Xterra Lory - Race Report

Ok so yeah pretty lazy writing this report.  It's been almost 2 weeks and I have a half Ironman tomorrow, so I figured I better write it.  This was a last minute race I signed up for before Ironman Lake Placid, just for fun.  It was only 5 weeks after Ironman so I didn't have high expectations.  The race was up in Fort Collins, often voted one of the best places to live in America.  We went up Saturday and checked into the Residence Inn.  Honestly, it reminded me of Highlands Ranch.  We went out for sushi very similar to restaurant by our house but a little worse.

I woke up at 5:45am and had my pre race breakfast of about 600 calories, carbs, protein.  I did not feel particularly great and this would be a prelude to my race and next two weeks.  Bad sinus infection has been the result.  We headed over to the race site to get checked in.

Swim half mile 16:09 (that's my watch time, long run up the beach and cleaning off the mud my net time was about 17:00).  The swim was a wave start and siting was very difficult as the sun was rising right in our eyes on the out and back.  Coming in was much easier.  I was satisfied with my swim since I didn't really work on it since Lake Placid.

T1 - 3:31 - kind of fumbled my way through this.

Mountain Bike 10.5 miles - 1 hour 10 minutes.

The mountain bike was challenging, with a solid 2 mile climb to start and then leading into rollers.  It was difficult to pass or allow people to pass.  I tried my best to get over when approached and tried to yell out when I needed to pass, but very different from a road tri.  Overall I was about 10 minutes slower than I hoped but I did my best and was feeling ok afterwards.

T2 - 2:17 - both transitions were relatively slow, I was definitely feeling sluggish

Trail Run 4.8 miles - 47:57

Per my heart rate monitor I ran this 1 second faster than my Ironman marathon pace with a heart rate 30 beats higher.  Something definitely felt off.  Granted it was the same 2 mile climb to start from the bike, but I struggled.

Overall I finished in the middle of the pack which is better than all my prior Xterra races.  I just don't train for that interval style effort.  I have a pretty good middle gear, but that high end zone 4 and 5 heart rate is just not really there.  I may try to work on this more over the winter.  We'll see.  Overall the race served it's point.  It was fun and got me out doing something.  That night I never slept.  My nose was completely clogged with no reprieve.  Sleeping with your mouth open in Colorado is awful completely dry out every 20 minutes and wake up to drink water.  So last night I slept 11.5 hours.  We'll see how I hold up for Harvest Moon Half Ironman tomorrow.

BTW - 9/11/2010 Never forget!

Happy Training!