XTERRA Lake Tahoe Race Report

I raced the XTERRA Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, NV two days ago.  I am still sore.  Still a little disappointed in how I performed as well. 

I arrived in Nevada early Thursday afternoon and settled into a nice hotel in Carson City.  It was cheap and not too far from the race venue on the northern part of the lake.  I got some great sleep on Thursday evening and headed over to the race course on Friday for a pre-ride. 

My first impressions of the bike course: sandy and long climb, beautiful mid-section along the “Flume Trail”, and a not so easy descent.  I wore my heart rate monitor and noted that my heart rate was very high along parts of the trail, even though I was trying to take it easy.  At the summit of the climb, at over 8500 ft elevation, the trees stopped growing and a somewhat tricky descent began.  I had a few falls on the descent, but neither I nor the bike was damaged.  I knew that I’d be hurting on race day.

 

Race morning was perfect and the lake temperature was 68 deg.  The swim was two 750m laps in crystal clear water with a 100m lap in between.  I think it was the first swim where I felt very comfortable.  I had the 18^th fastest swim time on the day, which was pretty good for me.  That was one aspect of the race I was happy with, along with decent transitions in T1 and T2.

 

I pushed hard for the first 4.5 miles up a soft and sandy road that led to the start of the Flume Trail.  I wasn’t wearing a heart rate monitor, but I knew my heart was pounding.  I could recover on the Flume for a decent amount of time.  I also was concerned about being stuck behind someone prior to entering the Flume—a narrow path cut along the side of a mountain with hazardous steep drop-offs on the side.  There were a lot of impassable areas.  Luckily, I had no one in front or behind me, so I navigated the Flume safely without any slowdowns.  I recovered fairly well during the Flume and prepared for the second steep ascent of the race at mile 11.  I was pushing pretty hard and was feeling gassed by the time I reached mile 14.  Elevation may have had some role in my exhaustion, but my legs were screaming.  My Garmin showed 2750 ft elevation gain during the race, so there was a good bit of climbing.

Elevation profile of the bike course.  Steep & sandy climb from mile 2-5.  Flume trail is about mile 5-9.

 

The descent wasn’t one where I could recover substantially.  There were a lot of tricky areas which required some skills that I just don’t have.  So I fell a few times, my chain popped off, and lost a good amount of time trying to get off the mountain safely.  The final four miles of the course weren’t tricky, so I took a few chances and rode them fast—loose sand was the only foe, but I managed to stay upright.

At the highest point.  Trees don't even grow there!

 

A nice view toward the Reno suburbs from the summit

I had a pretty good bike to run transition and had a decent pace for the first mile.  Then I cramped in my quads.  Real bad cramps slowed my pace to a crawl.  I swallowed some Hammer Enduralites and ate a gel, but they didn’t go away.  I jumped off a rock and my quads just cramped more—what a stupid thing to do!  I could have easily run around the rocks, but I jumped nonetheless.  Then I tripped on a rock—I stubbed my big toe and went down hard.  My glasses fell off and I got covered in dirt.  Cramps were absolutely ripping me up from mile two to mile three so I swallowed several more Enduralites.  I didn’t have water, so I didn’t have anything to wash them down.  One of the capsules was stuck on the back of my throat and eventually partially dissolved.  So instead of having the pill dissolve in my stomach, it was still in a powder form in my throat.  I coughed and it went into my nasal cavity and almost made me vomit.  I got some water from the water station at the halfway point and tried to wash it down somewhat.  I was a mess!  Around mile 5, the cramps slowly started to disappear so I pushed my pace a little harder to the finish. 

So it was a bad race for me, even though I finished 9^th overall and 2^nd in my age group.  That’s okay though—it will certainly push me to work harder in preparation for Nationals in Ogden, UT next month.  I was humbled by that bike course—I’m still bruised and sore from it.  I thought my fitness was pretty good going into the race, but it obviously was not.  Time to step it up…