Epic Mountain Challenge

Two day competition is finally over in the beautiful city of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Had a quick drive from Colorado Springs down to Pagosa with my boys from Colorado, Pro Mountain Bikers Kalan B. repping Orbea & my teammate Russell F. of Trek Factory. Enjoyed the race atmosphere and the unique opportunity to compete and hangout with athletes from mountain biking backgrounds as well as athletes who focus on triathlons off road. Its always interesting to me that mountain sports across the boards use many of the same nicknames and slogans for phrases such as "sand bagging" and "getting dropped". Also found it funny that our training regimens are quite similar in terms of types of workouts. However, when it comes to volume its no secret that mountain bikers put in way more work as it takes more time to build cardiovascular abilities while biking compared to running. The high impact and physical stress that running puts on the body rapidly improves aerobic capacity.

Post Event Interviews

Gear
Race morning was nearly 30 degrees and the ground was pretty solid, but the sunshine was out. That's what I love about the state of Colorado, the sun is always out so it feels warm even when its freezing. I had a slight foot injury that was still bothering me from back at the World Championships when I rattled my plantar by stepping on a sharp rock. So, being that there were 2 days of competing and I knew my teammate needed me to run solid I didn't risk trying to wear a super minimal SCOTT shoe. Instead I went with the soon to be released SCOTT Trail Rocket. Very light weight shoe, however it had a rock plate! The course had some technical sections so I was glad I went with the Trail Rocket. I was able to keep my foot safe over the course of 14 miles in and around the trails on private land in Pagosa.

The Sun was also super bright so I went with my Julbo Race sunglasses to protect me from sun blindness. The back section of the course was exposed to the max so sunglasses were definitely a necessity.

My Buff UV head band also played a huge role in day 1's race. The cold, windy conditions were beastly on the ears so having something to cover them was important. Usually when the ears go numb the eyes follow and then its hard to stay focused on the trail. Being that it was also sunny the BUFF UV head band protected my head from UV rays and provided warmth to the ears. Interesting phenomena for me. I'm sure this is normal for Coloradans, but for me having to wear something for sun protection was never important while training and racing in Washington as the clouds offered protection most of the time. Also when it was cold the sun was not shining. In Colorado the sun and cold go hand and hand so BUFF headwear and Colorado go hand and hand.

The race weekend was amazing and the staff put together a fun event that brought some innovative concepts to the table. The race format for teams consisted of a half marathon trail race (I ended up running quite a bit because I stupidly missed a marker), 20 mile mountain bike, 10k crit style road/trail run, and the last event an uphill time trial up what the locals refer to as the "Rez".

After day 1 due to the format, it was pretty safe to say that if you had a good lead that day 2 would go unnoticed. That's exactly what happened. I was 2nd in my event while my teammate Russell F. blasted his event, separating us from the second place team by a few minutes total. The next day was just tempo work as we entered the day with a 4 minute lead.

Our team name was the Conquistadores so of course we had pressure to leave Pagosa with the victory! Post-Race we had a good time hanging with athletes from across the Globe and spent a little time in the Natural Hot Springs of Pagosa!

 

 

 

Next adventure? Who knows maybe I will just be enjoying my new SCOTT Spark 910 for a while!

 

 

Soon I will be announcing my new sponsor here in Colorado! Stay tuned...