Xterra USA Championships (and a brief catch-up)!

Wow! I just realized how horrible I have been at blogging this year!  I mean I knew it was pretty bad and I am always thinking about a post I should do but I just realized how bad and I didn't do ANY of those posts! Ugh!

Quick Catch up! First the winter was spent figuring out that my ankle injury from the beginning of last year actually tore my ATL ligament so that it would actually pull away from the bone and I had fractured the end of my fibula and had a small tear in my peroneal tendon! Yuck so I spent time trying to get that healed through prolotherapy which after some research seemed to me to be a great alternative to an invasive surgery!  So...not too much running and alot of swimming.  In March we found out that Drew got a new job! Yeah (!) but also sad that he had to leave for some training for a few months.  This new job also brought on relocation!  I had to come to Sacramento in the middle of summer and find a new place to live and we moved here to Roseville, CA middle of August!  Needless to say, all of that placed a little bit more stress on my life throughout this season so my racing didn't have quite the improvement that I originally hoped for but things seemed to turn out alright and I still had a ton of fun doing a sport that I love!  Now that you are briefly caught up onto the race report!

Well, it came so fast!  The summer has been a blur with moving to CA and all of that thrown in the mix.  It was just Ashlyn and I for the 10 hour drive across the desert for Nationals.  Phew!  That was long just the 2 of us.  So happy that my awesome race crew, my mom and niece, Alyssa, met us there.  They had dinner waiting when we arrived on Thursday evening. 

Friday is always a nice day.  Relaxing morning and then I headed up to pre-ride the top part of the course.  The colors are just amazing this year.  After my ride I headed down to take a little swim and try out my new Xterra wetsuit!  I am super excited about getting a new wetsuit but I was a little worried that it might be a touch too big.  Friday afternoon was Ashlyn’s race day and she was pretty pumped up.  We headed over to the race expo and got her signed up and then I went to get my packet and it just so happened that we had the same race number!  How fun!  Anyway, she did her bike race then had a shave ice to refuel before her run!  She was super excited when she crossed and told me she passed 2 people and then asked if she could do one more race!

I got a little pre race message cause my hips were feeling soo tight and then we headed back for a relaxing dinner and evening at the hotel room.

Race day came and we were up and at it to go set up transition and get ready to go. 

Swim  32:39  30^th female

So I was slightly distracted the gun went off for the pros and I was noticing that a handful of the green caps (Age-groupers) went off with the pros.  They were supposed to wait with….boom!  Oh yeah, that is my go!  Off I went into the swirling kicking chaos.  It was a bit of a mad house to the first bouy I almost had to start throwing feet and elbows to get people off.  Once around the first bouy I found some space and tried to get into a good rhythm.  I had worked on my swim a lot this offseason and I have been frustrated all season because I haven’t been able to see any results from that.  But today it is all good because I have a new wetsuit and that is definitely the ticket!  The swim seemed a little long but I was happy to notice as I was swimming in that I was swimming right with a pink cap (pro woman) so that made me feel like things were going all right.  Ran though transition and onto the bike.

Bike 1:48.18  16^th Female, 7^th Amateur, 2^nd AG

I got on my bike and tried to get my cold legs moving.  I always have quite a few people to pass as I head up wheeler canyon because I am a little slower on the swim.   Legs were feeling cold and heavy which is fairly normal for this race since it is a cool morning and cool swim.  I usually just get the lags going and then work out of it fairly quickly but today it seemed a little more than normal and it really wasn’t working out.  I was still catching and passing people but my legs just weren’t quite feeling great.  One girl in my Age-group passed me in the first canyon.  I wanted to stay with her but the legs were not havin it.  I was a little discouraged because she didn’t catch me till the very top last year. For the top portion of the course I just had no idea where in the field I was.  I felt like I was out there all alone and hadn’t seen many of the people I usually see out there.  I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad and I just tried to keep pushing my legs were actually feeling a tiny bit better by that point.  I came over the top of the course and began the short descent and saw the girl who won my age-group last year.  That gave me a little boost that I wasn’t completely out of it as I passed her and tried to put as much time as I could to hold her off on the run! 

It definitely did not feel like my best bike but it still wasn’t horrible.  This time is a little slower than last year and I know that I can ride that course faster had I been feeling on top of it. 

Run 57:19  36^th woman,  26^th amateur

Here it is my Achilles heel of Xterra racing. Especially this year since I had such little running early on trying to get my ankle healed up.  Transition went smooth and I was climbing that monster hill up the mountain. After I got onto the single track I actually felt pretty good for the first couple miles of the run. But that was all then legs started cramping and I was back to the low.  But I just kept fighting to keep running.  Sure enough, Maia, my other age-group competitor passed me about mile 3 on the run.  I was happy I held her off that long but now I knew that I had to dig deep to hold off the one I passed on the bike to have a chance of getting on the podium.  Just kept repeating Isaiah 40:31 “..They will run and not grow weary..” J Made it to the last climb and as I rounded the corner I took one last look back to know I held the others off because my right quad was cramping bad.  Then I saw my crew’s smiling faces cheering me in and had to run over and give Ashlyn a big high five as ran down to the finish. 

So, It was a rough day but not terrible I think I fought pretty hard while not feeling the best.  With that, I was happy to get on the podium 3^rd in my Age group behind my super fast competitors and book my spot for Maui.  I was 21^st overall woman. 

It turned out to be a great and successful weekend!  Thanks Ogden and Xterra for another great US Nationals.

Unfortunately, I am not sure that I will be able to make the trip to Maui this year.  After the move we are very low on funds.  Unless someone has some extra room for me to stay!  I would love to go and race but it is not always possible.  I will be back.

Thanks so much to all my awesome support this year! 

Bolle Eyewear, MORF Racing, Totally Wired Cyclery and Niner Bikes!  Rooepic headbands for keeping me stylish and making awesome headware for those long runs!  Mara Pacyga at Elevate Pilates and physical therapy, I miss you!  Keith Sanders at Beaver Sports helping to make sure my Niner fit right!

Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."