D2D Race Report & Strength Training

The Dawn to Dusk 10hr MTB race was a blast.  Our Focus Cyclery, 4-man team took 2nd place on the day by completing 10x16 miles laps in roughly 9hrs 30min.  I was the slow guy on the team, which sucked, but fortunately my speediness didn't keep our team from winning.  Phew.  Big props to Lane, Travis and Dan, my teammates, for pushing hard and picking up the slack!  Our first two guys, Lane and Travis, did 3 laps each while Dan and I did 2 laps each.  For context, my teammates turned laps in the 54min - 57min range while I turned in 2x1:01 laps.  For only my 2nd day of riding with any intensity in the last month, I'll take it.  My lungs were searing from start to finish because of the effort and my cold, but the goal for the day was to have fun and I definitely did.  

 

One of my early season objectives is to really focus on the bike and nothing gets the body and, even more importantly, the mind ready like sport-specific racing.  I never, ever go as hard on the MTB portion of an Xterra as I did during this race.  There's no excuse why I shouldn't go just as hard in an Xterra.  It's not a matter of needing to pace during an Xterra to save energy for the run, it's simply a matter of me not pushing hard enough.  I am working on it now though!  Good things to come.

 

I want to send a shout-out to Coach Grasky for his fantastic solo effort at the race.  He did 128 miles on a mountain bike in one sitting over 9hrs.  Wow.  I can't imagine.  Great work! 

 

I started a formal strength training program today.  It is modeled after Patrick Hagerman's book, Strength Training for Triathletes.  I am focused on spending roughly 3-4hrs/week on strength for 12 weeks.  This does include flexibility and core work.  I anticipate having to slim this down a bit as my training hours ramp up.  Only so many hours in a day.