The raw food post will have to wait. Here it is Thursday and I’ve barely had time to write of Sunday’s Dirty Xterra race that took place at Canyon Lake, TX.  Here is the recap:

• The course got a lot of rain on Saturday, so much so, that I didn’t even bother bringing the full suspension. Canyon Lake is a VERY rocky, bumpy course. I was looking forward to a little squishy luxury this go round, but the rigid singlespeed workhorse would have to get ‘er done once again.

  

• The lake level was very low. This exposed a lot of rocky, shredded beer can shoreline. One guy had to get stitches from a slashed foot. I myself wasn’t immune to sharp objects and cut my foot exiting the water, but my feet are getting tough from barefooting,so it wasn’t that bad. The race director had a hard time setting one of the buoys, so the swim had to be shortened. This benefitted me since I lose more time the longer the swim is. I’m not afraid of the water or the distance, I just prefer to pass as few people on the trail as necessary since swimming is my weakest sport.
• The longer and harder the bike, however, the more time I make up. The bike course wasn’t quite as muddy as I was expecting, but it was plenty slick and technical enough to separate the men from the boys. 15 miles of trail was all I needed to jump from 44th out of the swim to 4th into the run
• the bike effort earned me the fastest bike split of anyone for the day. This was my primary goal going into the race, and despite riding one of the least technologically advanced bikes out there, I made it happen.
• the 10k run was my first 10k ever. It was probably a little more like 6.5-7 miles,  split into two laps. I again chose to run in my new Mizuno Wave Universe II shoes. (These are ultralight track shoes with hardly any cushioning-I’ve been running/walking barefoot and training enough in these shoes that my foot and leg muscles have become tough enough to resist the beating of a trail run despite minimal cushion) The first lap felt smooth and strong. the second felt ok until 5th place blew by me to retake 4th, a position that he would not relinquish. I started slowing with about 2 miles left, but pushed through the pain to hold my position

  

• 5th overall, 2nd in age group, and like I said, fastest bike split of the day. Overall, I am very pleased with the effort and thought the race was very fun.
• I’m going to work on shaving 20-30 seconds off my swim pace and 1-2 minutes off my run pace to get me in the top 1.

So, with that, the MTB season is also over. The last XC race of the spring was held the same day. Why mountain bike when you swim and run too!? I now focus my efforts on training for the Breckenridge 100 endurance MTB race in late July, but I think a visit up to Little Rock for the regional Xterra cup race might be in order since I’m doing so well in these events and only stand to get better. Thanks for reading, and continue to keep an eye out for the raw food post!