Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label xterra

'24 Xterra Oak Mountain Race Recap

  Greenville crew The last race in our 3-week (15 day) racing block was Xterra Oak Mountain. For several years, we always dedicated this weekend to IM 70.3 Chattanooga (one of our favorite events) but with Xterra Oak Mountain being the same weekend, we went to Pelham, Alabama instead. Karel participated in Xterra Oak Mountain in 2021 (his first off-road triathlon) and in 2022 they didn't have the event. In 2023 we both participated (my 4th Xterra event) and I placed overall female amateur. When Xterra announced that Oak Mountain would be the home of the North American Championship, we knew that we couldn't miss this event. We love the trails at oak mountain, as well as the lake. It's a place that makes us super happy. The trails are proper mountain bike trails with rock gardens, technical turns, roots, climbs and descends but the trails are also nicely made with good rhythm and flow.  As for training going into Xterra, we had intentions of riding our mountain bikes on Tuesd...

'24 Whitewater off-road triathlon recap

On Saturday 5/4 we kicked off the first race in our racing block: 💫 Whitewater Off-Road Triathlon  (Charlotte, NC) 💫Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast (Panama City Beach, FL) 💫Xterra Oak Mountain (Pelham, Alabama) Three races over three weeks. We define a racing block as 2+ races within a 4-ish week time frame. Although we've completed racing blocks in the past, this race block approach is unique in that we have been training on three different bikes (road, TT, mountain bike) and running on road and trail. Preparing for events with different skills, terrain and physiological demands has been fun for us as it adds variety to training and keeps our body and mind sharp. We love racing blocks as it is the culmination of several months of periodized training and intentional overload. Knowing that there won't be much "training" between each race, arriving to a racing block healthy, fit, strong and resilient is the goal. Within each race of the racing block, we will recover quickly,...

2023 Xterra Oak Mountain Race Recap

  Oak Mountain Alabama is a special place as it was the location of Karel’s first off-road triathlon in 2021. We actually drove to the race without his mountain bike as he bought a new bike online on race week and we picked it up in Birmingham, two days before the race. Karel had so much fun racing a triathlon off road. Karel’s excitement initiated my mountain biking journey (on Karel’s old mountain bike, until I got my own in 2022), which has been humbling and fun. Although we were very excited to participate in Xterra Oak Mountain, we were sad that we wouldn’t be able to race IM 70.3 Chattanooga. However, since Chatty was a team race for our athletes, we would still be able to spectate the day after our event. The days leading up to our Xterra event were a bit stressful. Campy wasn’t feeling so great, the night before we were supposed to leave, a tube got disconnected from our 70-gallon fish tank as Karel was doing a partial water change and it caused water to leak from upsta...

Xterra South Africa Race Recap

  We had a really great night of sleep. There was something special about this race course that had us both really excited to race. With this being only my third Xterra event (previously Xterra Czech in August and Xterra World Championship in Molveno in October), I continue to feel a little nervous about the start of the bike and I worry about holding up other riders behind me on single track. But I'm learning to just focus on my own race. The biggest confidence booster was knowing that we had ridden the entire bike course and I was able to safely get through everything. It was not overly hilly (~2000 feet) and it flowed really well. There was a legit rock garden and several fun obstacles to go over. The race director gave the option for those who didn't feel comfortable in the rock garden could go the "chicken" route which was around 4K longer.  After we ate our pre-race meal, we double checked our gear, loaded the car and left our Airbnb around 6:15am and arrived to...