Another Double Please....

races that is, just because I haven't done enough back to back racing already this year!! After Alabama I had what I thought would be a nice three weeks before the next race. Enough time to recover and still get a nice chunk of training in before racing again. It seems the body had a different idea. It took about a week before I could even think about putting in some training efforts then after only a couple of good sessions the legs blew up and all that was left to do was rest into Xterra Richmond. I did manage to finally get unpacked and settled into my new Tucson home which was very nice!! The first year I raced Xterra in 2008 I came to Richmond and barely made it through the bike course, reduced to almost tears by the end and black and blue from hitting the dirt so often. It is truly a unique course on the circuit and is the only race held literally in a urban downtown setting. The swim in the James River constitutes more of a "wet scramble" and usually involves me beaching myself on the shallow rocks at some point during the return crossing. The bike leg twists and turns along mostly singletrack right on the riverbank, through drainage tunnels, over bridges, ramps, and skinnies. The run is a mix of roads, flood water walls, railroad ties climbs (the Mayan Wall), stairs and another scamper across the river. Needless to say with the short sort of swim and longer technical bike Richmond will likely never be "my race" however with a certain amount of changes made by IMBA to the course in the past couple of years and my improved bike handling skills I felt this year I might actually be able to "race it" instead of just "survive it". Got into Richmond Thursday evening after some serious travel snafu's (don't ever fly through O'Hare if at all possible) without my bike. Had a wonderful homestay with fellow racers Katie and SueAnne at Meg and Claude's and thankfully got my luggage back safely the following morning. Katie and I headed out Friday to get in a lap of the bike course and check out the swim while trying not to spend too much time in the +90% humidity, +90 degree temperature weather. Earlier in the week it was announced that the bike course was going to be lengthened by more than 5miles (of singletrack!!) to a 2 lap course. This sparked a great deal of debate over course safety and congestion as well as what the appropriate corresponding swim distance should be. We didn't know exactly what or if the swim course was going to be lengthened but at least we had a good idea of how to get across the river fairly efficiently. After that it was pretty much inside, feet up until race day. Race morning was thankfully cooler than the previous days but still shaping up to be rather warm. Got in my usual warm-up and headed over to the swim early to check out the course buoys as Xterra had added an extra turn in to make the course a bit longer. I was excited to be testing out the new Nineteen WTC legal swim skin (in hot pink!!!) and needed every extra second lead I could manage with such a short swim. The swim got off to a pretty clean start and I managed to navigate the river without running aground on any rocks, exiting just behind the lead group of men. Out onto the bike I could see Mel and Suzie no more than a minute or so behind me. Into the first section of singletrack and not sure exactly what happen but along one of the easiest parts I found myself flying off the trail and right over the bars into the forest, whoops. Really scared the two spectators that happened to have front row seats for the spectacle but thankfully didn't seem to have done much structural damage. It did however shake me up quite a bit and from then on I just couldn't seem to find a good rhythm for the entire rest of the bike. Got into T2 in 4th pretty much in no man's land and was thankful to be trying out the new Bex Runner. I didn't have much left in the tank and was happy to have all the help I could get staying cool. The run amounted to another put one foot in front of the other affair (seem to be having way too many of these lately) and held onto 4th. Happy to finish back on the podium and hold onto 3rd in the series, but painfully aware that the body is simply not recovering between all the races and progressively getting more and more beaten up. I knew when planning out my season that the first half was going to be ugly but had hoped to get through it just a bit sharper. After a couple of days resting in Richmond it was on to Fredericksburg where Branden and I are lucky to be able to "squat" at fellow Xterra chick Suzie Snyder's place before this weekend's race in Washington DC. It will be my 2nd race in the 5150 series and hopefully move me back up in the standings towards qualifying for the Hy-Vee big money race in September. Started the countdown.... only 3 more races before a much needed meet season break:)