CHRISTINE JEFFREY

January Update

2012-01-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

So its already nearing the end of January, kinda scary and exciting. Haven't been too good about updating the blog so going to cheat again and do a photo essay of sorts. We kicked off the holiday season with Gord Fraser's Christmas sweater party complete with DJ and Caryn's jello shots!! Good times where held by all, such a good time that I had to skip my bike intervals the next morning and simply concentrate on making my afternoon flight home to the Great White North ;)

Sam, PT, Noreen, Marilyn, myself and Justin

Arrived in Canada Sunday night before Christmas and got to enjoy some great family time. Did a bit of baking and finished (well started and finished) my shopping while fitting in some easy workouts here and there. Everything was cruising along nicely until the evening of the 22nd when my sister and I were enjoying the hockey game and she suddenly started feeling nauseous. I headed to bed feeling pretty normal but woke up 1am or so and the two of us tagged teamed the bathroom for the rest of the evening. Needless to say we both spent the next day in bed feeling more miserable than I have felt in a really long time. It hurt to even roll over in bed!! We thought at first it might be food poisoning but judging by how many other people came down with the same thing it was likely just a really nasty flu bug :(

I was finally able to rally mid-day on the 24th in time to get out for a short ride on my hometown trails before heading into Toronto for our family Christmas dinner. Always fun to ride the trails where it all started for me on the mountain bike. Sadly my sister was still feeling horrible and had to miss dinner. A funny article floated around the social media sites about the truths of health clubs and one item said the only way to lose 10 lbs in 24hrs is food poisoning. Well, it took me for about 6lbs and Karen for 14lbs. First Christmas holidays in a while that I have lost weight

Guelph Lake MTB trails

Arrived back into Tucson Wednesday and jumped right back into the training. Fellow Xterra triathlete and good friend Branden Rakita is spending a couple of months here training this winter and the weather has been nothing short of spectacular. New Year's Eve Leanda Cave and I celebrated by getting in the first long ride of the season (at least for me it was!!) I had never done the Madera Canyon climb, so the two of us enjoyed a nice leisurely 10am start and a good 5hrs + in the saddle. The climb was a "little" steeper than I had anticipated and the legs were definitely feeling it, but it was well worth it for the view at the top. Leanda managed to do the climb one handed and taking pictures, I however needed both hand firmly gripping the bars ;))

Riding up Madera Canyon

After a quick clean-up and power nap on the couch it was out for a great dinner with Leanda and Bill before heading over to the west side New Year's Eve party. Wasn't sure if I was going to make it all the way to midnight but the dance floor got going and soon enough it was well into 2012. Once again the Sunday bike intervals got a pass ;)) I think it should be a rule not to have hard workouts on Sunday during the holiday season. No matter, it's a long season and plenty of time to get in all that good training!!

Jumping ahead, it was time to get some testing done to set up the training plans and see if all the extra miles on the bike during November and December had paid off. Lucky for me Brian Grasky is here in Tucson with a great set-up and indulged me in helping me inflict 30mins of pain on myself. Good news is my bike is doing awesome, like better than last year in late March awesome.

Lactate testing at Grasky Endurance Center

Bad news is the next week after riding the first MBAA mountain race at McDowell Mountain Park with a bit of a sore throat I came down with a full blown cold and major congestion that knocked out a couple of days of training. Then true to me being unable to sit around and relax and recover I headed out for a mountain bike ride not quite feeling 100% and had a total high speed crash resulting in a chipped lower front tooth, some serious trail rash, cuts and bruises and likely a slight dislocation of my left shoulder :((( Yeah, I got to spend the next day sitting in a dentist chair then took another couple of days off training, boo.

Racing at McDowell Mountain Park MBAA #1

Tucson Mountain Park - my backyard MTB playground

So now, a week post crash, I am finally feeling better and getting the training all fired up again. Berk is sending me Turkish Evil Eyes to put on my bike so I won't crash anymore, anxiously awaiting those ;) Waffling a bit on whether or not to still do the 24hrs in the Old Pueblo, but excited to see everyone that is headed down this way next month. Until then keep the rubber side down!!!

More Tucson Mountain Park!!

Therapy!!! thanks Jess :)

Dawn to Dusk

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Off-season racing fun got rolling a week ago Saturday at the Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race hosted by DCB Adventures on the Pemberton Trail at McDowell Mountain Park just outside Fountain Hills. I jumped on the co-ed quad team Cancer Sucks with George, Jo, and Todd for this great event. I headed up early Friday afternoon to pre-ride the course as I haven't ridden the Pemberton Trail in years and luckily was able to grab a great parking spot. Turned out this was pretty sweet as the parking lot filled to capacity Friday night and all latecomers had to park down the road and get shuttled in. Not ideal considering the rain started falling and temperatures plummeted during the night. We were smart and got a good nights sleep at the Holiday Inn!!!

George lining up for the start

4:30am wake-up to rain was lovely, but George loves mountain biking in the rain and it was a mass sprint start so he got to go first!! I rode 2nd with Todd and Jo in 3rd and 4th. The first lap was a little chilly but no rain and the trail was running nicely. We spent the time between laps huddled in the car chatting and trying to stay warm only venturing out to cheer the next rider on or get ready to ride a lap. The sun made a brief appearance for my 2nd lap and so inspired me to really have a great lap, one of those special, totally in the groove mountain biking moments :) Sadly the rain came back and my 3rd and last lap was pretty sloppy.

Finishing up Lap 2 (i think)

Fun weather

Base Camp

Everyone had a great time and we won our division convincingly!!! The weather only made it that much more epic. The drive home to Tucson after the race was probably more painful than the race itself and I definitely felt like a train wreck the next morning!!! Not sure what I am getting myself into racing 24hrs in the Old Pueblo as a duo. Thankfully my partner in crime Katie Ellis is in great shape taking the win in the solo division.

Post-race team celebration

Since then it has been nose to the grindstone getting in some great training especially on the bike. Spend this past Sunday out on the 24hr course for the first time and pretty excited about the race in February. Trail is in great shape and super fun.

This is probably it for the year as far as blogging goes so Happy Holidays and wishing everyone a terrific 2012!!

Northern Californial Part II

2011-11-20T17:31:00.001-07:00

Tuesday morning we were off on our next adventure, a trip down the coast highway to Monterey and Carmel then a day visiting the Aquarium. I was pretty excited as the Aquarium is something I have wanted to visit for a while, surprising eh? all those fishies and stuff ;)

The drive was spectacular and California served up another georgeous day. We ate sandwiches on the Santa Cruz pier and rolled into Monterey an hour or so later. Travel guide (sister) Karen had mapped out the route and we expertly found our way to the 17-mile drive through Pepple Beach. I am so moving there (if I win the lottery or find a really rich guy to marry me). Amazing oceans views, sea lions, sea otters, what's not to love!!!

Monterey

Pepple Beach

We indulged Dad and stopped in at the Pepple Beach club house and strolled out to the 18th fairway. I guess if you are a golfer you can appreciate the need to do this ;)

Carmel

We arrived into Carmel and caught just the last little bit of the sunset before grabbing a great Japanese Seafood dinner in town.

Jellies at the Monterey Aquarium

Up early Wednesday morning, we weren't quite the first ones in the door of the aquarium (but close). I was a little nervous that I would be disappointed and expecting way too much, but I was very impressed. We started with the feeding of the sea otters, very cute, then headed over to the open sea exhibit. The walk through the jellyfish display was impressive and watching the schooling sardines in the giant tank, well I probably could have stayed there all day mesmorized. We moved onto the kelp forest tank which housed one of my favourites, the leopard shark. The penguins were a bit lazy and just hung out, but I guess that's what they do most of the day. Had tons of fun at the splashponds where you could reach in an touch some of the creatures. I convinced a young boy to reach in and pet the Bat Ray's. Pretty sure a future in maring biology is in his future!! Overall very, very impressive and well worth the trip.

Thursday saw us say goodbye to the parents after a great visit while I got to stay on for a couple more days. The weather was starting to turn a bit ugly but thankfully cleared up perfectly for the Saturday morning Studio Velo/ Purple Patch ride. The ride was the Alpine loop with an added drop down to the coast and back along hwy 1. The ridge road, also know as the seven sisters served up some stunning views to go along with the seven leg burning climbs.

Seven Sisters - Mt. Tamalpais

We wanted to head out to watch the Single-Speed Cross Worlds in the city Sunday morning but just couldn't get motivated to brave the cold wet weather. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely morning before I headed off to the airport.

Back in Tucson and back to work. Getting in lots of miles on the bike and loving it. After two weeks back on the road I decided Thanksgiving was the appropriate day to take the mountain bike out for a spin. A bit sketchy to start out with but so exciting to be back on the trails. Good thing because I am signed up as part of a four man team for next weekends Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race in McDowell Mountain Park.

Hope everyone enjoyed a great Thanksgiving!!!

Northern California Part I

2011-11-18T19:10:00.001-07:00

They say broken bones take about 6 weeks to heal but mine seems to be stubborn. Still stiff and sore, six weeks from the crash I woke up on a Sunday morning and looked at my trainer upon which I was suppose to do a long ride and just couldn't do it, so out the door I went. It is now coming up on almost 8 weeks and the healing process continues at a painfully slow rate. I have been getting some good rides out on the road bike but the mountain bike will have to wait until next week. Swimming is interesting... and running is still a bit painful as I think I irritated the bursa over my hip with the hard landing and I have just attempted one short one so far. Not overly worried as long as the healing contines at a steady pace and just looking to use November and December to log some great bike base miles. The one advantage of not going to Maui was that I traded my ticket into a flight to San Francisco and met up with the rest of the family for my sister Karen's best friend's wedding and a week hanging out in the Bay Area.

Me and Dad :)

Got into SF Thursday evening, picked-up the parents, and spent the night in Sausalito chez 'little fish'. Drove up to Sonoma Friday afternoon in the rain and got my sister to the rehearsal dinner while the rest of us enjoyed a lovely Italian restaurant in town. Saturday, like a true triathlete, I got up early and headed out on the bike for a long ride through the vineyards over to Napa and back. I neglected to look at the elevation profile of the route I chose and while incredibly lovely, my 3hr ride turned into almost 4hrs even after cutting out a section. I can see why 27's and compact cranks are popular here!!

Got cleaned up just in time to get to the wedding on time only to have my sister's bridesmaids dress zipper split open unexpectantly minutes before the start of the ceremony!! Mum's to the rescue, my sister was expectly sewn into her dress, and later cut back out of it:))) Congrats to Jenny and Dave on their beautiful wedding and future life together!!

Benziger Winery - Sonoma

Sunday we jumped in the car and headed out to do some wine tasting. We headed over to Gundlach Bundschu first, the oldest family run winery in Sonoma. As it was Mum's birthday we treated her (and us) to a bottle of their Vintage Reserve Cab we enjoyed later with a great dinner. Next, in search of a more fruity selection we stopped in at Benziger. The estate there was beautiful and showcased their organic, biodynamic, and sustainable farming methods. The wine was pretty good as well. Picked up a nice Sauvignon Blanc and surprisingly a Port before taking the scenic route back to Sausalito.

Monday morning it was back on the bikes. This time my sister joined me for a great ride up Mt Tam over to Stinson Beach and back on Hwy 1. Amazing views and lots of climbing!!! Perfect way to start the week. After a short turnaround it was back to Muir Woods and Mt Tam with the parents for a four hour hike through the giant redwoods. Pretty sure the legs were absolute done by the end.

Muir Woods

Mt Tamalpais State Park

Next up we headed south along the coast road to Monterey and Carmel....

Triathlon Magazine Canada

2011-10-21T15:43:00.001-07:00

Finally got my copy of the September/October issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada. Took a while to get it shipped all the way to Tucson ;) Nice little article, hopefully I uploaded it with enough quality to read.

This picture was taken on the second loop of the bike at Xterra Canada in Whistler BC. If you look at my left arm you can already see the bruising from dislocating my shoulder on the first lap!! Sometimes I just don't know when to quit ;)

How NOT to ride your MTB

2011-10-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have been procrastinating writing this post for about three and a half weeks now. Don't know if it is because writing it down will truly make it a reality that I won't be competing in Maui this coming weekend at Xterra Worlds. It's been rather hard following everyone's FB, tweets, blogs and knowing that I am missing out, especially since this year there is actually going to be a challenging swim at Fleming's beach (surf beach)

Anyways, the story goes as follows. The morning after Xterra USA after a leisurely sleep-in and departure from Snowbasin back to Park City, Emma and I loaded up the bikes and drove up Guardsman Pass to ride the Wasatch Crest Trail. A stunning point to point trails that was suppose to find us a couple of hours later back at the house. The weather was beautiful and trails were in great condition. We were rolling along casually on what would be considered a non-technical trail, mostly as the name would imply along the crestline of the mountains, occasionally dropping into the trees for some switchbacks. After the quick stop for a photo op and another for me losing my multi-tool out of my saddle bag, Emma warned me of the upcoming section called "The Spine", an exposed section of sharped ridged rocks on a steep descent.

Day started out picture perfect

Stunning views

I had full intentions of at least stopping at the top and making an informed decision as to how or if to ride this sections but caught a bit off guard I found myself already dropped in before realizing it. Not just dropped in but dropped in and way off-line. A moment of panic had me hit my brakes hard, big mistake, lock up the tires, slide uncontrollably, and finally hit the ground HARD. Because the terrain was so jagged I didn't slide at all, good because I didn't launch myself over the edge, bad because instead of some road rash and bruises I sustained structural damage.

"The Spine"

Why I should have gotten off and walked

A quick look at my elbow showed a seriously nasty cut already gushing blood which obviously was going to require some medical attention. Too bad we were about as far away from any access off the mountain as we could get and without a medical kit. Lucky for me the rider right behind me had a band-aid and handkerchief we managed to work into a tourniquet with the help of Emma's hair elastic. We then proceed to inch our way down towards the top of The Canyons ski resort. After the shock and adrenaline wore off a bit the pain really started and I did have a couple moments of thinking I am not going to make it down on my own. I also was pretty sure that this much pain was not being caused solely by the cut and I had likely done much worse damage. After some seriously sketchy downhill hike-a-bike we came across one of the resort trail builders and he graciously offered to drive us down to the top of the gondola then were met at the bottom by Emma's neighbour waiting to drive me to the Urgent Care.

The aftermath

To make a long story short, the urgent care facility took xrays but couldn't really tell whether my elbow was broken or not then proceeded to stitch up the cut with, what I found out 3 days later, rocks and dirt still lodged inside. I drove home Monday with the help of some Vicodin and got in to see JT at Southwest Hand Orthopedic Wednesday with a fully infected elbow. Friends in high places are always important :) Back later that afternoon, got the cut all cleaned out, stitched up, and casted. Diagnosis - slight avulsion fracture and torn triceps tendon = no racing Xterra Worlds.

So after three weeks, the cut is pretty much all healed up and the cast is off. I'm allowed to move my elbow to keep it from completely locking up, though it is still pretty stiff and sore, but no pressure or resistance for a couple more weeks. Crawled into a tub of chocolate ice cream (a couple actually) for the first two weeks but have started back running and riding the trainer to keep my sanity. Already planning the next adventures and will be back at it in no time. Not the way I wanted to end the season, but what can you do?

Best of luck to everyone racing in Maui Sunday, wish I was there...... next year :)))

Xterra USA Nationals

2011-10-06T17:55:00.003-07:00

The Xterra USA National Championships was held for the 3rd time at Snowbasin Ski Resort, just outside Ogden Utah. This race, on top of being the championship race, was the "must score" sixth race in the Xterra USA series. The other 5 scoring races were your best 5 of the 6 regional championship races. I had just squeaked onto the podium taking 5th at last years race, also finishing up the series in 5th, and was looking to better that placing and hold onto my 3rd overall ranking in the series. Mel and Shonny with their amazing racing and consistency had put the top 2 spots in the series out of reach. With the altitude (5,000 to 8,000ft) and lots of climbing and me being a lowlander and one of the larger athletes at 5'10 this course would not be considered one that suits me. However I had managed to work in a 2 week training camp in Park City prior to the race to adapt and now living in Tucson had Mt Lemmon to work on the climbing skills and so was feeling pretty good going in. I knew my running was still a little behind where I wanted it with the time off due to injury before the HyVee race but it was coming around nicely and, well, I would just have to Canada UP!!!

All smiles setting up T-1

Emma, Mel, Mical and I rented a condo Lakeside, another edition of the Villa of Fast Chicks, right near the swim start so race morning was a breeze even with two separate transition areas. We were expecting a media frenzy with Lance Armstrong in attendance and weren't disappointed, thankfully they seemed absorbed with everything he was doing and had little effect on anyone else's pre-race rituals. The only issued ended up being three times as many boats, kayaks, jet-skis, etc that made the already difficult buoy sighting with the sun directly in our eyes downright impossible.

Beautiful morning at the Swim Start

The weather shaped up to be beautiful, a little chilly warming up but guaranteed to be perfect racing weather once we got onto the course.

All ready to go!!! (me on the far left in pink cap)

The swim, except for the trouble finding the turn buoys was fairly uneventful. Aussie Ben Allen killed it and got out of the water almost a minute ahead of the field and I tucked myself nicely into the first pack of guys for a nice draft. I finally had a speedy T1 and was out of my wetsuit and onto the bike with a nice gap on the chasing women.

Into T-1 just ahead of one Lance Armstrong!!

The bike course starts out with a short section of pavement to get to the start of the dirt and climbing. Up Wheeler Creek I swore I hit the rim on my rear tire going over one of the rocky sections and was desperately hoping I didn't have a leaky back tire. I jumped off quickly at the first road crossing to double check and while it felt a little soft it didn't seem to be going flat. Still in the lead I started up the singletrack climb hoping to keep Mel at bay until the top of the first descent. No such luck, she passed me a bit before the top. Even after checking my back tire I still couldn't shake the feeling that it was going flat and ended up babying the descent.

The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful (and my back tire never did go flat!!) I slowly got passed by the mountain goats and rolled into T2 in 6th with 7th through 9th right on my tail. Emma caught me pretty quickly and we both slowly reeled in Shonny (who was amazingly racing with knee brace on due to a 90% tear of her ACL, she definitely gets the Canada Up award) With all the twists and turns on the run course it was hard to tell exactly how close the race really was but in the end 5th through 9th ended up being separated by only 3 minutes or so. I held onto 6th, unfortunately the first spot off the podium, but did keep my 3rd overall in the series. Congrats to all the chicks out there, the depth in the women's race just keeps getting better and better.

Xterra USA Series podium 4th E Garrard, 2nd Shonny V, 1st M McQuaid, 3rd C Jeffrey, 5th S Snyder

I would love to say that I am putting in a great block of training leading up to Xterra Worlds in a couple of weeks, but that is a story for the next blog entry....

Thanks for reading and as always huge thanks to my friends and family, coach Gareth Thomas, and all the sponsors who support me; Fuji/Breezer Bikes, Rudy Project, Extreme Endurance, Champion Systems Canada, Nineteen Wetsuits, Maxxis Tires, Honeystinger.

Xterra USA Preview

2011-09-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, look at all this blogging :))) Arrived in Park City Utah last Monday to get in two weeks up at altitude ahead of the Xterra USA Championships over at Snowbasin Resort. The weather has been fabulous except the one day that Mel and I headed over to pre-ride the course and froze, figures. But it is shaping up to be an amazing weekend of racing, just two days away now.

There has also been a ton of media buzz here for the race, largely due to the fact that one Lance Armstrong is showing up. As such I have been lucky to have gotten some good media attention including a couple of videos, one of which was a short segment on the KSL News 5 Morning show here in Utah, and a nice mention in Sports Illustrated. I couIdn't figure out how to embed the videos and article in my blog so I have just listed the links below along with some beautiful pics I took pre-riding the new section of the bike course yesterday!!! and my new bike;))

KSL News 5 Morning Show - Xterra USA / Snowbasin

Xterra TV fun video up at Snowbasin

Sports Illustrated - Xterra USA Lance vs Conrad

Snowbasin Resort from the Sardine Peak Trail

New singletrack on the bike course

Pineview Reservoir (swim venue) from top of the bike course

New wheels for riding the new bike course :)))

Colorado Fun & Pics

2011-09-21T19:13:00.001-07:00

Wasn't inspired enough to write a race report for the Xterra Beavercreek race but here are some pics from the experience and much more fun drive home.

Xterra BC Swim Exit @ Trey Garman/Xterra

Xterra BC Bike @ Trey Garman/Xterra

The next photo is where the bike course topped out at about 9,500ft. It is also about where my head exploded. My legs had given out about 1000ft lower down.

There are no pictures of me running because I wasn't actually running. More like short spells of shuffling between longer spells of walking which is better than the "sitting down with my head between my knees to keep from passing out" that I really wanted to do.

Jenny and I at the top of Leadville 100

The day after the race I got talked into joining Brian and Jenny Smith for a "spin" on the Leadville 100 course Jenny was going to race a couple of weeks later. Jenny wanted to do the section from Twin Lakes up to the top of Columbine (at 12,500ft). Famous last words "it's a fire road climb, big chain ring" (my A$$) the last section I was in my smallest gear, chin on my stem just trying to keep my front wheel on the ground. I though about getting off and walking but from the other riders out there I was passing it looked just as hard or harder to walk. Admittedly the view from the top was spectacular. My legs however did take about 5 days to recover!!!

Enjoyed a nice open water swim with the Smith's just outside Gunnison the next day before the long drive back to Tucson.

Ouray

Million Dollar Highway

Decided to take the scenic drive home. Ouray is one of the coolest towns ever and has a great chocolate and coffee shop, bonus. US 550 or the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Silverton was truly a spectacular treat and made the next 10+ hrs of NOTHING worthwhile.

HyVee Triathlon

2011-09-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Hanging out here in beautiful Park City getting used to the altitude ahead of the Xterra USA Nationals next weekend and finally have some time to put together my race report for the HyVee Triathlon a couple of weekends ago. I skipped over Xterra Beavercreek as there was really nothing to say about it. I made it through the race but that was about it. I did have a great ride the day after on the Leadville course with Brian and Jenny Smith, and a scenic drive home so will posts some pictures of that in the next post.

After Beavercreek the body was done, like really really done. I stopped in Durango for lunch on the drive home and had to use my arms to swing my legs around and host myself up out of the car. Then I barely was able to hobble into Subway to grab a sandwich. A week off was absolutely necessary. Not really ideal for the timing of HyVee but there wasn't any other way. On top of that my achilles decided it didn't like me either and forced me into four weeks on the elliptical trainer leaving me only two light weeks of running heading into the biggest money race of my life, oh well.

So arriving in Des Moines I had no idea how my race was going to go and really didn't have any expectations. I was also looking at one of the best pro fields assembled outside a world championship event. Admittedly a guaranteed paycheck for simply finishing the race was a bonus and as it turned out quite a few of the girls were there suffering through illness and injury for just that reason. HyVee and 5150 certainly did not disappoint in putting together a great event, from being met at the airport and instantly shuttled to the host hotel, to the best swag bag ever. The venue was well set up and organized and the great PR translated into a phenomenal amount of spectators and a great atmosphere on race day.

I ended up rooming with fellow Arizonan Angi Axmann who was probably the best thing to happen to my weekend. With my motivation and enthusiasm being a little on the low side her's certainly made up for it!! (if you know or have ever met Angi you know exactly what I am talking about :) I also got to hang out with Xterra chick SueAnne for some extra laughs and good times. The days before the race were pretty relaxed, getting in a bit of training and taking lots of naps. (isn't that what race week is for?)

At the pre-race meeting on Friday the organizers told us that the river was a little low and shallow for their liking and had asked the army corps of engineers to add about 8" of water to the section of river we were going to be swimming in (the age groupers were swimming at a lake a little ways away) True to Murphy's law it rained most of Saturday adding a bunch more water to the river system and by Sunday morning what was once a calm, virtually current free body of water was a swiftly moving river. Having raced the Tiszaujvaros World Cup several years ago I knew how much fun we were in for (sarcasm) The swim was supposed to be a two loop affair but after watching the first girls to jump in for warm-up go absolutely nowhere it got changed to a three loop swim with the majority of it looping in behind the pontoon where we were protected a bit from the current. What this meant was the first turn buoy was less than 100m from the pontoon. 30 elite triathletes in a single line headed towards a single point less than 100m away with a strong cross-current was going to get ugly.

Photo by Paul Phillips @ Competitive Image

Wearing number 19 I was decidedly right (downstream) of center on the pontoon for the start and knew I was going to get hammered. A little out of practice with the full-contact swim starts of ITU races I was beaten up and ended up behind the lead group through the first lap and looking to make up time on the next two, but definitely ahead of the non-swimmers who were having a seriously tough time even getting through the swim. It was officially one of the craziest swims I have ever done. On the second lap I somehow wasn't paying attention and ran smack into the concrete bridge pillars, first time that has happened. The tough swim did mean that we were nicely spread out going out on the bike and drafting on the 4 loop bike course was pretty much a non-issue (at least for me). I got out of the swim just inside the top 10 and settled into the bike.

Photo by Paul Phillips @ Competitive Image

The bike like the swim (and later the run) was multi-laps, as Sara McLarty said before the race this was going to be a non-drafting ITU race. With four laps and 17 corners per lap and a good breeze blowing it was a challenging but fun bike course. Being used to MTB where you rarely get settled into a single pace I felt pretty comfortable with the course and was riding well. I definitely lost a couple of spots to the stronger riders but was super happy to roll into T2 in 17th spot. Before the race I had been thinking that against this quality of field a top 25 was realistic and anywhere from 20-25 was having a great day, now the goal was definitely inside the top 20.

Photo by Paul Phillips @ Competitive Image

I got passed pretty quickly by superstar runners Gwen Jorgensen and Radka Vodickova and was feeling just a little bit un-snappy (hmm, yep only 2 weeks of run training) but while I couldn't seem to turn my legs over any faster I also as the 4 laps ticked by was not slowing down at all and started reeling in the girls in front of me. I moved up a spot on the last lap and was just shy of running down the next two girls to finish up in 18th.

Photo by Paul Phillips @ Competitive Image

Overall a great race and experience to be apart of. While I was a little overwhelmed by all the racing in the front half of the season chasing the invite to this race it all seemed pretty worthwhile in the end. Next year though I would love to come into this race with a bit more focus and see what I can do. Will worry about that next year. For now it is back to the dirt for Xterra USA and Xterra Worlds :))) and yes Lance is racing... bring on the circus ;)

Hey look, I have a blog....

2011-07-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Been a bit negligent in the blogging department so will try to update likely in a couple installments.

Colorado Part I - Boulder Peak Triathlon

The Boulder Peak 5150 Triathlon and Xterra Mountain Championships in Beavercreek were the last two races to wrap up the first half of the season. Having enough of packing up bikes and lugging them through airports I decided to make a road trip to Colorado. Heading out Wednesday before the Peak race all loaded full of Trader Joe's goodies I made the two day drive up to Boulder with a quick overnight stay in Albuquerque. Quite the boring drive, I vowed to take the scenic long way home.

I had never been to Boulder and was pretty excited to see what all the buzz was about this triathlon mecca and also pretty excited to be staying with Xterra friends Will and Shelby. The flatirons are definitely pretty spectacular and I can see why so many triathletes gravitate there. After a good nights sleep in the cooler Colorado temperatures I headed over to the famous Flatirons Athletic Club for a quick swim Thursday morning before checking out the bike course with Will and Guilherme. I had been told about Old Stage hill but I guess never really paid much attention or asked any questions and was a bit surprise to learn it was about 18% in some sections. I thankfully had a 25 cassette instead of a 23 on my bike and didn't have to go scurrying around trying to swap it out the day before the race. Really I would have been happier on a 27 but decided to just make due with what I had.

Saturday was the usual pre-race stuff, light workouts, pro-meeting.... I was feeling pretty good considering the altitude and was pretty relaxed and excited about race day.

The pro's once again had a separate wave start after the amateurs so it was a nice leisurely 9am start time. Boulder reservoir was hopping with excitement by the time I got there and Barry Siff was on the mic doing his thing!!! The pro race was a chase format with the women getting about a 15min head start and everyone racing to the finish with a bonus for the first overall across the line. I wasn't really concerned about that as realistically I was looking simply for a good enough finish to get me in the top 20 in the 5150 series to get my invite to the Hy-Vee race, being in the money would just be bonus but the field was super strong and full of altitude dwellers.

Gun went off and I knew I was in trouble right from the start. Being a swimmer for most of my life I am usually as comfortable in the water as on land, but I had a moment about 100m into the race where I wondered whether I might actually drowned. Not sure if it was altitude related but I felt almost paralyzed without the strength to stay above the water never mind swim. I think I did a few breaststrokes and moved myself away from any failing arms into clear water to try and regroup. I took me until the halfway turnaround before being able to settle into a decent pace and get my head back in the race. Lost a bit of time to the leaders and finally got out of the water in about 6th, 20secs or so behind the leaders. I have never been so happy to get out of swim leg in my life.

Started the bike pretty conservatively riding right with Kristen Peterson. Since Old Stage was very early on in the bike, I figured I would get up and over it just riding my pace then see what the legs and lungs could do from there. Lost touch with Kristen and a flying Nik Butterfield over the top and rode the rest of the bike solo in 8th, feeling pretty good but really not knowing how close the rest of the field was behind me. Got into T2 just being caught by a group of 4 and headed out onto the run with fellow Arizonan Angie Axmann. Previewing the run it looked to be a relatively flat 3 loop out and back. Reality strangely turned out to be much different. I think the altitude, lack of training due to over-racing and a nagging Achilles niggle had finally caught up with me and I really struggled to hold the rather pedestrian pace I was running at until the end. Finished up in 9th and hoped that it would earn me the points I needed for a top 20.

After a quick post-race ice bath in the flood level Boulder Creek I sat down and re-added up the points and found myself sitting in the rather depressing 21st spot in the 5150 series. With only the top 20 making the first cut and another 5 being added after the New York Tri, it looked like I was going to have to just sit and wait and hope that less than 5 people passed me at the last race. There was no way I was going to add another race into my schedule, I could barely walk the Monday morning after the race and was seriously considering making the Xterra Beavercreek an aqua-bike. I was already up in Colorado or I would have skipped the race altogether. To jump ahead a little in the timeline, it turned out that someone in front of me passed on their spot and I got my invite without having to worry about the NYC Tri.

Packed-up my stuff after a quick spin Monday morning and headed down to Colorado Springs for the day to drop off my bike at SRM (stupid power meter) and spend the evening with Tracy Thelen and hubby before headed UPPPP to Beaver creek.......

Arizona State MTB Champs - McDowell MTN

2011-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Got home from DC and after a couple of recovery training days it was time to hit some good quality workouts again. I was feeling a little unmotivated and happen to notice that the Arizona State mountain bike championship race originally scheduled for Williams (5hr+ drive)had been moved due to extreme fire danger to the McDowell Mountain Competitive Track just outside Phoenix (2hr+ drive. Though I really didn't need to add any more racing to my schedule it seem like a good substitute for a hard ride and with a little moving around it fit pretty well into my training plan.

I drove up Friday afternoon with enough time to enjoy a quick pre-ride of the course. Built specifically for MTB racing, and once host to the Cactus Cup, the track is screaming fast and super flowy. They decided to run the race in reverse to change it up a bit from the first race of the series so unfortunately we had to ride up the half-pipe which wasn't anywhere near as much fun, but it was still great riding. Got to hang out with Phoenix pro-triathlete Katie at Casa Ellis for a bit and catch up with some good local gossip, always lots of fun, then headed to bed dreading the 3:30am alarm.

As bad as it was having to get up that early, moving the start time to 5:30am meant we were able to race without fear of dying out on the course somewhere. Bit disappointed to only have 7 gals line up for the Pro/Cat 1 wave start but managed to put in a good effort nonetheless until the last short lap when the legs decided to start the warm down a little early. All in all great fun, certainly better than intervals on the trainer. Big thanks to MBAA, HUB Events, and all the volunteers and sponsors for relocating and putting on a great race with 3 days notice of a venue change:)

If you have never ridden in the desert, here is a great video clip from the race!! (beware it does seem to take forever to load)

Washington DC Triathlon

2011-06-21T11:35:00.007-07:00

The Washington DC 5150 race was my second race in the new 5150 series to try and get an invitation to the Hy-Vee Triathlon in September. It was also only my second road tri of the season after 6 Xterra/Off-road tri's in a row. I was nursing a little bit of a sore achilles and calf after the Xterra Richmond race the weekend before but after a really light training week it along with the rest of the body was feeling okay to race. After a couple of days in Fredericksburg Branden and I headed up to Alexandria where his cousin Megan let us once again move in and make ourselves at home and Sue Anne headed down on Saturday to join us in our roadie tri adventure. We had the grand idea of heading down to the race course on Saturday to pre-drive the bike but quickly realized that DC traffic just wasn't going to make that possible. We settled for picking up our race packets, checking out the expo and attending the race meeting. The women's field didn't have a clear standout but was looking to be incredibly strong and close to about 20 deep. After the meeting we headed down to transition to get SA's bike checked-in. It was pretty funny to see the swim course all marked with the biggest buoys I have ever seen every 100m and labelled!!! I'm guessing with the pro field being led off course at the REV 3 race they weren't going to take any chances ;) Race morning was an early one for SA, 6am, as the amateurs were towing the line first. The pro's had a much more leisurely 9am start and thankfully the weather looked to be nicely overcast but dry. Setting up transition and warm up went pretty smoothly despite the close to 1500 age group athletes racing all around us, though had to play a little bit of frogger to get my bike into transition. Headed down to the swim start with plenty of time to get the blood flowing up into my arms to find out that they weren't going to allow us into the water before the start, not terribly happy about that one but everyone was in the same boat. Got off to a good start right in behind Sara but again couldn't quite hold onto her feet and settled for leading the second group out of 7 out of the water. The bike course was truly pretty amazing. That they shut down the main streets through DC was really special and with the age groupers already done we had it all to ourselves. Starting from the Potomac Park we rode past the Washington monument, up and down Constitution Blvd then out for a couple loops along and over the river. I settled into my pace well but just couldn't stay with the top girls. The legs were carrying just a little too much fatigue from all the racing so far this season to crank out any more power. I was happy that unlike Miami I was much more comfortable in the aero position and manage to find a good steady rhythm for the entire 40km. Now it just needs to get a little bit faster!! Out onto the second loop Amanda Felder caught me and we rode together into T2 in 12th and 13th. The run started off okay but with the majority of my training being off-road the pavement quickly took its toll on my fragile achilles and calves. I managed to pick up a spot passing Pip but then lost it and ended back up in 13th.

I got to the finish with no one in sight behind me so got to enjoy a bit of the stunning finishing chut. Big thanks to Kris Mendoza and Triathlete Magazine for the great finish line shot. You can check out the entire photo gallery here!!

Was pretty done after the race but couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out the monuments all lit up so we headed downtown and took in a few of the most popular. Megan did have a good laugh at how the two pro triathletes were barely managing to hobble around. My favourite ended up being the World War II Memorial, the photos below really don't do them justice.

2 races to go....

Another Double Please....

2011-06-15T07:00:00.010-07:00

races that is, just because I haven't done enough back to back racing already this year!! After Alabama I had what I thought would be a nice three weeks before the next race. Enough time to recover and still get a nice chunk of training in before racing again. It seems the body had a different idea. It took about a week before I could even think about putting in some training efforts then after only a couple of good sessions the legs blew up and all that was left to do was rest into Xterra Richmond. I did manage to finally get unpacked and settled into my new Tucson home which was very nice!! The first year I raced Xterra in 2008 I came to Richmond and barely made it through the bike course, reduced to almost tears by the end and black and blue from hitting the dirt so often. It is truly a unique course on the circuit and is the only race held literally in a urban downtown setting. The swim in the James River constitutes more of a "wet scramble" and usually involves me beaching myself on the shallow rocks at some point during the return crossing. The bike leg twists and turns along mostly singletrack right on the riverbank, through drainage tunnels, over bridges, ramps, and skinnies. The run is a mix of roads, flood water walls, railroad ties climbs (the Mayan Wall), stairs and another scamper across the river. Needless to say with the short sort of swim and longer technical bike Richmond will likely never be "my race" however with a certain amount of changes made by IMBA to the course in the past couple of years and my improved bike handling skills I felt this year I might actually be able to "race it" instead of just "survive it". Got into Richmond Thursday evening after some serious travel snafu's (don't ever fly through O'Hare if at all possible) without my bike. Had a wonderful homestay with fellow racers Katie and SueAnne at Meg and Claude's and thankfully got my luggage back safely the following morning. Katie and I headed out Friday to get in a lap of the bike course and check out the swim while trying not to spend too much time in the +90% humidity, +90 degree temperature weather. Earlier in the week it was announced that the bike course was going to be lengthened by more than 5miles (of singletrack!!) to a 2 lap course. This sparked a great deal of debate over course safety and congestion as well as what the appropriate corresponding swim distance should be. We didn't know exactly what or if the swim course was going to be lengthened but at least we had a good idea of how to get across the river fairly efficiently. After that it was pretty much inside, feet up until race day. Race morning was thankfully cooler than the previous days but still shaping up to be rather warm. Got in my usual warm-up and headed over to the swim early to check out the course buoys as Xterra had added an extra turn in to make the course a bit longer. I was excited to be testing out the new Nineteen WTC legal swim skin (in hot pink!!!) and needed every extra second lead I could manage with such a short swim. The swim got off to a pretty clean start and I managed to navigate the river without running aground on any rocks, exiting just behind the lead group of men. Out onto the bike I could see Mel and Suzie no more than a minute or so behind me. Into the first section of singletrack and not sure exactly what happen but along one of the easiest parts I found myself flying off the trail and right over the bars into the forest, whoops. Really scared the two spectators that happened to have front row seats for the spectacle but thankfully didn't seem to have done much structural damage. It did however shake me up quite a bit and from then on I just couldn't seem to find a good rhythm for the entire rest of the bike. Got into T2 in 4th pretty much in no man's land and was thankful to be trying out the new Bex Runner. I didn't have much left in the tank and was happy to have all the help I could get staying cool. The run amounted to another put one foot in front of the other affair (seem to be having way too many of these lately) and held onto 4th. Happy to finish back on the podium and hold onto 3rd in the series, but painfully aware that the body is simply not recovering between all the races and progressively getting more and more beaten up. I knew when planning out my season that the first half was going to be ugly but had hoped to get through it just a bit sharper. After a couple of days resting in Richmond it was on to Fredericksburg where Branden and I are lucky to be able to "squat" at fellow Xterra chick Suzie Snyder's place before this weekend's race in Washington DC. It will be my 2nd race in the 5150 series and hopefully move me back up in the standings towards qualifying for the Hy-Vee big money race in September. Started the countdown.... only 3 more races before a much needed meet season break:)

R T R

2011-05-30T11:05:00.004-07:00

Hopefully everyone is enjoying a nice long Memorial Day weekend!! I am enjoying a day off training and work and thought I would finally sit down a write up the Xterra South-East Championships race report. It was the last race in the block of 5 races in seven weekends that went Vegas, Waco, Spain, Santa Cruz, and Pelham Alabama. With all that travel and racing it wasn't a surprise that the bulk of us were suffering either from the Spanish Plague, the Santa Cruz influenza, or just plain old burn-out. After spending a couple of fun days with the Sista in Sausalito, I jumped on the red-eye Wednesday night bound for the "deep south". Unfortunately it wasn't a direct flight so I got a couple of hours of sleep into Dallas, then about another hour curled up on the mats in the kiddie play area at DFW. Got into Birmingham just before noon and headed over to the infamous homestay house. I first stayed with fellow Xterra triathlete Jerry Ryan for the race in 2008 and have since returned for the race each year and spent the winter of '09 and '10 training there as well. Now it is almost like my second home. JR single handedly hosts about half the pro field in his home and way too much fun is had by all. Unfortunately this year several of the "usual suspects" were absent, and greatly missed, but we managed to keep it full of laughs anyways. JR is the only person I know that can type in southern drawl and is never without a great saying or "Jerryism" for any occasion. Did a bit of training in the days leading up to Sunday and tried to ignore how incredibly horrible I was feeling. It was going on 3 weeks with a cough and congestion and the body was pretty much just done. I kept telling myself that I felt pretty good going into Santa Cruz the week before and didn't race all that well so maybe going into this race feeling terrible would mean a great race, hey why not!!! I was pretty happy that is was going to be a non-wetsuit swim until I got in the water race morning and felt like I was going to drown. This is a feeling that I rarely experience!! Bigfish felt more like deadfish bobbing hopelessly upside down in the water about to die. Lined up for the start next to Mel and shared a few laughs before the gun went off. Never even made close to the front of the swim as Craig was set on taking it everyone this time and followed Seth and Brandon into T1 with Conrad and Dan right in the mix. Oak Mountain has some of the best singletrack around and the trails were in perfect condition. I quickly forgot how I was feeling and simply had a great time riding. Being a bit more relaxed I guess helped me out as I was keeping it really smooth and holding off the other gals really well and much further than last year. Mel past me just before the climb up the North Trail head road and Renata got me about 2/3 of the way up. Held off Shonny until after Blood Rock then surprised myself with hanging with her on the descent!! (if you have ever seen her ride downhill you will know exactly how excited I was by this) Looking at the results after I was super happy to have taken over 7mins off my bike split from last year. The race was thankfully two weeks early this year which meant the temperature was only in the 90's!! The run was also a new course and cut out the second half of the hardest,steepest uphill/downhill combos I have ever had to suffer through. Still the run turned into a simply put one foot in front of the other suffer-fest for me and thinking just about everyone else was feeling the same way.

Finished up in fourth and overall pretty happy with the race. Enjoyed a nice evening out with the crew after the race before heading back to Tucson Monday morning. Big thanks to everyone in Bama for once again making this the favourite stop on the Xterra circuit!! Already looking forward to next year :)

ROLL TIDE ROLL

Pictures :)

2011-05-28T16:34:00.003-07:00

Been a bit busy unpacking into my new home since getting back from Alabama so race report is a tad bit late getting written. Hopefully will get around to it later tonight. For now here are a couple more pictures from the Xterra Pacific Champs in Santa Cruz.

Xterra Pacific Champs - Santa Cruz

2011-05-18T22:02:00.008-07:00

The Xterra Pacific Championships were in Santa Cruz this past Sunday and... well... I swam, I biked, and I ran, I finished. Took 6th and held onto my 3rd spot in the series but really there is not much exciting to say about my race so I'm thinking I will just do the abbreviated version. The swim was rough and cold and three of us, Seth, Branden and myself lead out of the water. I was hoping that the conditions would give me a bigger lead than normal but it didn't. I held the lead on the bike until about half way when Lesley caught me. I hung with her for a bit then started my gradual backward progression through the field and headed into T2 in 7th. I ran strong, or as strong as I could and moved up into 6th. Some days just aren't your days and Sunday wasn't mine. Most of us came home from Spain with a wonderful cough and respiratory infection and were feeling pretty beat up. I chose to live in denial between the two races and put a good block of training in despite feeling like crap. In hindsight that probably hurt my race legs, but with so many races in a row and feeling the need to do some good training, right or wrong that is the decision I made. Hopefully that training will pay better dividends with a bit of rest in the races to come. Moving on... My sister Karen came down from Sausalito to watch the race and be race Sherpa extraordinaire:) We packed up and headed up to the Bay area after the race and got to spend a couple of days hanging out and seeing the sights. The weather didn't cooperate Monday and Tuesday but we still got out to see the regular touristy stuff, the Golden Gate Bridge from Point Bonita, drove down the super cool Lombard street, then up to Coit tower, and past the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. We finished up the day trip with a little shopping at the Sport Basement Factory store. Wednesday the weather cleared up and we headed out onto the bay for a couple hours of paddling, checking out the sunbathing harbor seals and crazy Sausalito floating homes. I am now hanging out in the SF terminal waiting for my red-eye into Bama for the Xterra Southeast Champs. Super excited to get to spend the weekend in my previous winter training home and hanging with JR and the crew. Took the week pretty easy on the training front as well and hoping the legs will be a lot fresher this weekend. Thanks to Nils Nilsen for the great race photographs. Check out the full race gallery for more great photos!!

Sunny Santa Cruz...

2011-05-14T17:22:00.003-07:00

For now anyways!! The weather reports show 70% rain for tonight and 40% chance for race day tomorrow. Locals say the trails at Wilder Ranch turn into quite the mucky mess when wet so fingers crossed we only get a dusting to tack things down. Flew into San Jose thursday am and made the quick drive down to Santa Cruz. I've never been to this strange California seaside town and well... Once again I am very fortunate to have a great race homestay and quickly made myself at home. The Xterra family is so welcoming and I literally have the house to myself as Susan arrived in from Sedona after me and left early Friday morning on her way to Tahoe to officiate the Tour of California!!! Friday morning Emma and I got a leisurely start to the day and headed out to preview the bike course. The swim is right downtown next to the wharf which makes for a 5+miles ride on the roads to get out to the trails at Wilder Ranch Park. Once in the park the course is packed with tons of climbing and very little techical riding and will definitely favour the super fit athletes. The fire roads are only broken up by two short but very fun singletracks sections through the redwoods. The views are however are spectacular.

Today my sister made the drive down from Sausalito to watch the race, whoo-hoo a cheering section!! Then we get to hang out in SF for a couple of days. Off to do final race prep and get a good nights sleep before and early start tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend :)

Worlds Pics

2011-05-09T19:53:00.004-07:00

Big thanks to ITU Photographer Janos M Schmidt for the great photos!!!

ITU Cross World Championships

2011-05-04T21:15:00.006-07:00

Last Saturday was the first ever ITU Cross World Championships in Extremadura Spain and in hindsight it was pretty special to be apart of. While there were certainly some wrinkles I think everyone who participated came away feeling that it was a great experience. Hopefully this is just the start of the International Triathlon Union's foray into the Off-Road Triathlon world and there will be many more great events to come. One of the most overheard comments was about the lap style format and how exciting the racing was for both the spectators and the racers out on the course. Having raced ITU World Cups for many years it was certainly exciting for me to once again enjoy the added energy boost of cheers from all the great spectators and age group athletes that stood along the bike and run course in the pouring rain to cheer the elite fields on. The day started with a leisurely sleep-in as the elite women had a 4:15pm start time. Jo and Katie were up early for their race and both rocked it with Jo taking the win in her age group and 2nd overall amateur and Katie 4th. Look out for both of these fast chicks in the years to come. Sara, Emma and I headed out to the race site with plenty of time to spare as Sara's bike still hadn't arrived and she needed to hook up with Jo to get her bike cleaned up and ready to go again. Warm-up even with the extra ITU details went smoothly and soon enough we were all lined up ready to start. Without an official world ranking yet the race numbers were randomly drawned and I luckily got number 9 and an early pick on the start pontoon. I truly tried not to chuckle watching the eight girls in front of me, who had obviously not had much or any experience with an ITU pontoon start, try to pick out their spot and was really happy when my favourite one was still open. (far outside on the inside line to the first buoy) I was even more excited when no one else jumped all over the spots next to me and Mel got the spot two down from me with Carina sandwiched between us. Mel's smart enough to know that we both swim faster if she jumps on my feet rather than trying to swim all over me the first couple of meters. The start was clean and I was off the front easily with nothing but clear water for the whole swim, NICE!!! I pushed the pace hard and felt great putting over 30secs on the field and a couple of minutes to the main contenders. I didn't have the fastest transition onto the bike, in fact I was slow enough that I actually had time to think "wow, I'm still in transition" not good. The bike was four 5km laps and even with the rain and mud was running really fast. The thing about non-technical courses is that there are no breaks, if you weren't pedalling hard and continuously you were loosing ground to everyone behind you. I was riding well and held the lead until the 2nd lap when Mel caught me. We had a good gap on everyone and was looking good for a 1-2 Canuck finish. Unfortunately the American duo of Shonny and Emma had a different idea and caught me on the last lap of the bike and put enough time on me to be about a minute up going out onto the run. I ran strong but couldn't pull back any time on the leaders and had a good gap back to Marion in 5th place. No one ever likes to have the first spot off the podium but I didn't leave anything out on the course. Huge congrats to Mel for overcoming less than ideal pre-race conditions and taking the win and Emma for stepping it up and getting herself on the podium. Sara toughed it out and got through it and will undoubtedly come back even stronger for the experience. In all, as Mel put it, "the villa of fast chicks" totally rocked!!! The weekend wrapped up with some fun times at the post post-race party (photos will not ever be available) and a bit of sightseeing in Avila and Madrid before hopping back across the pond. Just one weekend off racing before back to back Xterra races in Santa Cruz and the one of my favourites ALABAMA!!!!

Rain in Spain

2011-04-29T13:03:00.003-07:00

Kicking back in the Villa with the "girls" after eating dinner Spanish style at 10pm. We seem to have very easily switched onto local time. It has been an interesting trip so far to say the least. Nobody knew what to expect heading over here for the inaugural ITU Cross World Champs and well we still don't know quite what to expect and it's race day tomorrow!!!

Arrived into Madrid Wednesday at noonish and realized that Katie and I didn't make arrangements on how we were going to meet up since we were flying in on totally different flights. Thankfully we both thought to just meet up at the rental car agency, too bad we were in different terminals at different counters. After a few phone calls back and forth by the Avis reps we got things sorted out and headed out to pick up Emma at her hotel in the city then made the 3hr drive up to Extramadura. Katie only managed to stall the car out in the middle of Madrid traffic, oh about a dozen times or so, but she is slowly getting the hang of it ;))) We met up with Mel and Ross at the villa to find out that BA had left their bikes in Seattle and they had no idea when they would get in. American continues to win best airline award as it got my bike here no problem, no damage and no charge, the trifecta!!

It was pretty late by the time we got everything unpacked and built up so we left heading out to the race venue until Thursday morning. We got a really late start to the morning which was probably a good thing as we ran into the guys in the parking lot who had spent the morning re-routing the course. The venue is really quite scenic, surrounded by mountains with lots of blooming wildflowers, but there really aren't any mountain bike trails. (kinda important for an off-road tri) So the bike course is four loops of 5km with a bit of jeep track, some random bush wacking through fields and a bunch of riding along the rough sandy, rocky shoreline.

While more technical than the flat out dirt road course we were expecting, it is still not all that inspiring. Add to it that it has been raining on and off for a bit and the lake level is slowly rising, gradually putting the shoreline track into the water!! With more rain on the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is it going to be really muddy tomorrow.

To enjoy a bit of the local culture and sights, Mel, Ross and I headed out to one of the small nearby villages, Hervas, for the "official" Team Canada dinner. (Katie was out with family) We enjoyed walking around through the crazy narrow streets and alleyways before adventurously ordering a gourmet meal without having any idea what is would be. The seven course meal ended up being a appetizer of some sort of meat pate (good) mushroom ravioli in a potato puree (very good) salad with hidden calamari (good until I found the calamari) poached egg on top of cooked veggies (so so) pork cheek (well...) very salty fish in a broth (okay) and tiramisu (not the best I have ever had but okay) The Rioja took first prize and several bottles will definitely find their way back home. Today we took another couple spins around the course and suffered through the pro meeting. Unfortunately Mel and Sara are still without their bikes and both doing an amazing job staying positive while dealing with the likelyhood of having to ride borrowed bikes for the race. The young-ins are off to bed as their race is in the morning, while the pro's get the very late 4:15pm start for the ladies and 6:30pm start for the men. Nice to not have to get up at the crack of dawn, but really a little too late for my liking. No matter, it's still exciting to see the ITU get involved in the off-road scene and one way or another tomorrow will be an exciting race!!!

Xterra South Central Championship Race Report

2011-04-22T20:25:00.011-07:00

One of the great things about Xterra is they believe in appropriate start times, 9:30 am to be exact for the South Central Championships in Waco TX. It was a beautiful morning for racing with clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-seventies and with the majority of the pros having homestays right next to the venue it was just a short ride down the hill to transition. I'm not a big believer in superstitions or jinxs (though I do paint my nails to match my bike before every race) however I maybe should have left out the last sentence of my previous post about a non-wetsuit swim. Rather shockingly the swim was announced as wetsuit legal for everyone about an hour before the race and sent the majority of us scrambling back to our homestays for our wetsuits. Admittedly I seriously questionned a sudden multiple degree drop in water temperature overnight, but after a few negative moments I put it behind me and got on with my warm-up. It was a deep water start with a one loop rectangle course and we all, as expected, completely overheated in our wetsuits. After drafting off of Seth last weekend I thought it was only fair that I take my turn this weekend and led the field out of the water. With the super steep and muddy banks it was good to be the first one out and have all the helping hands to myself. That and I like to be able to keep the boys honest at at least one race a year :) Onto the bike I knew I was going to quickly loose time to Mel and Shonny and perhaps a couple of other girls whose technical mountain biking skills far exceed my own. All I could do was ride strong and as smoothly as possible. My Fuji DSR 1.0 ran great and I definitely felt like I rode better than last year. Looking at the splits its hard to tell as they did add a short section to the course compared to last year, but I cleared a lot of sections and hills I couldn't last year and definitely spent less time off the bike hiking it. I was a bit punchy starting out, missing some lines and hitting the deck once, but got better as I settled down and really enjoyed the trails including two of the best half-pipes around. I kept the damage down to just Mel and Shonny, though kept expecting Suzie to come by me as well. The advantage or disadvantage, depending on how you look at it, of coming out of the water first is everyone who passes me gives me an update on who is right behind me. For the entire last hour of the bike Suzie was apparently "right behind you, pick it up" . I have to give a quick shout out to Xterra newbie Will Ross who not only had a stellar race but wins the most courteous passing award. The most awkward award goes to the caveman himself Conrad who clipped a pedal right as he went around me and nearly launched himself into the trees!!! I started the run in third and held onto third to the finish without seeing any of the other girls. Tried to really push the pace but wasn't taking any risks on the technical sections of rolling an ankle this early in the season. Congrats to Mel and Shonny as we finished 1-2-3 exactly the same as last weekend. I didn't get much time to enjoy the post race festivities as I had to get packed and to the airport for a 5pm flight back to Tucson. It sounded like a good idea when I was booking it but after a four hour layover in Dallas the second flight was pretty miserable. Very special thanks needs to go out to everyone in the Waco Xterra and MTB family for putting on an amazing race and to Greta and Matt for hosting Boobar and myself for the weekend. Everything from the pre-race Texas style BBQ to all the race details to the great homestays right next to the trails was amazing. This is by far the most fun, twisty, turny set of singletrack trails of any Xterra on the Championships Series. A definitely must do for all you singletrack junkies next year!!! Xterra Waco Race Gallery Just one weekend off before heading over to Spain for the inaugural ITU Cross World Championhips. I don't think any of us really know what to expect but should be lots of fun. It is going to be a girls (plus Ross) week with Mel, Emma, Sara, Katie and myself sharing a Villa. Hmmm, villa in Spain for a week :))) I have also updated race photos from the Desert Duathlon and Xterra West Champs.

Keep Waco Wacko

2011-04-16T17:04:00.008-07:00

Another weekend another race, the 2nd of 5 races in 6 weekends. This time we are in Waco Texas for the 2nd stop on the Xterra USA series. The city of Waco has been amazing in bringing this race back for a second year and the community has really rallied behing the event, from awesome homestays to setting up a great set of trails and venue. I am trying to snag me one of these Tees before I leave from the local bike shop. After a short 3 day turn around after Las Vegas I hopped on a plane to the Lone Star State on Thursday morning and got in with just enough time to head out for a loop of the bike course. This is by far the most twisty, turny, technical course of the series which doesn't really suit me as much as the more proficient mountain bikers, but it certainly is a lot of fun. If you are ever in the area you really need to head out to Cameron Park and check out the trails.

Bike Course Map - Cameron Park Swim Start - Brazos River

Once off the bike the run heads directly out of transition and straight up Jacob's Ladder. The photos don't do this justice as it is a challenge just to merely walk up them, especially with heavy bike legs.

And just because we are in Texas the winners are going to take home these giant belt buckles!! Apparently they are about the size of hub caps :)

The weather looks to be fabulous, nice and sunny but not too hot and humid and unlike last weekend we will be swimming sans wetsuit :) Looking forward to a great race tomorrow!!

Xterra West Championships, Las Vegas

2011-04-11T20:53:00.016-07:00

Back when I was a swimmer I use to enter a "throw-away race" before all my real events at any big competition. This race was always aweful but it woke the nerves up, cleaned out the cobwebs, and got me ready to get on with the important races. I was hoping that the Desert Duathlon would act as that throw-away race but apparently I needed two this season to get the reset button to fully engage. Just a week ago I switched up the schedule and decided to head to Vegas for the opening race of the Xterra USA Pro Series. I made the 7.5hr drive out from Tucson on Thursday with fellow Canuck Karsten Madsen and spent friday/saturday getting in some pre-rides and runs on the Lake Las Vegas course. I was really happy with the small changes to the bike course which took out the stupid hike-a-bike and sketchy downhill and generally made the course much more rideable, though still super tough. I also liked the new single loop run course and well the swim is the swim. (and just for the record it wasn't THAT cold, definitely not in the 50's. Sure the hands and feet got a little numb and the face was a little tingly, but no gasping for breath, thinking about ripping off my wetsuit feeling that 50deg water entails)

Swim Start (think I'm 2nd from the right)

Got up early Sunday morning and did the usual warm-up routine feeling pretty good, not super snappy, but it's still April. The swim was a deep water start under the bridge of the Aston Montalego Hotel, but with only 30 or so pros and plenty of room it was pretty mellow. I was only swimming in my new Nineteen wetsuit for the 2nd time this season but felt super comfy in it and jumped right on leader Seth Wealing's feet. Seth was setting a quick enough pace that I couldn't get around him and go faster, but was a little too easy sitting in his draft. In the end it made more sense to conserve the energy, though I did try to will him to pick it up just a bit (didn't work) and hopefully didn't irritate him too much running into the back of his feet constantly, I hate doing that to people.

Seth and I heading to the first buoy

Was out of the water in second overall, first woman and as usual had no idea where anyone else would be. Even with the numb hands and feet I had a speedy transition and headed out onto the bike, the first race on the new (and super fast) Fuji DSR 1.0. The 2 loop bike course, while not overly technical, had a bunch of tough uphills early on with some deep sand wash riding in the middle and a tiny bit of single track at the end. I held off Mel quite a bit further than previous years and felt I was riding strong and steady, though not as quick as I would have liked. Couldn't hang on Mel's wheel but entered the second lap still holding onto 2nd place. Half way through the 2nd lap I was caught by Xterra rookie, Pro MTBer and fellow Honey Stinger athlete Kelley Cullen, with Shonny not too far behind her. Great to see new faces out racing - not as happy when they go whizzing by me. I held it close finishing up the bike and flew through T2 to close the gap down to as little as possible heading out on the run.

Had to put the following photo in to call Shonny out ;) racking her bike nowhere near her spot and right on top of mine!!! How many bikes can you squeeze onto one bike rack...

I could see Shonny and Kelley running side by side about 200m in front of me and called on the legs to pick it up and shut it down. They didn't respond. I caught Kelley about 3km in but the gap between Shonny and I would close a bit, then open back up, repeat, repeat. On the uphills it would seem like she was right there but the illusion would right itself on every downhill and she ran a strong second 5km to finish just over a minute up. Mel never had to look back after passing me to take a convincing win, while Kelley Cullen and Danelle Kabush rounded out the top 5.

Overall really happy with the effort and result (3rd) but looking at the splits it is still obvious that the bike needs to improve. I'm back in Tucson for a quick 3 day turn around before heading to Waco Texas for the next race. It was great to see everyone in the Xterra crew again and super big thanks to Shelby for the bike feed, all the great volunteers for their help and race sponsors for putting on a great race. Also huge thanks to my sponsors Fuji, Rudy Project, Maxxis, Nineteen, Extreme Endurance, Champsys, and Honeystinger for all their great support!! Coach... we are back on the right track and moving forward.

Check out the Race Gallery from Nils Nilsen for some more great shots!!!

Yeah for Xterra!!!

2011-04-09T22:51:00.002-07:00

Just a quick blurb before heading to bed (it's race day tomorrow!!!) Last Sunday after an incredibly sub-par interval session on my TT bike I made the decision to skip the first race of the Liftetime Fitness Series in South Beach and head to Las Vegas for the opening race of the Xterra USA Series. Still more time and work is needed on that bike before I will be comfortable and able to produce the kind of power I need to be competitive on the road and it just didn't feel right to head back to Miami and not be able to race like I know that I am capable of. As soon as I made the decision and talked it over with the coach I knew it was the right one, stress gone, happy face back on :))))

Looking forward to a great race tomorrow, especially after watching Paula Findley take the win at the ITU WCS Sydney race!!! What a great way to get psyched up for race day...

Fun in LA

2011-04-01T15:31:00.004-07:00

Well lactate/VO2 testing can hardly be called fun, probably the most painful 30+ minute workout you can do, but getting the data back is sorta fun if you like the "science behind the sports" stuff and don't mind bruised finger tips for a day or so. Monday morning, feeling pretty good after a whole day in the car on Sunday, I headed over to the Culver City Plunge (great name for a pool) for a quick, easy swim session. Not that I'm complaining about the pools in Tucson, but what a great facility; long course, salt water, nice and cool temp. and open for lap swimming all day!!! I love swimming long course and so rarely get to do it these days. Short of sneaking into the U of A pool, it is all yards all the time in Tucson. (at least it is outside)

From there I headed over to Helen's Cycles in Santa Monica to do a bike fit with guru Nate Loyal. I have never done a professional fit so I was pretty excited to see what he thought of my personal fitting experiment. Apparently I pretty much got it all wrong. We ended up moving my saddle back almost 5cm and shortening the stem 3cm. We also added shims to my cleats to stabilize my pedal stoke. As drastic as it sounds I didn't really feel all that different on it after the changes but after a ride back at home I am definitely able to stay down in the aerobars comfortably through the whole ride and expect the power to start getting back to where it belongs after a bit more training on it.

With my new bike position it was directly over to the lab for the bike test. Not ideal, but since I don't get out to LA to see Gareth all that often, we didn't have much choice. I haven't done any testing in over two years so we really needed to get some accurate numbers to make sure the training sessions are where they need to be. I had a feeling the bike numbers were going to be a bit off with the new bike and position, but thankfully it was just a bit low at the top end with my aerobic base good and strong. Easily fixed!!!! It was also the first time I have done a VO2 test so it was interesting to see the results of that though I have to admit still a bit unsure of what exactly they mean. Guess that is why I have a coach :)

working HARD :)) with the lovely green mask on

Lab graph for all you techies out there

Tuesday morning it was back to the lab for the run test. Legs were a bit fatigued but that's how you have to race triathlons anyways. My run has been feeling really good and the results showed lower HR's over the entire test with just a bit more lactate production at threshold but even still able to push to a higher level :) Now if I can just figure out how to run more on my mid-foot and with higher heels and knees I'll be flying (for me anyways)

More Data :))

After the test it was quick lunch and right back in the car for the drive home, yuck. Bit of a whirlwind trip but lots of great information and feedback to keep moving forward in the right direction. I would have loved to stay for a couple more days, SoCal is definitely a Landscape Architect's dream and with everything in spring bloom I could have spent hours wandering around just looking a people's gardens. One of these days...

Back in Tucson it is business as usual. The temp's are heating up and I'm feeling better about where I am fitness wise and where I need to get. Big weekend of training ahead then it is back to Miami for the first race in the Lifetime Fitness Series, South Beach :)

Where or where did my bike legs go....

2011-03-28T12:21:00.005-07:00

Been avoiding writing the race report for Miami International Triathlon for over a week now. Not that it was really all that bad a race, just not what I had hoped for. Got up early for the 7:15am race start and luckily brought my camping headlight so I could see what I was doing setting up transition and warming up. As the race was right downtown Miami we were all getting ready to go at about the same time the party crowd was stumbling out of the clubs. Thankfully there was the biggest police presence I have ever seen at a race out keeping most of them off the roads.

Felt pretty descent warming up and got off to a good start and right onto Sara McLarty's feet. I guess I must have zoned out for a second because right before the first turn buoy I looked up and suddenly there was a gap that I couldn't close down, grrr. I ended up towing three other girls around the swim course and lost about a minute to Sara. Pulled the rookie move and dropped a shoe coming out of T1, hopefully got that out of the way for the rest of the season. Then tried to settle into a strong pace on the bike but had nothing in the legs. I know that I haven't been on my TT bike much but not sure that can total explain my complete lack of power. Struggled just to get through the course as more than half the field rode by me like I was standing still. Legs felt like lead weights, like in those nightmares you have where you need to move and no matter how hard you try you just can't seem to go anywhere. Got into T2 in 9th and thankfully the run legs felt pretty good. Got into a good rhythm and started making time on some of the girls in front of me. Ended up moving up a spot into 8th and having a really solid run split 37.17.

Post-race with Berk

After the race I enjoyed a nice night out in South Beach with my homestay Berk Boge, good food, live music and the biggest mojito I have ever seen. Monday I had a late flight out so got in an easy run/swim before heading out to the airport. I had no trouble getting my bike, disguised in a hockey bag, on with no fee from Phoenix but had to argue a bit with the agent. I think she finally got tired of fighting with me and said "this time she would let it go without a charge" :) After some thinking and talking with Gareth about the race and training in general, we decided that a trip out to LA for a bike fit and blood lactate/VO2 testing on both the bike and run was important. I haven't had any testing done in a while so we have been working off really old numbers.

The 8hr drive out from Tucson on Sunday was super boring but really flew by. I am here in LA for a couple of days, then back to the desert for a nice training block before the next set of races. The craziness starts with the first race of the Lifetime Fitness series, South Beach Nautica Triathlon, then right into Xterra Waco, a weekend off then over to Spain for the ITU Cross World Champs. One week off after that then another block of 3 races back to back!!!

HERE WE GO!!!!

2011-03-19T15:41:00.008-07:00

The 2011 triathlon season starts offically tomorrow for me with the Miami International Triathlon. But first a quick update since I've been MIA since the Desert Duathlon... Tucson has been treating me well and is now permanently home :). While that was always the master plan instead of just my winter training camp, I wanted to make sure everything was going to work out before making it official. I had packed up all my worldly belongings and shipped them out with me in January in anticipation of the move and they now sit in a storage unit waiting for their new home. I will be working with fellow pro-triathlete Lisa Ribes at LJ Designs while still helping out my old firm with some of their residential design work as they need it. I was a bit nervous about how they would take the news of me not coming back to work, but I couldn't have asked for a better situation. I even have an accepted offer on a townhouse that should see me in my own place beginning of May :) For the first time ever I will be able to ride my MTB from my house right to some of the best training trails around, very exciting!!!

Moving on, my FUJI D-6 arrived and after a bit of fiddling, swapping to a smaller size, and lots of work from the guys at Fairwheel Bikes (I did bake them chocolate brownies for their effort) it is now just about dialed in and ready to go. Having not been on a true aero bike in years there will undoubtedly be a few more minor changes in position, but overall super happy with the fit. I have only gotten about 2-3 weeks worth on training on it, so the appropriate muscle groups are still in the process of adapting to the new position, but it's already super speedy.

Last weekend I got to head over to TriSports for tri-fest and meet up with old friends and sponsors. I had a great time chatting with Sandy and Andrew from Extreme Endurance and meeting up with fellow sponsored triathlete Charisa Wernick. This will be my three year using their products and highly recommend giving them a try. (use code bigfish for a 10% discount :)) I'm also super excited to add Champion Systems and Honeystingers as sponsors and will be sporting some terrific new training and race kits design by Kirstin Mayer at Betty Designs. We are still finalizing the designs but I hopefully should have them ready to go early in May.

So I am here in Miami, staying with Hammerhead triathlete Berk Boge in beautiful Coconut Grove. I arrived, bike unscathed, thursday afternoon in time to get in a short set of bike/run intervals in Key Biscayne. Friday was a legs off day with just a short swim and today a quick bike/run/swim with Xterra racer Branden Rakita complete with lunch at 100% Natural, yum :) The women's field only has 14 on the start list but should be very competitive. Sara McLarty is here, so the plan is to try and stay on her feet for the swim and put some time on the rest of the field, then see what I've got on the bike and run!!!

Here we go!!!!

Swim... who needs a swim

2011-02-21T21:31:00.010-07:00

Me usually, but Sunday at the Desert Classic duathlon I had no choice but to do without. The weather has been absolutely georgeous here in the Southwest, that is right up until I packed up the car for the drive to Phoenix. I was really feeling for all the MTBers dealing with the epic conditions at 24hrs in the Old Pueblo. I got in the car mid-morning and hit a full on sand storm just outside of Tucson. Crazy winds and zero visibilty to the point of trucks being blown off the road. I have to admit that I was having a bit of a panic moment with visions on me being blown off the road trying to ride a TT bike I had all of one training ride on. The weather cleared briefly in the early evening enough for me to get an easy spin in before packing it in for the night. It was great to be staying with fellow Xterra racer LaJuan Kelly and her husband for the weekend who indulged me with a fabulous dinner and great "TV entertainment" ;). With an 8am start it was early up and out the door. The race is held at the McDowell Mountain Park just outside Fountain Hills and while the weather was still threatening, the rain had stopped and the temperature was cool but not freezing. It was a mini-Xterra reunion with both Mel McQuaid and myself, as well as Trevor Glavin and Cody Waite racing. The womens field was small but stellar with Leanda Cave, Lisa Ribes, Anna Curi Preisig and the Wassner Twins joining Mel and myself on the line. We all enjoy some laughs and jokes before the race as Mel arrived literally 15mins before the start having hit the snooze button as few to many times and preceeded to do a few jumping jacks for warm-up, but it was game on right from the start.

Leanda warning us about the mountain lions ;)

Leanda and Lisa both took off like rockets with the rest of us just trying to hold it close. By halfway through the first run it was Leanda out front and Lisa, Mel, Bec, and myself running all together. Once we hit the single track, Mel and I managed to put some time on the other two and headed out onto the bike together. I would right now love to say that I totally threw down and hammered out the bike, but with riding a borrowed TT bike and having only 2 rides in an aero position under my belt for the past four months I painfully watched Mel simply ride away from me. Everytime I race this course I am surprised at just how hard the bike is and my quads were defnitely letting me know this. Bec caught me a little passed halfway, then unfortunately blew a tire and had to walk it back to transition. I held third through the rest of the bike and headed onto the second run having lost 3mins to Leanda and Mel but gaining a bit of time on the rest of the girls and sort of stuck in no man's land ran strong to the finish. Leanda held off Mel by about 30sec for the win with Lisa and Laurel rounding out the top five. Leanda, Mel and Lisa all look great heading into the Abu Dhabi Triathlon which I wisefully will not be attending. The weather held off just long enough for us to get in a nice group warm down run and get all our gear out of transition before the skies opened up and the rain poured down again. So I have to admit pretty happy with the result and glad to have the first race out of the way as it always hurts the most. Definitely looking forward to adding that swim back where it should be for the rest of the races this year. Also looking forward to a bit of a recovery week and very excited to be getting some quality time in on my own triathlon bike when it get here in a couple of days. Thanks to everyone at the Phoenix Triathlon Club and all the volunteers who put on another terrific race, and thanks to Kerry Yndestad for the race photos. (full race results here)

Post -race Xterra chit-chat :)

Desert Classic Duathlon

2011-02-18T19:52:00.003-07:00

Time is flying by and the race season is getting underway (blogging is still lagging behind). Two weekends ago I headed up to the 2nd MBAA race of the series at Estrella Mountain Regional Park where there is a competitive MTB course built right in behind the Phoenix International Raceway. Thankfully I had pre-ridden the course beforehand as it was a really fun technical course and I knew exactly what I was dropping into, lots of great rocky descents and climbs. Sadly the women's field was really small and very quickly it ended up myself and Kenda Pro-rider Zephanie Blasi. The race was 2 loops of the longer outside loop and 1 of the inside technical loop. We rode together through the first loop, then Zephanie put a gap on me through one of the technical sections and I was chasing hard 30sec down going into the 3rd lap. Unfortunately she flatted mid way through the lap and ended up running her bike in. Overall a great race, taking the win for Team Colleen. I didn't think that I really dug all that deep for the race, but at 2hr20mins it was one of the longer MTB races I have done and the first race effort of the year and training the next week was miserable. The body gradually got itself sorted out and I got back to some great training sessions this week. Mel McQuaid also rolled into Tucson this week and I have enjoyed getting some pool sessions in with her even though we end up chatting way too much and inevitably missing send-offs. She is focusing on the high stakes Abu Dhabi Triathlon in a couple weeks so I have passed on joining her on her marathon bike rides. Up this weekend is the Desert Classic Duathlon, now in its 14th year. Other than being a duathlon and therefore lacking the most important thing - a swim - this is a great race I raced numerous times years ago while I was living in Tempe. Held out in Fountain Hills at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park, it is a 3.5mile trail run, 21mile bike, 3mile trail run and usually attracts a great group of local triathletes and a solid group of pro's.

I was really hoping to race on my brand new Fuji D-6, but due to some technical sizing difficulties I will have to wait until the next race to show it off. Big thanks to Bruce at Fairwheel for all his time getting me set-up on another bike for the race. I haven't been on a true TT bike in many years and have been only riding my road and MTB for the past two months so I am a little apprehensive about the bike leg and how the body is going to respond to the completely different riding position but overall really looking forward to getting out and hammering and hopefully mixing it up with the "roadie triathletes" :))

Happy New Year (sort of...)

2011-01-31T15:35:00.005-07:00

Well at least it is still January, for at least a couple more hours. Obviously keeping the blog up to date wasn't one of my New Year's resolutions. This could be a long post, so feel free to read it in sections, or just tune out right now ;) I always wonder how many readers I lose after the first couple of sentences!! Anyways, December came and went. Had a great Christmas with the family and spent a couple of days up at the cottage. Unfortunately the weather decided to warm up for those few days and getting in some skiing didn't happen. Ran the Hamilton Boxing Day 10miler and froze. The temperature combined with the wind coming off the lake made the conditions brutal. Add to that I wasn't paying attention and at the second aid station spilled most of the cup of water on my hands which then froze my gloves solid and then froze my hands solid. Good run though, and felt good burning off some of those turkey calories!!! The New Year has brought some big changes. Instead of heading to Alabama for training camp as I have the past two years (I really miss you guys) I decided instead to head west to Tucson for my, ah-hum, "Training Camp" ;). I of course left the packing up until the very last moment and spent the first week of the new year stressed out, add to that my IT Band picked that very week to say hello so I ended up taking an unplanned very early season week off. I tried not to let it frustrate me as it is going to be a very long season, but it was very frustrating. All packed up I started the drive Jan 11 under clear blue sunny skies. My Dad had warned me that I should get on the road early and get as far south as quickly as possible because of a storm warning. Hmm, well that didn't happen, storm.. what storm. Cruised across the border in Port Huron no problem, still clear blue sky. Rolled through East Lansing and as soon as I-69 turned south, voila, huge storm. White out conditions by Fort Wayne and death grip on the steering wheel all the way to Indianapolis. I had hoped to make it all the way to St Louis the first night but had to bail on the far side of Indy. Day two brought another hell day of driving with more trucks and cars in the ditch that I have seen in a really long time. Finally arrived in Tucson after four long days in the car, eating horribly and barely working out, feeling pretty beat up and glad to be done. And here I am, enjoying the beautiful Tucson weather and great training environment. I am staying with good friend Kathryn Bertine and hubby George while I get my own living arrangements worked out. I'm slowly getting to know my way around and getting into the swing of things. Biking up Mt Lemmon, MTB in Tucson Mountain Park, running in Sabino Canyon, the training here is really unbeatable and so different from what I am used to. Hopefully just what I need to take my racing up another notch this year. So the adventure has started... leap of faith to say the least. Training is back on track with two big volume weeks and the race season is just around the corner. I am now much closer to my coach, so Gareth and I will be able to plan some better testing and training sessions together and really get everything dialed in for a great season. I am still finalizing the sponsors for the year but very excited to have Extreme Endurance, Maxxis, Nineteen and Rudy Project returning and super excited to be riding Fuji Bikes this year. I have been out on the trails on my new DSR 1.0 and it totally rocks. (Now it is just up to the legs to get that bike split down where it should be!!!) I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions but I do have great hope for this year. Excited to make new friends, renew old friendships left by the wayside for far to long and keep old friends close. To everyone, I hope 2011 brings great things!!

Getting Back Into Shape

2010-12-15T13:18:00.005-07:00

Hurts a lot!!! That seems to be the common thread going around the social networks these days and I have to agree. Sat down with Gareth and have planned out the year, in detail up until the end of April. With ITU hosting the first ever Cross World Championships April 30th in Spain, we needed to get a bit more focused this December than years past. Week one is in the books and the evil SRM has not been friendly. My run and swim feel pretty good, but the bike legs have vanished like the good weather. Definitely need some new music on the mp3 player to get through the next couple of weeks.

Took a page out of the 'Mel McQuaid's book of offseason racing' and entered the Egg Nog Jog 10.8km race at the Terracotta Conservation Area on Sunday, dubbed the hardest 10km road race in Ontario. True to Mel's rules I headed out to my Birthday Party, oops I mean Tom's Birthday/Christmas Party:), and had way too much to eat and a couple of glasses of wine the night before. Sunday morning arrived with a severe weather watch for most of the Great Lakes area. Unfortunately the temperature was sitting just above freezing so instead of nice snow flurries and a hard packed running surface it was raining and a mix of slushy, icing roads. Got warmed up the best I could and headed to the start line already pretty much soaked. Tried to keep things under control for the first bit of the race but still went through the first mile in about 5:30 and really hoped that is was because it was straight downhill and not that I was going to suffer for the remainder of the race. The rest of the race pretty much felt all uphill which is really fun on ice!! Except for the calves protesting a bit at the end, I felt really great and took the win and 10th place overall. Thanks to everyone at Georgetown Runners and all the volunteers for putting on a great race for the sell out crowd of 600 crazy people who thought it would be fun to race in the middle of a storm.

Woke up Monday feeling like, surprise, I had just raced on no training. The legs definitely letting me know that they were not happy. So just for fun I decided to sign up for the Boxing Day 10miler in Hamilton. Hey, why not, especially since you get these really cool mittens in the race packet!! One has to look for any kind of motivation this time of year. Otherwise it is back to base training. I have jumped in with the RTC group here in Guelph for my swimming and am really enjoying the company. I have been told a couple of them keep some pretty interesting blogs, http://www.iandonald.blogspot.com/ and http://www.dominikajamnicky.blogspot.com/. Perhaps a couple future top Canadian triathletes. Of course Ian will have to work on that bi-lateral breathing and stop inflicting penalty kick 50's on the group before then!!! Next up, weekend Ironman viewing/Christmas Party at James' and Tom will be doing the frozen beer mile, awesome !!!!! Later :)

Winter Riding

2010-12-05T09:10:00.003-07:00

Feeling a little couped up and have decided to brave -2C and go out of a ride, lots of time to ride the trainer in the weeks to come. Made me think of a funny article I came across a couple of years ago. Enjoy.... PETE'S WINTER CYCLING TIPS I am a commuter who cycles year round. I have been doing it for about twelve years. Winters here in Ottawa are relatively cold and snowy. Ottawa is the second coldest capital in the world. The following comments are the results of my experiences. I am not recommending them, only telling you what works for me. You may find it useful, or you may find the stupid things that I do are humorous. PRELUDE Me: I am not a real cyclist. I just ride a bicycle. I have done a century, but that was still commuting. There was a networking conference 110 miles away, so I took my bicycle. There and back. (does that make two centuries?) I usually do not ride a bicycle just for a ride. Lots of things I say may make real cyclists pull out their hair. I have three kids, and cannot *afford* to be a bike weenie. People often ask me why I do it.... I don't know. I might say that it saves me money, but no. Gasoline produces more energy per dollar than food. (OK, I suppose if I would eat only beans, rice and pasta with nothing on them.... I like more variety) Do I do it for the environment? Nah! I never take issues with anything. I don't ride for health, although as I get older, I appreciate the benefits. I guess I must do it because I like it. Definitions Since words like "very", "not too", etc. are very subjective, I will use the following definitions: Cold : greater than 15 degrees F Very cold : 0 through 15 Degrees F Extreme cold : -15 through 0 degrees F Insane cold: below -15 degrees F Basic philosophy I have two: 1) If its good, don't ruin it, if its junk you needn't worry. 2) I use a brute force algorithm of cycling: Pedal long enough, and you'll get there. Bicycle riding in snow and ice is a problem of friction: Too much of the rolling type, and not enough of the sideways type. Road conditions: More will be covered below, but now let it suffice to say that a lot of salt is used on the roads here. Water splashed up tastes as salty as a cup of Lipton Chicken soup to which an additional spool of salt has been added. Salt eats metal. Bicycles dissolve. EQUIPMENT: Bicycle: Although I have a better bicycle which I ride in nice weather, I buy my commuting bikes at garage sales for about $25.00. They're disposable. Once they start dissolving, I remove any salvageable parts, then throw the rest away. Right now, I'm riding a '10-speed' bike. I used to ride mountain bikes, but I'm back to the '10-speed'. Here's why. Mountain bikes cost $50.00 at the garage sales. They're more in demand around here. Since I've ridden both, I'll comment on each one. The Mountain bikes do have better handling, but they are tougher to ride through deep snow. The 10-speed cuts through the deep snow better. I can ride in deeper snow with it, and when the snow gets too deep to ride, its easier to carry. Fenders on the bike? Sounds like it might be a good idea, and someday I'll try it out. I think, however, that snow/ice will build up between the fender and the tire causing it to be real tough to pedal. I have a rack on the back with a piece of plywood to prevent too much junk being thrown on my back. I would *like* to be able to maintain the bike, but its tough to work outside in the winter. My wife (maybe I should write to Dear Abbey about this) will not let me bring my slop covered bicycle through the house to get it in the basement. About once a month we have a warm enough day that I am able to go out with a bucket of water, wash all of the gunk off of the bike, let it dry and then bring it in. I tear the thing down, clean it and put it together with lots of grease. I use some kind of grease made for farm equipment that is supposed to be more resistant to the elements. When I put it together, I grease the threads, then cover the nuts, screws, whatever with a layer of grease. This prevents them from rusting solidly in place making it impossible to remove. Protection against corrosion is the primary purpose of the grease. Lubrication is secondary. remember to put a drop of oil on the threads of each spoke, otherwise, the spokes rust solidly, and its impossible to do any truing Outside, I keep a plastic ketchup squirter, which I fill with automotive oil (lately its been 90 weight standard transmission oil). Every two or three days, I use it to re-oil my chain and derailleur, and brakes. It drips all over the snow beneath me when I do it, and gets onto my 'cuffs'(or whatever you call the bottom of those pants. See, I told you I don't cycle for the environment. I probably end up dumping an ounce of heavy oil into the snow run-off each year. Clothing Starting at the bottom, on my feet I wear Sorell Caribou boots. These are huge ugly things, but they keep my feet warm. I have found that in extreme to insane cold, my toes get cold otherwise. These boots do not make it easy to ride, but they do keep me warm (see rule 2, brute force). They do not fit into any toe-clips that I have seen. I used to wear lighter things for less cold weather, but I found judging the weather to be a pain. If its not too cold, I ride with them half unlaced. The colder it gets, the more I lace them, and finally, I'll tie them. Fortunately, wet days are not too cold, and cold days are not wet. When its dry, I wear a pair of cycling shorts, and one or two (depending on temp and wind) cotton sweat pants covering that. I know about lycra and polypro (and use them for skiing), but these things are destroyed by road-dirt, slush and mud.(see rule 1 above). I save my good clothes for x-country skiing. An important clothing item in extreme to insane cold, is a third sock. You put it in your pants. No, not to increase the bulge to impress the girls, but for insulation. Although several months after it happens it may be funny, when it does happens, frostbite on the penis is not funny. I speak from experience! Twice, no less! I have no idea of what to recommend to women in this section. Next in line, I wear a polypro shirt, covered by a wool sweater, covered by a 'ski-jacket' (a real ugly one with a stripe up the back. The ski jacket protects the rest of my clothes, and I can regulate my temperature with the zipper in front. I usually take a scarf with me. For years I have had a fear that the scarf would get caught in the spokes, and I'd be strangled in the middle of the street, but it has not yet happened. When the temp is extreme or colder, I like keeping my neck warm. I have one small problem. Sometimes the moisture in my breath will cause the scarf to freeze to my beard. On my hands, I wear wool mittens when its not too cold, and when it gets really cold, I wear my cross-country skiing gloves (swix) with wool mittens covering them. Hands sweat in certain areas (at least mine do), and I like watching the frost form on the outside of the mittens. By looking at the frost, I can tell which muscles are working. I am amused by things like this. On my head, I wear a toque (Ski-hat?) covered by a bicycle helmet. I don't wear one of those full face masks because I haven't yet been able to find one that fits well with eye glasses. In extreme to insane cold, my forehead will often get quite cold, and I have to keep pulling my hat down. The bottoms of my ears sometimes stick out from my hat, and they're always getting frostbitten. This year, I'm thinking of trying my son's Lifa/polypro balaclava. Its thin enough so that it won't bother me, and I only need a bit more protection from frostbite. I carry my clothes for the day in a knapsack. Everything that goes in the knapsack goes into a plastic bag. Check the plastic bag often for leaks. A small hole near the top may let in water which won't be able to get out. The net result is that things get more wet than would otherwise be expected. The zippers will eventually corrode. Even the plastic ones become useless after a few years. RIDING: In the winter, the road is narrower. There are snow banks on either side. Cars do not expect to see bicycles. There are less hours of daylight, and the its harder to maintain control of the bicycle. Be careful. I don't worry about what legal rights I have on the road, I simply worry about my life. I'd rather crash into a snow bank for sure rather than take a chance of crashing into a car. I haven't yet had a winter accident in 12 years. I've intentionally driven into many snow banks. Sometimes, during a storm, I get into places where I just can't ride. It is sometimes necessary to carry the bicycle across open fields. When this happens, I appreciate my boots. It takes a lot more energy to pedal. Grease gets thick, and parts (the bicycle's and mine) don't seem to move as easily. My traveling time increases about 30% in nice weather, and can even double during a raging storm. The wind seems to be always worse in winter. It's not uncommon to have to pedal to go down hills. Be careful on slushy days. Imagine an 8 inch snowfall followed by rain. This produces heavy slush. If a car rides quickly through deep slush, it may send a wave of the slush at you. This stuff is heavy. When it hits you, it really throws you off balance. Its roughly like getting a 10 lbs sack of rotten potatoes thrown at your back. This stuff could even knock over a pedestrian. Freezing rain is the worst. Oddly enough, I find it easier to ride across a parking lot covered with wet smooth ice than it is to walk across it. The only problem is that sometimes the bicycle simply slides sideways out from under you. I practice unicycle riding, and that may help my balance. (Maybe not, but its fun anyway) Beware of bridges that have metal grating. This stuff gets real slippery when snow covered. One time, I slid, hit an expansion joint, went over the handle bars, over the railing of the bridge. I don't know how, but one arm reached out and grabbed the railing. Kind of like being MacGyver. Stopping. There are several ways of stopping. The first one is to use the brakes. This does not always work. Breaks can ice up, a bit of water gets between the cable and its sheathing when the warm afternoon sun shines on the bike. It freezes solid after. Or the salt causes brake cables to break, etc. I have had brakes work on one corner, but stop working by the time I get to the next. I have several other means of stopping. The casual method. For a stop when you have plenty of time. Rest the ball of your foot on top of the front derailleur, and *gradually* work your heel between the tire and the frame. By varying the pressure, you can control your speed. Be sure that you don't let your foot get wedged in there! Faster method. Get your pedals in the 6-12 O'clock position. Stand up. The 6 O'clock foot remains on the pedal, while you place the other foot on the ground in front of the pedal. By varying your balance, you can apply more or less pressure to your foot. The pedal, wedged against the back of your calf, forces your foot down more, providing more friction. Really fast! Start with the fast method, but then dismount while sliding the bicycle in front of you. You will end up sliding on your two feet, holding onto the bike in front for balance. If it gets *really* critical, throw the bike ahead of you, and sit down and roll. Do not do this on dry pavement, your feet need to be able to slide. In some conditions, running into a snow bank on the side will stop you quickly, easily, and safely. If you're going too fast, you might want to dive off of the bicycle over the side. Only do this when the snow bank is soft. Make sure that there isn't a car hidden under that soft snow. Don't jump into fire hydrants either. ETC. Freezing locks. I recommend carrying a BIC lighter. Very often the lock will get wet, and freeze solid. Usually the heat from my hands applied for a minute or so (a real minute or so, not what seems like a minute) will melt it, but sometimes it just needs more than that. Eating Popsicles Something I like doing in the winter is to buy a Popsicle before I leave, and put it in my pocket. It won't melt! I take it out and start eating it just as I arrive at the University. Its fun to watch peoples' expressions when they see me, riding in the snow, eating a Popsicle. You have to be careful with Popsicles in the winter. I once had a horrible experience. You know how when you are a kid, your parents told you never to put your tongue onto a metal pole? In very cold weather, a Popsicle acts the same way. If you are not careful, your upper lip, lower lip, and tongue become cemented to the Popsicle. Although this sounds funny when I write about it, it was definitely not funny when it happened.

New Job.....

2010-11-26T19:39:00.006-07:00

It's tough to make a living at this triathlon thing, perhaps a new career.....

Position: Surveyor

Salary: $200 per hour (tax-free)

Qualification: Must be fast on your feet

Isn't it comforting to know that when you are about to become a bear's breakfast your buddy is standing there taking photos?

Thanks to JR for sending this to me last year :)

My other life...

2010-11-17T17:03:00.005-07:00

I often tell people I feel a bit schizophrenic. On one side I have the triathlete, trains lots, eat well, gets lots of sleep and generally hang out with others that share a very healthy active lifestyle. Then there is the other side, construction. While I am technically a landscape architect, I work for a construction company and well the above mentioned characteristics don't really fit into this side. With the season now over I am spending the bulk of my time in construction mode and while I haven't taken up smoking or fast food, my language has significantly deteriorated with the added exposure, especially since we are rushing to beat the weather to get the last few projects in the ground and everyone is just a little stressed. As it stands right now there is one small frontyard completely ripped apart (yep, the homeowners are always really happy at this stage) and another thankfully unoccupied new home that needs a whole yard. Not likely to happen before the freeze sets in but hopefully at least the patios and walkways, maybe some plants and grass if we are lucky. On the design end just wrapping up two more custom homes that should be ready to go first thing in the spring.

This is a project I designed earlier in the year that I really wanted to do the construction on. It was going to be this fabulous pool with a raised spa and rock waterfall. Unfortunately they ended up going with a different contractor, boo!!

I did indulge my healthy side this weekend with what may end up being the last good mountain bike ride of the season. I have wanted to check out the trails up in Collingwood/Blue Mountain but was a little hesitant to just head up there solo as there really isn't any trail maps. After meeting fellow Xterra athlete and Collingwood local Katie Button in Maui I decided to invite myself up for a day of riding. We met up with Canadian National MTB Team member Amanda Sin and hubby Kaesy for a great, although slighty muddy, ride at 3 Stages. The riding up there has some really good climbing to get you up onto the Niagara Escarpment, then a whole series of fun winding trails that criss-cross along the top.

With the area being almost exclusively hardwood forest and the leaves all off the trees it was a much different feel that what I usually ride which tends to be much thicker and full of evergreens. It also was helpful in following Amanda, as she and Kaesy (on his singlespeed) continually dropped us!! Finished up the day with some great oven-fired pizza at Blue Mountain Village before heading back home.

Starting to feel like getting back into some training and will likely ease back into next week (I do think I said that last week to a couple of people) and I have officially set December 1 as get back in the pool day. Hmmm, not sure I am looking forward to that one. I have also been indulging in some pretty good sleep-ins!!!

Lest We Forget

2010-11-11T11:59:00.003-07:00

In Flanders Fields

written May 3, 1915

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

1872 - 1918

In the first world war over 620,000 Canadians fought and over 60,000 perished serving this great country of ours.

Take a moment today to remember those that have and continue to serve

Xterra World Championships Race Report

2010-11-09T16:55:00.016-07:00

It's been over two weeks since the Xterra World Championships and I am still pretty excited about the race. Leading into the race all things were pointing towards a great result. I was healthy, injury free, and super fit. After my last hard week of training Gareth emailed me telling me to start expecting a great performance, top 3. I'm not sure I truly believed that was possible, especially with the incredible fire power in the women's race, but improving on my 5th place finish two years ago and being back on the podium was something I really wanted. Being picked by the Xterra TV crew as one of the top 5 pro women to look for definitely gave the confidence another little boost. My first year, 2008, I had no idea what was headed my way and really had no expectations for the race. A year later, with a surprise podium finish under my belt, I remember getting to the start line with a sense of dread and uncertainty about whether I could pull off a good race so it was a pleasant surprise that race morning arrived and I got through setting up transition and warm-up with a strange sense of calm confidence. I never feel great warming up before a big race so I have stopped worrying about it and just do what I need to do trusting once the gun goes off and the adrenaline is pumping everything will fall into place.

The swim start was much better set up than last year giving everyone more space across the start line, unfortunately it didn't help me and I had one of my roughest starts. It seems either my front end swim speed is lacking or everyone else has upped their game. Heading into the beach for the first lap I was fighting just to stay somewhere in 10th to 15th place and Julie Dibens was swimming right next to me. Not what I had planned. I hustled the beach run and jumped back in for the 2nd lap hoping to feel a bit better. One by one I picked off the guys in front of me until I ended up on Seth's and Craig's feet and headed into T1 in 3rd hoping I had put some serious time on the rest of the womens field.

If Ironman had taken anything out of Julie's legs it certainly wasn't apparent as she came flying by me in about the same spot she had the previous two years!! I didn't feel great but I don't think anyone does heading straight uphill right out of transition. My first panic moment came as I tried to get a drink out of my camelbak and got nothing. With only one bottle of electrolytes on my bike I really needed to get it working. After a bit of a struggle I figured out if I waited to a relatively smooth flat section and pulled it off one shoulder and swung it around to the front I could get a drink out of it, so at the first occasion I put back at least half of it and thankfully the stomach didn't seem to have a problem with it. Wasn't an ideal situation (and I likely looked like a complete amateur), but I would have lost a lot more time blowing up at the end of the bike. After Julie, Shonny was the next one to go by and was absolutely moving!! I was riding well, staying on my bike for a lot more of the climbs and rocky sections than previous years and taking the downhills with confidence. Mel passed me sometime after Heartbreak Hill (yes I had to walk - maybe next year!!) but wasn't looking sharp and I was able to hang with her. I was down into fourth place but still feeling pretty comfortable with my position until Suzie Snyder came by me. In just her second or third race as a pro she wasn't one of the girls I had expected to be at the front of the race. I remember thinking I hope she is having the race of her life. (She was!!!) With Suzie and Mel riding just in front of me and now in fifth (last podium spot) I admittedly was fighting to stay positive and keep my head in the game wondering who would be the next one to ride by, the downside of being the fastest swimmer. After the plunge, the section past the Oil Tanks is the rockiest part of the course. You don't carry any momemtum and have to fight with every pedal stroke to keep the bike moving. It's also the last mile or two before the downhill into transition and with the end of the bike in sight I was not going to loose another spot before then. Into transition and quickly into the shoes I headed out onto the run still in 5th listening to Jamie Whitmore, who was helping Xterra call the race, announce I was just 45sec down on Suzie and not much more to Mel. I heard "She could easily run herself into 3rd" and decided that was exactly what I was going to do. I got some added motivation as I headed out the chute and saw the entire fleet-footed crew rolling into transition right behind me. Nothing like having Marion Lorblanchet, Carina Wasle, and Lesley Patterson lined up on your heels to get you moving. Panic moment number two came as I hit the road and got into my run stride only to have both quads and calves cramp. I had gotten in both my bottle and camelbak of electrolytes, all 3 drop water bottles, my gels, and 3 salt tablets and I couldn't believe that wasn't enough. My Atlanta training partner Mark Rudder running right in front of me totally saved the day handing me 2 of his salt tablets which I immediately dry swallowed not sure where exactly the next aid station was and afraid I might drop them. Problem hopefully solved and back to the work at hand - 3rd!! I passed Suzie back as we turned off the road and started up the longest hill in the world (or at least it feels that way) I was hoping I would just run right by her without a fight but she was having the race of her life and decided to hang tough, grrr. I finally gapped her and set my eyes on Mel, who was unfortunately not having the day she was hoping for. Moved into 3rd at the top of Cactus alley wondering how long I could hold off the surely approaching runners. Unless you are leading the race a hovering camera can only mean one thing, you are about to get passed!!! At the bottom of cactus alley before crossing the road onto Big Beach, the dreaded motor bike appeared and it was only a matter of who and how many were right behind me. Marion and I headed out onto the beach just a couple of feet apart. She took the high line in the deep soft sand while I headed straight to the waterline hoping to find some firm sand. I closed down the space between us and was moving ahead when she noticed and joined me. I tried to hang on to her heels but she was just too fast and the elastic band snapped heading into "spooky forest". I was desperate to know if I had anyone else right behind me but was afraid to look back. Scampering across the last section of coral before the finish line someone gratefully let me know there was no one in sight and I got to enjoy the run up to the line, indulging in some high 5's with the cheering kids lining the path. Sure top 3 would have been nice, but 4th was still pretty amazing!! Shonny had the race of the day taking the win less than a minute ahead of Julie, then Marion and myself in 3rd and 4th with Suzie having the surprise race of the day out-sprinting Carina at the line for 5th!!!

Mark Rudder - thanks for saving the day!!!

As always a big thanks to everyone; coach, family, friends, and sponsors,(Rudy Project, Maxxis, Extreme Endurance, Rocket Science Sports) who help out and make it all possible, I couldn't do it without all of them. It is now time for a break but it will be next season before you know it, CAN'T WAIT!!!!

4th at Xterra World Championships!!!!

2010-10-26T09:19:00.001-07:00

Had a great race on Sunday to take 4th at worlds. Great end to a long season. I'm currently in the middle of suffering through my 15+hour trip home and looking forward to some serious sleep when I finally get there. Congrats to all the athletes who gave it their all on Sunday!!! Full thoughts, comments, photos (maybe even some from the post race Halloween costume party) soon.

'Twas the night before Xterra worlds...

2010-10-23T20:16:00.002-07:00

and all through the incredibly hot condo people were running around like crazy trying to get everything ready to race. Okay, well maybe it was just me, but it was certainly hot as the two portable air conditioning units in our condo have been running full blast since we got here and still haven't managed to cool the place off to a comfortable level. Hopefully that means we will all be better acclimatized for the blast furnace tomorrow. I finally arrived at the condo Wednesday evening around midnight and since that was about 6am EST my body decided it was time to wake up, gotta love jetlag. Thursday was a crazy day starting with filming a TV interview with www.xterra.tv for the broadcast of the race. I then jumped on the bike and headed out to the practice course for a quick spin. The race course is on private land and not open until race day so we have a short loop to ride on that gives everyone the chance to remember what it is like riding on the loose chunky lava. Usually I find the practice loop much tougher than the race course and almost unrideable. This year the loop was in great condition. With a couple of days of rain earlier in the week all the lava dust was nicely packed down and tacky. Apparently the roads on the course have also been graded this year which could make for a super fast bike. I finished up the training for the day with a quick run along the last couple of miles of the run course and jumped in ocean to cool off. After a quick stop at the condo to drop off the bike and clean up it was off to the airport to pick up Mike and Sarah. They both got in no problem, however, Sarah's bike seemed to have been left in Toronto and was following somewhere behind her. It finally arrived in well after 11pm. The last two members of the condo, Dave and Bobby Rakita were going through the same hassle with Branden's bike and joined us later for a great grilled meal. (Sarah is a chef and has been cooking up some tasty dishes - check out her blog for great stories and recipes www.sarahcaylor.blogspot.com) Friday it was up early again so that Branden and I could do the swim clinic as part of the Xterra University presented by Paul Mitchell. We had a great turnout and hopefully passed on some good information for the swim tomorrow. We also scored some great Paul Mitchell product, unfortunately it might put me over the weight limit trying to fly it all back home. Today it was a quick swim, bike, run in the morning then back to the condo to relax and pack. As usual things took a bit longer and I had to scramble to get back to the race site to do another photo shoot for the race broadcast. I was picked along with Julie Dibens, Melanie McQuaid, Leslie Patterson, and Shonny V. as one of the five pro women to look for. Not bad company to be part of, hopefully a good sign for tomorrow. Now it is off to the race briefing and pre-race dinner. All the work is done, time to relax and get ready to race!!!!

Mike and Bob (the chicken) on the practice course

Sarah and I riding down Cactus alley

Lava, Lava, Lava

Paul Mitchell Haul!!!

The Competition

Maui Bound

2010-10-20T17:47:00.003-07:00

Not a bad place to be headed at the end of October, though I have to say the weather has cooperated and let me get in all the training needed before the World Championships. Unfortunately it is going to be a quick trip, in and out for the race with little time to spend relaxing on the beach. I've given up trying to explain to people not associated with triathlon that this does not constitute a vacation!! Until after the race on Sunday there will be minimal time even spent outside, forget laying on the beach or engaging in any fun water sports. So I am in the Vancouver airport after an uneventful 5 hour flight from Toronto. (didn't get charged for the bike and empty middle seat) 3hour layover here then 6 hrs to Maui. Long day!! Next post from Hawaii!!!! Okay so the WiFi still works on the plane so I will add a bit more. I seem to be stuck in the baby section. At least three of them are screaming right now. Oh joy. Especially since I am on east coast time and it is already 9pm. Hopefully they will get it all out and sleep for the flight. Make that 5, 2 more just sat down. Good thing I brought earplugs!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-10-11T20:19:00.004-07:00

That is to all the Canucks out there. I am spending the long weekend up at the cottage in Muskoka enjoying the amazing fall colours and incredible weather so I decided to change up the the blog to reflect the season. A little hard to read but kinda fun anyways. Sunday we had a great family dinner with my Aunt, Uncle and four cousins on my Mum's side, stuffing ourselves with the usual turkey and such then finishing off the evening with a spirited game of dice, which coincidentally I won!

Only two weeks to go before Xterra Worlds and training has been going great. It is always motivating to come off a great race and put in a block of training right after still feeling good. It just seems easier to dig deep when you have just been reminded of how all the hard work pays off. I am just finishing off the last couple of hard workouts before taper time!!!

Not much of a post, but hey life can't always be super exciting!!

Couple of more photos from Xterra USA in Utah.

5th at Xterra USA Nationals!!

2010-09-25T17:11:00.002-07:00

Finally put together a really great Xterra race this season with a 5th place at USA Nationals. (up from 9th last year) The altitude really made it tough but I felt strong the whole way, even had the 3rd fastest run behind uber runners Leslie Patterson and Carina Wasle (both likely well under 100lbs) Struggled through the swim a bit, really feeling the lack of swim training after the shoulder injury 3 weeks ago and getting totally dunked and swum over at the start. I ended up leading the 2nd pack out of the water. Got into a good groove on the bike and other than Mel who had a great swim and was flying, held off the other girls much further than previous years. Leslie and Shonny caught me just at halfway through the bike, Sarah and Jenny about three quarters of the way, and Renata and I rode into transition together. Renata surged once we hit the single track and I couldn't hang on and had to let her go. Then just passed halfway I reeled her back in and passed her with Sara visible just ahead. I passed Sara with about 2miles to go and had Jenny in my sights. With the last mile straight downhill I knew that I had to catch her by the top of the last climb and she was running scared knowing I was right behind her. She got over the top a bit in front of me and held me off to the end. No matter, great race. Now its off to pack up the bike and hed over to the post race party!!!!

Xterra USA Podium

Xterra USA Series Podium

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words...

2010-09-23T18:48:00.008-07:00

So instead of trying to write a whole bunch I have decided to post pictures with some brief comments in between. After the Muskoka Triathlon way back in July I had a nice three week block of training before heading down to Windsor to do the sprint triathlon there. One of only a couple races in Ontario with prize money it is a favourite among the local elite racers. The coach wasn't nearly as impressed so I went into the race pretty worked over but still looking for the win. James Loaring's sister Char graciously offered up the family home in Windsor for a whole group of us to stay at and even hosted the post-race get together. Race morning turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer. The swim was 1km in Lake St Clair and wasn't even waist deep the majority of the way. The elite wave decided on our own rule to swim, not dolphin dive, the swim, though Sean Bechtel did take a few extra off the start to get out ahead of the field. The 30km bike was flat and fast and even the wind at 35+km/hr didn't evaporate the sweat that was pouring off of me. I headed out onto the run feeling like I was going to either pass out or throw up (or both) and struggled just to finish. It was definitely the longest 6km run of my life (likely also the slowest). The post race party was a blast and I added another win and some money to the bank account. Not a bad weekend.

Into T2 at the Windsor Triathlon

Windsor Triathlon Women's Top Five

Post-race Fun

The very next weekend I was excited to race again at the first off-road triathlon held in Ontario in a very long time. Put on by James Kowalewski at http://www.elementracing.ca/, the 'Mine' over Matter Triathlon was held at the Kelso Conservationa Area just outside Toronto. Unlike the weekend before, a cold front moved in late Saturday afternoon and preceeded to dump serious amounts of rain throughout the evening. The rain stopped just as I pulled into the venue and thankfully stayed away for the race but the trails were super slick and most of us were pretty thankful the race stayed away from the technical stuff and I definitely rode conservatively, though I still managed to slide of the trail and into the bushes the second time down the escarpment. I led Karsten Madsen and the rest of the field out of the swim and through the first lap of the bike, getting passed by Karsten and two other guys on the second lap. I headed out onto the run fourth overall and first women and held that position to the end. Despite the weather James put on a great race and sounds as though he is working on expanding to a couple of races next year, even reviving the Guelph Lake off-road Tri, very exciting.

My Dirty bike after the 'Mine over Matter' Tri

A quick two weeks later it was off to Whistler BC, for Xterra Canada. What a great venue and great race organized by Cal Zaryski and Yoeri Geerits. I just finished writing the race report for the website so here is the link if you want to hear about all the details, crazy weather, super technical trails, a dislocated shoulder.... (seeing as this post has seemed have expanded past a couple of comments between photos) www.christinejeffrey.com/10xterraca

Sunrise at Rainbow Park before the swim start

One of the scary descents I decided to walk

Run course - Xterra Style

More photos of the races at www.christinejeffrey.com/2010XterraWhistler

I am now in Utah, another spectacular racing venue, just two days away from the Xterra USA Nationals. Not really my style of course, point to point uphill course at altitude, but I have been here almost a week and was sleeping in my altitude tent prior to getting here and a little surprisingly have been feeling pretty good. Had a great spin around the upper loop of the bike course and I am really looking forward to the race on Saturday!!

BLOG? WHAT BLOG?

2010-08-10T18:17:00.004-07:00

Oh yah, this blog!!! Hmm, Oops. I would try to come up with a good excuse for being MIA but there really isn't one. So once again I will do the very brief point form recap: Xterra Richmond - All things considered a solid race. I didn't beach myself in the middle of the James river during the swim and managed to get out with the lead men. I also didn't manage to put much time on the rest of the women (not that I expected to with the stupid short swim). I biked well but couldn't even come close to matching Mel, Shonny, and Renata and headed onto the run in 4th. Ran strong but once again couldn't hold off Emma and rounded out the podium in 5th. Ryan added to the drama of the weekend by completely destroying his knee in a freak bike crash and ended up having to have surgery to repair most of the tendons in it once he got back home. It was a late night drive home for us pulling into Detroit around 3am. Pretty fried after back to back races Gareth and I decided it was probably a good time to throw in a nice mid-season week off. Belwood Lake Triathlon - Since I wasn't going to be racing the last of the Xterra Cup races in Beaver Creek (simply not enough oxygen for me to bother going) and the next Xterra race isn't until late August, I decided to throw in a couple of local road tri's for fun. My sister and I headed out to Belwood Lake for the Subaru Triathlon Series race there on July 18th. What a joy to be able to sleep in my own bed before the race and what a great venue, probably the smoothest roads I have ever raced on. Took the win ahead of Angela Quick from the Provincial Training Center here in Guelph. Sista took 3rd in her AG. Muskoka Triathlon - I raced this race way back when I was an age grouper just getting started in Triathlon. It was at this race I met Tereza Macel and Donna Phelan who convinced me to step it up and race as a pro. I have put this race on my schedule so many times in the years since then but just haven't seemed to be able to do it, so this year I was super excited that it fit nicely into the schedule largely due to it being later in the year than normal. (perhaps the only good thing about the G8 in Huntsville!!!) The women's pro field wasn't quite what it has been in the past with the usual suspects out with injuries or training overseas but it was nice to take the win anyways. I had a great race, strong from start to finish, taking 11th overall. (Somebody has to keep the boys honest)

Up this weekend the Windsor Triathlon, then back to Xterra to finish off the season.

Xterra Urban-Style

2010-06-19T14:46:00.002-07:00

JAMES RIVER - Photo by Emma Garrard

Just getting ready for the second race in back to back weekends with crazy travel between. The course in Richmond is unlike any other we do in the Xterra series as it is literally located right in the middle of the city. The swim (or what passes for a swim here) is in the James river. The river is running fairly high this year which means that we will swim most of it instead of beaching ourselves on the rocks or sand bars multiple times. It is about a 500-600m swim across to a small island, a short run across the island and the swim back. With the run into transition it might take us at the most 15minutes. Usually this has me more than a little upset since my chance to put time on the other girls is greatly diminished but this year the bike course has totally changed.

Two years ago I did this race for the first time and was nothing short of a train wreck. I didn't have the skills to ride a lot of the technical urban style trails: ramps, drops, rock gardens, skinny bridges, and nearly cried during the pre-ride. I got through the race, barely, spending a lot of time off my bike. This year we arrived in Richmond to find the trails had been completely redone, lots of the technical sections have been blocked off and the rest of the trails buffed out and totally smooth. Add to that we are running the course backwards this year which makes most of the really steep uphills downhills. The course has also gotten seriously shorter to a lightning fast 18km or so. The guys will definitely be under an hour and the women not much over, yeah for me!!! They also decided to cut out the last section of singletrack on the run making the whole race almost a sprint distance. Should be exciting, though not everyone is excited as I am about all the changes. Considering the forecast is 98deg. tomorrow, shorter might not be a bad idea after last weekends meltdown in Bama!!!

Tough Day

2010-06-16T13:29:00.004-07:00

So the race on Sunday wasn't what I had hoped for and it's been crazy non-stop since then. I knew the weather was going to be hot but I really thought that I would be able to handle it better. Race morning came around and I got through the whole routine smoothly and relaxed. There was plenty of room at the swim start even though it was a mass start with all the pros and amateurs together.

Emma, Seth, myself and Conrad chose to start off to the right with Craig and Bruce Gennari opting for the left side. Seth decided not to wear the overheating suit (aka swimskin) which in hindsight was probably a good idea. Conrad tried the ice in the swim cap but apparently it melted long before the first buoy. The swim specialists all ended up coming together at the first buoy of the two lap swim, then Craig pulled the first lap and the two of us did the short run around the flags together heading into the second lap while Seth, Conrad and Bruce had fallen off the pace a bit. I ended up pulling the second loop even though with the water temperature in the mid-eighties I felt like my head was going to explode. I kept telling my arms to pick up the tempo but the message just wasn't getting through. I think just about everyone was feeling the same way.

I then had probably the slowest transition of my life and got out onto the bike. It wasn't all that hot once we got under the canopy of the trees and out of the sun but my legs just didn't seem to have anything. Mel was about 2min back of me out of the swim and passed me early on in the single track. Then the Shonny, Leslie, Renata train came flying by up the long uphill climb (I think Will Kelsay got himself in the middle of that one, on his way to a great 6th place finish) That was about a third of the way through the bike leg. The rest of the bike I just tried to keep the pace going as best I could without totally blowing the legs. I knew Emma wouldn't be far behind and with one of the hardest runs coming up I knew that I needed every second. As it turns out, Emma posted the fastest run of the day for the women and went by me halfway through the run and almost caught Renata. I totally melted on the run. The first half is along the singletrack that we started the bike on, then the second half is nothing but straight up and down steep ridges for 5km. It was all I could do to walk up the climbs and keep my legs moving. It didn't help that there was probably half the water stations the course needed judging by the number of people in the med tent after the race.

The finish line finally came and it was over, done with a 6th place finish. Shonny once again showed that she has gotten this Xterra thing down taking the win and an amazing 6th place overall, followed by Mel, Leslie, Renata, and Emma.

You would think the drama was done for the day but no... I decided since I had a long trip home after the race to get back to work on Monday that I needed a long cooldown. Mark Rudder (my Atlanta training homestay) and I headed out for a 30min spin on the bikes during which time Renata nearly took her big toe off getting it caught in her chain ring while warming down. I got back to the car to pack things up only to find Ryan running around like a crazy person trying to organize getting Renata to the hospital. The next 3hours involved me trying to find another ride back to JR's to get packed up, realizing that half my stuff from transition had gotten put in Renata's bag and was on its way to the hospital along with my bike, then getting all my stuff organized for Ryan to drive over to Richmond, and laying out Renata's stuff that had gotten put in my bag to make sure she got it back, and finally rushing to get a ride to the airport with Matt Boobar and catching my 5:30pm flight home. All with a serious case of low blood sugar and an upset stomach. The day finally ended after a 4hr drive home from the airport in Detroit - 3am, not a happy camper.

It's now wednesday afternoon, well early evening, and after three days of work and very little training I am headed back to Detroit to start the craziness all over again (in reverse) for the race in Richmond this Sunday, gotta go!!!

Xterra Alabama Meltdown

2010-06-12T18:15:00.002-07:00

It's pre-race night here in Birmingham Alabama and I'm just getting the last things prep'd for tomorrow's Xterra race. Love this course, especially since I spend the winters here training but it is going to be a hot one tomorrow, 90+ degrees with lots of humidity. On top of that, the water temperature is mid to high 80s so hot, hot, hot. Drove down with Ryan DeCook on Thursday (10+ hours) after driving into Detroit wednesday evening (4hours) thankfullly Ryan wanted to drive so I slept a good portion of the way. Got some good pre-riding/running in on the course the past two days and even helped out with the kids xterra for a bit this afternoon. It is surprisingly hard to swim while holding a ten year old afloat, but it saved him from getting pulled in the boat and he got to finish the race. Check out my pre-race video interview with Xterra!!! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=430910668622

Xterra South Central Champs, Waco TX

2010-05-27T18:21:00.002-07:00

Race morning finally came after a surprisingly good nights sleep. Usually I toss and turn trying to fall asleep, then wake up a couple of hours early and can't get back to sleep. Having my homestay just a minute or two bike ride from the race site made things extra easy and stress free, no worrying about drive time or finding a parking spot. I got to transition and got set-up and was already sweating up a storm, it was definitely going to be a warm one. Got in a good warm-up and headed over to the swim start. Again the pros got there own wave start and this time we had plenty of room for a clean start. The one loop river swim headed downstream first for 375m, then a nice 750m stretch against the current, and finishing up with another 375m downstream. Craig Evans, Branden Rakita, and I quickly made our way to the front of the field with Conrad trying desperately to hang on. I was planning on a nice draft and was glued to Craig's feet around the first two buoys, but the pace slowed down heading upstream so I moved around to the front and put the hammer down. I figured the boys would be able to hang on but apparently not and I found myself with a nice little gap off the front. The river bank had a nice muddy steep bank so it was nice to get there first and have the full attention of the helpers waiting to pull me out.

The pro women hanging out before the start brows furrowed, not sure why

Into transition and smoothly out on the bike, I had two minutes on Mel and a couple more on the rest of the women. I knew the bike was going to be technical and tough and just kept my eyes forward and the pedals turning. I got through the first half with just a couple of uphills that I needed to run up and the course was definitely running much faster than anyone had anticipated. The sport race athletes that were on the course ahead of us were absolutely the most courteous athletes at any race I have ever been to and were amazing at letting us through. Mel again caught me quickly then Renata and Shonny. The second half of the course had a short loop with a couple of tricky climbs. With some seriously tired legs I definitely lost sometime having to get off my bike more than I wanted and with the fatigue setting in I frequently had issues getting clipped back in leading to a bit of frustration. The last section before the straightaway to the finish was a cool newly built section where you swooped down through a huge drainage culvert onto a skateboard like ramp bridge. The local MTB guys had just finished building it for the race and overall did an amazing job with the trails and course, definitely hope we come back to Waco next year.

Into T2 in fourth and I could see Shae Rainier right on my heels as I headed up Jacob's ladder, this huge set of stairs right out of transition. I was feeling a little sluggish on the run as I had taken a little more than week off with a sore hip going into the race and was missing the snap and turnover I had in Vegas. I have to admit I really got stuck in no man's land and thinking back on it definitely eased off the pace. There was literally no one in sight either behind me or in front and on a couple of occasions I even started to wonder if I was still on the right course. That was until we came out of the trails and onto the road with a hundred meters or so to the finish and Emma came just flying by me. I heard her just seconds before she caught me and tried to make it a sprint finish but she was just moving way to quickly and I had to settle for fifth. Solid race, but could have ridden the bike smoother and definitely could have dug deeper on the run.

Women's Podium

Big congrats to Renata for taking the win and Emma for her highest placing ever. Post race I again showed off my excellent bike handling skills by completely wiping out trying to hop the smallest curb ever on the cool down ride with Branden, Renata, and Ryan. Thankfully, other than a bruise on my hip, embarrassment was all that I inflicted on myself. Next up ALABAMA!!! Can't wait. I almost think of it as my second home now as I've trained there for the past two winters. Oak Mountain has some of the best trails in the South and overall it is just a great venue for a race. If you were even considering travelling to an Xterra race this year definitely come to this one!!!

Calm before the storm...

2010-05-22T19:11:00.003-07:00

So it's the night before the race here in Waco Texas and I find myself with some time before heading to bed for a few lines. The course here in Cameron Park is going to be a tough one, fun but really really tough. I got here thursday afternoon after 14hrs of travel which is about 5hrs longer than it should have taken but the plane for the last leg from Houston to Waco had some mechanical issues. Luckily Ryan DeCook and I were on the same flight and had some company waiting it out. Once again I am so lucky and have another fabulous homestay. I am staying with Ian and his two kids, Jude and Hanna right next to the course in a historic 1928 Colonial Cameron Park Home. Ryan and I quickly got our bikes set up and headed out to check out a bit of the bike before either the daylight faded or the looming thunderstorm rolled in, it ended up being touch and go for both, though the fireflies out on the trails were seriously cool to see. The course.... as I said, going to be really tough. It is super tight and twisty with lots of steep uphill switchbacks and gnarly fast descents. Bridges, roots, rocks, armadillos check, thankfully no one has seen any copperheads yet. Hopefully they aren't waiting until tomorrow to show up. I think I was really tired and dehydrated (really?!!! after 14hrs of travelling, you think?!!) and probably should not have ridden but I did and really struggled with the course, couldn't get up a lot of the climbs and my balance was so off I quickly found myself flying through the air and hitting the trail. Not nearly as much damage as Vegas but I hope this is not a pre-race trend that continues much longer. No worries, got back to the house before the downpour and headed out to dinner with Will, Branden, and Ryan who are always good for more than a few laughs, politically incorrect comments and generally TMI, thanks guys.

These guys are seriously cool, nothing like them in Canada

Friday headed out for a full loop of the bike course and started to feel more comfortable with it, though still a little off and frustrated. Finished up the training for the day with a swim which made everything all better. There had been talk earlier in the week about e coli levels in the river being to high and the race turning into a duathlon, my worst nightmare. Instead the results came back good to go and with water temperature in the mid-seventies it means no wetsuit swim, perfect. I got to try out my new Rocket Science Sports skinsuit and absolutely love it. For dinner the usually suspects plus Matt Boobar came over for dinner where we absolutely astounded Ian with the quantity of food that five people were going to eat. Today I got out for just a quick spin on the bike after a short run and finally feel really good. Hit the first section of switchbacks that were giving me troubles perfectly and all is good in the world again. Looking forward to racing tomorrow, should be a total blast, it's only suppose to hit 94degrees (34 celsius) and 60% humidity!!!!

XTERRA WEST CHAMPS - LAS VEGAS

2010-05-21T20:13:00.004-07:00

A little late with the race report seeing as I am already in Texas getting ready for the next Xterra Cup Race but here goes. Headed out to Vegas early Thursday April 22nd for the first Xterra race of the season. I was feeling really well prep’d but one never knows what is going to happen at the first tri of the season. I had a direct flight, which is rare these days and with the time change arrived in Vegas quite early in the morning. I was fortunate to have a great homestay for the race and was going to be staying in north LV with Kurt and Stacy. I totally missed seeing Kurt coming to pick me up as I was enthralled with the goings on at the airport. 8:30 in the morning and an intoxicated bachelorette party wearing what looked to be high school prom dresses were stumbling around the passenger pick up area. One had even managed to rip open her dress all the way up the back, only in Vegas. Got to the house and unpacked the bike with enough time to head out to the course for a quick loop on the bike. The course was going to be very close to the same as last year, a two loop bike and run, with the transition area thankfully moved to the parking lot of the Loews Lake Las Vegas resort instead of the middle of the desert. Kurt was going to be racing the sport race on Sunday so he decided to join me for a lap. The course, which got dubbed the moonscape last year, is held on roughly graded loose gravelly, sandy, jeep roads with a few washes and a tiny bit of singletrack thrown in for good measure. There is really only one sketchy downhill section and I quickly showed off my expect pro skills by planting my front wheel into a rocky washed out section of it and going over the handlebars. Ouch, skinned up my elbows and knees pretty badly and planted my right knee right into a rock. It instantly started to swell and stiffen up, nice. We finished up the lap without further incident and headed back to the house for some ice and first aid treatment. Friday morning I rolled out in style in Kurt and Stacy’s Audi (yes I do get the best homestays) and met up with Renata and Emma for a quick swim in Lake Mead as Lake Las Vegas was closed to pre-swimming. I then decided to just go easy and ride only the second half of the course and do a short transition run. I was still a bit shaken by the crash and wanted to take an extra day for my brain to forget the image of me crashing and also to let others pre-ride the course a bunch and hopefully work in a nice line down the hill. Thankfully they did and by Saturday morning a nice line had been packed down and pretty much cleared of the larger, chunkier stuff. A quick bike-run on Saturday, then it was just relax, get all the gear ready and get a good night’s sleep. Sunday morning was an early start. Kurt went off at 8am for the sport race and me at 8:30 for the championship race. Got to the race site with plenty of time to get everything set-up and get in a good warm-up. It was good to see everyone and catch up after six months of no racing. There was a pretty good size pro field and the swim start was a little narrow so I tried to get an outside line. Unfortunately I got boxed in a little and missed the feet of the lead group of guys, Jorden Bryden, Seth Wealing, Branden Rakita, and Craig Evans. I spent most of the swim chasing hard and finally caught them with a little time to draft before heading into T1. I got through transition relatively quickly and out onto the bike hopefully with a nice gap on the rest of the women. I was a bit disappointed when I got passed by Mel, then Shonny, in just about the exact same places as last year. Before heading to the race I had gone back and reread my race report from last years race and was determined this time to not ease up on the bike but just keep hammering away. I was riding technically really well, no troubles on the downhill, and easily over the water pipe that took more than its fair share of casualties. I held off Lesley and Renata until almost the end of the bike, much better than end of the first lap last year, and headed into T2 in fifth right on their heels. I had a good gap on sixth and knew that catching the fleet footed Lesley Patterson was probably out of my reach so I set my sights on catching Renata and fourth place. I felt nice and light on my feet and got into a nice high cadence for the two-loop run. The run was pretty much straight up, turn around, straight down, twice. I quickly caught Renata on the uphill section of the first lap then just kept the pace going all the way to the finish. Shonny used an insane bike split to catch Mel and take the win, Mel held on for second, Lesley third, myself fourth and fellow canuck Rosemarie Gerspacher taking the last spot on the podium. (yes that is, count’em, 3 CANUCKS on the podium!!!). Kurt also had a great race placing near the top of his age group. He decided to walk the sketchy downhill saying visions of me endoing stopped him for giving it a go, oops. Overall I was much happier with my race than last year, definitely better effort on my part, both mentally and physically, but also I’m closing the gap to the top girls on the bike. I just need to keep working on my technical skills and high-end power and I will get there. Post race the gang and friends headed out to this crazy Cajun restaurant where they serve you shrimp, crab, or crawdads right on the table, very messy but seriously tasty. This year I couldn’t rally for a trip down to the strip for some late night shenanigans and opted instead for an early night to bed before a long day of traveling back home. Big thanks to Kurt and Stacy for hosting me, always makes a trip easier and more fun having a home to stay at. Next up, a couple of MTB races then off to Texas (well already here actually) for the Xterra South Central Champs. Race Gallery - www.christinejeffrey.com/2010XterraWestCup

Racing Already?!!!

2010-04-28T15:59:00.004-07:00

Wow, has it really been over a month since my last post, oops. Just got back from Vegas and the first Xterra of the season. Had a really solid race to place 4th right in the mix with the big girls.

Before I get to the race I will, in brief point form, catch up on a month of blogging - here goes:

1 - Drove home in two days from Alabama in the most horrible weather. Nothing but pouring rain, high winds, and lots of trucks blowing all over the highway. This is a very big concern when you are driving a tiny Toyota Echo, but I made it home safe and sound, though a little frazzled. Didn't even have any troubles with customs crossing the border. No, of course I don't have anything to declare, yah right!!!

2 - Went back to work. Spring is always the busiest time of the year in the landscape construction industry so back at it full on the day after I got back. Been putting in 30-40hrs a week on top of training, doesn't leave much time for blogging.

3 - Raced the "Homage to Ice" 50km mountain bike race on Apr 11th. Ontario has an awesome new marathon MTB race series (http://www.substanceprojects.com/) so I decided to head out to the first race at the Mansfield Outdoor Center. It was perfect day for riding and these trails are usually closed to the public so a fabulous time was held by all.

4 - Raced "Paris to Ancaster" Ontario's answer to Paris-Roubaix. This race is a total blast. It is a 60km race along rail trails, gravel and paved roads, wooded trails, random farmers fields, their driveways, around their barns, past the trackers..... Most people ride cycle-cross bikes, but as I don't have one I rode my fully (good training right) In wet years this might work out to be an even race, but it was so dry this year I was definitely at a disadvantage. That was until the infamous Powerline Road Mudslide. Not sure if it is considered a trail, kinda looks like a drainage ditch. Anyways, in dry years they back up the water truck and give it a good soaking just to make sure everyone gets to slip and slide all the way down it. Good times, might even have to get a cross bike for next year.

5 - Headed to Las Vegas for the Xterra West Regional Championships.... will expand next post!!

Leading the women out of the water in my new Rocket Science Sports wetsuit

I Hate Packing

2010-03-20T19:12:00.002-07:00

One of the things in life I quite possibly hate the most is packing. I even have nightmares about it... I have to be somewhere and no matter how hard I try to get everything packed I never get finished and therefore never get to wherever I am suppose to be going. Sadly my time here in Alabama has come to an end and the weather has warmed up in the Great White North, so home it is. It am therefore procrastinating on the packing and blogging instead. I made the most of my last training day here, which was gorgeously warm and sunny by getting in a huge mountain bike/run brick in at Oak Mountain. It seems I wasn't even close to being the only one to think a day out on the trails was a good idea as the parking lot was almost full when I pulled in at 8:30am. A group of over 100 crazy people had decided to do the local 50km trail run. I think of myself as an elite athlete that puts in a solid bit of run training and I wouldn't even think of entering that length of a run. That being said, I was truly amazed at the diverse group of individuals racing. One guy was seriously wearing blue nylon basketball shorts and a cotton t-shirt. Of course he was also sporting the latest, greatest garmin forerunner, go figure. Anyways, back to packing or it's going to be a long night.

Killed the "Snake"

2010-03-07T09:49:00.009-07:00

Woke up a bit stiff this morning after riding the last running of the Snake Creek Gap MTB TT yesterday in Dalton Georgia then spending 3hours in the car driving home. Omar Fraser and I carpooled up on Friday afternoon and got into Dalton (just south of Chattanooga) with plenty of time to relax and get all of our stuff ready to go for the morning. Craig, Tanner, and Matt arrived a couple of hours later, in from Nashville, and Mark was going to drive up from Atlanta in the morning. 6:30am came really early as I have been super spoiled the last couple of weeks with only training on my schedule and have been indulging in some serious sleep-in time. The weather was a little chilly to start but was sunny and sure to warm up quickly into the low 50's. We headed to the race site about 8am, got registered, loaded the bikes on the trailers and got on the buses for the 45min drive to the start line. The race is a 34mile point to point ride on the awesome Pinhoti Trail of northwest Georgia. We somehow got on the last of three buses to leave so when we got to the start I hustled right to the line to start to minimize the already substantial potential of having to pass all sorts of riders up the singletrack climbs. After a brutally cold and miserable ride in January I was looking forward to really having a fun ride and seeing what I could do without totally blowing up. The trails weren't quite in the perfect condition they were last year in March but they were still pretty good. Since you don't get any warm-up in I took the first section of jeep road pretty comfortable to get the legs moving. I tried and failed to get across the first stream crossing without getting my feet wet and started up the climb. I passed a whole group of riders right before starting into the singletrack and was hoping that would mean some clear trail but I made the hard right turn and saw nothing but riders lined up in front of me. I was picking them off one by one at any chance I had space and could hear Omar and Craig doing the same in behind me. Craig went flying by on his way to a second place overall ride (on no training?!!!) and unfortunately Omar broke his derailleur hanger just after he passed me ending his day after just 20mins, though he got in a nice 45min walk to the next sag station. I finally got some clear space around me and got into a great rhythm. As usual I ended up riding most of the ride with a couple of guys who I would pass going up all the climbs and they would catch right back up on the descents. I was riding well but still not willing to take any big chances as I was not willing to risk the potential of serious bodily harm overcooking the downhills. I flew into the halfway sag in 1:35 feeling great and quickly switched out bottles. The second half of the course is by far the harder half and not having enough fluids or calories can put you in big trouble. I was excited to be riding sections I haven't been able to ride before and seemed to quickly reach the dreaded left hand turn into the rock garden - all 8miles of it (I'm am not kidding) Looking at my watch it was right about 2:30 and I started thinking that a 3:30ish ride was definitely possible, but I always forget how tough the last rocky sections are though I was riding smoothly through most of the sections and was hustling nicely through the other sections. Finally I saw the water tower and knew it was just a quick descent down the road to the finish. I ended up right at 3:40 ride time (3:43.18 overall time) and was stoked to have over a 7min PB on a slower course than last year. I won the women's amateur division by over 20mins and would have been 3rd in the Money Class, just over a minute from 2nd. Yes Craig I will step it up next year.

Ride Stats: Time - 3:39.59 Average Speed - 8.7mph / 14.0km/h Average HR - 160 bpm/ Max HR - 178 bpm Total Elevation Gain - 5,248ft (1,599m) Next up, maybe something very exciting but don't want to jinx myself by writing it down. Hopefully will know for sure by tomorrow!!!

Blogging Again

2010-03-02T08:22:00.005-07:00

Well the Olympics are over, which is probably a good thing since I was beginning to feel a bit of sports overload, that and I was watching way too much TV and hence not blogging. The weather was finally warming up here in Birmingham until this morning as I woke up to snow flurries after it poured rain all night, guess I will be moving my training indoors today. At least the rest of the week is looking good and should be nice and warm and dry for the Snake Creek Gap on Saturday. I'd really like to hammer out a good ride there and see what I can do.

The Nashville and Atlanta Xterra guys rolled into town last weekend for some training out a Oak Mountain and we got some really good riding in. Omar Fraser takes the prize for throwing down the fastest loop as he even managed to dropped Craig Evans. Omar, you definitely need to step it up to pro this year, no more excuses. Casey Fanin, Mark Rudder and I took a much more leisurely pace to the "BASE" ride and didn't get caught up in the excitement (testosterone) of the moment. We all met up later for a fun cookout at JR's Saturday night. Hopefully everyone will be out again for the race on Saturday.

I just finished up a nice block of hard training and will be enjoying a bit of a recovery week with some lower intensity training, though the volume will still be pretty good at least on the bike. Anyways, I guess I really can't use the weather as an excuse to not go swimming so gotta go.

I missed my coach's birthday yesterday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARETH!!!

OH YEAH, EH!!!!!

2010-02-28T19:35:00.002-07:00

Unbelievable game, way to go Canada.

...now we would also like to kick your butt!!!!

2010-02-13T14:24:00.005-07:00

I wasn't really planning on it, but I stayed up late and watched the entire Winter Olympics opening ceremony and like so many others had goosebumps, was moved to tears and was overwhelmingly proud to be Canadian. The orca whales swimming across the stadium where amazing and KD Lang, WOW. I taped the entire show and I have already gone back and listened to her sing Hallelujah again a couple of times. For those of you that weren't watching the NBC version of the ceremonies, Bob Costas had a great quote about the Canadian goal to "Own the Podium".... On NBC, announcer Bob Costas crafted an observation that many outsiders have made this week about previously mild-mannered Canada's plans to 'own the podium' at these Winter Games: "Some say (the Canadian initiative of Own the Podium and winning the overall medal count) represents a shift in Canadian attitude, to be so openly assertive and ambitious. Canadians as a group are among the most friendliest and most welcoming people on the earth. But I don't see anything incompatible with saying hello, welcome, we're very friendly, we're glad that you're here, we want you to enjoy yourselves and now we would also like to kick your butt" I love it... GO CANADA

Chris "Macca" McCormack accepts Facebook challenge to benefit breast cancer research

2010-02-12T12:50:00.002-07:00

Chris McCormack is exploring how he can further show his support of breast cancer research, publicly. The result is this challenge - prove to his sponsor the power of viral online marketing that Facebook is leading. First, if Macca reaches 50,000 fans, they will donate an additional $50,000 to the cause. Second, if he reaches 250,000 they will donate an additonal 50% to their already generous $250,000 to the foundation supporting various cancer charities, while honoring and empowering breast cancer survivors. (link to full article below) Help Macca by becoming a fan www.facebook.com/Maccalive?ref=ts Chris "Macca" McCormack accepts Facebook challenge to benefit breast cancer research Posted using ShareThis

Welcome BikeBlogs.com

2010-02-09T16:41:00.002-07:00

Like many other bloggers (whether they will admit it or not) I have put a statcounter on my blog if nothing other than the affirmation that someone other than my family actually reads it. Well today I managed to get added to www.bikeblogs.com (not sure how) but wow, lots more readers and a really cool website that I wasn't aware of so, welcome bikeblogs.com readers, hope you enjoy, thanks for reading. CJ

Dogs yes, but this?

2010-02-07T08:40:00.003-07:00

I have been chased by a lot of dogs on my bike over the years, big ones, smalls ones, all different breeds, packs of them in Arizona, even the local three legged dog here in Alabama (which local lore says brings you good luck for the season). But I had never been chased by one of these!!!

It was a dog bonanza yesterday on the group ride. Dogs are very popular pets down here in Alabama, keeping them leashed or fenced in not so popular. So all the pups were out, most of them just making lots noise and hanging out on the shoulder. It was a constant stream of the lead riders calling out, "Dogs, More Dogs, Dogs in the Road, Rooster". ROOSTER?!!!! No kidding, there he was, the attack rooster, hauling a$$ down the driveway very intend on getting after the group. It was quite possibly one of the funnier things I have seen riding lately. Fortunately he responded very similarly to a dog when yelled at and squirted with water bottles and quickly retreated back to his yard.

Unfortunately, the ride did have some casualties. I have never been happy to drop my chain on a ride until yesterday. On the first climb of the first attack zone my front derailleur, that has developed the irritating habit of shifting, not shifting, and over shifting at seemingly random times, over shifted and dropped my chain inside. Already on the climb, I had to stop and put in back on thus getting completely dropped by the group. Back on the bike I was chasing like mad to limit the damage when I came across the riders I likely would have been right in the middle of had I not been delayed piled up on the ground. Two riders with broken bones and one with severe road rash and a broken bike. Fate was definitely on my side. Hopefully they all heal up quickly. Otherwise another uneventful week of training, steadily getting the base work done.

All long rides should be catered

2010-01-31T13:46:00.002-07:00

Another long ride with the Birmingham Bike League, another 4hrs+ in the freezing cold rain. Saturday was supposed to be cold but clear, NOT. Since the group ride was starting at 9am and only going to be 3.5hrs I decided to go early and get an extra hour in before hand. I bundled up and headed out in a light drizzle and about 40deg. After the hour I decided that I had way too much clothes on and decided to take a few layers off and switch to my lighter weight gloves, BIG MISTAKE!!! About 30 riders showed up for the ride and as we headed out the drizzle turned to rain and the temperature started to drop. By the end it was about 36deg. and still raining. My hands were so numb I couldn't shift my front derailleur and was having to use my right hand to reach across to try and shift into my big ring which usually caused me to swerve dangerously, not good in a group ride. By the end the derailleur just quit working and I had to ride the last hour in my small ring. Good for going uphill, not so good trying to stay with the pack on the downhills. Big thanks to Brian for pulling me back home after getting dropped on the downhills. Also huge thanks to the Birmingham Bicycle Company and Tracy's Restaurant for the awesome post-ride feast, it almost made up for the hours of miserable suffering. They had platters of hot yummy food all set out for us when we rolled back in. Definitely better than the scavenging that usually goes on after rides when I am starving and have no energy to make something myself. Otherwise training is rolling along. Put in my biggest week ever on the bike with some good intensity and the ankle is slowly healing up. Weather forecast is calling for lots of rain next week so might decide to skip the second Snake Creek Gap ride of the year. I just don't think I can handle another long ride with wet cold feet covered in mud. PS - Lauren, the Mantra is all yours!! Hope the injuries are healing up quickly and the trainer riding isn't driving you nuts!!!

This Year's Mantra

2010-01-22T15:34:00.004-07:00

I saw this painted on the side of a house in Atlanta and just had to take a picture of it. I think the house was being used for some new age enlightenment center or something, but it still made me smile every time I drove by it.

Otherwise the ankle is doing much better. The deep shade of purple has receded to a greeny yellow and the swelling is almost gone. Surprisingly enough with just a bit of shuffling around I managed to get in all my planned training this week, just with the running pushed back a bit. As long as I am running on a flat even surface the ankle is fine. The only thing that still aggravates it is unclipping on the bike and pushing off on flipturns at an angle. So for now no more trail runs unfortunately until everything heals up and the ankle is stable again.

Tomorrow is the first ride out at Oak Mountain on the mtb, can wait. Rumour has it that the Xterra race here is going to happen, so exciting, it really would have been unfortunate to loose it from the schedule.

Life's Little Ironies

2010-01-17T15:30:00.004-07:00

I'm sure everyone feels this way at some point during their career. Just two weeks into the new season and training has been going great, then out for a long run on the trails today and oops, over goes the ankle. I guess that teaches me to go trail running in the rain. I probably used up all my good luck riding safely rubber side down for four hours in the rain with the roadies yesterday on the BBL ride in Birmingham. (Great Saturday morning ride if you are ever in the area during the winter months) I have always had loose ankle joints and been prone to ankle and achilles injuries but it seems the ankles have been extra instable recently. I now have a swollen right foot with a knob about the size of an egg growing on the outside of my ankle bone. Hopefully with lots of ice and a couple days of rest it will be back to good soon. In other news I said goodbye to Atlanta and the Rudder's and moved over to Birmingham, Alabama. Big thanks to Gary Harris who hooked me up with some sweet passes to the Concorse Athletic Club where I got in some nice outdoor swimming sessions, and of course Mark, Vicki, Alex and Sarah for opening up their home to me. I got to do some great riding despite the cold weather. I even got over to check out the trails at Fort Yargo where Xterra puts on a points race, lots of fun. Now it's time to play on the trails at Oak Mountain. There is still some question as to whether the Regional Cup race will come back to Pelham this year. Hopefully everything will work out as it is such a fun set of trails and an awesome venue for Xterra.

Sarah and Alex Rudder

I made the short drive over, past Talladega speedway (which I strangely always thought was in Florida) on Thursday, my rest day. Friday was beautiful and I got in a great tempo run in shorts and a t-shirt. One of the local high schools in Hoover has put in a really nice 5k limestone running trail that is great for some fast off road running without having to worry about rocks and roots. Saturday morning the weather turned ugly with cold weather and rain moving in. With a four hour long ride on the schedule I decided I needed some company to help me with my motivation so I headed out on the local group ride. We started out dry at 9am with 60+ riders. The rain started right about the first attack zone at 10:15 and rained pretty much the rest of the way. I was pretty proud to not drop out or get shelled and rolled back in with the lead pack that ended up being about 12 riders. Definitely earned some respect from the boys being the only chick to hang. Then today... well lets just forget about today, time to go ice again.

Atlanta Training

2010-01-08T20:47:00.003-07:00

Canadian Snow Day

Atlanta Snow Day

Today Atlanta got a slight dusting of snow and immediately declared a snow day and closed all the schools. Judging by the number of massive car pile-ups on the roads it was probably a good idea. I had to laugh at Alex and Sarah Rudder and the rest of the neighbourhood kids that got all dressed up in their winter snow suits and had a ton of fun sliding down the driveway.

Almost done the first week of serious training for 2010 and I am definitely feeling it. Last Saturday I rode the Snake Creek Gap MTB TT in Dalton Georgia and nearly froze my toes off. It took over 4.5 hours of riding, almost 5hrs total to get through it as I had to stop at both aid stations to thaw out my camelback straw that was frozen solid, my bottle only made it to slushy status. I thought my feet weren't doing to bad at the end until I changed out of my bike shoes and realized that they were frozen solid and I just couldn't feel them. They did hurt like crazy for the next couple of hours as they warmed up. The race goes again first Saturday of February and March and hopefully with better weather I can beat my best time from last year of just under 4hours total time.

After the race I headed south to Atlanta to stay with fellow Xterra triathlete Mark Rudder, his wife Vicki and two daughters Alex and Sarah. They have been taking great care of me and allowed me to take over their basement. I was hoping for some warmer weather to train in but have still manage to get out to the nearby trails to do some biking and running. It is always fun trying out new trails and for a big city Atlanta has several great areas to go play in the dirt. Mark and I are headed out for a long MTB ride tomorrow at the IMBA Chicopee Trails. From here it is on to Birmingham Alabama where I will be based for the next couple of weeks enjoying the great trails at Oak Mountain.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T19:29:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year everyone. Hopefully you all had a great 2009 and are looking forward to 2010. The start of the new year means getting down to the business of training. I packed up the car full of hopefully all I will need for the next two months and headed south. I celebrated the New Year with Craig Evans and friends in Nashville after 12 hours in the car. I even made it to midnight (eastern time not central) before the caffeine high wore off and I crashed. We got the new year started with a nice freezing cold run as Craig, Omar, Richard and I headed out for a loop around the neighbourhood. We are now in Dalton Georgia getting ready to ride (not race) the Snake Creek Gap MTB TT in the morning. The morning weather is supposed to be 23 degrees Fahrenheit and the creeks are said to be running extra full, oh yeah!!! Frozen feet are going to be inevitable I am afraid. From there it is going to be a week in Atlanta then on to Birmingham. Hopefully it will warm up and the trails will dry out quickly so I can get some serious miles in before having to head back to the great white north.

Lake Effect...

2009-12-10T10:01:00.002-07:00

Two words anyone living in the Great Lakes area hates to hear, right up there with freezing rain and black ice, all of which we have had in the past two days. Wikipedia even has a page for it: Lake-effect snow is produced in the winter when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, providing energy and picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the leeward shores.... This effect occurs in many locations throughout the world, but is best known in the populated areas of the Great Lakes of North America. ie my house. I did manage to drive to morning swim practice without putting my car in the ditch like I did the first snowfall of last year, but have decided that leaving it in the garage for the rest of the day is probably the best idea. Does shoveling snow count as a workout? I officially started back training last week, but I find that extreme cold weather negatively affects my motivation to train, unless I am heading out to ski but we don't have quite enough snow for that yet. I am still trying to get over a cold I picked up three weeks ago. It never got all that bad but is lingering way to long and feels like someone is sitting on my chest during my workouts. Thankfully I will be headed south to train again this year with JR in Alabama, only three weeks to go until then. A little bored since there is not much landscape architecture to do when there is snow on the ground. Might spend the rest of the day baking Christmas cookies. To those not living in warmer places (ohhh I miss Arizona on days like this) stay warm, drive save!!! You Know You're Canadian if... You've plugged a car in overnight You’ve had a Hallowe'en costume that fits over a snowsuit Driving is better in the winter because then the potholes are filled with snow You can play road hockey on skates Your municipality buys a Zamboni before it buys a bus You yell "Patio Weather!" when the temperature rises to 0. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them There are seven empty cars running in the parking lot of your neighbourhood Tim Horton's at any given time You've ever had your tongue frozen to something You have more kilometers on your snow blower than your car You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, construction You Know You're a Canadian Redneck if... You own an ice auger You have a "good" parka for formal occassions The trunk of your car has doubled as a deep freezer You have more than $20 in Canadian Tire money You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car You think the Hockey Night in Canada theme song should be the National Anthem You know several people who have hit deer more than once

Winter Cometh

2009-11-27T13:30:00.003-07:00

I woke up to snow this morning, very sad though not unexpected. Subsequently I was sorting through stuff on my computer and found this little article I thought was appropriate... Canadian Temperature Conversion Chart 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 C): Californians shiver uncontrollably. Canadians plant gardens. 35 Fahrenheit (1.6 C): Italian cars won't start. Canadians drive with the windows down. 32 Fahrenheit (0 C): American water freezes. Canadian water gets thicker. 0 Fahrenheit (-17.9 C): New York City landlords finally turn on the heat. Canadians have the last cookout of the season. -60 Fahrenheit (-51 C): Mt. St. Helens freezes. Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door. -100 Fahrenheit (-73 C): Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Canadians pull down their earflaps. -173 Fahrenheit (-114 C) Ethyl alcohol Freezes. Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg. -460 Fahrenheit (-273 C) Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops. Canadians start saying "cold, eh?" -500 Fahrenheit (-295 C): Hell freezes over. The Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

End of Season

2009-10-30T17:45:00.011-07:00

I always feel like the season seems to last forever, then all of a sudden it is all over. The Xterra World Championships held on Sunday marked the end of another race season. A season full of great successes, frustrating injuries and mechanicals, lots of new friends, new races, new trails, new cuts, bruises and scars. My skills on the mountain bike progressed leaps and bounds, and while these skills eluded me in Maui I did finish in the top 5 at all 5 regional cup races I competed in throughout the season and finished 5th in the Xterra US Pro Tour.

I was so lucky to have incredible families host me for my winter training camps and at all the races this year. JR in Bama and Willie in Ashville, you both offered up your homes all winter to help get my season off to a great start. Your hospitality, support, and friendship was overwhelming. Iliana, Ryan and Molly, the Kummer family, Jan and Paula, Brandi, Betsy and Bill, Blake and Diana, and Allan thanks so much for hosting me at all the races this year. It makes such a difference to be able enjoy the comforts of a home while racing.

A huge big thanks also goes out to my awesome sponsors this year: Skinfit for their great racing suit and gear, Rudy for their awesome glasses and helmets, Pearl Izumi for keeping my feet happy in my cycling and running shoes, Nineteen for the fastest wetsuit in the world, Infinit for their fully customizable nutrition solutions, Extreme Endurance for their vitamins and supplements, Alto-Lab for helping me adapt to altitude, and Crocs Prepair for their great recovery footwear. Special thanks to my coach Gareth Thomas for his incredible knowledge and guidance throughout the season, allowing me to race at my best.

It has taken me a bit of time to reflect on my race on Sunday before putting down my thoughts on paper, so to speak. It definitely wasn't the race I was hoping for or know that I have in me, but it wasn't a horrible race either. I just didn't have that last little bit of snap on the bike and made little mistakes here and there that on a mountain bike translates to some substantial time lost. I got to Maui on Wednesday and got settled into the rental house with the rest of the gang. Will, Shelby, SueAnne, Ryan, Brandon, and Dave provided lots of good fun and entertainment throughout the week (pictures). I felt really good on the last couple of workouts leading up to the race and had been able to put in a great block of training between Nationals and Worlds. Race day arrived and I had the usual case of the nerves right up until the start gun. The swim start was a little rougher than last year as they forced everyone to start in a narrow roped off section of the beach instead of being able to spread out and have your own space. I still managed to get off to a clean start and rounded the first buoy ahead of the washing machine. A group of five of us managed a break and kept it through the swim. I think it was Luke MacKenzie, Eneko Llanos, Seth Wealing, another pro guy and myself.

Photo by Rich Cruse (http://www.richcruse.com/)

I was first woman out of the water but only managed less than a minute on Julie Dibens and not more than a couple on Mel and Leslie. Still I felt comfortable and ready to get on with the race.

Out on the bike I tried to get into a good rhythm but just couldn't seem to quite get there. I didn't have much traffic but still didn't manage to climb some of the hills I should have been able to and ended up off the bike a bunch. Julie flew by me early on and the others gradually reeled me in, passed me, and kept on riding away. I did manage the descents really well and got safely down the plunge and into transition in 7th.

Heading out on the run it was Julie, Mel, Shonny, Leslie, Carina, Marie-Helene, then myself with Danelle, Sara, and Rebecca hot on my heels. The weather had thankfully been overcast for most of the morning so we were spared a complete meltdown, but the big climbs right out of transition still took their toll. Four weeks of solid running leading into the race meant I definitely felt better than Nationals, but the time off throughout the season due to injuries left me feeling minus that ability to really attack the course. I caught Marie-Helene in the first couple of km's then got caught by Danelle at the top right before the descent down Cactus Alley. The long downhill provided some nice gravity assistance before the long haul across Big Beach. Running along a beautiful white sand beach sounds fun and exotic until you have to race it in the last 2km of a long, hot, punishing race. Danelle and I seemed to have hit maximum velocity a couple of yards apart from each other and had no response to Marion Lorblanchet who easily ran by us. 8th place and I left nothing out on the course.

The day wrapped up with a wonderful awards dinner and ceremony and the traditional Xterra Halloween costume party. Congratulations to all the great competitors who gave it their all on arguably the toughest triathlon course there is. Now it is time to relax, recover, enjoy some hockey and start planning all the great adventures for next year. Who knows, maybe this will be the year the Leafs remember how to win a hockey game? (or not)

2009 Xterra Worlds Highlights

2009-10-29T20:11:00.001-07:00

Utah Pics

2009-10-06T08:04:00.002-07:00

Thanks Nils for the great pics!!! (www.n2fotoservices.com)

Xterra USA and Fall Colours

2009-10-05T10:42:00.005-07:00

After a week of beautiful warm sunny weather in Ogden, Utah it has been hard getting used to the typical fall weather here in Southern Ontario, rain, rain, and more rain. Riding just isn't as enjoyable when it takes you an extra half hour to gear up. On the other hand we do get to enjoy the wonderfull fall colours. Xterra Nationals, A bit late (again) with the race report but here it is. At face value 9th does feel slightly disappointing considering my results throughout the season but breaking it down it was a really good race for me. Two factors that were against me right from the start was of course the altitude, especially since all but a couple of the girls that placed ahead of me either live at altitude or were able to do an extended altitude training camp, and the unfortunate fact that I had not been able to run in seven weeks after agravating my achilles (again) at the Xterra Northeast Cup race in Vermont. I was able to do elliptical training and aquajogging and was simply hoping not to have lost to much run fitness and to be pain free during the race. I did two really short runs Tuesday and Thursday before the race with no problem so I was pretty confident I would at least be able to get through the run and finish. The race was a mass start with about 300+ age group and professional athletes. It ended up being a wetsuit swim so I was a little worried about getting roughed up at the start and lined up far right on the inside line away from most of the other pro men. Seth was lined up right beside me and right from the gun he was off to a super fast start and I jumped right on his feet. I couldn't quite believe it but we managed to gap the field before the first turn buoy and continued to put on almost a minute on the next group. Out onto the bike I tried to just get into my own pace and keep the pressure on without risking blowing up at the top. With over 3,000 ft of climbing the bike course started at about 4,800ft and climbed up to 7,800ft. Mel passed me just before the top of the first climbing section and Shonny and Sara on the descent. Leslie, Jenny and Carina all caught me near the very top of the course and I held on to 7th on the descent back into T2. While Nationals was held in Tahoe last year, we did race the Snowbasin course as the mountain cup race so I did have the chance to compare the two. Overall I took about 8mins off my bike split on a slightly longer course and closed the distance between myself and the top women's bike splits by over half. I also rode the entire course without hoping off instead of several technical problems last year. (getting there) Next the run... I had held off both Danelle and Renata on the bike but could hear the cheers for them on one of the switchbacks as I was headed out. I knew the run for me was just going to be whatever pace the legs wanted to go. I felt pretty good considering the lack of run volume and kept putting one foot in front of the other hoping I might be able to hold at least one of the off. Danelle came by me a little over half way but I couldn't pick up my pace to go with her. At the top of the last climb, with only some downhills left to go Renata came flying by me. She has the ability to run downhill on rocky terrain faster than anyone I have every met and there was nothing I could do about it, so 9th it was. The really good news is that I scored enough points to hang onto my 5th place in the overall Xterra US Pro Series. Mel McQuaid 1st, Shonny V. 2nd, Renata Bucher 3rd, Danelle Kabush 4th - not too bad company to be hanging out with. I didn't get many pictures from the race, but Nils put together a great photo gallery. (yes that's me waving to the camera before the swim start)

So, onto Maui and Xterra Worlds. With four weeks between the two races I am pretty excited about the upcoming race. My achilles seems to be holding up great with a solid week of running already since Utah and the race on Maui is much more to my liking: non-wetsuit swim, no altitude, more short power climbing rather than long spin climbs, and more people to pass for those trying to catch me.

We'll have to see about that...

2009-09-24T12:11:00.003-07:00

Xterra has publised their take on how the race this weekend is going to play out. Apparently they feel I will lead out of the water and the first section of the bike only to be passed and disappear out of contention. (see article below) We'll just have to see about that!!!! THE XTERRA U.S. PRO SERIES SHOWDOWN...err, THROWDOWN! It all comes down to this. The 8-stop XTERRA Cup Series for professionals that started in early May wraps up with the ultimate showdown of XTERRA’s best on Saturday, Sept. 26 in Utah. And when we say the best, we mean it as the top 13 ranked men and women are on the start list – the lone exception being fourth-ranked Dan Hugo who just suffered through two weeks of a severe flu and painstakingly decided to stay home in South Africa to build an 8-month-base of training so he could tackle 2010 with a vengeance. There are two things to talk about … 1) the race and 2) the Series. Who’s the fastest on Saturday in the 1.5km swim, 30km mountain bike, and 10km trail run will determine the race winner, while who has the most points after this race determines the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series Champion. Pros count their best five finishes in the eight regular season races plus whatever their point score is at the XTERRA USA Championship to determine final standings. THE MEN’S RACE The man to beat is Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz (pictured), the most feared XTERRA athlete on the planet. He won here last year, won four of the five Cup Series races he entered this year, and showed true grit by winning with an injury in Richmond. That said; anyone who thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that the Caveman will come out on top should consider… 1) Three different guys have won this race – Stoltz last year, Seth Wealing in ’07 and Mike Vine in ’06. 2) Last year the top four guys finished within a minute of each other. Stoltz was at 2:21:32, Vine was 14 seconds back, then Brian Smith (40 seconds) and Wealing (50 seconds). 3) In XTERRA mechanicals happen, like at this race in ’06 when Stoltz had more than two minutes on the entire field halfway through the bike before puncturing his tire going uphill at 5mph. He flatted in ’07 as well, as did Mike Vine. 4) It’s been two months since the last Cup race and it’s anybody’s guess as to which guy put together the best training plan so they’d be at their peak on race morning (and then execute!) Using the last three years of results on this course when the XTERRA Mountain Championship was contested here from 2006-2008, it’s clear that this race plays to power and strength and racers that can climb and handle the altitude. It’s 4,600-feet elevation at the swim start and 7,600-feet at the top of the bike course. It’s also clear that there are a bunch of XTERRA pros that fit the description like Stoltz, Nico Lebrun, Mike Vine, Josiah Middaugh, Seth Wealing, Brian Smith, Branden Rakita, and Cody Waite (the last five guys on this list are from Colorado where they live and train year-round in mountain riding conditions and altitudes similar to this race). Look for Wealing, Rakita and Stoltz to come out of the water first, a full-blown rumble up the mountain on the bike with Stoltz leading the charge, Wealing and Rakita hanging on, and Middaugh, Vine, and Smith gaining ground, then a pure survival of the fittest and test of courage on the run. This race will rock, and thank goodness the XTERRA TV crew is in full force on site to capture all the action and turn it into a one-hour show for the whole world to enjoy (see scenes from last year at xterra.tv). Pro Start List: '09 Rank - Name - Age, Hometown 1 - Conrad Stoltz - 35, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2 - Nicolas Lebrun - 35, Digne-les-Bains, France 3 - Josiah Middaugh - 31, Vail, Colorado 5 - Mike Vine - 36, Victoria, B.C., Canada 6 - Seth Wealing - 30, Boulder, Colorado 7 - Branden Rakita - 28, Manitou Springs, Colorado 8 - Brian Smith - 33, Gunnison, Colorado 9 - Craig Evans - 31, Spring Hill, Tennessee 10 - Cody Waite - 30, Lakewood, Colorado 11 - Will Kelsay - 28, Boulder, Colorado 12 - Matt Boobar - 36, Stratton Mountain, Vermont 13 - Ryan Ignatz - 30, Boulder, Colorado 16 - Ryan DeCook - 28, Rochester, Michigan 19 - Jeff Smith - 28, Sandpoint, Idaho 22 - Brendan Halpin - 25, Missoula, Montana 23 - Christopher Bagg - 37, Portland, Oregon 24 - Scott Gall – 35, Cedar Falls, Iowa 25 - Damian Gonzalez - 32, Stockton, California THE WOMEN’S RACE The women’s pro field is as deep as the men (18 pre-registered pros in each race) but there is a clear No. 1 and that’s Melanie McQuaid. The three-time XTERRA World Champ from Canada won the first five Cup Series races of the season then started thinking about Utah. She’s been at altitude for more than a month, has done stints in Park City and right here in Ogden, has pre-rode the course dozens of times, won this race last year and in ’06, skipped a big tradeshow in Vegas so she could fine tune, and is clearly, without a doubt, focused on the prize. The unenviable task of knocking her off the top step falls squarely on Shonny Vanlandingham, the decorated NORBA champion who switched her focus to XTERRA last year and has gotten faster by the race. She’ll likely have the best bike split (almost always does) but she’ll have to make up some ground coming out of the water a minute or two or three behind McQuaid, then have a great run if she is to succeed. Renata Bucher from Switzerland, who has won 18 XTERRA Championships in 10 different countries and four Euro Tour titles, is perhaps the most intriguing racer to watch. The XTERRA faithful have watched her climb mountains like a kid peddles through the park, nice and easy. If she can do that here and come into the bike-to-run transition with a lead she could very well run away with the win. Others to keep an eye include Danelle Kabush who historically comes on strong at the end of the year as evident in her runner-up performance at the World Champs last year (she was 4th at this race last season). Also watch for Carina Wasle (the XTERRA Czech Champ), Jenny Smith (3rd here the last two years), and Lesley Paterson (2nd at the Southeast Cup and 3rd at the West Cup this year). The women’s race could play out like this…Christine Jeffrey leads all women out of the swim, followed a couple minutes later by McQuaid, Paterson, Bucher and the others. Jeffrey holds on for as long as possible until McQuaid catches and passes her, and the chase is on. McQuaid has a lead heading out on the run but how much of a lead, and can Vanlandingham or Bucher or Wasle or Kabush or Paterson reel her in? Only one way to find out, and that’s to be at finish line at the world-class Snowbasin Resort (home to the 2002 Winter Olympics) at around 11:40 a.m. on Saturday. Pro Start List: '09 Rank (61 = #1) - Name - Age, Hometown 61 - Melanie McQuaid - 36, Victoria, B.C., Canada 62 - Shonny Vanlandingham - 40, Durango, Colorado 63 - Renata Bucher - 32, Lucerne, Switzerland 64 - Danelle Kabush - 34, Canmore, Alberta, Canada 65 - Christine Jeffrey - 36, Guelph, Ontario, Canada 66 - Jenny Smith - 36, Westport, New Zealand 67 - Rebecca Dussault - 28, Crested Butte, Colorado 68 - Emma Garrard - 27, Truckee, California 70 - Alexandra Borrelly - 33, Digne-les-Bains, France 71 - Lesley Paterson - 28, Sterling, Scotland 72 - Sari Anderson - 30, Carbondale, Colorado 73 - Tracy Thelen - 29, Colorado Springs, Colorado 75 - Jenny Tobin - 40, Boise, Idaho 76 - Sara Tarkington - 28, Boulder, Colorado 81 - Brandyn Roark Gray - 30, Aztec, New Mexico 82 - Teri Albertazzi - 27, Tucson, Arizona 83 - Cameron Randolph - 38, Ridgway, Colorado 84 - Carina Wasle - 24, Kundl, Austria

O Oxygen Where Art Thou?

2009-09-21T21:29:00.011-07:00

Just five days until Xterra Nationals and I am up (literally) in Utah hopefully adapting quickly to the altitude. I tried arriving just a couple of days before the Mountain Cup race held here last year and it didn't work out so well so I am hoping a couple of extra days along with the use of my Altolab system will make a difference on race day. I am so lucky to be staying with a great family here, Blake and Diana Brown, who have been taking wonderful care of me while I have taken over their basement. On top of that another member of the local cycling club, Allan, has lent me a spare car for the week. I couldn't have asked for a better way to get ready to race. The support here in Utah for the race and throughout the cycling and triathlon community has been amazing and there will likely be a great turnout for the race on Saturday. The race is being held at the Snowbasin ski resort and is a point to point bike. We start with a refreshing dip in the Pineview Reservoir, then bike up to the main ski lodge where T2 is located with the run up and around the trails criss-crossing the ski runs. Now if the red blood cells would just hurry up and produce themselves.... Here is the official media guide for the race and if you live in the USA keep watch as the race is being televised in an hour long special to be aired later this fall.

Pineview Reservoir with Mount Ogden (Snowbasin) in background

Going back a bit, since my posting has been somewhat behing the times, my sister and I made the trip out to BC for my cousin Mike's wedding on the Labour Day weekend. It was a short trip but great to see all the west coast family we haven't seen in a couple of years. We stayed with my cousin Jess and her husband Jeremy and their adorable little daughter Annabelle who indulged us with lots of training schedule in between family gatherings. The wedding was held at the Burnaby Hilton and the evening was absolutely perfect for Mike and Lindsay. The flowers were beautiful bouquets of pinky white orchids and the dinner buffet was to die for. With the amount that I ate it might have been a distinct possibility. It was over far too quickly but we are already discussing a big family get together for Christmas next year in Costa Rica!!! Since I don't often post pictures other than race ones I though it would be fun to show that I do get dressed up every now and then, though after wearning heels all afternoon and evening my feet were definitely done. Enjoy the photos

I couldn't resist

2009-09-14T11:49:00.002-07:00

Quick Update

2009-09-03T16:06:00.006-07:00

Just a quick update because that's all I have time for. Sunday was the Ontario Mountain Bike Provincial Championships and despite a couple of oopsy's and a dropped chain I managed to pull out the win in the Senior Expert Women's division. Congratulations to Holly Whitenight who finished second and took the overall series win by just a point. The weather turned out to be great for racing, a bit overcast but no rain and the course was in great condition. My sister came out to watch, take photos, and handle the feed zone. (thanks) I earned enough points this year to upgrade to elite/pro next year but will have to think pretty hard if that is what I want to do since I use these MTB races mostly for hard training.

Now I am madly trying to finish up work stuff before I get in a quick bike workout then pack for a 7:30am flight tomorrow out to Vancouver for my cousin's wedding. It's already after 7pm. Don't think I am going to get much sleep tonight. Hopefully the flight is pretty empty and quiet and I can catch a good nap on the way. Better remember the earplugs.

New House Guest

2009-08-24T13:37:00.002-07:00

Last week my sister noticed that something had been digging under the stairs to the front porch. Though we haven't actually seen what has decided to live or hide under the stairs we have a pretty good idea of what it is.

Wouldn't this be a fun surprise to run into early one morning on the way to swim practice?!!!! There have been a lot of them spotted running around the neighbourhood and digging under other people's porches. Hopefully he or she will decide to move on since we backfilled the hole.

This is about all the excitement that I have had in the past couple of weeks. Without many races leading up to Xterra National and Worlds it has simply been a whole lot of training and keeping on top of work. With both races having significant amounts of climbing (like tons) even the training has been somewhat dull. Because Southern Ontario has a complete lack of sustained climbs, hill reps have been reduced to the trainer with the front wheel propped up on a whole bunch of my old university architectural textbooks. I knew they would come in handy someday.

This weekend is the Ontario Provincial MTB Championships at Kelso Conservation Area. I am hoping I can return to my form from the first three races of the MTB season and take the win. With a ton more climbing than the last race and less technical sections it should definitely suit me better. Here's to nice sunny dry weather on Sunday. (wouldn't that be a change!!)

Remembering Ron Johnson

2009-08-12T06:41:00.005-07:00

I was saddened today to hear of the passing of former ASU head swimming coach Ron Johnson. Ron was the head men's coach my freshman year at Arizona State and I was frequently invited over to the men's side to join their distance squad for some extra competition. What always amazed me about Ron was his vast knowledge of all the swimmers around him. He was never my coach, as the women's and men's team at the time had separate coaching staff's and workouts, yet he knew my best times probably better than I did, with splits!!! I later had the opportunity to swim with the Sun Devil Masters team he coached and even worked with him and his wife Priscilla landscaping their home. He was an encyclopedia of knowledge, especially about swimming, and had more enthusiasm about the sport than anyone else I have ever met. It was an honour to have met and worked with him, he will be sorely missed.

(article below published by swimnetwork.com)

Swimming Loses Coach Ron Johnson By: Swimnetwork.com Posted: 08/08/09 Ron Johnson – swimmer and swim coach extraordinaire – died early this morning of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to informed sources. He was 77.

Johnson, described by friends as a "modern-day Renaissance man" had long suffered from bouts of depression, which had increased since a heart attack at a swim meet in 2007 and having to undergo quadruple bypass surgery. His depression deepened when his wife, Priscilla, suffered a stroke last year and since then has been undergoing rehabilitation.

Johnson was the most successful swim coach in Arizona State University history, guiding his women’s teams to national collegiate titles in 1978 and 1979, for which he was named NCAA Coach of the Year in 1979. From 1980-93 he coached the ASU men’s team, consistently finishing among the top 10 teams at the NCAA Championships. During his 14 years as the Sun Devils’ men’s coach he produced 86 All-Americans and 47 Academic All-Americans. In his full career he coached 19 national champions, 31 Olympic finalists and 14 Olympic medal winners. He also founded the Mesa Aquatic Club in 1973, placing two team members on the US Olympic team three years later. In 1968, he served as Mexico’s Olympic swim coach for the Mexico City Games, leading Mexico to its best Olympic performance ever, including its only gold medal in swimming.

Selected as the US Masters Coach of the Year in 1999, Johnson became the only coach ever to be honored as both national collegiate and national Masters coach of the year.Johnson was also a superb swimmer, earning All-American honors four times at the University of Iowa and winning a spot on the 1955 US Pan-American Games team.

It was later in life, however, that Johnson surpassed all his earlier achievements. In 1998 he became the only male Masters swimmer ever to hold world records simultaneously in all four strokes plus the individual medley. He repeated the feat two years later. Johnson set a total of 57 world records in his Masters career, was voted World Masters Swimmer of the Year three times and was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in 2007.

An accomplished classical guitarist and artist, he recently published a book entitled “Romancing the Water,” a translation of a book he published in Spanish last year. A memorial service will be held later this week. Details will be announced on Tuesday.

Refreshed and Recharged

2009-07-24T14:34:00.005-07:00

Jeffrey Cottage

I have always felt that taking a good mid-season break is key to being able to perform well at the end of the season, so last week I did just that. I also got the chance to go watch my sister race in the Gravenhurst Triathlon and spend some time at the family cottage on Lake of Bays. Held on beautiful Lake Muskoka this triathlon race is similar to the Escape from Alcatraz race where the competitors are ferried out to the race start by two classic Muskoka steamships, the Wenonah and the Segwun (North America's oldest operating steamship). As this summer seems to be going the weather looked pretty iffy but ended up being dry and sunny throughout the race. Karen kept up the Jeffrey tradition and smoked the men and the women out of the water and finished up winning her age group. Must have been my awesome cheering.(check out all the pics)

Unable to simple do nothing for the week I decided since I was up in cottage country anyways and the weather was looking pretty good to jump in the 5th MTB race of the Ontario Cup series at Buckwallow. This course is really unique with virtually no hills but tons of bedrock and roots, big drops and tight turns. While I had a lot of fun and tested my technical skills, the lack of cardio busting hills gave advantage to the more experienced riders and I took 4th.

This week has been pretty mellow, just getting back into the training routine with next week back to the grindstone. I also finally uploaded all the pictures from the Vermont race.

Xterra Northeast Cup Vermont

2009-07-14T07:43:00.002-07:00

After two beautiful sunny dry days the skies opened up as we were headed out to the pre-race pasta party at the Mt Ellen lodge, Sugarbush Resort and the rain poured down. Gallows humour was already in full swing as we all knew the bike course was likely a river of mud running down the mountain. It let up after a couple of hours and looked like it was going to clear but I remember waking up to lighting and thunder with pouring rain about 2am. After a rather fitful night of sleep it was up a 6am for a 9am start. In ironic fashion it was a beautiful sunny day and we were all going to get covered head to toe in mud!!! I had been trying to stay positive for the days leading up to the race and was only doing a mediocre job at it. I had aggravated my right Achilles on a running interval workout the weekend before and had come down with a cold Wednesday morning complete with sore throat and running noes. Add to that the muddy technical bike course and nothing but uphills and downhills on the run course and I was feeling rather unmotivated. I was surprised and happy that the stomach was full of butterflies and nervous energy was flowing as that meant that somewhere deep inside I truly did care about the race and just needed to get the brain on board and thinking in the right direction. As it was a two transition race Emma and I allowed a little bit extra time to get everything set up and ready to go. As it turned out one of the buses bringing racers down from T2 to the swim broke down and the race was delayed. Thankfully we decided to bike down on the road as warm-up and didn't have to deal with that extra bit of stress. The water temperature was 70deg. which caught a couple of people off-guard who were expecting a wetsuit swim and had forgotten to bring their swim skins but made me happy to have that little bit of extra advantage over the none-swimmers. Mel jokingly said before the race "just keep moving forward and you are doing good". As it would turn out this would be my motto as I slogged through the bike leg. Betsy and Bill, our homestays, even showed up to haul our gear, cheer us on and take photos. The pros got a minute head start on the amateurs and with a rather small field I got plenty of clear water to swim in. I took the lead around the first buoy with Seth and Brandon close behind me and pushed the pace as hard as I could. Again I was surprised and happy with how good I felt and within moments all doubt and negativity got put aside, the race was on and I was committed 100% to having a great race. As expected the bike course was a mess. I hiked most of the first couple of miles straight uphill and was off and on my bike the whole way, but I kept moving forward. Mel and Renata caught me early on and Shonny came by me a bit past halfway. I slide out a couple of times and hit the ground but nothing major and felt like considering the conditions and my whole 22months of mountain biking experience I rode the course to the best of my ability. I arrive in T2 still holding onto a solid 4th position with nobody in sight but knowing stellar runners Danelle and Emma were somewhere behind me. Heading out onto the run my legs felt light and ready to go and while the uphills still went on forever I kept up a good pace for the two loop course. 4th, done and covered in mud. Renata had a stellar race to pass Mel on the run for the win, and I ended up only a couple of minutes behind Shonny, having outsplit both her and Mel on the run. Danelle used her swift feet to move up into 5th with Emma right on her heels. The result moves me up into 3rd position in the overall US Pro Series, not bad, though Renata has only scored four races and will likely move ahead of me next weekend in Beaver Creek. After some quick post race food and a quick bike wash I decided to pack up and get on the road. It would make for a marathon day but would get me back home and able to do some work on Monday. I made the drive in just over 9hrs, pulling into the driveway about 1:30am exhausted. I parked the car, left everything inside except the toothbrush and crawled into bed. I had added Xterra Beaver Creek to the schedule as backup to make sure I scored the five races for the series, but after taking with coach Gareth post race and taking stock of the how the body and mind were feeling we decided to pass and take a nice mid-season break. Good thing because for the past two days I have been so sore just walking up and down the stairs has been tough and tons of bruises, cuts, scraps, and a sore wrist joint have appeared courtesy of the bike course. Up next I get to try something new and watch a triathlon as the sister, Karen, is racing the Gravenhurst Triathlon on Saturday, for now though, it is a nice week of relaxing and getting caught up on work!!!

Vermont

2009-07-10T14:02:00.004-07:00

Vermont is perhaps the only place that takes it's maple syrup more seriously than we do in Canada. A whole section of the grocery store aisle was dedicated to it here in Waitsfield, the small town just at the base of the Sugarbush Ski Resort. The weather here in Vermont has been even wetter than Southern Ontario which while hard to believe seems to be true. As such I had a bit of a scramble to find some mud tires to put on the bike instead of the "dry hardpack turn lethal in wet conditions" ones I have been riding all season. Thanks to Tim and Mike at Speedriver Bicycles, I even managed a few test runs on them before driving down on Tuesday. Even though it is almost a 10hr drive down I decided it was still better than the expense of a plane ticket, plus extra bike charge and rental car. I had planned to get up fairly early to try and clear Toronto traffic before it went to hell. I was about a half hour later than planned getting out the door, but it was still 6:30am so I thought it would be alright. Nope!! I got about 20mins down the road and ended up stopped dead in traffic. For those of you who know the area I didn't even make it to Guelph Line heading east on the 401 and I had to drive the whole length of the city stop and go. It took me almost two hours to go about 70miles. A pretty ominous start to the trip. Fortunately nobody seems to drive on the 401 east of Toronto and once clear of the city I pretty much had the road to myself. I had heard from many that listening to books on CD is the best way to pass a long road trip so when the radio stations whittled down to country and hard-core religious ones I put one on. What do you know they were right and the rest of the trip flew by. I rolled into Waitsfield about 4:30pm to Betsy and Bill's who are opening up their beautiful home to Emma Garrard and I for the race and after a quick unpack and grocery store run I crawled into bed for a nap. I could have called it a night but I needed to pick up Emma at the Burlington airport at 11pm. Good thing I set two alarms or she might have needed to find another ride in. Thursday morning Emma and I headed out to the race course to do a pre-ride and run. It is a point to point bike course so we parked at the top and rode easy down the road to T1. We had been warned that the course was really muddy and steep but that it was rideable. Really?!!! The elevation gain in the first mile was 700ft, most of which was hike a bike. It probably took us 30mins to ride (mostly walk) the first 3km of the course. At the rate we were going we wondered whether the rules stated that you actually had to be in possession of a bike for the bike leg of the race as running would have been much faster. Thankfully the second part of the course was quite a bit drier and more rideable. It still took about 2:10 to ride 17km and there is a 60% chance of rain forecasted for Saturday night!!! Once back at the car we met up with Seth and headed out for one loop of the two loop run course. More mud and more uphill. We reminisced about our high school days of cross country running and using duct tape to keep our shoes on as we slogged through what looked to be paths recently carved through the forest by a bulldozer between the ski runs of the resort and a stream crossing just for good measure.

Mud Bike

Today was pretty much a lazy day. A quick swim in the pond (the swim is in the ski resort's snow making pond) and a bit of running around trying to get Emma's front tire sorted out. It wasn't holding air and we had to stop about three times for her to put air in it during the pre-ride. It took three bike shops to find one that actually had a tubeless tire. Of course today the weather was absolutely beautiful and it seems all the local cyclist decided to play hooky as they were out in droves, of course the Tour always seems to increase the number of riders on the road. Race start is 9am Sunday morning and the women's field, which has been hit and miss this season, has a solid start list. Hear's hoping for good weather and enjoying lots of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream post race!!!

The Pond, uh Swim Venue

Napping instead of blogging

2009-07-01T11:36:00.004-07:00

That's my excuse. I have been meaning to update for a while but lately I have found myself on the couch thinking I would just relax for a moment or two and wake up several hours later. The fact that this hasn't affected how I have been sleeping at night seems to tell me that the body needs it. Since it has been such a long time since that last race I will keep the race report brief. Xterra Southcentral Cup - Little Rock, Arkansas

With the crash on the Wednesday and incredibly hot weather in the week leading up to the race, my preparation wasn't ideal but I was still feeling pretty good about having a great race. Race morning came around and Brandi dropped me off with plenty of time to get settled into transition and warm-up without spending too much time over-heating in the soon to be 100+ degree day. I hadn't been in the race venue water until warm-up on race day as the quality wasn't great and I was sporting some open cuts and when I got in it seriously felt like bath water. The race got started like usual with the pros in the first wave and Seth and I resuming are battle with each other. I was a little fustrated as this time we both lost and Craig put a couple of body lengths on us. Seth soon succumb to the heat of the water and backed off and I, despite trying really hard, couldn't shut down the short distance to Craig's feet and ended up swimming by myself the whole way. This is the first race where I felt like I really might not finish the swim. I was so hot I felt like either my head was going to explode or I was going to throw-up. I was looking forward to getting out of the water so I could cool off?!!!

Actually listening to the race briefing?

Out onto the bike I got into a pretty good rhythm, though I could tell I was being a little tentative with the crash still in the back of my mind. The bruises on my elbows were also giving me a bit of discomfort with all the jarring over the rocks and roots. Just as Mel caught me near the end of the first of two laps there was this short steep little climb and I dropped it into the small ring a little too late and made the mistake of putting too much pressure on the pedals in the middle of shifting and voila - broken chain, arrgh!!!! I had a master link and chain tool with me but had never actually repaired one before, never mind in the middle of the race, stuck on single track with rider after rider flying by me. I had no idea how long it took me, felt like forever, but I ended up back in 6th place by the time I got rolling again. I hammered the second lap as hard as I could and moved into 5th place coming into T2.

Yes, that is the run trail

The run, which we all knew was going to be brutal, didn't disappoint. It was hot, really hot, and the course had us running along the river trail, then scrambling up this steep ravine on something almost resembling a trail but not really to the top of a ridge line, across the ridge and back down the other side to the river trail again. Then right before the finish line we headed back up a road climb, down a steep shale slope and through a wooden section with absolutely no trail. After the race it seems as though most of us were thinking the same thing and hoping that miraculously they would take pity on us and omit the last hill section when we got to it, but no. I suffered like crazy through the whole run but I was too far out from 4th and far enough ahead of 6th, that I decided not to totally blow myself up and have to spend the next couple of days recovering. Another 5th and moved up into 4th overall in the series. Again not the race I was hoping for or feel like I have in me, but solid.

Rebecca Dussault, Mel McQuaid, Shonny V., Jenny Smith, CJ

Post race a bunch of us headed out for pizza and gelato. (Mel and Brandi displayed some complete lack of talent at guitar hero) Then I hooked up with the boys: Will, Dan, Craig, and Mike for some nightlife Little Rock style. We started at a duelling piano bar, not really my style, until we realized that there was a dance club in the basement. Sort of an odd combination, but tons of fun none the less. Since the race it has been a tough schedule of training. With three weeks between races it provided a good block to put in some quality miles - hence all the napping. Big congrats to the World Cup guys and girls who put on a awesome show at the Des Moines WC, Simon the big win, Lauren finally on the podium (3rd) and the relays 3rd and 5th.

OMG

2009-06-20T13:57:00.002-07:00

I can't think of any other appropriate title for this post as my brain is so completely fried. I think the temperature today is about 97degrees plus humidity, so it feels like well over 100degrees and the race didn't start until 10am. Add to that the swim was warmer than the air so I felt like my head was going to explode even before I got on the bike. This is the first race where I actually cooled down a bit on the bike mostly because my body seems to have an automatic shut off that doesn't let me push it to the point of a total meltdown. Then I broke my chain halfway into the first lap. I am hoping that bad luck runs in threes so the flat in Idaho, the crash on Wednesday, and the broken chain today means that I am in the clear for the rest of the season. Luckily I had a small chain breaker and master link on me and made a successful, albeit very lengthy, repair and got the bike rolling again. This is the first race that I have carried this tool and I can't decide whether is was good luck that I had it to make the repair, or bad luck since this is the only time I have ever needed it. I rallied as best I could to get back into the race, both physical and mentally and headed out onto the run in 5th place. Then the run was just survival, insanely steep scramble climbs, crazy loose footing and just plain hotter than hell. I was too far behind to challenge any of the top 4 girls and had to settle for 5th. I'll add a more detailed report and some photos later in the week.

I am not superman...

2009-06-18T15:01:00.004-07:00

...and therefore even if I stick my arms straight out in front of me I can’t fly. I can however hit the ground really hard and loose a significant amount of skin. Yesterday I made the short flight down to Little Rock, Arkansas for the South Central Xterra Cup Race. My homestay for the race Brandi picked me up at the airport and we headed over to the local bike shop, Arkansas Cycling, where she works and got my bike put together. The wall of heat that hit me walking out of the airport made it clear that this race is definitely going to be a warm one, well over ninety degrees with lots of humidity. Later in the afternoon we headed out to the race course to do a quick spin of the course. I headed out for a short twenty minute run while waiting for another rider and was dripping wet by the time I got back to the car. Local MTB rider Micah and I then headed out for a loop. The course is seriously rocky (by my standards) though nice and dry with some short climbs and descents, twists and turns. I was feeling a little off from the start and my shocks definitely weren’t working well, especially my rear one and I was constantly hitting my bottom pedal but I carried on figuring I would get a loop done and take care of it later. Then on one of the easier straight sections I was suddenly flying through the air, no warning, no OMG I shouldn’t have done that, just launched. I actually remember thinking as I was flying through the air that this really wasn’t going to end well. I thankfully landed on a relatively rock free area of the course and skidded to a stop fairly quickly. Of course I had that wonderful andreline rush that makes you nauseous and had to spend a couple of minutes collecting myself before I could take inventory of the damage. I ended up scrapping and really bruising both elbows and knees and one hip. One elbow had instantly formed a golf ball size swelling point and my other elbow and one knee definitely had some deep cuts. (insert several choice four letter words) I cruised the rest of the loop in as easy as I could, cursing myself and definitely in some pain. The rest of the evening was spent at Dan’s place, the owner of Arkansas Cycling who is hosting Mel McQuaid, getting cleaned up and helping myself to Mel’s dinner. Fortunately Micah’s wife is an RN and looks like we got most of the dirt out of the cuts. I was expecting to wake up this morning really stiff and sore but surprisingly I feel better than last night. Of course I did spend 12 hours in bed!! Today is a rest day, so I headed out on the road for a little loosen up and did a short pool swim. I know that everyone crashes at some point in mountain biking, I just wish it hadn’t happened 3 days before a race. No worries, by Saturday I should be ready to go. Keeping rubber side down, this course should really suit me, a full length 1500m no wetsuit swim, a relatively short, fast bike and well the run is going to hurt everyone in this heat.

I am now hanging out at Arkansas Cycling where the gang is doing a terrific job fixing up the bike while I hijack the computer. The shocks were running about half pressure and I completely bent the rear derailleur into the cassette during the crash. They also had a little fun with the majic marker (see below).

Best of luck to every one racing this weekend – big world cup in Washington, points race in Quebec and the sister ‘Little Fish’ is racing Guelph Lake Triathlon, GO KAREN!!!

Better late than never?

2009-06-14T18:43:00.005-07:00

Yep, it's been over a week since the race and I am now just getting around to writing the race report, oh well. The fourth stop on the Xterra tour was held at Farragut State Park in Northwestern Idaho, just north of Coeur D'Alene. The site was absolutely beautiful and the course was flat and fast. In the past I have never liked wetsuit swims as they tend to help the non-swimmers much more than me but after three races in a row in cold water and my great Nineteen wetsuit I feel like I have finally mastered the wetsuit swim. The race was a noon start, so while the water was still cold the air temperature was nicely warmed-up and I wasn't as concerned about my calf being cold and tight coming off the bike and heading out on the run. Just as a precaution I decided to race in calf compression tights which although looked absolutely ridiculous I think helped keep the calf extra happy. I'm undecided whether I will continue to race with them on as I feel like they make my legs feel heavy, but for the first race back it was better safe than sorry. The pro's got our own wave start one minute ahead of the first amateur wave and we were off into what turned out to be a really rough two loop swim. This time I decided to sit in on the first lap and let someone else do the work. At the short run between laps it was Seth, Craig, Conrad and myself with a nice gap. Once back into the water the guys seemed to back off so I went to the front and pushed the pace and once again led out of the water with just Seth able to hang on. As it turned out I put nearly five minutes on Mel, the next women out of the water.

Conrad and myself at the swim lap

Finishing up the bike

Out onto the bike, what I thought was going to be a relatively easy bike course since it was so flat turned out to be very hard. As Mel put it you had to peddle hard the whole time with none of the usually breaks a more hilly course usually provides. I still had the lead going into the second lap and was getting pretty excited about the possibility of reaching T2 with Mel and having a serious foot race. Mel caught me midway through the second lap and while I wasn't quite hanging onto her wheel she was only inching away from me. That was until I took a corner and wondered why it felt like my back tire nearly washed out on me. Unbelievable, I looked down and sure enough my back tire was completely flat. I jumped off and quickly tried to fill it hoping the Stan's would seal the leak but I apparently did not pass canister quick fill 101 and only got my tire half pumped when the valved jammed. I decided to take my chances and gingerly rode in the rest of the bike on about 10 psi hoping that I hadn't lost too much time to the girls behind me. I got into T2 safely and still in 2nd place and started the run. After not much running in the three weeks since Michigan, I wasn't sure just how I was going to feel. I felt pretty sluggish and people mentionned that I looked like I was running very cautiously, but even with the long uphill climbs in the middle the calf managed with no pain or tightness. I was feeling pretty good about my 2nd place spot until Danelle 'running like a freight train' Kabush came by me just flying. Apparently after two warm-up races Danelle had found her second at worlds form and was right back in it. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful and I finished with another 3rd. I even managed to remember to smile as I crossed the finish line. Three races and three podiums, I can't really complain but I am still eyeing the next two spots on the podium. Local legend Jenny Tobin and Emma Garrard rounded out the top five.

Done!!

Women's Podium Emma, Danelle, Mel, Me

Big thanks to my awesome homestays for the weekend Jan and Paula who offered up their house to Dan, Emma, Craig and myself. We had this great apartment above their garage to stay in and except for Craig's pre-race Quinoa meal mistake (he isn't use to eating much fiber) had a fun time. Sunday after the race ended up being a marathon travel day starting with an early trip to the airport at 5am and finally rolling into home at 2:30am the next day. (ouch) When planning out my season I had decided to skip the Xterra race this weekend in Richmond as the course with a crazy short swim and very technical bike didn't suit me well so even though I had to drop the Alabama race I felt it wasn't worth adding Richmond back in. Instead I got in a good solid week of training and feel ready to go again next weekend for the Xterra South Central Cup race in Arkansas.

Emma and Dan took some great pic's of the race site which I stole and put in my gallery. Also included are Erin's crazy post-race antics which among other things included throwing her leftover morning oatmeal on Craig's rental car that I was driving back to Spokane while he enjoyed some post-race beverages. We had hoped that the freeway speed would blow it off but I ended up having to clean it up before we returned it the next morning. As for her randomly jumping out of her car and running up the hill with me yelling out my car window, I still don't know what that was all about?!!!

3rd Again, Canucks sweep podium

2009-06-06T23:30:00.002-07:00

Womens Podium Danelle Kabush 3rd, Mel McQuaid 1st, CJ 3rd (go canucks!!)

Today was my third Xterra Cup of the season and 3rd again it was. The race was held in Farragut State Park just north of Coeur D'Alene Idaho. What a beautiful setting for a race and the course which seemed pretty flat and non-technical ended up being really tough. After some sketchy training with the calf after Michigan I was just happy to be racing so although I felt a little flat especially on the run I was really happy with the end result. It is late so the full race report will have to wait for a couple of days as tomorrow is a full day of travel, but the Canadian women totally rocked with a 1,2,3 finish.

Brrrr

2009-06-01T14:33:00.003-07:00

'Bone Shaker'

We celebrated the last day of May here in Ontario with some snow flurries!!!? Fortunately for me because the MTB race on Sunday was doubling as a Canada Cup race as well as the Ontario Cup race, my start time got moved to the 1:45pm slot and I had beautiful, sunny, and almost warm weather. (Well warm enough that no arm or leg warmers were required.) It also meant that all the expert women from Junior through Masters all raced in the same wave so there was lots of great competition and the start was insanely fast. As a triathlete I don't ever have to worry about sprinting the first couple of km's of the bike and boy does it hurt especially since they start you straight uphill to spread everyone out before the singletrack starts. I settled comfortably into about 5th but hit the dirt early on the first lap on a stupid little root and lost touch with the top couple of girls. 2nd lap I moved back up to 3rd and thought I had a pretty good gap but got reeled back in on the 3rd lap. I ended up winning the Senior Expert division with four of the Master Expert women placing in front of me. Overall a great race as really all I am looking for from these mountain bike races is a great hard workout and having to use my technical skills at race pace. I rode all the technical sections really well, especially all three goes at Boneshaker, but lost concentration and hit the dirt twice on some easier sections.

Even more exciting is that my calf seems to be pretty well healed up so it is a go for the Xterra race this Saturday just outside Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. I got three solid runs in last week and besides the legs feeling a little flat, everything felt pretty good. This is another one of the new races this year so I have no idea what the course is going to be like. I do know that the water is rumored to be FREEZING, so I am desperately trying to find my thermal hood which is effectively hiding somewhere. Hopefully it turns up before wednesday.

Update and Pics

2009-05-25T18:58:00.006-07:00

It was so hard to sit home while everyone else got to go to Alabama and race the Xterra Southwest Cup. I so missed hanging out with everyone at Jerry's but I know it was the right decision. I haven't been able to run yet but I have progressed from aquajogging to the elliptical training thankfully as there is really not much I dislike more than aquajogging. The plan is one more elliptical workout and a run on Thursday. On the positive, after a bit of a training slump right after the race, I got in some serious time on the trails with a great couple of hours on Sunday with the Speedriver Cycling Club guys up at Hardwood Hills. The next O'Cup MTB race is being held there this Sunday and the course was marked so we decided to head up north and get in a couple of hard laps. The showcase of the course is the infamous 'Boneshaker'. I've heard many a tooth has been lost on this section of trail. It is a downhill switchback with stepped drops of uneven rocks. In the past I have been pretty tentative about riding it but the first three times through I nailed it no problem. Of course the fourth time I got a little overconfident, came in a little to fast with my weight too far forward and did a perfect endo. Fortunately I tucked and rolled (which I normally don't do, usually opting for the superman) and managed to get away with a bit of a stiff back this morning and a bruised ego. Here are a couple of pics from the Xterra Midwest race in Michigan. For the full gallery click here or on my pics on right. Enjoy!!

The Homestay House

Local Wildlife

Actually getting out of the wetsuit before T1

Going into the river

In the river

Calf not happy