Without Limits Summer Open ..or: 5 Great things about racing close to home ..or: The disadvantage of aero wheels

5 Great things about racing close to home
1. Waking up at 5:45 for an 8 a.m. start time
2. Starting to get ready at 9p.m. the night before*
3. Eating the food that you already own, no grocery store runs
4. No packing!
5. Racing with friends and teammates** to cheer you on!

AND....

The disadvantage of racing close to home and aero wheels
1. I thought I knew what I was doing. *I didn’t look at the course beforehand. Apparently it has loops.
2. I missed a turn and headed back to T2 after 2 of 3 loops
4. Everyone I passed seemed to accept I was the first female... **even my own teammate volunteering :-)
3. LUCKILY I realized my mistake (thanks to the athlete who helped me out!) and turned around before I got to T2 cause that would have been embarrassing.... or funny. or both. :)
5. Either my sweet 5 year old Cervelo Dual looks fast with a borrowed front wheel, disc covers, and my aero helmet or it’s those fancy MORF kits!

In summary: I rode 3 extra miles on a beautiful Sunday morning, had a great post-race massage and enjoyed tasty food!

Xterra Pacific Championships

Xterra Pacific Championships was held in one of the prettiest race venues I've been to -- the ocean swim is next to the pier and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the bike has frequent views of the ocean and includes sections of singletrack through redwoods. The run offers almost continuous ocean views and a little bit of beach running.

I placed first my in my age group and qualified for Maui, which was my goal. I felt strong during my race, but I also identified some areas I want to improve on. I started training late this year due to other commitments and a snowy Colorado winter, and then promptly injured myself by trying to start training too aggressively, so I hadn’t run much in the past few months. This was also my first race of the season, so being in peak shape wasn’t my goal -- that’s what later is for!

Heading out to the race was a little hectic -- I decided to bring my own bike (instead of borrowing one) about a week before the race, and decided to change my tires the night before flying out. I used a Maxxis Ignitor on my front tire and and a rear Maxxis Crossmark, which worked well for both the sand on the course during the pre-ride and the muddy sections on Sunday. However, this last minute adjustment led to a bit of a Stan's ordeal... and on Saturday afternoon, after 3 attempts and some adjustments to the tape I use for Stan's, I was good to go!

I was slightly concerned with the cold ocean water, so I attempted to acclimate to the cold temperatures just before the swim, but was still a little concerned with how the swim would feel. Luckily, once the horn went off and everyone was into the water, I felt comfortable, and settled into a steady pace. I was honestly enjoying the chill of the water and the calm of the ocean (welllll... relative calm. it was a little choppy). Then, after a quick run up the beach to the transition area, the bike started with several miles of road riding (along the ocean) before reaching the trails of Wilder Ranch. Santa Cruz had a bit of rain Saturday night, so I was a little concerned about the course, but it ended up beng perfect -- there were some muddy sections, but overall the course was in great shape! The run was very flat for an Xterra course, but was right along the ocean -- I settled into a steady (read: not fast) pace for most of the run, but with about 2 miles to go I saw some girls about a half mile behind me so I picked up the pace and really started to test my running legs (and they worked! yay!).

I stuck around for the awards ceremony and got to catch up with Xterra friends, including a group of us who had traveled from Colorado for this race, then ran to catch a flight back to Colorado!

I have lots of people/companies/forcesbeyondmycontrol who helped me out with this race --

Big thanks to Newton Running! I am loving both their trail runners - every time I wear them I get people telling me they like my shoes - and the racers, which are my go-to race shoe. Thanks to Zeal Optics for making some fantastic sunglasses! This would’ve been the perfect course to try out their new photochromatic lenses, with the bright, sunny climbs and dark redwood singletrack... but I brought my Airstreams with dark lenses, and they ended up working out fine. Thanks also to Verge Clothing for our new kits and my awesome arm warmers, which allowed me to both stay warm and rock the race in prom-dress fashion. Thanks to Mark Rise, who worked with me on short notice a week before the race to help me figure out what was going on with some injuries I was having and gave me some exercises to work on to fix muscle imbalances I was having (the good news: I can run again!).

And thanks to a few others who made this weekend possible!
Thanks to L for volunteering S for the Stan’s help :-)
BIG thanks to Lauren & Matt for hosting us and lending us a car!
Thanks to ABS - Another Bike Shop - in Santa Cruz - for being both convenient and helpful in my quest to buy [more] stan’s, and for the free brake inserts for traveling home :)
Thank you to mva for sherpa duties and thanks to cliffy for being my personal gear-lender and letting me borrow a race belt, CO2, and a floor pump :-)

A big thanks to THE WEATHER! It started raining Saturday night but by Sunday morning the clouds lifted and the temperature warmed. The ocean was cold but not frigid and with my sweet new arm warmers, I was the perfect temperature all day.

AND - thanks to Xterra for putting on a great race!

Is it Summer Yet?

Before my 2011 season starts... a look back on 2010:

MORF opened it’s season this weekend with fantastic performances at Xterra Las Vegas and the Mead-Roubaix race. However, I’m not racing for a few more weeks -- so I thought it’d be a great time to give a quick 2010 recap! The race reports I never got around to writing! I raced A TON last summer, at least for me -- almost every weekend found me packing, driving, and racing. Needless to say, I had a ton of fun, and raced fast!

I raced the Boulder Stroke and Stride Series, the Boulder Tri Series, several XTERRAS, I filled in as a last minute replacement for an injured friend in a relay at the Firecracker 50, and I raced as much as I could at the Winter Park Series. I was super pleased by my performances -- this was my second season working with Jamie Whitmore and all of our hard work showed! I started the season with a 2nd place age group finish at Xterra REAL in Califonia, and then ran a 1:35:59 in the Colfax Half Marathon -- just meeting my goal time of 1:35! The weekly Stroke and Strides were great -- I found my run getting faster and faster, and I learned how to push myself during these races. I had a lot of fun racing each Thursday night and trying to run faster than I had the last week.

As I prepared for my first road tri in over a year, I was not sure how I would do going into the Boulder Sprint and I was ecstatic when I placed 2nd in my age group at both the Boulder Sprint and Boulder Peak. I had a long-time goal of breaking 5 hours in a 70.3, but leading up to the Boulder 70.3 I decided I really wanted to break 4:50 and podium. That lead to an initial disappointment in my 4:50:32 performance and 4th place finish -- but then I learned that 4th place was a podium! YAY! The girls who placed ahead of me were both great people and fast racers -- I raced against most of them at each of the Boulder Tri Series and we really pushed each other to do our best. It’s thanks to them that I was able to race so fast! I also couldn’t be too disappointed in my time because I had been focusing on XTERRA and mountain biking and hadn’t exactly been training for this distance. My longest ride on my tri bike that summer had been a 50 mile bike two weeks before the race. And, I achieved a 19 minute PR for this distance... So it was a finish of “YAY! .... but I could’ve...”. As I guess many races are.

I also competed at the XTERRA Mountain Championships at Beaver Creek, and for the first time podiumed at an XTERRA Regional Championship!! I was so pleased! I had some great competition this day, and was really pleased with the outcome!

After a heavy season of racing I was a little burnt out by the time XTERRA Nationals came along and did not feel as strong as I hoped going into the race, and I was not as excited by my 4th place finish.... I had really hoped to podium. But the competition was good, and my good friend and new-MORFer Debby placed 3rd with an incredibly strong bike, so I was happy with the overall outcome!

I have a new plan for next year with lots of fun racing but a bit more rest, so I can be as strong at the end of the season as I am the rest of the summer!

A BIG thanks to Jamie Whitmore, who coached me last summer, to Newton Running, whose shoes I have been running in for YEARS, to Gu for their tasty and energy-providing nutrition,and to Dave at Redstone Cyclery, who is super helpful and has a great shop in Lyons, CO.