After spending all of my multisport career living in the Sunshine State of Florida, I am always looking for new races & new skills to keep me motivated and hungry to improve.  During college bowl season this winter, my buddy Brent Bell and I went out to watch some football after a road ride one Wednesday night.  He talked about his tri season and how much fun he had.  He spoke of these triathlon races that were a blast but very laid back; yet also competitive.  The funny thing is, I had never done any of these triathlons in my eight years triathlon racing; that was because they were Xterra format (Xterra bike & run take place on dirt trails; usually single track). It didn’t take much convincing by Brent, I was soon on my way to the computer late that night to sign up for an upcoming April Xterra in Miami. 

For some reason, getting on the mountain bike had never interested me before that point.  Maybe half of it was cause I didn’t own one and didn’t really want to crash someone elses bike into a boulder or tree.  Now that I have a my own bike, I have to admit I have caught the bug.  I have ”Xterra Fever” after doing two of them. 

I have rallied the troops a bit here near my hometown of Clermont, Florida. We have a group of guys in the area that ride at some point during the week together.  In case you have never ridden off-road, riding MTB’s (mountain bikes) together is a blast with a couple buddies.  It is so much different than riding on the roads in a group.  I feel as though you feed off each other a whole lot more than road biking.  Most off the guys are Xterra newbies just like me so we have been learning more and more each time we go out together.     

Both of my Xterra race experiences have been a blast.  The Southeast Xterra crew of Andrew & Jennifer are awesome at what they do.  As athletes, its easy to sometimes over look what a race crew does.  These folks do it first rate. 

My first race in Miami was very technical & it probably was a good thing to start that way.  I learned a lot that day about my weaknesses on the bike despite an 8th place overall finish.  Saturdays race at Ft. Yargo, Georgia was more of a cross country style bike course so obviously I faired a little bit better because there were more power places for me to excel.  

Anyway, the point of my blog today is to spread the message of Xterra.  Once you try one, you will never go back to just doing road triathlons.  Sometime visit: http://www.xterraplanet.com  if you haven’t already.  Lastly, many thanks to my favorite teammate & boss Kimberly for giving me the chance to go explore this new world of Xterra. 

The season got off to a good start this year for me with the first race, the Coulee Du, a 3 mile run, 17 mile bike, 3mile run. This is my second time doing this race. Last year I took second place. Being a duathlon, the advantage obviously goes to the runners, not exactly my strong suit, but I knew I had worked on my running this season, so I expected a little faster run splits this year.

 The course at the coulee du is tough for a sprint race. The run course is a 3 mile out and back loop with the first half being all uphill and the second half all downhill. The bike course is a 17 mile loop with rolling hills and one tough climb.

There always tends to be a lot of good previous collegiate track and xc runners turned triathletes that race this race from UW- La Crosse and the twin cities areas, and this year was no different.

Coming into the race I had figured some time splits based on the previous year, I knew I would lose about a minute+ to the top runners on the first run, so I would need to gain back that minute on the bike, plus another to have a cushion on the second run. Well it started out pretty much as I expected, as I was 1:15 down after the first run (came into T1 in 4th). It took me until mile 8 to catch the leader on the bike, a little longer than I had hoped. After taking the lead I took a glance back at a few corners and saw I only had 20-30 seconds, not enough I told myself. I went back and forth with the lead with another racer for a while but knew he wasn’t one of the faster runners so I wasn’t too worried. The guy I was worried about was still dangling back at 20 seconds. He must have faded the last 2 miles because I ended up 45 seconds up on him at T2. From that point on it was just pray that my legs would turn over fast enough. Last year I got run down at about the 2 mile mark, and I was determined not to let that happen again. Let me just say that it is hard to “sprint” for 3 miles when you are training for 13!!! But anyway, we got to the turnaround and I figured I had about 30 seconds on 2nd place at that point, and someone I figured to be a much better runner than myself. But my legs held on for a 41 second edge and to grab Victory #1 of the season. A good start considering last year I didn’t have any wins. Also a confidence booster was the fact that although my bike time was 25sec slower than last year, I ran 15sec and 1min20sec faster on both of my runs, pretty good progress I think.

Here are the splits:

Overall Time-1:17:09, Run 1- 16:45, T1-0:25, Bike- 43:06, T2-0:23, Run 2- 16:32.

Ok.  I have just figured out my favorite way to spend a Friday at work: instant messaging with Kyle Marcotte. !   The guy is a crack up and will keep you entertained with a range of topics from training/racing discussions to off-season drinking fests to eating whole cakes in one sitting.   Ask to see his work photo ID, too.   “THE FLY” is back!  :)

You rock, Kyle!  The coolest dude EVER.

Its always strange when your first race of the season is a race in which you really want to do well. That was the case last weekend as I headed down to Tuscaloosa, AL with 7 others from the University of Virginia for USAT’s Collegiate National Championship.

The few days prior to the race were rather uneventful and the morning of I was feeling pretty good. After waking up at 4AM for the 7AM start time, I had my usual peanut butter and banana bagel with honey and had some coffee. We made our way to the race site without incident and warmup was rather uneventful. Pretty soon, I was in the water awaiting the start, ready to rock and roll.

The start was strange as no one in the pack really heard the gun go off but all of the sudden a couple people on kayaks shouted, “GO” and we were off. As you can imagine, starting with 140 other testosterone laden college aged males is not the most serene thing in the world. Luckily though I had spent a winter working on my swimming so I was only in the washing machine for a few minutes. Once I broke free of the whirlpool, I was right on someone’s feet, feeling good. Its hard to tell where you are in the swim, but about halfway through I realized I was in the first group which I was stoked about since a number of the competitors race ITU and are therefore fast swimmers. A little later I noticed someone moving to my right and I jumped on his feet, still keeping it under control. Pretty soon, I was coming out of the water in 17:11 and was informed I was in 5th place which was awesome. This was my first swim in my new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit and I have to say I was very impressed. It felt awesome to have a second skin as opposed to having to pull some rubber around in the water. It was definitely a “breakthrough” swim and at this point I was feeling great about the race, as I was right up front and in position to contend for the victory.

After a mediocre transition, it was off on the bike. At the start of the bike though, my fortunes changed as I just didn’t have it. I knew the guys I was coming out of the water with and I thought I should’ve been able to stay with them but for whatever reason it just wasn’t happening. A couple other people came by me who I also thought I should’ve been able to stay with but once again, no dice. Finally I settled in a bit and stopped the bleeding, letting only one other guy pass me. Note to self: spend more than a week and a half on a new bike before using it in an ‘A’ race. Coming into the finish of the bike I was a bit disappointed but happy to be off the bike and onto the run.
Starting the run, I was informed I was in 11th at which point I decided I should still be able to pass enough people to finish in the top 5 and earn an award (they were given 5 deep). I felt fine except for the fact that I couldn’t feel my feet! The air temperature wasn’t that bad but the cold water combined with biking led to the numbness. Regardless of that, I got into a good rhythm, running around 5:18s, and started picking people off. Even with a couple of big hills I maintained a good grove and finished up with a 5:09 last mile which brought me to the line at 1:53:26, good enough for 5th place.

Overall it was bittersweet. It was my highest finish at Collegiate Nationals and I had a great swim and run. However, I was only 1 min 20 sec off first place and I really felt that I could’ve had a better bike. Oh well, that’s racing.

Who cares about the race though when the awards banquet and after party are tons of fun. In fact, I even wore a bowtie for the occasion as a tribute the undergraduates here at UVa who feel the need to dress inappropriately for football games.

At the Timex training camp I had the pleasure of meeting Anne from Spenco®, who introduced me to the Spenco® Ironman™ cycling gloves, which are designed to help reduce numbness in the hands while riding, with the Shock-Tek™ patented grove in the padding.

I work as a physical therapist, and one of my co-workers asked for advice on reducing the numbness in her hands while riding her bike, specifically for the median nerve or “carpal-tunnel” type pain. My co-worker is also a physical therapist and knows about proper bike positioning and keeping the weight off her hands while riding, but that didn’t seem to reduce the numbness completely. So, I lent her my Spenco® Ironman™ cycling gloves. She returned back from riding this weekend and asked where she could buy a pair. The gloves had alleviated her numbness completely for her one-hour rides and reduced it by ~75% for her longer rides. 

Also, last week I had the pleasure of taking a ride in my brand-new Cold-Snap™ MTB series cycling gloves, also produced by Spenco®. I was very excited about riding in the gloves because of the silicone grip dots that allow for maximum control and their fleece lining for the added warmth. My first ride in the gloves was on a cold and rainy training day. Although, my last pair of gloves kept my hands warm and dry in the rain, I always felt like my hands could slide right off the handle bars if I hit the unsuspecting pothole in the road. The Cold-Snap™ gloves took all those fears away with those silicone dots and kept my hands warm during the entire ride. These gloves also have Shock-Tek™ patented grove in the padding to help prevent numbness in the hands. What a great bonus!

Thanks Anne!!