that I dont normally do. Could not get my breathing to settle even though I was going easy. About 15min into the bike two of the pro (non swimmers) caught me and I jumped on some wheels and that seemed to help but it was short lived.
Once i hit the long climb I just could not find a rhythm. From there until the end of the race it was a total fight to stay engaged. I could not find my flow.
I got passed by the guy who got 3rd overall. And was riding with the lead woman. Dropped her and rode w him at 15 sec or so in front of me until the last couple miles when I kind of gave up to be honest. I was pushing but it wasnt happening. I opted to drink my bottles and stretch vs hammering each corner.
Got into transition as second place amateur (I thought) and had to fight a gaggle of girls surrounding my transition spot. No biggie. Put on the shoes and thought ok.. Im still ok and ive trained my run. With the new run course I was familiar w the first 2.8 miles or so but the new section they did (to make the run one loop) was new. Single track running. Would have been fun but legs got crampy jumping a couple downed trees. Passed Brandon Rakita at one point and thought I was going pretty good. Hit the new section of trail that looped back and saw 4 more places about 1min back. I was running ok though and it took a while for them to get me, but I had to settle for 8th amateur and 3rd in my age group.
I had diamonds in my legs on wed and thursday while i was resting. I felt great. Pre-ride on friday, pretty much the same but figured I had to work out some 2 day off kinks. Prob rode too much the day before. But with all my training I was 100% that even with a hard effort the day before, I could still race well as I was doing super hard efforts for days in a row of training.
I executed at 110% on what my body was giving me yesterday. It was painful and ugly (post swim) and Im proud that my fitness carried me through.
Gonna enjoy some cookies and beers the next couple days. But then I am more determined than ever to get back to it. Im considering the rest of the americas tour and Maui in december. (assuming covid and shit doest erupt.)
daved
http://www.theundergroundcoach.com
Xterra bama recap...
Very atypical bama weather. 45 degree nights and mornings lead to, as you can guess, a wetsuit swim. First time in a very long time. So, i threw on the floaty shorts and did a lap prior to the early race happening.
Swam easy and was like 23min or so.
Then I sat in my rental and cranked the heat. Trying to get core warm. It worked.
Headed down to swim start and watched the pro heats go off. All 6 women ha.
Standing there with the guy i wanted to draft off and all was good. Then suddenly... we were going. No loud speaker, no horn just the 7-8 guys who lined up in front of us took off then it was a free for all.
Swim generally was great. I was 5th fastest and content, not thrilled but content w the swim. Stayed very in control. Wanted to keep HR low and anxiety low as I got to land. A smooth transition and passed a couple guys through there and headed out 3rd amateur.
Hit the trails and this was where things just didnt work. A few pedal strikes. And slide outs. Just dumb mnt bike stuff that I dont normally do. Could not get my breathing to settle even though I was going easy. About 15min into the bike two of the pro (non swimmers) caught me and I jumped on some wheels and that seemed to help but it was short lived.
Once i hit the long climb I just could not find a rhythm. From there until the end of the race it was a total fight to stay engaged. I could not find my flow.
I got passed by the guy who got 3rd overall. And was riding with the lead woman. Dropped her and rode w him at 15 sec or so in front of me until the last couple miles when I kind of gave up to be honest. I was pushing but it wasnt happening. I opted to drink my bottles and stretch vs hammering each corner.
Got into transition as second place amateur (I thought) and had to fight a gaggle of girls surrounding my transition spot. No biggie. Put on the shoes and thought ok.. Im still ok and ive trained my run. With the new run course I was familiar w the first 2.8 miles or so but the new section they did (to make the run one loop) was new. Single track running. Would have been fun but legs got crampy jumping a couple downed trees. Passed Brandon Rakita at one point and thought I was going pretty good. Hit the new section of trail that looped back and saw 4 more places about 1min back. I was running ok though and it took a while for them to get me, but I had to settle for 8th amateur and 3rd in my age group.
I had diamonds in my legs on wed and thursday while i was resting. I felt great. Pre-ride on friday, pretty much the same but figured I had to work out some 2 day off kinks. Prob rode too much the day before. But with all my training I was 100% that even with a hard effort the day before, I could still race well as I was doing super hard efforts for days in a row of training.
I executed at 110% on what my body was giving me yesterday. It was painful and ugly (post swim) and Im proud that my fitness carried me through.
Gonna enjoy some cookies and beers the next couple days. But then I am more determined than ever to get back to it. Im considering the rest of the americas tour and Maui in december. (assuming covid and shit doest erupt.)
daved
http://www.theundergroundcoach.com