XTERRA APPELACHIA - TriathlonSprint

ha, never would I have thought I'd get a #1 ranked swim, but I guess it is a smaller event. Because of my performance in the last race, I made sure to start out towards the front as I knew once I got past the initial scrum, I would be able to hold my own out there. On top of that, there was a tether line between the buoys which made navigation the easiest I've had, sighting forward was not that necessary and I only did it once every 15 or so strokes, I just had to make sure that there was always a tether line to my right.

Nothing, best swim yet for me, there were a few times that I did come up on swimmers, and I did my best to swim around them while maintaining my stroke. My goal was to make sure I didn't stop and go any during this event and see what my time would be because of it.

I might have been on a false uphill when trying to buckle down my shoes.. I noticed that I slowed down big time when I started pedaling even though I thought I was on nice smooth pavement.

Don't worry about getting my gloves perfectly on. As long as they are on mostly, I can finish them up before hitting the single track.. and well it may not even be necessary to use the velcro straps.

This was what I was afraid of during the pre-ride.. and it only got worse when I woke up to get ready for the race. Mud.. Mud.. Mud.. I made the choice to stick it out with my semi-slick tires for this last race because I thought that it being in the mountains, the trails would be more resistant to rain.. Boy was I wrong. Not only that, I find out that these trails are almost always muddy, so I guess I did a bad job of race-recon. My tires are HORRIBLE in wet conditions, the only time I had ridden on wet trails it was a struggle to keep from falling and eventually I just had to go at a snails pace. Early on in the course, which has a lot of roots on trails with a side-slope down the hill, I fell and ended up bending my derailleur hanger, effectively taking out a few working gears. I didn't try to mess with it at first as that can do bad things, and I just slogged on hoping that the muddy section would end soon. So I lost a lot of time in the first half of the course where it was muddy, I think a good 5 minutes. At the end of the tough climbing I stopped to try and do a make-shift quick bend back of my derailleur hanger, bent it back a little bit and got back on the bike. A bunch of the pack had started to catch up to me, with one guy right on my tail as we started down the mountain. I never saw him again though as this is the part of the course where I actually felt good and started to pick off people who had passed me earlier in the slippery mud. I rode pretty hard where I could, trying to make up as much time as possible, and finished out the course without any more incidences.

I will probably go with a different tire combo for next year. The semi-slicks that I used this year were totally awesome in dry conditions, but as soon as it got wet they were horrible. Most races happen rain or shine, so I've got to find a nice fast-rolling tire that isn't total crap in wet conditions.

Pretty good transition, I've gotten to be pretty good with T2

nothing

I was doing good on the run, reeling people in, and ready to pick off some more. While running along what I thought was a mostly grass trail, I think I slipped on another root and ended up turning my ankle. I think this was right around the half-way point of the run, and I was within ten seconds of the 2nd place guy in my age group when it happened. I'll admit it, I was close to saying f'it and not finishing. When I came up on the aid station I asked the guys how much further till the finish and they had no idea, but by then my ankle was numbing up and I just told myself to hold on and try to keep my current position. I eventually started to try and make a push on the guy in front of me, as I definitely had the energy to run him down and make a race out of it with him, but that is when my hamstring started to cramp up. I'll never know if I could have passed him as I think he could hear me breathing down his neck and was only going just fast enough to stay in front of me. I also thought he was not in my age group so I did not make a huge push to try and overtake him.

Stay focused 100% of the time while I'm on single-track. I can't open up my stride while on the trails, which is how I twisted my ankle. I've had a few ankle rolls in the past year and I need to work to keep my feet under myself when I'm running on the single track. Higher cadence.. higher cadence

Drink a few cups of gatorade and find out that I had finished in the top three for my age group, eventually went and showered off all the mud.


Bad equipment (I also think I am doing something wrong in the slippery stuff.. it's not just tires.. at least I don't think it is..) and not staying mentally sharp during the run. Can't take the run for granted, as that is almost always when I end up turning an ankle.


Very late in marking the bike course for the pre-ride, a lot of people got lost during the pre-ride at that. Otherwise it was a challenging race, and really lived up to being a dirty tri.