In hindsight, things could have been a lot worse-but they could have been a lot better too. With a busted toe that I could barely walk on until Thursday, I wasn’t even sure I’d have the courage to start this race Sunday morning.  Dear old Mom, brother, and niece Lexi also decided to pay me a visit on short notice this past weekend and I didn’t want to give them the cold shoulder for yet “another race”. Their company was very well enjoyed, and didn’t affect the race in any way except one: I drank a lot of beer with them. True, I preach that beer is in no way, form, or fashion part of the Paleo diet, and as Mom whole heartedly pointed out Sunday, she didn’t encourage me to drink any beer (although I’m sure my brother did) I made the conscious decision on my own to let loose and let the good times roll. After all, I had nothing to prove or gain this race. No Nationals qualifying spot on the line, not even an improved season standing to garner. I only get to see family a few times a year. Plus it’s tough to stay motivated when you’re injured. Plus beer just taste really good sometimes…

We started the weekend early Friday with some 3 o’clock beers at Wahoos before heading over to Mellow Johnny’s for packet pickup and a few more beers. Then on to my casa for some grilling, some company from the neighbors, and whole lot more beer. Beer is no longer a regular part of my diet and I just can’t handle alcohol like I used to. A slight headache Saturday morning should’ve told me to take it easy on the Shiner later that day, but I broke yet another cardinal Caveman rule and allowed sensation to overcome common sense.  Shortly after we arrived at Emma Long Park, setup camp, and went swimming, the beer starting flowing, as did the ultra intense Texas sun-not a good combo. Before long, it was 105 degrees and while our lowly little oak tree was providing shade, it wasn’t doing much else to keep us cool, so we decided to make a trip back into civilization to cool down. We found “coolth” in the form of Amy’s Ice Cream. Dairy is a big no no in the Paleo diet as well, but if I was already breaking with routine I might as well do it right, right? So along came a Sweet Cream shake. Mmmm. I’m not gonna lie, shakes and Blue Bell ice cream are two things I really do miss since going to the paleo diet. Having given them up, though, I can’t necassarily tolerate them well either, especially a big serving. It didn’t leave me feeling sick, just a little weird.

Back to camp and things had cooled off a little. Brother got the steaks and veggie ka-bobs cooking on the grill. Well, where I come from you can’t have “grilling”, “steaks”, and “man” in the same sentence without having “beer”, so out comes the brew, until the sun goes down and we all crash from overconsumption of meat, beer, and Texas heat.

Waking up early for an 8am start was not my idea of fun, but I toed the line anyways. A lot folks weren’t sure if I’d be there that day. There were mixed reactions when I showed up with a race # on, anything from “glad you could make it, how’s that toe?” to “WTF! so-and-so said you weren’t coming, now I have to race you?” I was so parched from my weekend of debauchery and hadn’t been awake long enough to take in a good amount of water that I actually started drinking water from the lake while we were waiting for the swim start. Horn goes off and the race is on. The first 500m lap felt ok, but I could definitely tell I was dragging but today. Get up on the beach, run out on to the dock, jump back in, start the second lap, except I was too winded from the run and had to back paddle a few seconds to catch my breath.

2nd 500m loop just hurt. It seemed I was getting slower and slower. Waves that started 3-5 min back were catching me. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but for whatever reason made sighting difficult. At least my sloppy form was allowing me to drink a bit more water from the lake. The final 100m seemed to go on forever, but I finally made my way to the beach and up to T1.

Big Tex and I get to rolling the bike course. It didn’t take long for me to figure out something was wrong. The first few miles are a gradual climb to the main loop. In my head I wanted to attack this course with the same veracity as I did Camp Eagle. My body would have none of it though. Heart rate and breathing were absolutely spiked. Short of stopping on the trail and waiting, I couldn’t recover. This first 3-4 miles of the course goes through an archery range and is usually off limits to bikers.  I had never ridden it before but hadn’t heard anything bad about it from people that have. I grossly underestimated the effort it would take to get through it.

I had set Big Tex up with a solid build for this race. Big tires and robust wheels. Emma Long is not a course where you want to second guess your equipment. I didn’t really consider it to be a course with much climbing, therefore weight wasn’t much of an issue, but the archery range proved me wrong. At least what the bike lacked in climbing performance, it made up for in technical capability. I was able to get back into a rhythm after reaching the motocross (MX) loop. Big Tex made mince meat out of this extremely technical and demanding trail. As usual, I clawed and gnawed my way up the ranks, somewhere around 50th up to 7th place. I caught up with Shonny V. near the end of the MX loop. She had double flatted and was in need of air, so I dropped her my pump and kept going. I was sad to leave the MX loop and get back on the archery trail to return to the finish. It had a slightly different cutoff from the in direction that took us up one hill that I would normally be able to ride. My heart rate was again spiked and I recall barely having the strength to push my bike up it. Other than Breckenridge and 24 hours of Rocky Hill, I can’t recall a moment where my body had so rebelled against my will. It was almost another moment of defeat like I had at Breckenridge earlier this summer.

My competitive spirit prevailed though, and and it was a quick jaunt from there back to T2 where there were only a handful of racked bikes and a few people in sight heading out for the run. It was far from my best bike effort and didn’t meet my goal of a top bike split, but on a day like today, 7th fastest time on two wheels would have to do.

Even though I had runners in sight before heading up the steep cliff, I didn’t have the strength or confidence to run them down. In fact, I ended up conceding the first place age group win to Joey Guajardo (pictured with me above) in the run. When he passed me, I didn’t realize he was in my age group, and that I was in the lead, so I let him slowly slip away. I wish I hadn’t. The first half of the run had a lot of climbing and found me walking a lot more than I was accustomed to. A high heart rate was still plaguing me. Much like my bike felt sluggish on the ride, I chose to wear the heaviest trail running shoes I have so as to protect my injured toe.  I never run in those shoes and the extra weight/padding had a substantial effect on my pose stride. I did strike that foot on rocks a few times, and the extra traction was nice, especially on the last scuffle back down the cliff side, so it was probably the wise choice. Despite what I felt to be a horrible run, I only lost 1 spot and held on for 8th overall and 2nd in age group.

The race left me pretty banged up, no to mention mentally drained. I left it all out there, and given the promising performance at Camp Eagle, it was hard to be pleased with my effort. But then I go back and think of the few days and attitude leading up to this race and realize I didn’t even deserve that! So, given the conditions, I’m proud of my effort and can use this race as a learning example. Sadly, this wraps up my first full Xterra season. Not a bad one, I might add. Several top 10 overalls and several podiums for the age group. Swimming and running have shown strong consistent improvement, and there’s even lots of room for improvement on the bike. I can’t wait til next year’s Xterra season kicks off! Thanks for Reading. YOU guys are the best.
Caveman

Mike Carter told me after the Dirty Xterra at Canyon Lake that I had a future in Xterra. After the race at Camp Eagle this past Sunday, I’m starting to believe him. It wasn’t quite what I’d call a “breakthrough race”, but it was close. Assuming the swim course was marked accurately, I posted a PR swim of 21:00 min flat for a 1000m swim, including a long uphill run to T1. I seem to do quite well in cooler water and with a wetsuit on! The folks I was looking to compete with this very day had exited the water in about 17 minutes. A 4 minute gap would be much easier to bridge than the 8-20 mins I have been struggling against the last few races. Especially on a course as technical as this one. I wasted no time whatsoever in getting Big Tex up to speed and plowing through this rocky, rooty, ledgy course just about as fast I could. I was damn determined to catch the leaders and confident I could duke things out in the run, my run training having received a little more attention as of late. It wasn’t just about going from 40^th out of T1 to 5^th into T2 either. It was about getting the fastest bike split of the day, my specialty at these kinds of Xterra races. The 46:14 bike split took the top honors I was looking for, edging out PRO female racer Shonny Vanlandingham who is back in her home state of Texas for a few days to do these hill country Xterras and visit family. Female, yes. Not able to whoop up on the all the local boys out there? Hell no! Well, all except one 😉 I should mention just for kicks that Shonny is borrowing my truck while she’s in town. The race promoters weren’t able to secure a rental car for her, so I volunteered mine. I hardly drive it anyways. Funny thing, she drives the same Mazda truck that I do back home in Durango, only with 4 wheel drive. Furthermore, Shonny and I both grew up in the DFW area. So it’s interesting to me how much I never knew I had in common with this cool person, but I digress.

So I left T2 in 5^th place, but I knew one of the guys I passed near the end of the bike would surely catch me in the run. Sure enough he did, going up the ½ mile climb to the top of Texas (the name of the trail). However, two more runners up ahead revealed themselves to my line of sight. I’m not the hungry dog you want chasing you if you are a scared rabbit. As soon as I recovered from that climb, it was go time. Pretty soon I caught Mike Carter, the man who says I have a future (he’s also the race director for Xterra Austin this coming weekend!). He was a little winded for small talk and I was on the hunt for some tastier meat so he just let me on by. A few minutes later, there was 4^th place.

But then a few seconds later things took a turn for the worse, literally. Right past the final aid station, I missed a crucial turn and got off course. I got maybe another quarter mile before a bike course marshal spotted me, only to break the bad news, so I turned back around, found that turn I missed and did the only thing a Caveman knows to do, I kept going. Slightly demoralized, I allowed fatigue to set in and got slopply on my stride. Those of you who familiar with my run philosophy know that I run in superlight road racing flats, no matter the conditions. Up to that point, they had done pretty well. One loose, rocky descent hurt a bit, but pain is the price I pay for more efficient stride and faster overall times. No matter what shoe you are wearing, this is not a run course where you want your stride to get sloppy, much less the minimalist, unprotected foot coverings I was sporting. Before the first creek crossing on the Duck trail, about a mile from the finish, I stubbed the left big toe hard on a rock. I’ve stubbed the right toe several a time, but nothing ever this severe. I hobbled on one leg for a while then put that left foot back down and back to work. I could tell the toenail was peeled back when I hit the water and it stung like hell. My chance for the overall podium vanished as soon as I took that wrong turn, but I still didn’t want to drop any more spots in the overall than I had to, so pushed through the pain and crossed the line strong. Despite what I estimate to be 6.5 min loss to that wrong turn, I only dropped to 7^th overall (6th if you don’t count the one relay team ahead of me), and still ended up winning the age group. This was a course that definitely favored a strong biker, and I was thankful for that.

So that’s what I mean by not quite being a breakout race. The day I crest 18min for the swim and have a top 3 run split to go with that top bike split, now that will be a breakout race. With a bum toe, it’s questionable whether or not I’ll race this Sunday, much less get that breakout performance, but time will tell. If not this year, there is always next year. I feel in my soul that I am bound for greatness in this sport. With the right tools and determination, reaching Pro status is all just matter of time and patience. Thanks for reading. I’ve been working hard on a whole new comprehensive bike fit section of the site. It will be posted by week’s end. Peace out.

p.s. that little trophy next to mine belongs to Cupcake. She raced strong for a nice 3rd place finish. Way to go  babe!

I’ve got more or less favorable news from this weekend’s Xterra race at Camp Eagle, but it can wait. Last Thursday at the weekly Driveway crit series here in Austin, a man named Kevin Underhill had a catastrophic crash in the 4/5 race. I was not there, but I do attend this race regularly. I do not know the full details of his crash, but he sustained major trauma to the head. Everyone who did see it says it’s the worst carnage they have ever seen. He was knocked unconscious and there was lot of blood. He was rushed to Brackenridge hospital, treated, and held in stable condition. Eventually though, he succumbed to the injuries and passed away Sunday night.

Kevin was active in the climbing and cycling community here in Austin. This is a huge loss to us all. It makes me step back and realize the great risk we take every time we pin a number to the back of our jerseys and proceed to push our bodies and mental capacities to the limit in the spirit of competition and greater fitness. I could easily hang up the wheels and say I’m not racing anymore after something like this. I’m too young to die. An event like this will surely have several of the racers out there thinking the same thing. But truth is, we take greater risks day in and day out. Just getting behind the wheel of a car is statistically more dangerous than taking to the pedals of a race like this. Yet, none of us think twice about putting the key in the ignition and cranking that engine over before heading out to wherever it is going. Even as strong and well rounded as we athletes are, we all make poor decisions that put our lives at risk daily.

Kevin died doing what he loved, and in this, I take great comfort. People who knew him well say that he’d want us to keep on keeping on, and that is what I shall do. Kevin’s loss will be a sharp reminder of the risks the sport bears though. To not respect the consequences is to not respect the value of human life. Rest in peace, Kevin, and may the wind always be to your back.

-Greg

The Austin American Statesman has issued an obituary that will run in Tuesday’s paper.

Lots of small updates here.

First, I did the driveway crit last Thursday on the new (old) Trek Elance 400. I signed up for the P/1/2/3 race, my first official big time race since upgrading to a Cat 3. It was stupid hot, there  was one bad crash, and the attacks on the short course were relentless. We started with 40 riders, ended with 19. I happened to be #15. So, a good showing that I was very pleased with and only hope to improve upon.

This past Tuesday, I ventured down to South Austin for the bi-weekly Run-Far Time Trials. It’s basically a timed workout over 8 miles of slightly rolling Mopac shoulder. It was almost a bit intimidating showing up and everyone’s got skinsuits, aero helmets, and disc wheels, but I hate using technology as an excuse to not do as well, so I left it all out there on the course. Time of 19:19 (24.9mph) was not quite what I had hoped for, but not too far from what I expected, especially being my first time out there. It had me at 30th overall. Just 30 seconds faster would’ve put me in top 20. 1 min faster in the top 10. So, the bar has been set. Time to raise it (or lower it, depending on how you look at it)

I got an email yesterday confirming that I have qualified for Xterra Nationals in Odgen, Utah September 26. More good news, yes, but I will likely decline as it will be a costly trip and I don’t quite feel like I’ve reached national level caliper after only 1 year of doing triathlons-mainly in the swimming development.

I’d like to thank the Travis County Appraisal District for reaming me on my property value. Despite presenting an official appraisal valuing the house $40k less than what they were proposing, they didn’t back off much and so my taxes will continue to climb out the roof. Travis county has been particularly aggressive about raising propertie values this year. Government overspending? Budget shorfalls? Nah, they couldn’t possibly be related to raising my taxes! Don’t bite the hand that feeds ya, Uncle Sam.

Looking ahead, I’ve got an exciting week coming up. This weekend is the Camp Eagle Xterra, the off road tri that launched my Xterra career one year ago! Then it’s back to town for some recovery in time for the Austin Xterra the following weekend. So, keep an eye out for those race reports, and maybe all the other posts I keep saying I’ll put up!

Boy, I’ve been slacking on the blog thing lately. Not much racing going on.  I will mention briefly that there is yet another new bike in the stable. Not new at all, but new to me. I came across a 1985Trek Elance 400 on CL for a price i couldn’t resist. When I first started looking for an old steel frame to make into a race bike, a Trek was most dear to my heart, but after several failed attempts on CL and Ebay, and a succesful bid on a Ross Frame, and later the Bridgestone RB-2,  I gave up on the Trek. Well now I’ve got one! And the Bridgestone is for sale if you’re interested. I’ll be posting that up later.

I wish I had more time to write about all the stuff I want to write about, but if you actually run a blog, you know how impossible that is. Too many other priorities. One part of Health Tips that has been greatly missing is Bike Fit. Hopefully by starting this post, I’ll  be motivated to crank that post out. So, as always, stay tuned.