Athletes live here

In the Round House, we have a cabinet dedicated to sports nutrition. All of the bars go in the little plastic drawers for quick access, while the overstock goes on the top shelf that I can't reach. My cocaine, er...I mean, powdered nutrion, is on the middle shelf.

And some may be questioning why Nestle's Chocolate Quick is in the sports nutrition cabinet. It's because chocolate milk is what I use as a quick recovery drink after long runs. Studies show it is a good recovery drink, and cheap. Who am I to go against "studies"?

The latest in trail fashion

All of this riding on the AZ Trail has put any future pantyhose modeling career in jeopardy. So I decided last weekend to wear the latest trail fashion creation on my ride.

Meanwhile, Zac tried out the new DeSoto "Cool Wings."

And here's where we rode. We tried the Italian Springs side of the AZ Trail, and found out this is best done as an out & back.
View from the trail.

And another AZT sign while Zac tries to figure out where we are going.

Today's ride was boring. Just a quick jaunt up Redington Road up to Mile 10, where we turned around and came back. I wasn't feeling it today, nor was my stomach. While we checked out the map (I like trail maps) I chewed down half a Cliff bar, which felt like rocks in my stomach. I decided it was best to turn around before things got worse. We still got in 24 miles of riding, and lots of climbing. All this climbing training better pay off at Tahoe.

I'm going to XTERRA Nationals in Tahoe!!!!

The letter has arrived! Would it be silly to print it out on pretty paper and frame it? Eh, who cares...I'll do it anyway. ;)

Dear XTERRA Competitor:

Congratulations! It’s my pleasure to invite you to compete in the 8th annual XTERRA USA National Championship race in Lake Tahoe on October 5, 2008.

As a leading regional points scorer, you have earned a slot at this prestigious event, where the title of National Champion in your age group will be up for grabs. The field is limited to those racers, like yourself, who have qualified in the eight XTERRA regions throughout the country.
Not only will every multisport and tri magazine be there to cover the event, but a full one hour television show will be taped as well.

Combine a real chance for a National Championship with an epic course on the Tahoe Rim and Flume trails plus television coverage and a couple of wonderful parties and dinners, and you have a weekend you can’t miss.

To register online please use your exclusive PIN code (below) and follow the registration link.
We need to hear from you by the deadline listed above. If you decline the invitation, we will roll your slot to the next, most qualified athlete. If we don’t hear from you by the above deadline we will assume you are not competing and roll your slot.

Remember only invited athletes can compete in the Championship race. If you have a friend who wants to race, we have XTERRA Nevada a non-qualifiers event on Saturday this is open to everyone.

Aloha,
Dave Nicholas
Managing Director, XTERRA

XTERRA USA National Championship

Date: Saturday 23 August, 2008 : 06:23 AM

I'm still in the points lead for W30-34 in SW, and Liane is in 2nd in W35-39. So we are all set to go! I have our place all booked up in Tahoe.

I'm just hoping to survive this course and not be an embarassment to the Southwest region. Because it's the national championship, the course is much longer with a 1500 meter swim, 32 K bike, and 10K run. But it's the Flume Trail and all sorts of other cool stuff. So hey, if I suck at least I'm on awesome trails with a beautiful view.

A fight with a cat, or a bike ride?

Saturday the training plan called for a 3.5 hr ride, so around 7AM Zac and I left from our front porch and headed to Redington Rd. We climbed and climbed and climbed. What is it with Saturdays and climbing lately? The climb didn't seem too bad compared to Mt. Lemmon. And it's nice that Redington Rd has mile markers. The not-so-nice part is that they roll by slower on a MTB.

The road isn't in too bad of shape, and traffic wasn't terrible. We did pass a truck that was hauling dirtbikes and quads several times as they stopped every 20 feet to check their tie-downs. Around Mile 6 we hit the shooting area, and my pace quickened as we rolled by the shooters on the side of the road. I could just see getting hit by a stray bullet. That would be a good excuse to end my workout early. We made it through unscathed and were greeted by a nice breeze at the top of the hill as we rounded the corner. The fields and hills were amazingly green from all the rain we've had.

We climbed until Mile 12.5, where we hit the intersection of the Arizona Trail. We didn't have enough time to do the Italian Springs side, so we decided to hit the Bellota side and take that trail to FR 36, which would bring us back to Redington Rd. The AZT was all singletrack, and about 4 miles long leading to FR 36. After over 12 miles of climbing, it was SO worth it! The trail was a blast! Honestly, if you have not hiked, ran, biked, or ridden a horse over a section of the AZT, you are truly missing something awesome. We are so fortunate to have such a cool trail in AZ. As we rode, the wheels were already turning in my head to figure out a way to start at our house and ride down to Liane's house on the AZT (except where we can't go in Saguaro East). We would then shuttle back to our house, as Liane would have to come and get her truck because she'll be coming with us. She just doesn't know it yet. He he.

The Bellota stretch of the AZT was quite overgrown with grasses. Ankle-high and I figured no big deal. Then it got to mid-calf and I was starting to notice. Then we got to waist-high and I was just hoping I was still on the trail and not disturbing any sleeping snakes in the grass below. The cat claw and other stickery bushes and trees were also growing into the trail, so we did our share of trail work by pushing them back with our arms and legs while riding. Needless to say, we got a bit cut up.

The AZT intersected with the FR 36, and we decided to head back as it was getting really warm out. The climb up the 36 SUCKED. Holy crap it was steep. I was beginning to think it would be better to continue on the Bellota trail to Milagrosa. It took us 20 minutes to climb to the intersection at Redington Rd, and then we were able to enjoy the downhill. Because it was close to noon, there was much more traffic out. Two older guys on quads pulled out in front of us and peetered along. I got tired of being behind them, so I hammered on the downhill and passed them. Awesome! They, of course, caught us on the uphills. But after Mile 5 it was all downhill and we were able to dust them. I hit a max speed of 28mph on the road down.

We hit the pavement and Zac and I had about 4 miles to our house. We turned onto Wentworth, and Zac pretty much died there. I think he's realizing that nutrition plans matter. So I waited and he finally appeared, and we rode the final mile back to our house. 33 miles and 4 hours on the bike. Not bad for a long trail ride. We inspected our arms and legs and realized people will probably think we own very mean cats. This is how my friends always know I've started riding my mountain bike again.

This coming Saturday we are planning on getting up MUCH earlier and riding up Redington to do the Italian Springs side of the AZT.

The start of the Bellota section of the AZT:
I love the AZT signs and how they made them in the shape of the state. And of course, idiots have to shoot at them. This is a really cool map. We can find our intersection where our house is on it.
Me heading down the trail. Grass is only ankle-high at this point:
View of Mt. Lemmon from the trail. Hi roadies!
Zac on the trail in calf-deep grass:

Scraggly trees (Zac is a fan of scraggly trees):

Zac rolling by some cool rocks:

This ride may have compromised me modeling for Leggs pantyhose:

This week's planned training

Monday - 8/11/08:
Rest day

Tuesday - 8/12/08:
AM - Run = 40 min w/ strides a
PM - Bike = 1 hr MTB ride a

Wednesday - 8/13/08:
AM - Swim = 1 hr Master's swim a
PM - Bike = 1 hr trainer workout w/ Spinervals + Core workout a

Thursday - 8/14/08:
AM - Run = 1 hr 20 min hilly run a
PM - Swim = 1 hr Master's swim a

Friday - 8/15/08:
AM - Rest
PM - Swim = 1 hr Master's swim a

Saturday - 8/16/08:
AM - Bike = 3 hr 30 min MTB ride (riding from house up Reddington & doing the 4417 loop) a
PM - Rest

Sunday - 8/17/08:
AM - Bike = 2 hr road ride (Saguaro East), Swim = 1.5 hr TTG swim a
PM - Rest

Weekly totals:
Swim = 4.5 hrs
Bike = 8 hrs
Run = 2 hrs
Total = 14.5 hrs

Whoa! Did I click on the wrong link and suddenly end up back on the IM training blog? Yeah, it almost looks that way. Believe it or not, this is an "intermediate" Olympic plan from Beginner Triathlete that I'm following to get to Tahoe. I'm just switching out some of the road rides for mountain bike rides. But 14.5 hrs is what I used to pull down on a regular basis in IM training. Oh well...I did it before and I can do it again. That was pretty much the only thing good that came out of training for IMAZ this year, which was to learn the discipline to follow the training plan when I need to. Which means when I'm not following a plan I'm pretty much just screwing around with swim, bike, run. Thankfully, this plan is only 10 weeks long (and I started a bit late due to Snow Valley, so it's actually 9 weeks for me), which is half the IM training plan. I remember I was feeling pretty good about 10 weeks into hard training, so hopefully the same will repeat itself in training for Tahoe. I'm not going to win anything at Tahoe...just hoping to make all the cutoffs and survive the course. Even with all this I'll most likely finish at the bottom of my age group in that crowd. Yep, I gotta work this hard to be mediocre. ;)

Saturday's ride serves 2 purposes. 1) Long time in the saddle and lots of climbing on the MTB, and 2) Check out some of the MTB portion of the Rock Y Road 50/50 course. That race is on 10/18, and I'm actually considering it. If you haven't noticed, I'm not right in the head, which is why a race like this makes perfect sense. The Cliff Note's version (for those that don't click on links) is that it's a 50 mile mountain bike ride followed immediately by 50 miles of road riding, and McDonald park is the transition area. But wait! There's a catch. These aren't just any 50 mile rides. The mountain bike portion has a ton of climbing and goes down La Milagrosa, one of the most technical and difficult trails in Tucson. I've done that trail from the Molino side as a shuttle, so at least I know what that part looks like. Then the road portion goes up Mt. Lemmon. That's right...climb from the bottom up to Palisades and come back down.

So yes, it's a crazy hard race. But I figure there's no 2.4 mile swim to disorient me before the ride, and no marathon run afterwards. Score! Who knows...Chad may figure out a way to add those in the future. And the bonus is, this race is FREE. So if I attempt it and DNF, I won't be out any coin.

Today's PSA: If you do an Ironman, you start to look for more insane things to do afterwards. Ironman is evil that way.

The Snow Valley naked transition guy

Here we have a pic of Liane headed to T1. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Wait...what's that large pink area in transition?

It's naked guy!

According to the husbands, this guy came into transition and sat down on his towel and took his swim trunks off, and put a hand towel over his crotch. Of course, this didn't cover the crackage going on in back, to which an elderly lady exclaimed "Oh my!" and had to wait until her husband said "It's safe to look" before she could gaze in that direction again. The guy put on his bike shorts sitting down, and was on his way. This race was part of the XTERRA points series and is sanctioned by USAT, so I wonder if the hand towel kept him within the nudity rule.

So a PSA: Folks, if your race is USAT sanctioned, don't get naked in transition.

More from Snow Valley

Liane has posted her Snow Valley race report, and Nate's pics.


Notice how we are always looking confused.





It's because we were trying to follow this map:

Ah well. With my 2nd place points and Liane's 3rd place points, we are sitting well in the standings so far. I'm 1st in W30-34 and Liane is 2nd in W35-39. We should be getting word on the XTERRA National Championships in Tahoe by the end of this month.