Weekend Riding Chattanooga

It's always a blast to ride new trails. This past weekend, seven of my riding buddies and I made the two and a half hour trip to Chattanooga TN for a weekend of mountain biking. We spent Friday and Saturday evening bicycle bar hopping and exploring the Chattanooga waterfront. Saturday was filled with a day of riding the trails at the Ocoee River State Park. The fall colors and colossal valleys provided a breathtaking backdrop to ride. We capped off the weekend riding Tennessee's newest trails at Raccoon Mountain. I don't remember having so much fun on a bicycle since childhood. The 16 plus miles of smooth rolling single track served up the perfect combination of technical switchbacks and fast roller coaster descents.

The only black triathlete?

While competing in Hawaii, I noticed that I appeared to be the only African American competitor. My wife Kira recently wrote an interesting post about it in her blog Brilliant Color. So, am I the only one?

Vulcan 10k

Note to self: Respect all races. This was the lesson I learned today after running the Vulcan 10k. With a relatively flat course, cool weather, and no swim/bike beforehand, this should have been a walk in the park for me. However, I failed to realize the effects of an epic race less than a week old, followed by a week of tropical vacation living, and 20 hours of travel ending two nights before the run. I felt strong for the first 3 miles, easily maintaining a 5:30 mile pace. However, leg and side cramping caused the race to take a drastic turn for the worst after the midway point. Unlike Xterra Worlds in Hawaii, I was able to keep running to the finish, albeit in serious pain. I ended up just over 38 minutes, which is still respectable for a first ever 10k race. However, realizing that there was a minute difference in mile pace between the two race halves, and barely a hint of windedness at the end, I know that was far from my potential. As my last planned race of the season, I'll have plenty of time to sort out the cramping issues.

Hawaii Part 2

I woke up two hours before the race feeling strong. In an attempt to stay out of the sun, I warmed up for the run on the treadmill in the air conditioned hotel fitness room. Next, I went for an easy 5 mile road ride on my mountain bike, and finally headed over to the race start to get warmed up in the water. As we all lined up for the start, which is supposed to be a mass run into the water from the beach, many eager racers inched 15 to 20 yards into the surf. Race officials ordered us to move back, however the race gun went off with many racers still fully submerged in the water with a substantial head start. This was somewhat irritating, but something I will definitely keep in mind for the future. The surf was noticeably rougher than the previous days, making it very difficult to sight the boys and shore. The mad dash for the first buoy resulted in a huge bottleneck of flailing arms and legs. Unfortunately I got caught in the crowd; however I was able to put the power down after the first buoy and get in a better position for the second lap. Coming out of the water, I was well positioned at #3 in my age group and thirty fourth overall. After a smooth transition, I grabbed my bike and began the most difficult part of the race. The pain started about 1 mile into the bike. Approximately 3/4 of the 19 mile mountain bike course was climbing. After spending the summer getting much stronger on my local trails and roads, I had a lot of confidence going into the bike. Most of that confidence was humbled on the first in a series of grueling climbs. While this race is notorious for a section called “heartbreak hill”, they all seemed pretty heartbreaking to me. The extreme climbing started the first of what would be some serious cramping issues later on in the race. Normally, some muscle recovery can be found on the descents. However, the descents were so steep, loose, and littered with sharp volcanic rock, that it took most of my strength just to keep my bike upright. My Gary Fisher Hi-Fi gave me plenty of confidence on the descents, as evidenced by my constant jockeying for position between the climbs and descents. Fortunately, I made it through the bike without any crashes or mechanical mishaps. After racking my bike, I quickly headed off for the run. I started off feeling strong, even gaining position. However, after about 800 yards from transition, I developed a small side stitch. Within the first mile, this turned into crippling chest and abdominal cramps, slowing me down to a walk and finally a complete stop. Although I contemplated dropping out of the race a few times, the thought of traveling over 4000 miles for a race and not finishing was enough to keep me going. The cramping never went away during the run, but the intensity wavered based on exertion. Although I was able to finish, I was forced to walk and jog for the majority of the run. With the goal of a top 5 age group finish coming into this race, I was disappointed with my 16th place finish. However, since this was my first triathlon season, and by far the hardest race that I have ever done, it served as an amazing learning experience both mentally and physically. Due to the large number of variables, there is a lot of mystery surrounding cramping. I feel as though my prerace nutrition and hydration needs were well met. However, my initial theory is that the cramping issues were more related to a failure to replicate extended periods (more than 2 hours)of race level exertion in training, and improper nutrition during the race. I plan on consulting with a doctor on these issues in the coming weeks. On the plus side, I feel that with more experience and training under my belt, combined with my speed, natural talent, and determination, I can compete on the same level as the best in the world.

Hawaii Part 1

The trip to Maui started out well. After arriving Wednesday evening and taking two nights to get used to the 5 hour time difference, I felt in top form. Luckily I was able to get a room at the Mau Prince Hotel (the host venue for the race). I originally planned on swimming Wednesday evening to loosen up after a full day of travel. However after talking to the valet, who happened to be a recreational swimmer, I decided that the risk of encountering a tax collector in the dark beach waters was too great. Waiting until Thursday morning, I went for a 20 minute ocean swim on the race course, followed by an easy loop around the 4 mile practice course set up for the bike (no pre-riding of the mountain bike course allowed), and an easy 15 minute run. The choppy waters, extremely hilly terrain, and a noticeable lack of shade, summed up my initial impressions of the course. After repeating the previous day’s routine in the morning, I went on a sightseeing tour of the Road to Hana. This is an infamous 37 miles of road with more twists, turns and elevation change than I have ever seen. My wife, Kira, started out driving with me riding shotgun. However after a few miles it became clear that I was going to either get car sick or go crazy, so I took the wheel for the rest of the journey. Beautiful mountain top ocean views, waterfalls, black sand beaches, caves, and roadside banana bread and breadfruit combined to make this trip worth the journey. I spent Saturday relaxing, hydrating, and putting the final touches on our costumes for the post race Halloween Party. We went to Maui Tacos in Kehei, so I could chow down on a prerace Burrito (favorite prerace food). It turns out that I wasn’t the only Xterra racer that enjoys a good Burrito. I met age grouper Rife Hilgartner and pro Ryan Ignatz from Colorado. They gave me the tip to run slime filled inner tubes to combat the huge thorns that line parts of the race course. This turned out to be great advice. I ended up racing passed a number of competitors suffering from flats on race day.