Redemption

A lot has happened in a week.

First, I'd been toying with the idea of picking up a new rig with 29" tires on it just to see what the hoopla is about. since I didn't want to spend a ton of money and didn't know anyone willing to lend me their bike, I picked up a very inexpensive Raleigh XXIX from my local bike shop. With my track bike as a trade in, I practically stole it.

Yeah, rigid, single speed, 29" tire mountain bike. So far my impression is that 29" tires roll over small obstacles better than 26" tires, but they're heavier and less nimble. A 29'er might be better for a larger rider, but my 5'5", 145 pound body has to work hard to get this bike to climb or corner like I want it to. This bike is a nice diversion and I'll be riding it to school and on group rides, but the 26" "Soft Tail" will remain my race bike.

Saturday I went out to Vail Lake to thoroughly thrash myself on the single speed. The Spring conitions surpised me, lots of greenery and blooming wildflowers. Spring-time growth narrowed double-track to single and single-track and single-track to tiny ribbons of trail; awesome conditions.



The "Dam(n) Climb" The yellow color is all blooming Wild Mustard

Some of the single-track I enjoyed. Had the whole place practically to myself: saw 5 people all day

The race director for the local race series has been hard at work cutting trails that are super-fun. Here's looking back at some challenging switch-backs. The ladder bridges he put in aren't visible but huge thanks to Rob Herbert for all the work he's been doing. I should patronize more of his races as payback.

This was stuck in the ground next to one of the fire roads near the race start'finish. It made me laugh. The spinning of the rainbow tires from the wind creates a psychadelic efffect. Trippy...

As for the redemption part, last month I attempted to re qualify for my job as a State Park Ocaen Lifeguard; a 1000 yard ocean swim in 20 minutes or less. I mimsjudged the conditions and my fitness and got swept past the bouy by the current and surf. Yesterday, I drove up to Crystal Cove in Orange County to have another go at it; success! A little slower than last year, but a minute faster that my race time last week for the same distance. I finished in the middle of the pack; I was shocked by how many people went out too hard and wound up doing backstroke or breaststroke trying to catch their breath. At least it's over with. Failing that test weighed heavily on my mind for the past month; my lousy swim at Xterra REAL amplified my worries.

Overall, a good week.

Xterra REAL: Race Report

After taking 2 weeks off to study for finals, I knew my performance at this race wasn't going to be stellar. Still, I knew my endurance and power were good, so I'd decided I was going to throw down what I had and see what happened.

Swim:

Cold, cold, cold. Race organizers said 54. Brrr... I managed to pick Trevor Glavin out of the crowd on the beach and figured I'd draft off him for as long as I could since he's faster than me (he'd go on to win the overall). The gun goes off and my high step/dolphin keeps me right next to him; he started swimming pretty early and I managed to keep up with him in the shallows. I started swimming and got on his feet, only to get dropped after a dozed strokes. Rats. After that I did my best to find someone to draft off, and made sure I didn't swim too crooked. Pretty lackluster for 1000 yards; out of the water in 17:40. Lousy.

T1-Bike:

The bach run took forever thanks to the lake being exceptionally low. Took 3 minutes just to get to T1 from the water. Once on the bike, I did my best to try and make up as many places as I could, but overshiftd in a technical section and spent 1-2 minutes yanking my chain out of my spokes. That plus the chain suck on both laps thanks to the 4-5 super-deep mud holes and my bike leg could have been better. Still, no nutrition problems and I had plenty of power and endurance. I just seem to be lacking some top-end speed right now.

T2-Run:

Smoked T2; at least that's something. I started the run feeling strong and feeling lasted the whole run leg. I ran every steep hill and managed to reel a few people in. The race director added about 1/2 mile to the run course and I still averaged 7 minute miles the whole way. Not bad for this point in the season, but I'd love to see what I can do here when I don't have to skip any training for exams. We may never know...

Wound up 9th in my AG and 45th overall. I think that's worse than last year. Bummer.

I'm not going into what was good or bad about the race since my training is the obvious reason for my poor performance. Really, I just have to put this behind me and focus on Arizona Xtreme on April 26th and then Xterra West on May 18th. I'm back in school after spring break, so I'm juggling classes and workouts again. Woo.

Pictures couresty of my brother, Steve. Thanks, man.

Cold and Rainy

I'm at my brother's house in Newcastle, CA and Xterra REAL is tomorrow. The plan was to use Thursday as my travel day, but finances wouldn't allow it. Mom and Dad came to my rescue again and floated me the gas money to get here. I'm a day late, but I managed to get some easy training in on the course yesterday. Tis is my third time racing this course and it seems to get flatter and faster every year. Maybe it's just me?

Unfortunately it's been raining since last night and there's a duathlon and trail run this morning. Chances are things are going to get torn up. The weatherman is predicting it to clear up and warm up for tomorrow; I'm hoping it'll clear up, but planning for the worst. Two years ago it rained a bunch the week before, making the course a quagmire; I hope it won't do that again.

Today, I'm doing one lap of the two-loop course, just to see how things have changed since last year and to keep the legs spinning.

Oh yeah, the lake is way, way low. I'm interested to see how they make a swim course out of it since I can see sand bars all over the place. The run to T-1 is going to be looooooooong. Crazy.

E.

De-Railed

Sometimes things come up in life and throw your perfect plans right out the f'ing window. Last quarter at school turned out rough for me and my financial aid might be in jeopardy. As a result, I was staring at the decision to bag a few WEEKS of training or drop a class. Since financial aid requires me to complete at least 12 units per quarter and I can't afford to pay 20K a year for school, I made the excruciating choice to bag training.

I literally sat at home for two weeks and studied from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. All to make sure I passed all my classes and maximized my grades in the courses I was already doing well in. I took all my finals last week and grades have yet to be posted. Please cross your fingers for me.

With that much of a break in training, my season goals are now questionable. I skipped one of my goals already :sub 4o minute 10K at the St. Patrick's Day 10K. Didn't have the money and hadn't trained all week. Skipped it.

That same weekend was my re qualifying swim for State Lifeguards and I didn't make it! Not like I missed the time cut-off, I didn't make it through the surf. It was breaking 6-8' with occasional sets of 12' (!) and the long shore current was a brisk 3-4 mph (brisk walking speed). I picked my head up for 2 seconds too long and got swept into a BIG set. With all the wave ducking and white water swimming, I thought for sure my number was up. The first time in my life I've ever been scared in the ocean and the first time I've ever called for a rescue. Luckily, the set pushed me to shoe before the PWC (Personal Water Craft) got to me, but now I have to re-test somewhere else. The worst part is that I could have made it if I started further down the beach, closer to the jetty, but I overestimated my fitness and underestimated the conditions. Stupid.

Then last week I get a call from the local Air Ambulance provider who has had my resume for three years. They wanted me to interview Friday (3/21) for a position starting April 7th. Crap! A job I've always wanted and can see myself doing for a long time and they call me a year early. I scheduled my interview and, for a week, strongly considered taking a year off school so I could work this job full-time and then switch to part-time status and finish my degree. I asked friends, family and people I hardly knew trying to get different viewpoints to help convince me one way or the other. Eventually, I realized I had to pass and called to cancel my interview. If I had shown up for it, I'd have for sure loved the job and never gone back to school. As much fun as I would have had, I'd be stuck making peanuts for the rest of my life. It'd be fun, but I'm tired of scraping by and being poor. Thanks, but no thanks.

Now it's spring break and training is back on track. I've slowed down a touch, but I still think I have a shot at making my season goals. At least Spring is here, the weather is perfect and I'm on vacation. I took this pic while I was on a bike ride in Los Penasquitos Canyon. The single track runs from right to left across the slope in the foreground, you just can't see it because of all the grass. Great day to ride and great to be riding again.

Thursday I'm heading for Scramento to hang out with my brother for a few days and to race my first Xterra of the season: Xterra REAL. Considering the time off I took, I'm bagging my time goals and treating it like a hard training day. Chances are it's gonna hurt. I'll post a race report next week once I get back. Word.

E.

Vision Quest #3

Pictures are still trickling in almost 2 weeks after the "race". Here are some candid shots of e crossing the finish line. I'm still looking for the pics from the top of Upper Holy Jim hike-a-bike section.Working really hard down the last 5 mile. flat road portion...
...caught me mid sniff. It was cold!
Me looking at the girl trying to hand me my finishing feather. Wha??

Anyway. Thanks to finals at UCSD next week and my complete broke-ness, I'm bagging the 10K I had planned this weekend. I'm pretty pissed about it because breaking 40 minutes there was one of my season goals. I may have to show up before the start and run it by myself. We'll see.

Back to the books...

E.

Gettin' my A$$ Beat...

I once heard an Ironman pro and World Champion say something to the effect of "I never learned anything from winning, it's the races where I got my butt kicked that I learned the most." If that's true, I should have a PhD by now...

I rolled out to Temecula Sunday after a long run Saturday to do some MTB racing at Racers and Chasers. Luke and James came down as well: James raced and Luke came out to get some riding done. The race isn't NORBA sanctioned, which leads to a very relaxed atmosphere. I raced "Expert" along with James and another riding buddy, Keith. It was hot and dry thanks to the Santa Ana wind conditions and I was a little worried since I'm a heavy, salty sweater.

I got off to a great start and almost had the "Hole-Shot" award until I overshot a corner early on and got passed by the "Sport" class rider behind me; nuts. By the time we got to the first major climb, Keith was on my wheel with James not far behind. I bobbled a tight, switch-back corner and Keith got by me. We top out the swithbacks and James puts in a move and goes by me. I managed to lead for a little bit, but these guys were just too fast for me. I kept them in sight through the halfway point, but once James got by Keith, he stood up on the pedals and was GONE. I tried to reel in the Sport class leader to redeem myself, but it was not meant to be. To add insult to injury, Keith mentioned earlier that he was racing with a fractured collar bone and rib....sandbagger.

Honestly, the idea was to jump out front and see how long I could hold on. Mission accomplished, though I wish I could have hung on for longer than I did. Next time.

Here's some pics Luke took:

Race start: that's a mass start. Yeah. Not a big field thanks to the Cal State Series the same day. The top of this is really rocky and sketchy...

Climbing up towards "Tunnel of Love" singletrack

Dowhnilll just around the corner...Steep downhill coming into the start/finish area.Not just done, completely trashed.

At least I got in some great training on trails that included quite a few sections of the Xterra West Championships course. The best way to get faster at racing is to race more and the only way to get used to being out front is to get your butt up there and bang bars. Word.

E.

Vision Quest #2

Photos are trickling in from various internet acquaintances and friends. I'll post pictures as I get them. This was taken just above aid station 2 on Lower Holy Jim about mile 40-something. Note how I'm already wet from the multiple stream crosings. This would cause my chafing issues later:

The best pic I've received so far. Big thanks to Hugh from STR for taking this.

E.