4th at Xterra World Championships!!!!

Had a great race on Sunday to take 4th at worlds.  Great end to a long season.  I'm currently in the middle of suffering through my 15+hour trip home and looking forward to some serious sleep when I finally get there.  Congrats to all the athletes who gave it their all on Sunday!!! Full thoughts, comments, photos (maybe even some from the post race Halloween costume party) soon. 

'Twas the night before Xterra worlds...

and all through the incredibly hot condo people were running around like crazy trying to get everything ready to race. Okay, well maybe it was just me, but it was certainly hot as the two portable air conditioning units in our condo have been running full blast since we got here and still haven't managed to cool the place off to a comfortable level. Hopefully that means we will all be better acclimatized for the blast furnace tomorrow. I finally arrived at the condo Wednesday evening around midnight and since that was about 6am EST my body decided it was time to wake up, gotta love jetlag. Thursday was a crazy day starting with filming a TV interview with www.xterra.tv for the broadcast of the race. I then jumped on the bike and headed out to the practice course for a quick spin. The race course is on private land and not open until race day so we have a short loop to ride on that gives everyone the chance to remember what it is like riding on the loose chunky lava. Usually I find the practice loop much tougher than the race course and almost unrideable. This year the loop was in great condition. With a couple of days of rain earlier in the week all the lava dust was nicely packed down and tacky. Apparently the roads on the course have also been graded this year which could make for a super fast bike. I finished up the training for the day with a quick run along the last couple of miles of the run course and jumped in ocean to cool off. After a quick stop at the condo to drop off the bike and clean up it was off to the airport to pick up Mike and Sarah. They both got in no problem, however, Sarah's bike seemed to have been left in Toronto and was following somewhere behind her. It finally arrived in well after 11pm. The last two members of the condo, Dave and Bobby Rakita were going through the same hassle with Branden's bike and joined us later for a great grilled meal. (Sarah is a chef and has been cooking up some tasty dishes - check out her blog for great stories and recipes www.sarahcaylor.blogspot.com) Friday it was up early again so that Branden and I could do the swim clinic as part of the Xterra University presented by Paul Mitchell. We had a great turnout and hopefully passed on some good information for the swim tomorrow. We also scored some great Paul Mitchell product, unfortunately it might put me over the weight limit trying to fly it all back home. Today it was a quick swim, bike, run in the morning then back to the condo to relax and pack. As usual things took a bit longer and I had to scramble to get back to the race site to do another photo shoot for the race broadcast. I was picked along with Julie Dibens, Melanie McQuaid, Leslie Patterson, and Shonny V. as one of the five pro women to look for. Not bad company to be part of, hopefully a good sign for tomorrow. Now it is off to the race briefing and pre-race dinner. All the work is done, time to relax and get ready to race!!!!

Mike and Bob (the chicken) on the practice course

Sarah and I riding down Cactus alley

Lava, Lava, Lava

Paul Mitchell Haul!!!

The Competition

Maui Bound

Not a bad place to be headed at the end of October, though I have to say the weather has cooperated and let me get in all the training needed before the World Championships. Unfortunately it is going to be a quick trip, in and out for the race with little time to spend relaxing on the beach. I've given up trying to explain to people not associated with triathlon that this does not constitute a vacation!! Until after the race on Sunday there will be minimal time even spent outside, forget laying on the beach or engaging in any fun water sports. So I am in the Vancouver airport after an uneventful 5 hour flight from Toronto. (didn't get charged for the bike and empty middle seat) 3hour layover here then 6 hrs to Maui. Long day!! Next post from Hawaii!!!! Okay so the WiFi still works on the plane so I will add a bit more. I seem to be stuck in the baby section. At least three of them are screaming right now. Oh joy. Especially since I am on east coast time and it is already 9pm. Hopefully they will get it all out and sleep for the flight. Make that 5, 2 more just sat down. Good thing I brought earplugs!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

That is to all the Canucks out there. I am spending the long weekend up at the cottage in Muskoka enjoying the amazing fall colours and incredible weather so I decided to change up the the blog to reflect the season. A little hard to read but kinda fun anyways. Sunday we had a great family dinner with my Aunt, Uncle and four cousins on my Mum's side, stuffing ourselves with the usual turkey and such then finishing off the evening with a spirited game of dice, which coincidentally I won!

Only two weeks to go before Xterra Worlds and training has been going great. It is always motivating to come off a great race and put in a block of training right after still feeling good. It just seems easier to dig deep when you have just been reminded of how all the hard work pays off. I am just finishing off the last couple of hard workouts before taper time!!!

Not much of a post, but hey life can't always be super exciting!!

Couple of more photos from Xterra USA in Utah.

5th at Xterra USA Nationals!!

Finally put together a really great Xterra race this season with a 5th place at USA Nationals. (up from 9th last year) The altitude really made it tough but I felt strong the whole way, even had the 3rd fastest run behind uber runners Leslie Patterson and Carina Wasle (both likely well under 100lbs) Struggled through the swim a bit, really feeling the lack of swim training after the shoulder injury 3 weeks ago and getting totally dunked and swum over at the start. I ended up leading the 2nd pack out of the water. Got into a good groove on the bike and other than Mel who had a great swim and was flying, held off the other girls much further than previous years. Leslie and Shonny caught me just at halfway through the bike, Sarah and Jenny about three quarters of the way, and Renata and I rode into transition together. Renata surged once we hit the single track and I couldn't hang on and had to let her go. Then just passed halfway I reeled her back in and passed her with Sara visible just ahead. I passed Sara with about 2miles to go and had Jenny in my sights. With the last mile straight downhill I knew that I had to catch her by the top of the last climb and she was running scared knowing I was right behind her. She got over the top a bit in front of me and held me off to the end. No matter, great race. Now its off to pack up the bike and hed over to the post race party!!!!

Xterra USA Podium

Xterra USA Series Podium

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words...

So instead of trying to write a whole bunch I have decided to post pictures with some brief comments in between. After the Muskoka Triathlon way back in July I had a nice three week block of training before heading down to Windsor to do the sprint triathlon there. One of only a couple races in Ontario with prize money it is a favourite among the local elite racers. The coach wasn't nearly as impressed so I went into the race pretty worked over but still looking for the win. James Loaring's sister Char graciously offered up the family home in Windsor for a whole group of us to stay at and even hosted the post-race get together. Race morning turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer. The swim was 1km in Lake St Clair and wasn't even waist deep the majority of the way. The elite wave decided on our own rule to swim, not dolphin dive, the swim, though Sean Bechtel did take a few extra off the start to get out ahead of the field. The 30km bike was flat and fast and even the wind at 35+km/hr didn't evaporate the sweat that was pouring off of me. I headed out onto the run feeling like I was going to either pass out or throw up (or both) and struggled just to finish. It was definitely the longest 6km run of my life (likely also the slowest). The post race party was a blast and I added another win and some money to the bank account. Not a bad weekend.

Into T2 at the Windsor Triathlon

Windsor Triathlon Women's Top Five

Post-race Fun

The very next weekend I was excited to race again at the first off-road triathlon held in Ontario in a very long time. Put on by James Kowalewski at http://www.elementracing.ca/, the 'Mine' over Matter Triathlon was held at the Kelso Conservationa Area just outside Toronto. Unlike the weekend before, a cold front moved in late Saturday afternoon and preceeded to dump serious amounts of rain throughout the evening. The rain stopped just as I pulled into the venue and thankfully stayed away for the race but the trails were super slick and most of us were pretty thankful the race stayed away from the technical stuff and I definitely rode conservatively, though I still managed to slide of the trail and into the bushes the second time down the escarpment. I led Karsten Madsen and the rest of the field out of the swim and through the first lap of the bike, getting passed by Karsten and two other guys on the second lap. I headed out onto the run fourth overall and first women and held that position to the end. Despite the weather James put on a great race and sounds as though he is working on expanding to a couple of races next year, even reviving the Guelph Lake off-road Tri, very exciting.

My Dirty bike after the 'Mine over Matter' Tri

A quick two weeks later it was off to Whistler BC, for Xterra Canada. What a great venue and great race organized by Cal Zaryski and Yoeri Geerits. I just finished writing the race report for the website so here is the link if you want to hear about all the details, crazy weather, super technical trails, a dislocated shoulder.... (seeing as this post has seemed have expanded past a couple of comments between photos) www.christinejeffrey.com/10xterraca

Sunrise at Rainbow Park before the swim start

One of the scary descents I decided to walk

Run course - Xterra Style

More photos of the races at www.christinejeffrey.com/2010XterraWhistler

I am now in Utah, another spectacular racing venue, just two days away from the Xterra USA Nationals. Not really my style of course, point to point uphill course at altitude, but I have been here almost a week and was sleeping in my altitude tent prior to getting here and a little surprisingly have been feeling pretty good. Had a great spin around the upper loop of the bike course and I am really looking forward to the race on Saturday!!

BLOG? WHAT BLOG?

Oh yah, this blog!!! Hmm, Oops. I would try to come up with a good excuse for being MIA but there really isn't one. So once again I will do the very brief point form recap: Xterra Richmond - All things considered a solid race. I didn't beach myself in the middle of the James river during the swim and managed to get out with the lead men. I also didn't manage to put much time on the rest of the women (not that I expected to with the stupid short swim). I biked well but couldn't even come close to matching Mel, Shonny, and Renata and headed onto the run in 4th. Ran strong but once again couldn't hold off Emma and rounded out the podium in 5th. Ryan added to the drama of the weekend by completely destroying his knee in a freak bike crash and ended up having to have surgery to repair most of the tendons in it once he got back home. It was a late night drive home for us pulling into Detroit around 3am. Pretty fried after back to back races Gareth and I decided it was probably a good time to throw in a nice mid-season week off. Belwood Lake Triathlon - Since I wasn't going to be racing the last of the Xterra Cup races in Beaver Creek (simply not enough oxygen for me to bother going) and the next Xterra race isn't until late August, I decided to throw in a couple of local road tri's for fun. My sister and I headed out to Belwood Lake for the Subaru Triathlon Series race there on July 18th. What a joy to be able to sleep in my own bed before the race and what a great venue, probably the smoothest roads I have ever raced on. Took the win ahead of Angela Quick from the Provincial Training Center here in Guelph. Sista took 3rd in her AG. Muskoka Triathlon - I raced this race way back when I was an age grouper just getting started in Triathlon. It was at this race I met Tereza Macel and Donna Phelan who convinced me to step it up and race as a pro. I have put this race on my schedule so many times in the years since then but just haven't seemed to be able to do it, so this year I was super excited that it fit nicely into the schedule largely due to it being later in the year than normal. (perhaps the only good thing about the G8 in Huntsville!!!) The women's pro field wasn't quite what it has been in the past with the usual suspects out with injuries or training overseas but it was nice to take the win anyways. I had a great race, strong from start to finish, taking 11th overall. (Somebody has to keep the boys honest)

Up this weekend the Windsor Triathlon, then back to Xterra to finish off the season.