Up In Bayview Idaho for Xterra Northwest

I've been up in Bayview / Farragut Park Idaho since Wednesday afternoon. Nice, quiet place. It reminds me of Flagstaff from a look and climate perspective. Lots of pine trees and fairly dry. Cody, Jason and I hit the MTB course yesterday. Just cruising it took 1hr24min. So, it will be super fast come race day. It is basically flat. There is one ~1:30min hill and that's about it. Flat doesn't mean easy though. There are tons of areas to loose time. Not jamming through the single track, not stomping it on the flat stuff etc. Happy with my Scalpel full suspension. Much of the course is hardtail friendly, but there are some long, bumpy, fire road stretches that the Scalpel just eats up. I typically ride the Fox RP23 on its stiffest propedal setting, but flip it open/more suspension for the choppy sections. NICE! I was able to comfortably stay seated and pedal my big ring hard. It will hurt...different than a climbing race, but power is power.

The run course is over trails similar to the bike. Really great and true trail running. Twisty single track. It will be fast. There is some uphill to, but its fairly isolated. Focus, jam, up you go, back to stretching out the fast cadence on the flat stuff. With a flatter course, although it's hard to tell, time gaps will be a premium without big climbs, so for me the run becomes more important.

After biking yesterday I hit the water. Chilly! Its hard to say if its colder than Tahoe, but certainly equal at least. I double capped it, but still got a pretty massive could headache! Ouch. My hands and feet both got really cold, stiff and nearly numb. After a while I felt better and was able to enjoy the crisp, fresh lake. Dan Hugo was in the water and invited me to do some 20 stroke on 20 stroke off pickups. Fun, hard and fast. I need to step up my race swimming. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Don't think, just GO!

Jumping back in the water today and maybe doing one of the bike loops real easy too.