I know I am a terrible blogger in the off season! Apparently I need to find more worthy things to blog about. But I also figure this blog is primarily about racing for those who want to hear the nitty gritty details of my races. So here we go into the 2013 Season! I have to do a two in one for XTERRA on this post!
Well, for starters, moving out to California presented itself with all sorts of new challenges and opportunities I guess. The hard part was moving away from all of my great local supporters that I had over my time in Winter Park. Moving to a big city where I knew no one or any teams etc. It is like starting from scratch to build up some support which is so important! Also, just finding people who know where to train and where to ride!
So I joined Folsom Bike Racing Team for this season and their Tri Team out of the Town Center lacation. I was steered toward them from a number of people that I had met around here. It has been great getting to know some of the people on the team and everyone who works at Folsom bike has been great and always helpful.
I kicked off the 2013 season doing some of the local bike races just 10 minutes from my house at Granite Bay. TBF Racing , who I also joined as staff, puts on a ton of great races and they have a series of 4 Mtn bike races through the winter. That was new to be bike racing all winter! Nothing like Winter Park, these are a loop course that is the same course just more loops(I am really good at that loop now), but fun still! I was able to win 3 of 4.
The bike racing felt like an alright warm-up to kick off my Xterra Season on March 30. However, it had been a slow off season with some hip and hamstring things going on. I have been trying to get everything to feel good again so my running was way down.
XTERRA REAL
This seemed perfect for my first race of the season a nice warm up race. It is put on by TBF and the bike course is that one I had been racing all season. I was excited to get into Xterra but also not sure how my run and swim would stack up. My parents had been visiting for the couple weeks before and were here for the race which was great to have my familiar support and also a good opportunity for Drew to jump in and do his first open water Tri ever!
We got a beautiful day for the race water was a little chilly but being form CO with swims at Indian Peaks and Buffalo Creek and even Moab it was perfectly normal at about 55.
Swim went off fine. Nothing crazy to speak of I felt pretty good for the most part this one is short so it is only a 750. As I exited the water I was just happy to see Kara Lapoint right in front of me. She is last years winner and normally a much faster swimmer than me. As we were running into transition she was getting told she was 10th woman. I breezed through transition really smoothly and felt like it was pretty good in and out until I went to jump on my bike and my chain was off! Anyway, I got out of transition ahead of a few of those 10 and quickly began to try and make my way up through the field! At the end of the main climb my friend and competitor Sian took the inside and swept past. "Oh!" I thought, "yeah, we are racing today!" So I remained right behind her for the next section until we got to the back of the course where they added in a slightly technical sandy section I rode through pretty smooth and took the lead for Women. I knew I had to keep pushing and gain as much ground as I could on the bike since that is my strong point. I also know it would be tough to get much on this course because it is fast and relatively easy. I actually didn't know I was in the lead till the next lap when Kara's boyfriend told me, after I asked him who was up, that I was in the lead by about 30 sec.
I came off the bike feeling pretty good and headed out on the run. I tried to use some recent advice and get my legs turning over fast. I was feeling ok for the run but was soon dismayed when Sian passed me way too soon! She was killin that run! My quad cramped pretty bad on the steep climb right about the time she passed and I had to stop to get it moving! This put a damper in my fight to stay with her. I got my butt moving because I knew that Kara was sure to be close behind. She was. We climbed the steep climb to the high point of the course and she moved past just at the top.
I took 3rd overall. The three of us were within about 2 min. It was a fun race and good to have some great ladies to push with out there! I knew I had some work to do for Vegas two weeks later and not really alot of time for that.
Next up Vegas!
XTERRA West Championships
Well, for starters, moving out to California presented itself with all sorts of new challenges and opportunities I guess. The hard part was moving away from all of my great local supporters that I had over my time in Winter Park. Moving to a big city where I knew no one or any teams etc. It is like starting from scratch to build up some support which is so important! Also, just finding people who know where to train and where to ride!
So I joined Folsom Bike Racing Team for this season and their Tri Team out of the Town Center lacation. I was steered toward them from a number of people that I had met around here. It has been great getting to know some of the people on the team and everyone who works at Folsom bike has been great and always helpful.
I kicked off the 2013 season doing some of the local bike races just 10 minutes from my house at Granite Bay. TBF Racing , who I also joined as staff, puts on a ton of great races and they have a series of 4 Mtn bike races through the winter. That was new to be bike racing all winter! Nothing like Winter Park, these are a loop course that is the same course just more loops(I am really good at that loop now), but fun still! I was able to win 3 of 4.
XTERRA REAL
This seemed perfect for my first race of the season a nice warm up race. It is put on by TBF and the bike course is that one I had been racing all season. I was excited to get into Xterra but also not sure how my run and swim would stack up. My parents had been visiting for the couple weeks before and were here for the race which was great to have my familiar support and also a good opportunity for Drew to jump in and do his first open water Tri ever!
We got a beautiful day for the race water was a little chilly but being form CO with swims at Indian Peaks and Buffalo Creek and even Moab it was perfectly normal at about 55.
Swim went off fine. Nothing crazy to speak of I felt pretty good for the most part this one is short so it is only a 750. As I exited the water I was just happy to see Kara Lapoint right in front of me. She is last years winner and normally a much faster swimmer than me. As we were running into transition she was getting told she was 10th woman. I breezed through transition really smoothly and felt like it was pretty good in and out until I went to jump on my bike and my chain was off! Anyway, I got out of transition ahead of a few of those 10 and quickly began to try and make my way up through the field! At the end of the main climb my friend and competitor Sian took the inside and swept past. "Oh!" I thought, "yeah, we are racing today!" So I remained right behind her for the next section until we got to the back of the course where they added in a slightly technical sandy section I rode through pretty smooth and took the lead for Women. I knew I had to keep pushing and gain as much ground as I could on the bike since that is my strong point. I also know it would be tough to get much on this course because it is fast and relatively easy. I actually didn't know I was in the lead till the next lap when Kara's boyfriend told me, after I asked him who was up, that I was in the lead by about 30 sec.
I came off the bike feeling pretty good and headed out on the run. I tried to use some recent advice and get my legs turning over fast. I was feeling ok for the run but was soon dismayed when Sian passed me way too soon! She was killin that run! My quad cramped pretty bad on the steep climb right about the time she passed and I had to stop to get it moving! This put a damper in my fight to stay with her. I got my butt moving because I knew that Kara was sure to be close behind. She was. We climbed the steep climb to the high point of the course and she moved past just at the top. I took 3rd overall. The three of us were within about 2 min. It was a fun race and good to have some great ladies to push with out there! I knew I had some work to do for Vegas two weeks later and not really alot of time for that.
XTERRA West Championships
This weekend kicked off the Xterra Championship races in Las Vegas. I flew down by myself on Thursday and stayed right on sight at the Monte Lago Resort with Sian. Friday I headed out for a pre-ride and had a good time riding with Brandi Heisterman, one of the pros from Canada and some of the Luna Chix. The bike was true to the rumors. Not real exciting but also somewhat challenging.
Saturday was race day and they had set the start time for the championship race for 10:30 with the forecast calling for a high of 90! Apparently they wanted the sport race to be off the course. I don't like starting late. It gives too much hanging out being nervous time before hand. Not to mention it was getting hotter as I was just setting up transition!
Swim Swim was declared about 57 but I am pretty sure it was a little warmer. With it being so hot out already when we were getting ready to start the water felt great!
I felt good and pushed out the start with a good group pretty sure I was swimming stroke for stroke right next to my age group competitor Meaghan Sheridan for a good portion of our swim to the first buoy. I felt like I had a pretty good swim but I never know with these things. After transition and jumping on my bike I looked at my watch and it seemed that it had in fact been pretty good as far as I could tell.
Saturday was race day and they had set the start time for the championship race for 10:30 with the forecast calling for a high of 90! Apparently they wanted the sport race to be off the course. I don't like starting late. It gives too much hanging out being nervous time before hand. Not to mention it was getting hotter as I was just setting up transition!
Swim Swim was declared about 57 but I am pretty sure it was a little warmer. With it being so hot out already when we were getting ready to start the water felt great!
I felt good and pushed out the start with a good group pretty sure I was swimming stroke for stroke right next to my age group competitor Meaghan Sheridan for a good portion of our swim to the first buoy. I felt like I had a pretty good swim but I never know with these things. After transition and jumping on my bike I looked at my watch and it seemed that it had in fact been pretty good as far as I could tell.
26:12 30th female 19th amateur and 3rd Age Group
Bike I went out like normal to try and start making my way up through the field. I had a little fire and help getting moving from new CA friend Cliff Milleman "Lets go catch Hannah Rae" He said. I was game. This bike course was not particularly exciting. It is like biking on the moon. Not a very technical course but a challenging course with steep loose climbs some short loose descents and nice sandy section. I worked my way up the field and took a spill on a sharp corner that I just went into wrong in my excitement of being on the mtn bike :) (I seem to have this problem ofter) No big deal jump up and ride on (bruised hip). I had no idea where I was in the field of women as I hadn't really seen anyone I normally see besides the first couple I passed early including Kara Lapoint and I knew she would be pushing hard to stay close. Halfway through the second lap my friendly update guy (Kara's boyfriend again, August) let me know I was actually in 2nd for amatuer women! Really! By this time though the heat and the wind were starting to wear on me quite a bit. It was around 90 and I had a love hate with the wind that was just killer. Nice and cooling but making flat sections really tough not to mention just keeping things in line! About 3 miles to go on the bike I got passed by two girls in my age group! One I didn't know we rode pretty close for awhile and then Meaghan (Age group winner) made the pass. I battled the wind on the rode home to transition and tried to make sure I had fueled and hydrated enough to get going on the run. I was a little upset to have been in 2nd and knocked to 4th there at the end. I knew something special would have to happen on my run.
1:41:49 14th Female 3rd amatuer and 2nd Age group
RunThen it was onto the run....ugh. After biking in the conditions it was hard to get the groove but I had started to besides getting passed by the first two girls. Then the run course just started going up and up the steep loose climbs and then more and then add in some scree climbs! Somewhere in there about mile 3 Maia Ignatz came passed. I am pretty sure this is our sweet spot. She seems to always pass me on the run right in this area :) She passed and I watched as she moved further away up the hill that put me into 4th in the age group. Brutal conditions for a 10k here. I ended up moving from 4th the 7th on the run. It was rough and I obviously really need to work on my running. It was tough but I know most people were having a rough time out there. Except for maybe Lesley Paterson the women's winner who put down the fastest run split of the day beating all the pro men on the run and finishing 4th Overall!! Wow.
(maybe we shouldn't talk about this one ;) ) 1:05:53 33 Female 18th amateur 5th Age Group
Finish 3:13:58 21st Female 7th Amateur 4th Age group
Yes, my age group is stacked. I went into this race knowing that my age group would be really tough and it would be very difficult to get a Worlds slot for Maui (there are only 2). If I were any other age group over 20 I would have gotten a slot. :) guess I have work to do over the summer for my next chance! Bring it.
SO, there it is all caught up if you made it this far!
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| Taking Second Pro Women at Cool Mtn Bike Race. |
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