Well, this weekend was a journey back in time to my first love of endurance sports– mountain biking. The Wigwam Ultimax challenge in Sheboygan, WI, www.wors.org,  was the first race I had ever done back when I was about 15 years old. Since that time I have ridden the same trials and done the race probably 7 times now. In my glory years of mountain biking I won the PRO/elite race in back to back years.

Since taking up triathlon, I haven’t ridden the mountain bike all too often. Although I still try to hit the dirt with some of my training partners back home on occasion: www.tristanschouten.blogspot.com, http://b-matter.blogspot.com. I had originally planned on just spectating this year, but on my way driving to the race my old Coach Rob Boldt www.pcwcycling.org called and said he heard I was coming. Well he convinced me to race about 1.5hours before race time!! This is the most last second race I have ever done. So I got home, pumped up the tires and shocks in the Trek Fuel EX mtb, threw on some lycra, and headed out for a warm-up ride to the race (which is conveniently only about 1 mile from home).

At the race it was definatley fun to see some of the old gang that I used to mix it up with in the dirt on a semi-weekly basis. I joked that they were lucky I didn’t have aero bars on my mountain bike. The fun thing about this race is that it has the biggest $$ payout in the midwest so all of the best riders show up, and there are some good crowds around the course (needless to say I think a few people were surprised when I pedaled by). On the first lap, I was reminded why I am better on the road, when my left shoulder decided to become really good friends with a nice Pine tree. After that I needed to get it a little more under control in the singletrack. During the race I was told that I was sitting about 15th position, which I was pretty pumped with. But on the last lap I absolutely ran out of gas and dropped to 22nd overall at the finish (12 minutes behind the winner). (I guess I shouldn’t have ran 7 miles in the morning– at that time wasn’t expecting to be racing). Overall a great workout, but my body is definatley paying for it today.

Well since I can’t get the picture uploader to work, I am going to have to give you my written race report: 2nd overall today. The race was a 5k run, 30 mile bike, 1 mile run. (www.midwestsportsevents.com) Since this race is very bike heavy, it takes a good bike ride to win it, not boding well for me having been able to only bike an average of 2x a week as of lately and for a good majority of the summer. The weather was great with temperatures into the 70’s, with a strong southerly wind. The first run was fast, myself and another racer broke 20seconds up on the second group with a 16:10 run. I took the lead with a fast T1 through mile 7 of the bike. I was then passed by the second place rider. I decided to stay about 10m back and wait til later in the race to throw down an attack. I did so at mile 17 on a roller and thought i got a gap of about 20 seconds, i kept my head down and pushed the biggest gear I could. This was short lived however and we were on top of each other within a few miles. The other racer took the lead with about 3 miles to go and I faded out, losing about 20 seconds over the last couple miles, my lack of biking mileage showing. I knew this was the end of a shot at victory with such a short second run. I cruised the second run at what a felt like molasses sub 6 minute pace to come in for 2nd place. I was happy with this since I felt I put everything I had into my attack which was my gameplan but just didn’t have the overall power to take the W today. Of curios notes, some things that you will only find in wisconsin: a Brett Favre shaped piece of cheese, and a packers vs. vikings inflatables at the finish line.

(I’ll try to get up pic’s)

I am currently getting ready for the Green Bay duathlon on Sept. 30th. The distances of the race are a 5k run, 32 mile bike, 1mile run. Here is the workout I did today:

Bike- 1hr 45min total time

20 min warm-up, followed by 20min Time trial, 5min recovery, 15mni time trial, 5min recovery, 10min time trial, 2.5min recovery, 5min time trial, steady pace for remainder of ride.

*My general heart rate is between 70-85%max HR for TT efforts. I like to gauge myself to go as fast as possible for the given duration.

Transition Run- 5 miles

1st 10 minutes maximal effort, remainder of run steady pace at 75% max hr.

Total workout time: 2hrs 20minutes

This was a great workout for anyone doing a similar distance event.

Good luck to everyone racing at IMWI this weekend. The weather forecast is looking perfect (why couldn’t I be racing this year?). I will be out on the course cheering, but wishing I was racing with you.

Today was the Mountain Man Triathlon in Flagstaff AZ. I have been living in AZ since june, and this is actually the off-season here, but a short trip up north leads to a completely new world. I have never been so happy to have 65degrees, clouds, and a little rain, after dealing with 115+ over the past couple of weeks. I must say that the area is one of the nicest areas for a triathlon, great roads in the mountains and fabulous views of 12,600′ Mt. Humphreys, the tallest peak in AZ. I was not really expecting to be very competitive today being that my training has been limited due to my clinical rotation.

The day started off with a good warm-up of a 15min. run and a 15min bike. Before heading to the water i decided to make a last second stop at the rest-rooms (which turned out to be a very good decision), but this put me a little behind schedule and rushing a bit. After a little help from a fellow competitor I was all Zipped into the Helix and into the water with just enough time for a few warm-up strokes. (If I do have one complaint about the race, its the rocky bottom of the lake which left my feet all cut up…. but i guess thats not the races fault). At the start I took a few strong strokes to stay out of the madness and found a good set of feet to follow in second position. I stayed there comfortably for the whole swim til 500m to go when i decided to pick up the pace a bit. I came out of the water in first, not a bad start to the day.

 I knew the bike would be a different story though, as that has whats been the most limited in my training. I got beat out of transition so I was second heading out on the bike. I sat about 20-30seconds back for the duration of the bike, closing it down to 15seconds at the turn-around, but just didn’t have that extra gear. The course was mainly undulating with 2 climbs requiring the small chainring (maybe that was the 7000′ talking). It was also frustrating bc I was losing ground on the downhills, I think this is because I was without race wheels and was just riding the training wheels. But I’m not making excuses. I was just happy that no one passed me during the bike. It was hard not to get distracted biking with beatiful views of the San Francisco peaks, and the valleys we were biking around. The lake that the swim was in used to be really big and long, almost 15miles (I think), but because of the current drought in AZ it is only 23% filled. So you could see where the lake used to be but was now just open fields.

Onto the run I was sitting about 25-30second down. Here it was pretty much the same story, holding steady but not able to close it down. At 1.5miles into the run we hit a huge climb with switchbacks that climbed 300+ ft. It was brutal. This was one of the toughest 10k’s I have ever run. After the turnaround the guy in the lead had an extra gear and I just wasn’t able to counter. I came in 1:20 down for 2nd overall.

Overall, a pretty good day, especially since I wasn’t expecting to do that well. I ended up with a 2:02:39. I definatley recommend the race to anyone if you are in the area. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but hard to take pictures of yourself when your flying solo at the race.

 www.mountainmanevents.com