I just raced XTERRA Rocky Gap today, what a well organized awesome race!  It is put on by EX2adventures.com and the day went smooth and perfect!  The day was warm and dry, great for trail riding and mountain running!  I got to meet a ton of great friends at this race this year, I think we are finally growing the sport, at least locally!  WOOHOO!  My personal result today was a solid overall female win and no terrible crashes.  I also won Richmond XTERRA last month so I am in full training for Maui XTERRA this year once again. 

I hope you are all training well, having a great summer with your fitness and overall health.  Check out Jim Harmon’s mtn. bike and trail running races on his website www.ex2adventures.com, I myself plan on racing the majority of the races left on the schedule, so hopefully I will see you there! 

My best to you all, Dr. Kathy
–

The Blender, I mean, the start!

I’m writing from my Kihei condo on the tropical island of Maui, Hawaii.

XTERRA World Championships 2010 occurred a mere 48 hours ago, and yet it is already fading into a distant dream, so I better get a move on with writing my race report so I don’t forget all the pain and only recall the pleasure!

I arrived here for my 2010 “A Plus” race last Thursday, 3 days before race day, with my husband and 2 beautiful young daughters.  We met up with my mom, step-dad, and father here in Maui where we would share this amazing experience together.  (They would also take care of our girls while we raced).  My husband gallantly put our bikes together on Friday but by the time we got to Wailea, where the race was being hosted, to register in order to pre-ride a very small sample of the volcano, the trail was shut down to us and we had to wait until Saturday to test ride our bikes.  Good thing we did, my front brake just disintegrated, the piston broke and I needed a completely new set of disk brake pads and someone to reset the piston.  FYI, you really don’t want your brakes to falter when descending Haleakala half way out of control!

The Start

Race day dawned amazingly beautiful with a burning sun rising over the volcano, a slight breeze coming in off the water, and only small breakers in the great pacific for us to traverse.  I felt completely rested and ready; this is probably because this year I didn’t race my other favorite and super demanding race in September, Venture Quest, plus the fact that work pretty much enforced an 8 week long taper!   (no kidding!)

XTERRA Worlds has the following distances- 1500 meter swim, 20 mile mountain bike, and 11 km trail run.  It brings people from all over the world of all ages, but everyone had to qualify somewhere (place top 1, 2 or 3 in their age group) to get here.  In my age group, I raced 22 ladies from Alaska, Japan, France, Canada (not including me!), and from many corners of the USA.  There were a total of 130 amateur women and 20 pro-women competing.
This year I placed myself on the beach DIRECTLY in front of the buoy instead of at the edge of the crowd of 550 athletes.  A good friend of mine named Dr. Dusty assured me from her experience last year that this was the quickest path and that I would really be fine in the throng of swimmers.  SHE WAS RIGHT!   The gun went off and (after a big hug with my husband and a blessing from the Hawaiian reverend Allalani Hill) we all leaped into the crystal clear water.  I did what Dusty told me, swam straight at the buoy, and remembered what Pierre’s last words were, DON’T PANIC.  The swim for me felt superb, I enjoyed the whole thing!  All the swim lessons I received in January through March with Melissa Dalio paid off, as I didn’t veer off my path once!  I even accidentally swam beside my husband for an entire section of the swim, coming out onto the beach holding hands!

My swim time was 30 minutes.  Last year my swim time was 37 minutes (recall my story of getting lost and swimming with this big group of colorful fish!).   Not getting lost was definitely helpful!

The Bike!

Then started my absolutely FAVORITE part of the race, MOUNTAIN BIKING!  I appreciate so much these great lessons I learned recently from 2 very special friends of mine.  Scott Scudamore taught me and practiced with me to put my gloves on after I got on the bike in lieu of putting them on in transition.  This worked SO well, (thank you Scud!) as you ride on the road in this race for a mile before the trail begins.  Eric Sorensen, one of my best friends, counseled me to not race… aka bury myself up that first steep climb and put myself into “asthmatic proportions”, but rather to pace myself up that mountain and kick it in on the last hard climb called Ned’s Climb.  That was the BEST advice ever Eric, THANK YOU, and thus I had SUCH a great ride!

Except for one minor detail.  Half way up the first climb I came upon a fallen female biker literally screaming in pain with blood pouring out of the inside of her elbow.  I have to admit there were a few brain cells that yelled at me to keep going with so many other bikers that passed her by.  But of course, don’t worry, I didn’t.  I hope that was a natural instinct because I feel guilty for having had that greedy thought.   Another young lady had already stopped to help and had generously started running down the volcano to send for help but hadn’t really done anything directly for this poor woman.  I jumped off my bike, grabbed her arm and was instantly relieved it wasn’t an arterial bleed or dislocated elbow.  Blood was slowly pooling in her elbow so I took off my camel back, took off my tri-shirt, tied it on her upper arm as a tourniquet, and then had to yell down a rider to take off his shirt to push down on the gaping wound.  As it turned out, the lady fell over onto her brake lever which punctured her elbow and pierced through her skin between her bicep and tricep.  No, I have never heard of or seen such a thing.  That just had to hurt so much, and she was so brave.  I looked her directly in the face and she didn’t seem like she was going to pass out, so I yelled that I would carry on up for help in case the girl going down had far to go.  I left this lady and hated doing it, but sitting there was hopeless.  As it turned out, there was an XTERRA-guy 5 minutes up and by the time I talked to him he already knew of the situation, help was on the way.

And then 5 minutes later along my ride a poor guy popped his tire while he was fixing a flat, aka his last tube was a goner.  And for some reason I gave him my tube….my only spare tube.  And then I thought I was in big trouble because I now had no tube and perhaps I was in for it for leaving that lady lying there even though I knew I had to get help.   But thankfully, I didn’t pop my tire nor did I crash while rapidly descending down that volcano on the flip side, so I hope all that energy left on that mountain was a positive one.

My bike time was 2 hours, last year it was 2 hours 5 minutes.

The run on "Big Beach" in Makena

And then came the run.  What was revealed to me was the benefit I had gotten out of running so many hill repeats and track workouts with my awesome training partner and husband, Pierre.  The first and second huge climbs running up the volcano were hard.  But it was harder on the other women that I passed.  I wasn’t trying to pass them; I couldn’t have gone any harder, I was just able to keep moving with a pretty good tempo.  There was one lady however, that kept 200 yards ahead of me for miles.  I slowly, inch by inch was creeping up on her by sheer luck.  With only a half mile to go, I knew that a technical section of lava rocks was awaiting us between the last beach that we were running down and the last sprint home.  I know I have 2 strengths, technical riding, and technical running.  She didn’t seem like a techy-runner.  So I went for it folks, and sprinted my butt past her with all that I had left.  Then with 200 yards left, my step-dad handed me my daughter Valerie to run in with me.  I was actually worried that Valerie would really slow me down.   BOY was I wrong!  Valerie was so prepped for her moment that she took off like a rocket ship and I could barely keep up with her!!!  What a proud moment that was for me, running with my baby across the finish line of XTERRA World Championships!  Technically she beat me too!

My run time was 1 hour 1 minute, last year it was 1 hour 7 minutes.

Finish Line Helper!

I still can’t believe how good I felt during the entire race although the fallen racer was heavy on my mind.  Personally I hit all my goals for this race- I wanted to PR by 15 minutes and place top 5 in my age group.  I PR’ed by 19 minutes and won my age group and placed 5th overall amateur women.  YAY!!!!

So, please know how thankful I am for all the support I have received from so many awesome friends, patients, coaches, baby sitters and Ree Ree, family, and most importantly my husband.  You just can’t hit huge goals alone, impossible.  Even an individual racer needs a team behind her to win.  And, of course, a huge thank you to Anne and the crew at The Bike Lane in Burke for taking care of multiple bike melt-downs that both Pierre and I experienced in the week leading up to the race!  Broken spokes, completely rebuilt wheel, shredded tire… no problem.  Bike Lane totally hooked us up with all our last minute needs.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, I must go back to my huge task of enjoying Maui with my family.  The sun isn’t letting us down and the water is as blue as you could ever imagine.  You are all here with me in spirit.

Let’s all start thinking about new goals and dreams, for without them we go nowhere, right!

ALOHA!

Podium at the Awards Ceremony

2nd Place at Bushwhacker!

Hi there everyone, I have been very delinquent in my blog entering, SORRY!!!

To get you up to date on my training though…

I have been having the time of my life training in this AWESOME hot, sunny summer, and now more recently, this cooler, autumn-like weather. Perfect for all of us mountain bikers, trail runners, multi-sport athletes, and folks that just love to experience the great out doors in the weather that this region provides for us.

I just raced the Bushwacker 10 mile race put on by the best group ever (Ex2adventures!!) and felt so great, both in my legs and in my fitness. I am 4 weeks down to my A race, XTERRA Worlds, and feel better than ever. I think that I feel so good because I am not competing this year for the first time in my favorite race of the universe, Venture Quest. It is typically held in September, this last weekend actually, only a few weeks before XTERRA. It turns out that VQ destroys me for my ramp up to Worlds, so I wonder how not racing VQ will help me build properly these last few weeks. Hmmmmm, we’ll soon see!

I must schedule myself 2 massages for the next 4 weeks, like I would tell you if you are my friend or patient! But I am being very diligent in getting adjustments almost weekly by Dr. Rose and Dr. Anna, thank you ladies! My bike is finally in great condition after I destroyed the rear derailleur, and I think I have mastered the art of descending berms FAST, as I was taught by the very best, my good friends Steve and Barry. YOU GUYS ROCK!

OK, must go back to work….I just wanted to get my butt back into writing my blog; it keeps me accountable to you in hopes that I inspire you a little bit to get out and taste the sweet flavor competition, and training yourself to being your fittest self.

YOU ALL ROCK, keep moving forward ‘eh! Dr. Kathy

Into the blender...

Rocky Gap XTERRA was a WELL RUN, FABULOUSLY ORGANIZED, FUN TO RACE triathlon! Jim Harmon did a super job prepping the boys to make way for the ladies when they tried to pass on the bike, and boy did it make a difference! I had a great race with my family and friends, despite having NO sleep the night before. My 2 year old fell out of bed at 2am and cut her lip badly (she is totally fine, just had a big juicy kissable lip for a few days!), which meant that nobody slept for the rest of the night. We travelled to Rocky Gap the day before with a babysitter who graciously took care of our girls (ages 2 and 5!) on race day from 6am until we crossed the finish line, what a sweet heart! I ran across the finish line carrying Madison, which Valerie took full advantage of and sprinted past me to win overall amateur women! Her first overall win at age 5, not too shabby!

I am now rested from having a week of training “for fun” and am ready to go to Wakefield right now for an 1 -1/2 hour ride and 30 minute run. The weather couldn’t be better, hot and humid, perfect for MAUI TRAINING!

Get out early if you can for your training runs/walks/rides, and if you can, place them at a park like Wakefield. All those trees make the temperature feel so much cooler as you train in the shade. But if you can’t, like me right now at 2pm on Tuesday, just bring lots of agua, sunscreen, and passion for your fitness, and GET OUT THERE!!!

Have a fit and awesome week everybody, my best to you, Dr. Kathy

My dear husband and I had to be up (as many who have kiddies and drove down the morning of…) at 4am, babysitter arrived at 4:30 (bless her heart!), and off we went on our trek to the 8 am start line of our favorite XTERRA.

The cannon blast went off promptly at 8am and off went the pros.  I cheer for my fellow cannuck Melanie McQuaid, the worlds best mountain biker too, fyi!  Two minutes later the whistle went off for the men’s under 40 which included my hubby, Pierre, and our best buddy, Frank Febbraro.  I cheered them off the start line and watched as the current pulled almost everyone off course to the left of the buoy they were aiming for!

Two minutes later it was my turn, and for all those familiar faces in my group, which included my dear friends Scott Scudamore, Dr. Dusty, Chris, and my newest addition to Posichiro, Dr. Rose!!!  You should have seen Dr. Rose’s race face, AWESOME!!!  (This was Dr. Rose’s first XTERRA, and she did FABULOUSLY WELL considering she has never been on a mountain bike before! GO ROSE!)

I have to tell you that I had the best swim EVER!  I even beat my husband in the swim by 10 seconds!!!  I consider it a good swim when I never feel like I am going to drown, get a black eye from another swimmer, or get swept to sea by the current.  I swam the James River 1000 meters in 20.03, and then finally got on my bike to start to race.  To my disadvantage, the trails in Richmond have been converted to granny-friendly, smooth and easy, green run-like trails that my 5 year old could tackle.  I had a great mountain bike experience and cleaned everything that could be considered a little rough.  Folks even got out of the way to let me pass pretty easily, but there were still a ton of people I had to pass which only adds seconds on to the final tally.  This is the disadvantage to being a slow swimmer in a mountain bike triathlon, as it is trying at times to get past folks who aren’t all that bike-savvy on skinny trails.  But it was fun and fast and I gave it my all!  Transition was clean and when I started to run, I thought I could increase the pace after a mile.  However, I was dismayed that my brain and my legs were in disagreement with this plan, and my heart rate exceeded the capacity of the demand I wanted to lay onto my leg muscles.    I was passed on the run by one 20 year old female a mile short of the finish line, which pushed me to 3rd overall woman.

I am super happy to say that I did place 3rd overall though, with such a painful run, but I am a little disappointed with myself for getting second fastest bike split, second to an Ironman lady!    Kudos to her, but I would like to challenge this young lady to a real mountain bike race one day, because that is how competitive I am!

So, your almost 40 year-old chiropractor lost to a 30 year old ironman woman who swims like a fish and a 20 year old lady with the legs of a gazelle!  Those legs, lats and lungs are going DOWN next time, I promise you that!

Once we all cross the finish line of an XTERRA we embrace each other, congratulating each other for a job well done and an accomplishment achieved that is so amazing and something to be proud of!

Let me remind you that it is a great thing to put yourself at the start line of any adventure, race, or challenge, no matter what your skill level or expectation.  Once you overcome this awesome mental challenge of just putting yourself on the start line, you begin to own your fears, and your sense of self magnifies as your spirit is filled with a sense of awe for the courage it takes for you to start something so great (something so hard!).   Completing this goal is the final leg of owning your fears in full.  I cheer you on with all my heart for you not to allow doubt to slow you down, fear of failure (or success!) to stop you in your tracks, or panic from making you throw up your white flag of surrender.  Just accomplishing so much as going for it and not ever giving up until you cross that finish line, will enlighten you to your greater potential both as an athlete and as a human being.

Now that being said, sometimes we will falter in our forward motion and will stop when we could have kept moving.  But these are learning experiences that make us a better individual, because after all, sometimes our brains and our bodies just won’t agree with a final goal!

So, congrats to my fellow amazing XTERRA friends for just being a part of something so wonderful!  Have a super week everyone, and I hope to see you on the trails!  Kathy

P.S.- I’ll post some pics as soon as they’re available!

Last week I inserted an extra workout that was truly the hardest experience of all my training years- SKY DIVING- with our newest Chiropractor at Posichiro, Dr. Rose Moeser. Dr. Moeser was doing her 106th jump while I was doing my very first (me firmly attached to an instructor for a tandem jump) and I can honestly say it was the second most amazing, intense experience I have ever had, second to delivering my daughters!!! We were even on our way to an ART seminar in NJ last Thursday and it turned out that the “Drop Zone” was “on the way”. Dr. Moeser said “LET’S START THIS SEMINAR WEEKEND RIGHT!” (meaning, let’s jump start our hearts by flinging ourselves out of a plane from 14000 feet above terra firma before sitting in a seminar for 3 days) and so we did. Not specific training for the XTERRA performance but one for the bucket list for sure! (I loved it, fyi!)

Taper week folks, and I’m getting those little pre-race butterflies already! Today, my husband and I simply biked easy around Fountain Head followed by a short run with our 2 dogs. I should consider skydiving the morning of the race to test race performance after an adrenaline stimulating exercise like that.

Taper is so important for everyone who exercises regularly. It breaks the routine, allows your body to heal fully before the next training cycle, and very importantly allows your mind to take a bit of a break, thereby avoiding the dreaded “burn out”. I schedule my massage on my taper week to loosen up my legs, specifically my ITBands, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and some shoulder hot spots. So should you!

SO, train hard with good focus, and then take a good break for a week to regroup both mentally and physically; you will be healthfully training for all of your life!

Have a great week, Dr. K

Today before my run I practiced “Transitioning” onto the bike, then off the bike to the run, several times with my dear friend Scud. This was supposed to be a “transition clinic” we were hosting for free to the community at the Fountain Head park but nobody showed up and so we got to practice a ton! YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME if you are a du- or triathlete.

My run was a 1 hr 25 minute trail run with 25 minutes of it done hard at zone 4/5. My border collie Strider and I had a fabulous time, saw no snakes this time but the weather was sublime and the trails perfect.

My family and I went swimming afterward and I swear the water was so cold that I actually got therapy for my legs from it! Sort of like an ice bath, though my 2 and 5 year old didn’t seem to notice how cold it was for some reason.

Well, tip of the day from me to you is to practice the little things that make your sport more efficient, saves you time, and keeps you safe.

Have a SUPER WEEK!