Waco XTERRA

Last weekend, I competed in the XTERRA South Central Championship in Waco, Texas. It was tough to leave the family with a new baby girl only one week old. Her name is Larsen Stella Middaugh and so far she is showing a lot of potential. The race went well, but Conrad was on another level that day. The river swim set me back out of the water and although I had the second fastest bike, Conrad was faster and he started the run with an insurmountable lead. The bike course was like no other with over 300 tight turns and very short steep climbs. It was hard to keep momentum through turns and hard to find a rhythm. Nico and I started the run together and battled for the first two miles. I was able to open up a small gap on the Frenchman and I kept pressing hard for the fastest run split of the day. Next up will be the Teva Mountain Games Ultimate Mountain Challenge on June 5th and 6th. I will kayak and mountain bike on Saturday and trail run and road bike time trial on Sunday. Then it is off to Alabama and Virginia for back to back XTERRAs. Oh, and I finish the first semester of my Masters in Human Movement next week.

XTERRA West Championship, April 25th

Sunday's race in Las Vegas was tough but my fitness felt good. It was my first open water swim of the season which made things interesting. I have been swimming a little faster in the pool this winter, but not fast enought to latch on to the front group of fast swimmers. I ended up in no-man's land for most of the swim but I felt like I held my pace ok and exited the water without too much of a deficit.

The bike course in Vegas was very rocky and very loose. It was my first race on the Felt Nine Team and I was making up good time on all the climbs and after the first lap it was Conrad first and I was about 40 seconds back. Conrad was flying on the descents and rocky sections. Into the second lap I was again gaining time on each climb and I was within about 20 seconds when disaster struck. I flatted about half way through the second lap. I quickly found the leak and I was able to plug it with a Genuine Innovations kit and I refilled it with air. It seemed to be holding but I knew I was losing time to Conrad quickly. By the time I rode into T2 I was about 2:15 down.


My run legs felt pretty good once I hit the climbs and I was about 1:25 down after the first lap of the run. I thought I might still have a shot and I charged the second lap. I came up a little short on the day, finishing 39 seconds down from Conrad Stolz. I knew that my run could only improve from last season but I surprised myself by turning in the fastest run split of the day. Maybe it was the new AVIA shoes? The Americans (Coloradans) finished well on the day with Brian Smith in third and Seth Wealing in fourth. Nico Lebrun from France was in Fifth.

Snowshoe Championships

"The National Snowshoe Championship on Saturday, March 6th was one of the toughest snowshoe races I have ever done. The field was the deepest talent that I have seen at a snowshoe race and the pace was hot from the beginning. Scott Gall wasn't going to leave anything to chance and he pushed the pace from the very start. The two of us had a gap on a very strong second pack before the first mile. Scott kept the pressure through the first 3 miles and I moved into the lead but couldn't shake him. The snow was so soft that every step was a struggle. I kept working every part of the course and every change in terrain looking for an advantage. Finally I was able to put just a small gap during a long climb around mile 4. I attacked every climb over the second half of the course and a couple seconds here and a couple seconds there added up to just enough to secure the win.

I think of snowshoe racing as a pure test of fitness. There were several athletes in the race that were faster road runners than me but that's not the only factor in snowshoe racing. I think that is where my triathlon training and altitude training becomes an advantage. Anything that slows the race down benefits me and the hills and soft snow in New York were the perfect recipe. I had two knee surgeries in November and just started running a little in February. I was a little worried that the pace would be too fast for me right now but I was ok.

The real advantage though is when athletes come to race me at altitude. Sunday was the Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championship which starts around 10,000 feet and goes up from there. After such a tough race in New York the day before and a long day/night of traveling I wasn't sure how I would respond. fortunately I felt more comfortable and 'at home' in the Beaver Creek race and was able to build a very big cushion of almost 2 minutes. After the National race in New York I think everything is going to feel a little easier for a while."

Winter Recap

Since my IT band surgery in November I have been able to gradually work back my fitness. One of the first activities I was able to do (other than push-ups) was skate skiing. The next thing was skinning up the mountain and skiing down (usually at night after Ingrid got home from work and the boys were asleep). Those two activies brought back my aerobic fitness pretty quickly and I was able to start swimming and biking in January. I tried a little snowshoeing at the end of January and it felt pretty good. Before I knew it I was back to winter racing and I was able to put together a little string of victories:

Jan 23rd, Leadville Mountain Bike Series, 1st

January 30th, Pedal Power Winter Triathlon, 1st

February 7th, Beaver Creek Snowshoe Race, 1st

February 20th, Vail Winter Uphill, 1st

February 20th, Pedal Power Winter Triathlon, 1st

March 6th, USSSA Snowshoe National Championship, 1st

March 7th, Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championship, 1st

The highlight of my winter was my back to back snowshoe victories, the first in New York on March 6th and the following day in Beaver Creek. I took a chance and it was worth the trip. I surprised myself with how quickly things have come around, but I know there is more work to do to bring my mountain bike and run around for the XTERRA season. My first XTERRA will be on April 25th in Las Vegas.

Knee surgery

Monday was knee surgery for my IT band repair. I have been injured for about 15 months which has left me unable to run over 5-10 minutes without pain. After 4 months off from running last winter the longest run I was able to do was 20 minutes. Pretty much my only run training was during the XTERRA races which would leave me very sore for and unable to walk stairs without knife-like pains in the side of my right knee. Eventually it started hurting to bike after 30 minutes. I had debated surgery mid-season, but since I was finishing on the podium in all of the races, I decided to finish what I had started and opted for a November surgery.

I am one day out from the surgery and things seemed to have gone well. When Dr. Hackett cut throught he IT band there was a massive amount of fluid and the bursa sac was very enlarged and abnormal. He removed the bursa and also cut an ellipse from the back side of the IT band. The recovery will start slow, but should progress faster after the first 4 weeks. I should be able to try running after 8-10 weeks. Since I haven't run without pain in so long, it seems like a short time.

The photo is the bursa that was removed. Normaly it is just a membrane that is one cell thick and almost invisible to the naked eye.

Race Report: XTERRA World Championship

My season wrapped up on October 25th at the XTERRA World Championships in Maui. After a very consistent season I had high expectations for the race and a specific plan. My goal was to get out of the water in a better position and ride to the front of the race on the bike. Even though I have been unable to run for over a year, I thought I could still hold on with most of the top runners for a top 3 finish.

I exited the water further behind than expected. I was 2:45 off the lead at that point which meant I would have to bike all out from start to finish just to get back into the race. I followed Nico's green kit up most of the climb and worked into the top 5 by Ned's climb. I got word that I was 1:45 behind at that point and I could see a group of 4 riders in the distance. Conrad, Olivier, and Franky, but who was the fourth? I put my head down and went to work on the climb. I reeled in nearly all of the 1:45 gap in that one climb and I hit the plunge about 2 bike legnths behind Conrad. Of course he wailed the downhill like no one else can, but I kept it close enough. Past the Oil Tank I was in 3rd position after passing Olivier and Franky on their 16lb hard tails.

The final 3 miles of the bike were strewn with lava rock and I kept with my strategy to just stay seated and pedal. Riding on Conrad's wheel was Eneko Llanos from Spain. I hadn't counted him in the top 5 since he raced Ironman 2 weeks before, but you can never count out a past champion. I rode past the duo and Conrad latched on. As we entered T2 it was Conrad, myself, and Eneko within just a few seconds of each other.

My run would be a big question mark with lack of run training but I thought I still knew how to run. I was wrong. I just couldn't get it going on the run and I watched the race roll by. Eneko, Conrad, Nico, Franky, Olivier, Weiss, Schumann, and Wealing all ran by. I finished a dissapointing 9th, but I felt I had made it exciting and at least put myself in position. My next battle will be knee surgery for my IT band on November 2nd. It will be great to be able to run again.

The XTERRA USA National Championship took place Saturday in Ogden, Utah. Coincidentally it was also my son Porter's fourth birthday. It was a long drive for some ice cream and cake. The race was the final stop on the XTERRA Cup circuit. For the point series it was a mandatory race and the rankings took the best 5 of 9 races (8 cup races + nationals). Heading into the Saturday I was ranked 3rd behind Conrad Stoltz from South Africa and Nicholas Lebrun of France. Conrad held a pretty secure lead in the series and Nico was just 10 points in front of me, even though I had beat him in 5 out of 6 meetings. The reason for this was the fact that Nico has raced all 8 cup races and I had only raced in 6. Also on the line for me was the US title.When all was said and done, Nico won the race, Conrad second and I was third. Nico had a great race from start to finish especially on the bike and run. He challenged Conrad at the top of the climb after 15 miles of uphill and Conrad responded with a blistering descent and hit the run with a small cushion. Nico ate up Conrad's run and passed him late in the run to take the win. To Conrad's credit, he raced very strong on a course that did not favor his strengths and was build for Nico. From my point of view the race was much less exciting. I exited the water with Nico and about 90 seconds down to the lead. I biked strong for the first quarter of the climb and found myself in second place still in the early stages of the bike. At around mile 4 or 5 Nico came around me to share with the pace setting, but I had trouble sticking to him on the short steeps. From my own doing I found myself alone for most of the rest of the bike. I tried to run hard which was tough to do since I had only ran once in the past 10 weeks. With about 2 miles to go I looked back and saw a hard charging Mike Vine just 10 seconds behind me. Somehow I had a little left in the tank to hold him off, but not enough of a cushion for Porter to cross the finish line with me...maybe next time. He wasn't too disappointed since he got to wear a homemade crown all day (thanks Mom!).

The final final race of the season will be the XTERRA World Championship in Maui on October 25th. Coach Durner at CTS has already cooked up some specific training for next week (I think the term he used was "sufferfest"). We are also looking into some unique acclimating strategies for Maui, just as the weather report is calling for 4 to 6 inches of snow tonight.