Posts Tagged ‘Caveman’
A pre-able to tuesdays’ race report for XTERRA USA Champs, Ogden.
Melanie McQuaid, myself, Shonny Vanlandingham and Josiah Middaugh “teaching” The Art of XTERRA at the Paul Mitchell XTERRA University. Pics by Nils Nilsen
I dont have 3hrs to write a good race report right now, but I know monday everyone spends half the day on their Facebook and reading about the weekends race results before real work starts, so here is a quick little something something about the weekend.
I’m driving to Reno today (9hrs) so I can get back to training for Maui in 4 weeks.
I finished 2nd behind Nico Lebrun on this mountain goat course, but nailed my 7th XTERRA USA Series title. More about this tomorrow.
This is a quick peek at this whirlwind weekend.
Champions’ training. Different strokes for different folks…
In search for the holy grail of sports performance, Irish National Team ITU member, Gavin Noble (Dublin Triathlon Champion this past weekend) cranks out the Watts in the lab. This kind of lab testing will give Gav and his coach all kinds of numbers they can play with in training. Tests will be repeated often, charts plotted and if all goes well, high fives given.
These delicious little numbers makes the guy in the sweater with the clip board’s toes curl. Race times can be projected, tactics formulated and athletes can be compared to each other even before the starters’ gun bangs.
Read more about Gavin and Aleksandar and my swim sets on Igor’s blog.
Our other TriathlonTeam.org team mate, Will Clarke (British ITU Triathlon member and National Champion) really winds it up on the track. Looks like fellow GB Team mate and Chicago Tri winner, Stuart Hayes hanging on for dear life.
Bigger than you can imagine group track sessions typically forms the mainstay of their training. (they train up to 40hrs a week) These are blood and guts sessions. Coaches needs to be impressed, fellow athletes intimidated, but most of all, the times they do around the carefully measured 400m serves as building blocks of confidence and self belief to be drawn upon at the next race.
Enter The Caveman.
Rich Cruse was my boss for 10 minutes
I met sports photographer Rich Cruse at my 1st XTERRA– Richmond VA 2001.
Since then we have become close friends, but also we managed to do a lot of business together. He would shoot pics at races and make me look good- not an easy task- and I would offer it to the press and sponsors who would buy them off Rich. That way Rich made a living, I looked somewhat good, and the sponsors and magazines got great pics.
I attended Vineman 70.3 this past weekend to work at the Avia stand– my shoe sponsor. We worked the expo and race day, sold shoes and had great meals and wine afterward. Shoe designer Ike and I also brainstormed on the 2010 Avia AVI STOLTZ.
From the AVIA booth I saw Rich sprint across a big field with about 60lbs of camera gear flapping in the wind. I ran over and offered to help him carry. We got to the finish just before Aussie Joe Gambles, the winner. I wanted to give Rich’s camera back but he said:“Shoot!”
So I “shot”:
Thanks for the credit Rich!
Customizing your Specialized Epic for mud.
Caveman style, of course!
Problem: The sticky Vermont mud clogged up my Specialized Epic’s rear triangle. The sticky tires then picked up dead leaves and really stuffed it tightly between wheel and frame. This was taken in training 2 days before the race.
Caveman solution:
Take a 1 liter water bottle, cut it to bits and zip tie it to the frame. It fills the space and helps the mud slide off the bike. I sprayed WD 40 (or cooking oil) on the plastic and frame to stop the mud from sticking. I dont know of anyone whos made this cool mud guard before. See, I didnt need University math to become an engineer!
Sprint finish with Seth Wealing for 2nd…
Sprint finish with Seth Wealing for 2nd… Pic by Nori’s iPhone
This is the race report from Trey Garman at XTERRA. For press, email trey@xterraplanet.com. The XTERRA home page is www.xterraplanet.com
(I will write my own report after breakfast)
Sugarbush Resort – Warren, VT (July 12, 2009) – The two reigning XTERRA European Tour Champions, Frenchman Nicolas Lebrun and Swiss sensation Renata Bucher, won the inaugural XTERRA Northeast Cup on a muddy yet magnificent course at Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont today.
