XTERRA Alabama

Race Equipment and Setup:

Bike: Pro Cycling S-Works Epic with SRM XX1 Eagle Crank

     90ml of Effetto Mariposa Caffelatex Sealant, 22.0 psi Front, 24.0 psi Rear, 2.3 Fast Trak 

     Helmet: Rudy Project Windmax

     Glasses: Rudy Project Tralyx Impactx-2 Photochromic Clear 

Run: Colorado Running Company Inov-8 X-Talon 212

     

Race Nutrition: +First Endurance Triathlon Nutrition Plan

     Pre-Race: 24oz Bottle of 1 serving of EFS Pro + Beta Red, and 20oz of water

                         Enduro Bite Dark Chocolate Espresso

                         3 Capsules of PreRace

     Bike: 2x24oz bottle with 4 scoops EFSPro

               2 servings EFS Liquid Shot

     Run: 1 serving EFS LiquidShot and on course hydration.

     Post Race: Cappuccino Ultragen

First Endurance VIP Friends Discount

After the travel and races in Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica it was great to be back at home in Colorado for six weeks and be able to put in a solid training cycle before XTERRA Alabama.  After those early races I was sitting in 2^nd overall in the XTERRA Pan Am Series with Jean-Phillip ahead of me but had to race well to keep from guys like Josiah from catching me later in the year once they had more results.  The weather was a bit wacky with some snowstorms and cooler spring weather, which did not help trying to prep for the heat and humidity that we would experience this year.  After the last few years of cooler and rainy weather racing at Oak Mountain we were back to the normal, it wasn’t the worse it has been but it was tough on everyone.  The warm temps did heat the lake up and made for a perfect non-wetsuit swim.  For many guys this was the first race of the year and it was the best chance to see how strong everyone was and the field was stacked.

I don’t have the best start speed but can hang tough and tagged on to the back end of the front pack and settled in working to conserve energy but also I had to keep aware to make sure no gaps opened.  Right at the end as we were weaving our way through the back end of the amateur field a small gap opened up to a group of 3 as a few guys started to fade ahead of me.  I pushed the last part of the swim to keep the gap small and was able to speed through transition and moved in to 3^rd.

Tight racing with Veit throughout the course

Karsten had a small gap off the front and Veit Hoenle was right in front of me as we rode the short distance to the trails, I tried to get ahead before we hit the singletrack but just missed and then at the quickest opportunity passed Veit, and tried to work to catch up to Karsten.  A couple miles in on a short dirt road section Paco Serrano flew by and I had no chance to catch his wheel.  Viet was strong and rode back up to me but I made sure to get back ahead of him when we jumped on the trails again.  It is important to ride as smooth as possible on the trails

 Rudy Project Tralyx and Photochomic clear lens were great for the low light.

in Oak Mountain, if you rush you make small mistakes and those will cost you time, since I was trying to play catch up I was making small mistakes and continued to loose little bits of time to Karsten and Paco on the twisting single track.  Once on the dirt road climb I had to keep the pressure on knowing that Josiah would be coming hard and there were a bunch of strong riders in Brian Smith, Chris Ganter, Ryan Ignatz and Kieran McPherson that would be working together chasing as well.  About half way up the climb Viet caught me and I tried to limit the gap

as we continued up the climb.  About ¾ of the way up Josiah caught me and I just didn’t quite have it to stay with him the last bit as it would have been a great wheel to sit on across the top of the ridge before the next single track section through Blood Rock.  Josiah caught Viet right at the top and Viet had the pleasure of sitting on Josiah’s wheel on the dirt road climb across the top.  I tried to use the 36 tooth ring on my SRM crank to my advantage and powered along but Josiah is so

strong there was little I could do to close that gap down.  I nailed the trails through Blood Rock and down the descent, before hitting a new change to the course hitting the flow trail of Jekyll and Hyde.  I managed to catch sight of Viet and knew that I could catch him as the rest of the course demanded better bike handling.  I continued to make small mistakes here and there thought and it took me until the very end of the course to finally catch him just as we entered transition.

Power File from SRM PC8 and XX1 Eagle Crank

Traction was never an issue with my Inov-8 X-Talon 212.

I headed out in 4^th only 2 min down from Paco, Karsten and Josiah and knew that I would need them to really blow up in the heat to catch them.  Viet ran strong and passed me in the first mile and opened up a little gap but once we got on the trails and small hills and the heat were taking a toll and I stayed steady and cool carrying a iced bottle of EFS Pro and passed him back and put in a little surge so he would not stay with me.  I really pushed the sections of the run when the footing was trickier to continue to gain time.   At the start
of the second lap Brain Smith was flying and cruised past me I did my best to stick to him but he was on his way to the fastest run split that day and I had to stay sensible in the heat and not blow up.  There are more and more racers on the course and I used everyone of them as little carrots to keep pushing and focused on catch the next one ahead as quick as possible.  I was happy to make it through without feeling the heat that bad and held on to 5^th.  I took over the lead for the Pan Am series and will be racing as hard as possible to keep that spot, there is a lot of racing left and anything can happen.  June will be bring more training races around Colorado before heading to Victoria BC Canada for the next XTERRA in July and that will be followed by XTERRA Beaver Creek the following Saturday.

XTERRA Costa Rica

Race Equipment and Setup:

Bike: Pro Cycling Epic with SRM XX1 156Q Crank

     90ml of Effetto Mariposa Caffelatex Sealant, 22.0 psi Front, 24.0 psi Rear, 2.2 Fast Trak 

     Helmet: Rudy Project Windmax

     Glasses: Rudy Project Tralyx 

Run: Colorado Running Company Inov-8 X-Talon 212

     Glasses: Rudy Project Tralyx

Race Nutrition: +First Endurance Triathlon Nutrition Plan

     Pre-Race: 24oz Bottle of 1 serving of EFS Pro + Beta Red, and 20oz of water

                         Enduro Bite Dark Chocolate Espresso

                         3 Capsules of PreRace

     Bike: 2x24oz bottle with 4 scoops EFSPro

               2 servings EFS Liquid Shot

     Run: 1 serving EFS LiquidShot and on course hydration.

     Post Race: Cappuccino Ultragen

First Endurance VIP Friends Discount

XTERRA Costa Rica
After a few years I returned back for XTERRA Costa Rica, it was a great experience the first time and I was very happy things worked out to make back this year.  Once significant change I made was flying in to Liberia instead of San Jose and when you do this race that is the only way, it saves you a minimum of 6 hours in a car.  I was very happy about that after all of the travel that I had done in the preceding two weeks to Argentina and Chile.  The XTERRA Costa Rica crew had made some great course changes to the bike since the first year as well.  The race is very hard due to the very hot and pretty humid climate and the first year there was a tremendous amount of hike-a-bike and one very steep hill you were crawling up and trying to drag your bike with you.  They changed the course and there is one very steep hill that if things pack down just a bit would be ride-able but it is a very manageable hike-a-bike.  They added some new sections of trail and fun, so if you did the race in 2014 I highly recommend you go back, it is still tough but you will enjoy it a bit more.
The water is beautiful and a perfect temperature for a non-wetsuit swim that is just a touch chilly when you get in but it feels great once you start swimming and with a high of 99 anticipated for the day being a bit cold out of the water feels pretty good.  Because of the high temps we were off running to the water at 6am but it was definitely welcomed with how hot it would get out there.  The plan was the same get on Jean-Philippe’s feet but he started far left and I started far right and I just missed them after clearing the field after the start.  Ian King, Billy Gordon and I swam through the first lap and JP was about 15 sec up so we were staying closer than in Argentina and Chile.  I felt good and lead through the second lap and ever so slightly managed to shorten the gap to JP just a little bit, about half way through the lap I felt a few funny bumps during my stroke and could see some jellyfish floating around.  I was happy that it was only a few of them and not the thousands we were swimming through a few years before.  The current right at the shore was very strong and our timing was off and it was a big struggle trying not to get pulled back in.  Running to the bikes we were only about 10 sec down from JP.

Ian and JP got out quick and were riding to the beach and I laid chase to them, trying to find the hardest packed sand to ride on as we rode along the beach.  I slowly closed the gap down and we started the hike-a-bike together about half way up we heard someone charging from behind and Josiah was motoring us down.  We peaked over the top Josiah took the lead, with me behind, he got a stick stuck in his wheel and had to stop and I pushed on knowing it would not be long till he would be powering back up to us.  JP and I rode together and we jumped back on Josiah’s wheel when he went by and focused on just sticking there.  Josiah slowed on a corner and when he accelerated out of it neither one of us could match it and he slowly powered away.  We continued to work together to try to keep the pressure on and limit the gap he would get, a few kilometers later Kris Coddens rode his way up to us and powered away as well on the next hill.  Through the remainder of the ride JP and I continued to work together, I was more powerful on the flats and led much of it but JP would always be willing to put in as much work as possible.  We had a common goal to limit our losses to the front and to expand our lead on everyone else.  I knew I would like to get away from JP before the run as he has been quicker in the last two races but I was not quite strong enough on the flats to do so.  A big blessing through the race was that it was mostly cloudy and it kept the temperatures much lower and the sun from beating down on us though the bike, which is pretty well exposed for much of the course.
I grabbed my frozen bottle and bag of ice in transition to help stay cool and JP was able to get a gap to start as we headed up the hill on the run out of transition.  My legs were not going very well up the hill and JP easily ran away from me.  I did see Ian King and Ryan Ignatz come riding down the hill and knew that I had to run hard to keep them at bay.  Ryan has run me down a number of times and I didn’t want it to happen again.  Once I was able to get the legs going on the downhill I felt much better and was able to tick things over and just continued to run scared.  On my the second lap of a small loop in the middle of the run that the Olympic distance did twice a sprint racer, Sebastian Alfaro, was just entering the loop.  We ran together and were able to push each other and it helped keep the pace high.  The last 1.5 km’s of the run are tough on a sandy road that is relatively hard packed for most of it but there is a section about ¾ of the way through that is just running through soft sand.  It is brutal at the end of the race but we charged along, after I got through the soft sand I took a look back and saw Ryan coming.  I really pushed that last little bit in and thankfully for the first time really started to feel the heat of the day.  I held strong and finished in 4th and Ryan was not far behind in 5th.

Sorry I don't have any photos her is a link to a few:
https://augustteague.smugmug.com/XTERRA-Costa-Rica
XTERRA Costa Rica

Lets get the ball rolling, what has been up for the past 4 months

Have been silent for quite some time and frustration will do that.  After a less than desirable race at USA Champs last year and a horrific performance at XTERRA World champs it took some time to come back around.  There was a lot of self reflection and over analyzing trying to figure out what was going on and why I was not connecting some great training to my racing.  Derick and I decided that we needed to change things up a bit and took a bit longer break over the winter before heading in to any structured training and focused on more mental training for the first part.

What I wouldn't miss is heading back down to Tucson to train over the winter and just after the New Year I headed down to start getting back into some solid training.  Tucson is an excellent place to come in the winter for training, it doesn't take long to learn some basic training routes and then you can branch off from those and explore more of the area.  There is a great masters swim group at the University of Arizona that offers 3 practices a day Monday through Friday and one on Saturday.  There are a few group rides the most notorious being the "Shootout" on Tuesday and Saturday.  It is a hotbed for cycling and there are many national and world class mountain and road pro cyclists on US Continental to UCI World Pro Tour teams that come down and train and the group ride on Saturday grows from about 50 during the summer months to over 200 in the winter as guys and gals are down putting in the miles.  So it isn never hard to find some one faster than you that will help you push your limits.  Tucson has been improving its network of mountain bike trails over the years and there is and increasing number of options each year, the only downside is that they are a bit more spread out than the trail options in the Springs, but there are a great network of bike paths and bike lanes to get around easily.  Those paths have been great for running as well, with the Santa Cruz and Rillito River Paths for some great flat open paths for pace work or up in the rolling hills of on the west side roads in to Tucson Mountain park for close trail running.  I have also been playing a bigger focus to some strength training over the winter as well.

I have been steadily building over the past couple months and doing a few random races here and there as well.  Started out with the Sun Run 5k to get an idea of where my run fitness and speed was at in early January and over all the run went well.  Only issue is that about 2.5 miles in the course crosses and intersection and the police were there doing their job but a guy riding was on the wrong side of the crosswalk right as I was turing to cross the intersection and our shoulders collided and I went spinning through the air something like this:

Took about 30 sec to gather myself grab my Rudy Project Agon glasses that went flying, check to make sure the rider was okay and then continued on to the finish.  With that taken into account I was pretty happy with my overall time and how it ended up.  We kept the training rolling and kept racing as well.  Part of the mental aspect that I have needed to work on has been in races and makings sure I don't give in and to stay with guys when they pass me and after working on some goal setting and some of the mental pieces in training I applied it to racing.  

In the fight for 2nd less than a mile in.

The next race was the Sunrise at Old Pueblo 4 Mile, it was a race I won last year and was hoping to keep that rolling.  One guy was too quick and there wasn't a chance of staying with him but I had a great battle for 2nd with another guy.  He really forced the pace for the first 2 + miles and made things uncomfortable for sure but I knew that I couldn't let him go I would give it everything to stay with him.  He cracked slightly at about 2.5 miles and I was able to get a small gap on him but he was holding very strong and I had to keep pushing.  I managed to hold him off and took 2nd.

Just past 3 miles in 2nd but 3rd is just lurking, can see him just off my hip.

Off on the 2nd run (PC: Deb McMullen)

Next up was another race that was advertised as an 8k, once it was all said and done it was more about 5.5k.  I guess that is what you get when a fraternity act as the race organizers and they are just trying to copy maps off of mapmyrun.com.  Around this same time I had been working on getting all the pieces of my new mountain bike together to build it up and it was almost 100% complete.  I can't thank Logan enough for loaning me his drive train since the parts I ordered were held up at a shipping yard in San Diego while the workers were on strike.  With the bike up and running I headed up to Scottsdale for the Desert Classic Duathlon, it is a great race that has been held for quite a while and Angie and her crew at Chasing 3 did a fantastic job putting it on.  They offer two events, a standard road duathlon and an off-road version, they both used the same trail run at the beginning and the end with the chosen road or mountain bike leg between.  I elected for the off road even though I had only been on the mountain bike 3 or 4 times to test things out.  There were some quick runners which gave a great opportunity to really work on chasing and staying with other athletes.

Feels good to be on the top step.

On the mountain bike I had a good lead and really tried to focus on really pushing the pace since I didn't know who was behind me.  About half was through the bike a local mountain biker caught me and it really made me have to push and attack the course more to stay on his wheel and not let him get away.  I stayed with him all the way back to transition and then took off on the run.  There were other road duathletes out on the run as well and I was able to use them to focus on and try to catch.  I was slowly reeling in 3 guys ahead and was going to make a big push in the last 3/4 of a mile to catch them when boom I hit the ground.  I had tripped over a rock, after a sec gathering myself I took off to the finish but lost the opportunity to try to catch the guys ahead.  It was still very nice to take the win and start to get the flow of going through transitioning between the sports again.

Sampling 1st Endurance & Enduro Bites 

After a few more weeks of solid training I headed back up to Scottsdale for the Fat Tire 40 Mountain bike race.  At packet pick up I got to meet a lot of the racers some very experienced and some that were just entering the sport as I did a sampling and demo of the First Endurance and Enduro Bites.  It was a great time getting to listen to some of the other products that athletes were using and any issues they had with them and letting them try the new EFS Pro hydration sports drink and take samples of EFS Liquid Shot and Ultragen Recovery Drink.  They could also try the Dark Chocolate and Espresso and Fig and Dark Chocolate energy bars from Enduro Bites.  The race overall went well, I mainly need to work on my hole-shot sprint at the start so I don't get trapped to far back.  I was in the lead group but the 3 strongest guys got away out front and I had to battle my way past a few guys to try to catch up but it took too long to get around and they opened up a gap that I couldn't close down and they were working together and going well.  It was a good hard effort unfortunately I rode all alone but I was getting more and more comfortable technically on the bike.

 TriZona Sprint Triathlon, T1 on the rough of the golf course.

      I was continuing to string together some great training and the new 10 day/3 day plan Derick had adjusted my training to was really going well.  After the struggles last year we needed to at least try a new approach in my training and after a bit of an adjustment period I really began to understand the process.  I have always been able to string together some great volume for weeks on end then take a rest week then do it all over again but we both felt that I was slowly digging myself into a hole.  So we made the change and I am working really hard over a 10 day period and then taking 3 days of rest/light movement and the results are showing.  The first triathlon of the year was at the TriZona at Starr Pass two weeks ago, it is a unique event that is a must do.  Barry and Jodee Siff of 5430 Sports put it on and it is a great low key event.  It starts like no other triathlon out there, down the waterside at the JW Marriott Resort at Starr Pass then two laps AGAINST the current in the lazy river, it was and absolute blast.  I headed out on the bike and had my work cut out for me as Olympic Mountain Biker Todd Wells was doing his first triathlon so I knew his bike would be very strong and I really had to swim and run well.  The three lap bike is very challenging rolling hilly course, I felt good as it was the first really big effort on my TT bike this year.  Just at the end of the bike Todd went by, after a bit of a smoother transition I headed out on the run just ahead of him.  Because of the time trial start I needed to finish 40 seconds ahead of Todd to take the win, let it be known that Todd can run as I was only able to just barely out run him.  I was first across the line but Todd kept me close enough to take the win.

The winter has been great being down in Tucson and I have been staying down here a bit longer than normal as I am house and dog sitting for some friends that are over in Italy, one is a lecturer for the University of Arizona and had the opportunity to go over and it couldn't be missed.  It has worked out as a great trade that I get to be down here and train while they get to go on a grand adventure and work a little on the side too.  The only negative is that I am in Arizona for 4 months and it takes me away from Bri.  She makes some adjustments at work and comes down every few weeks for a long weekend and we get to have some fun.  She joined me in racing at the Sunrise at Old Pueblo 4 miler, took on a 6 winery (out of 11) tour around Sonoita, went on a mountain bike ride together for the first time and had a blast using Hunter and Aimee's cruiser bikes riding around town to get to dinners and events during the year.  By far the best weekends are always these ones.

Only have two more weeks down in Tucson before a start the journey back to Colorado.  I am doing one more tune up race at the Lifetime Fitness Marquee Triathlon in Tempe this weekend before the big events start.  I will head up for the first XTERRA of the year for the West Championship on April 25th in Las Vegas and then head to St. George for the Ironman North America 70.3 Championship the following weekend.  It has been a great few months and I always enjoy my time in Tucson but I will enjoy being back home in Colorado.