XTEric Trz: June 2007

When the race schedule came out this winter, I was so stoked to see this race on it. "Tahoe City!" Never mind that I wouldn't have to travel the usual day or two to go racing, these are my stomping grounds & this would be my time to shine in front of my home crowd. My training schedule had Mountain Bike (MTB) races both 3 1/2 & 2 1/2 weeks out from Xterra Tahoe City (XtTC). I had been working quite a bit during those weeks & missed a few training sessions. That did not hurt my MTB racing one bit, in fact, I think it helped. I literally crushed the competition in both MTB races. I went out strong & never looked back. Finished 1st without a competitor in sight! This bolstered my confidence heading into XtTC as the Mountain Bike portion was 22+ miles. At about 2 weeks out my extra work load camed down & I was able to begin focusing & get in all my training sessions. Swim feeling good, run feeling good, good diet & a couple sessions on the course had me feeling like a top ten finish was a possibility. Needless to say: I was ready to rip!

THE SWIM 1200 meters w/ 50 meter beach run in middle (Time 22.12):
I got a good start & was one of the first few to the first buoy. When we hit the beach for the first time, buddy Ross (who ended up 3rd overall) said hello. I think he was drafting me. On the 2nd lap I did a little of my own drafting & held back a little so I'd be fresh for the bike. After rounding the last buoy & heading for shore I remember saying to myself that I just couldn't wait to get on the bike & tear it up. I was overjoyed at this point!

THE RUN TO TRANSITION .5 kilometers & Bike Transition (Time 5.08):
Yes, this is a pretty long run to transition. It's mostly uphill & the key is not to go too hard. I fast-jogged it & felt good. Had a good transition & was off on what I expected to be a crushing MTB portion.

THE MTB 35.5 kilometers (time 1:50):
There was about a 10 min steep uphill straight out of transition & my plan was to moderate my HR & keep it at 150ish. Then when I reached to top & would just let 'er rip. All went according to plan. Reached the top & started to go hard, HR was easily elevated to 165 because it was still recovering from the transition to biking & I like to use this effect. Soon this effect faded away &, what the hell, try as I may, my HR would not go above 150ish. I was pushing hard & in the pain zone but I just could not get over the hump. My biking effort felt like a power boat that just will not get on top of the water & plane out: working real hard but going real slow! That was almost my entire bike. I was able to fly on the downhills, but when I'm having a race like this, things go wrong. About 1/2 mile before transition a got a flat front tire. I tried to ride it but it was just too wobbly. Good thing I stopped because by the time I stopped the tube valve had rotated all the way opposite the rims valve opening. I got it changed out pretty quickly &, feeling defeated I cruised into transition for the run.

THE TRAIL RUN 9.6 kilometers (time 47.45):

Feeling defeated, I just started "dogging it" on the run. I knew it was an all up then all down run. I was just going to jog up then let gravity haul me down to the finish. Just as I was accepting my groove, the #1 woman passed me saying, "Hi Eric." Ok, I'd had enough. Great, now I couldn't even go slow & finish this race. I passed her back & went just hard enough to keep her behind me all the way to the finish.

Finish Time: 3:06.48

Divsion Place: 6th of 12

Overall 18th of 119

It took me some time to come to terms with my (lack of) performance in this race, which is why I waited a while to post the recap. What happend? I believe that my reduced training load the 2.5-3.5 weeks before the race lead me to peak early; for the MTB races, which were just training & meaningless to me compared to XtTC. At that point, & feeling so good, I stepped up my training to meet the load & ended up overtained & flat for my big race. Race & learn.

It was a beautiful day though. Enjoy some pics, which will be added to when I get the rest.