In Training

This winter, I've increased my exercise volume with the goal of not letting XTERRA Blackhawk kick my ass this summer. I kicked it into high gear in January when I started attending a spin class at my gym. After that, I added a long run on Sundays to try to build up some base miles.

My goal is to finish gracefully. I have no aspirations to win or place or anything like that. My experience from last summer at Blackhawk was quite disappointing. I came out of the swim in 7th, got passed by *42* people on the bike portion, and ended up 52nd out of 64. Took me 3 hours and 27 minutes to finish. 17 minutes of an easy swim + 3 hours and 10 minutes of suck. My legs just would not turn the cranks over, and by the time I got to the run, severe cramping. I had to stop several times and just sit on the ground. My breathing and heart rate were fine, my mind felt fine, my leg muscles just would. not. go.

I'd like to think that the reason I did so poorly is that I did a pre-ride of the entire bike course with a bunch of people that were muuuuch faster than I am. I tried keeping up. It didn't work. So this year, gonna work on endurance MTB riding. Blackhawk is only 14.5 miles MTB, I ride 15-20 regularly, but the hills are a lot steeper at Blackhawk than my home courses, so I need to put some extra miles in along with some hills.