From XL to XTERRA

I did the math today, and there are only three weeks and a day until John and I wade into the waters off the shores of Micro Beach on Saturday, April 9, to complete our journey from try-nothings to triathletes, and at least a week of that should pretty much be non-training. It almost feels like cramming the night before a big exam. Of course I knew about the test weeks in advance, but there was always something better to do than studying—that is until it’s Sunday night, at say 6pm, and I’m struggling to memorize every word in the book.

Well, there is no time to let up on the training path now as the mornings, noons, and nights will be a mixture of fine tuning and staying away from things that could cause an injury.

That last part really isn’t the case, as just yesterday I rode the entire Saipan XTERRA Championship bike course with multi-event coordinator for the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation Sue Knecht. After an email to the NMITF listbot (NMITF@yahoogroups) informed me of her intention to take advantage of local course knowledge, I told her that I was in.

Early yesterday morning, I packed up my two-wheeled machine from Romey at Saipan Bike Pro, and a bottle of PowerAde, and left my place en route to the American Memorial Park to start the adventure.

Well, the adventure started without me because I was a little late, but I met Sue about five minutes into the ride on the way up Navy Hill, and we were off. Climbing hills on a bike is challenging, to say the least, but that’s what the first part of the XTERRA course is all about.

After taking a detour away from a pack of less-than-cordial canines, Sue and I ended up doing another climb up Capitol Hill for a little extra XTERRA fun. From there it was the same climb up the hill to Wireless Ridge that we did on the bike race three weeks ago, and the downhill that welcomed me to the world of off-road.

This time around this particular section of the course was a little more challenging because of the energy expended in the climbs, but I had the advantage of knowing where not to go too fast, and where I could let ‘er rip. It was great! There is a world of difference between hitting a trail and hitting a trail that you know.

After cautiously maneuvering through the spot that almost killed me last time, I became a little fearless during my descent to the Kingfisher Road.

From there on out, Sue and I climbed a ton of hills, carried our bikes through non-ridable passes, and tested the fates with some overly accelerated downhills. I learned the valuable lesson of control in the past from Dawn Hammermeister-Douglas, but this time out it was time to put it to practice on some pretty challenging terrain.

Most importantly, I gained confidence in my ability to do things that look like they’ll cause me some pain. In particular, there’s this one section on Mount Tapochau that features a gnarly drop that looks almost straight down—at least that’s the way it looks from the top. I rode up to it a couple of times and decided that it might be smarter to throw my bike over my shoulder and live to ride another day. That seemed like a good plan until Sue rode up from behind and said “Get out of the way” before handling the slope with ease.

That was enough to make me try it, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from going over the handlebars. I was laughing at myself on the ground and was about to get on my bike and continue on until my sensei instructed me to get up and try it again—this was not my first choice, but I figured that this was kinda like the getting-back-on-the-horse thing.

A brief climb up the slope, and a little momentum later, I heeded Sue’s advice by getting as far back as possible. Before I knew it, I made it down the killer cliff like a champ. She was right, and now I won’t be afraid to do the same on race day.

When we finished the bike course at the park, we stowed our bikes and went for a brief jaunt around the AMP, and finished with a run down the beach to get the muscles ready for the long run at the end of the race—just three weeks and a day from now.