Archive for the ‘Alexia Droz’ Category

Third time lucky - Xterra Portland, August 15, 2010

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Right after Xterra Vashon (July 11), I put training on hold and went on a 10 days road trip with my husband. I think I managed 1 short run during the 10 days we were away but I did do a lot of surfing and I am counting paddling on my surfboard as swim training…as long as I am in the water it counts!
We got back from our trip late July and only a week away from Xterra Black Diamond. Considering that I was still carrying the mystery bug that makes me so tired and that I hadn’t trained for 10 days, I decided to skip Xterra Black Diamond and try to get ready for Xterra Portland instead as it gave me 2 extra weeks to get ready…

My Melrad Racing teammate Robert Jackson is the race director for Xterra Portland, so I couldn’t miss this race! I like the bike course, it’s fast, fun and twisty! Rob does great job with this race and it’s definitely a must do for any Xterra racer.

Left for Portland on Friday am, made a quick stop in Bellingham to pick up my friend Kristen Holman. Rob asked me to stop in Seattle (sort of) to pick up the “bike in/out” and “run out” flags. After a long detour thru the suburbs of Seattle, we found the address and ended up with two long flags with long poles that stretched the length of my Jeep!
Back on the road, we faced traffic and road construction and finally arrived at Hagg Lake around 6pm… We got on the bikes for a quick spin and during our 20 minute spin I managed to crash in slow mo and bruise my elbows pretty badly!
Back into town, we headed to my friend Darren who invited us to spend the night! Kristen cooked a great dinner and we shared some wine (the prefect pre-race drink!)

Morning came quickly and we were up early hoping to arrive at Hagg Lake for 7ish am. The temperature was already high and the sun was shining. It turned out to be a very hot day with temps topping 98 degrees.
Did my usual transition set up, warmed up and wondered if I should go with or without the wetsuit…but being a crappy swimmer I opted for my super fast Profile Design GoldCell. The air temperature was slowly rising and I couldn’t wait to cool down in the water.

The race started with a mass start on the beach… The swim was pleasant and refreshing, out of the water in 22′ and change, pretty lame for a 1200m swim but I think the swim was long. Ran up to T1, peeled off my Goldcell and jumped on my Specialized Epic and started chasing whoever was in front! I could feel I was undertrained but overall I was having a good ride, easily clearing the short technical section I couldn’t ride last year with my hardtail. I made all the passing until half thru when I accidentally when off course, when I found the course again, I ended up behind people I had already passed…I guess I lost about 5 minutes with this mistake, but I’ll blame it on the heat, I wasn’t thinking clearly…once I concluded all the re-passing, I found myself alone, and trying to make up some time on the leaders. On the last 1/3 of the bike course, there is a mandatory dismount to cross over a very small bridge (made of a 2×8) and a very steep climb where you literally have to climb and haul your bike up at the same time, that’s where I was informed I was 5th. At least now I had some idea of where I was in the pack.
Shortly after, I was back in transition making a quick change into my Avia Bolt. When I started the run, the heat was getting really oppressive, and as usual this season, my running legs were nowhere to be found.
Once again, I ran most of the run course by myself, only passing or being passed by a few guys. Never saw any of the other women until the last 1/2 mile of so, when I notice someone was on my tail…I picked up the pace to try to hold on until the finish line and made it with about 20 seconds to spare.
Finished 4th overall and once again 1st in my AG…
This AG win would be enough to secure the Xterra point series Regional title for my AG.

XTERRA Canada Nationals aka XTERRA Whistler aka best damn trails anywhere

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

By Marcus Barton

I love, love, love, the outstanding, awesome, excellent, bombtastic, sweet, superb, wonderful, fabulous, magnificent, beautiful, and technical trails at Whistler! 

Thank you, Melanie, for talking me into this race.

Anyone who has seen my Facebook page has already seen the tons of pictures that we took during this trip.  For those of you that haven’t, I’ll share a smidgen of them here. 

After a long flight from the east coast to west, we hooked up with teammate Tim Holland and took the drive up from Seattle to Whistler.  What was supposed to be a 4ish hour drive turned into 6 or so with all of the traffic.  There was great debate if we should have flown into Vancouver instead.

The next morning, Tim, Dan, Danny and I headed out to the trails to get a quick preview of the course.  For the race, it would be a two-lap bike and pseudo-two-lap run.  Our initial plans were to ride one lap of the bike and run one lap of the run course as a preview.  As soon as we arrived at the trailhead, we met up with Conrad Stoltz who was on his second lap.  We all dove into the trailhead and started the first climb.  I tried my best to stick to Conrad’s wheel as he easily climbed up the hill (of course).  He waited at the top of each climb for me to catch up after which we bombed down the descents.  This happened two or three times through the first section of the course before dumping out onto pavement.  What a blast.

Side-by-side, we rode up the road chatting about the course, the venue and the upcoming race.  Before diving into the single-track again, Conrad stated he would ride the second lap non-stop since he stopped at each technical section on the first lap.  We decided in our best interests (reserving our legs) and not to hold Conrad back, that it would be best if he went on without us.  In a cloud of dust, Conrad sped up the next climb.

Rather than create a lengthy, lengthy post, let me just say that this is THE most technical XTERRA course I have raced to date.  Conrad, in his blog post, said it best, “For sure the hairiest, most scary, most technical XTERRA course I’ve seen.  I walked some of the most hectic sections to check them out, then get on the bike, motivate and attack. Felt the rush of adrenaline, realized I forgot to breathe. What a rush. The riding here is in a class of its own”.  ‘Nuf said.  Couldn’t have said it better myself.  So instead of rehashing, here’s a few pics.  Click on them for larger versions.

View XTERRA Canada Pre-ride

After our fun preride, we realized that we didn’t have time for the preview of the run course.  Instead, we headed back to the Nita Lake Lodge to attend the Q&A with the pros and the pre-race briefing.  We listened in as questions were answered by Conrad Stoltz, our own Melanie McQuaid, Danielle Kabush and Mike Vine.  It was a great session and many tips were thrown out to the crowd of athletes.  If you’re ever attending one of the championship races, you should definitely make it a point to attend one of these Q&A’s.  I pick up something from every one of them, regardless of how many I sit through. 

 On to Race Day

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Race morning, it was a balmy 45 degrees.  Heading to the race start, we found a bit of fog and chilly air while we setup for transition.

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Since I couldn’t take any C02 or Big Air on the plane, Alexia hooked me up with one of her cans of Big Air.  When you buy Big Air in the store, it comes in a green can.  Genuine Innovations hooked our team up with special cans, blue for the guys and pink for the girls.  You guessed it.  I rocked one of Alexia’s pink cans!  Both Tim and I had tire-related issues on the pre-ride, so the Big Air he was carrying came in quite handy to get us riding quickly.  We donned the Profile Design Gold Cell wetsuits and headed for the water.

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In classic XTERRA fashion, the swim consisted of two, 750 meter laps with a short beach run between.

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The bike leg was, again, a BLAST.  There were some great climbs, technical, rocky drops and downhills.  And just to make things even more interesting, they threw in some ladder bridges to boot.  One minute, you’re doing a technical, climb, and the next, you’re going around a man-made switchback consisting of a u-shaped ladder bridge with a 10 foot drop on one side.   A two-lap course, we were able to hit all of the great terrain twice, totalling around 13 miles.

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The run course was equally as fun.  Again, a multi-lap course totalling about 5 miles, it was a great, technical challenge.  Throw in a few more bridges, log hops and a grueling climb that you had to climb TWICE and you have XTERRA Canada.  Finish up the race with about 2k of road running, through a neighborhood and you finish up at the Nita Lake lodge.

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My age group (40-44) was the largest age group in the race, filled with some very talented folks and a speckling of guys who used to race pro.  The top 3 guys in our age group finished ahead of pro men and I managed to keep an 8th place in the division at 2:56.  Full Results.

Knowing that we would want to hit more trails, we all stayed an extra couple of days to take in more hiking and biking.  Alba and I decided went to the top of Whistler, saw a bear and went to Rainbow Falls.  We also went to Southside Diner and had a burger with fried egg and bacon.  The poutine was excellent, too.

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Check out even more pictures in this album.  ALSO, check out the highlight video.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Lucky Once More - Xterra Vashon - July 11, 2010

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

By Alexia Droz


Alright, it’s been a month, I know! I’m a little slow coughing out race reports these days.

I’ve been to Xterra Vashon a million times, I like the race and it’s close to home (well, in comparison to other Xterra point series races). This year, I had company since teammates Tim and Rob where racing and teammate Jo was cheer-leading!

The weeks leading to Vashon were definitely interesting. After Xterra Farragut (where I got sick during the race), I took an entire week off, then tried to ease back into regular training during the following weeks. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly in tip top shape, but I was feeling healthier that I have been in a while.

Race morning was a little cool and overcast. Got set up in transition, warmed up, blah blah blah…
The swim started in 3 waves, with the gals being last 10 minutes after the start of the first wave. I did my best to avoid the jellyfishes and was out of the water in 12ish minutes. Transition was super fast, in 2 seconds I pealed off my super duper Profile Design Goldcell wetsuit.

The bike course is 3 loops and each loop starts with a steep switchback climb, it can get very congested especially on the first loop. Once at the top of the hill, things started rolling a bit, well sort of, my rear tire felt flat, I kept checking but it looked normal. I passed a bunch of guys, and then a woman passed me, I tried to stay on her wheel but couldn’t, either I had no legs, or something was wrong with my wheel or both. On the 2nd loop the photographer informed me I was the sixth women….uhmm… a few minutes later, one of the women I’ve been chasing dropped out with a flat (yeah - she was in my AG), and soon, I had my eyes on 4th. During the 3rd loop, I moved up to 4th, until I clipped a tree and crashed during the downhill, ouch!

Once back on the bike, I realized that I had some foliage stuck in my rear rotor & hub, the wheel was barely moving so I had to pull over, during which I was passed and dropped back to fifth…Finally, I hurried up back to transition, trying to stay close to the fourth place woman.

I rocked T2! 19 seconds! Moved up on spot in the process.
I took off as fast as I could hoping I could handle the run at a decent pace, but my lack of fitness was starting to show. I passed a few guys during the run and never saw any other women. Crossed the finish line in 2h12 and 4th overall/1st in AG…

After the race, I realized my rear wheel was barely moving… no wonder it felt “hard”.

some pictures:

In my alphabet, there is no D, N or F ! Xterra Farragut - June 12, 2010

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Since I have been back from Las Vegas and the West Cup, I haven’t really been feeling in tip top shape. Actually, I wasn’t feeling that good while in Vegas either, but after Vegas, things went downhill really, really fast. I had massive headaches, felt dizzy most of the time and I was extremely tired, so for the past 6 weeks, training has been all over the place. Some days I felt fine and managed to train almost normally, some days, I just couldn’t do anything. Eventually, I was diagnosed with an ear infection, was given antibiotics and told to not do any training for a week, it seemed to do the job.

About 2 weeks before the race in Farragut, I got back into normal training, I did noticed that the day after a swim, I would get headaches, but overall I was feeling much better. I was pretty excited to get back to training, and racing. I knew that I would probably not be ready for the race in Farragut with only 2 weeks of training behind me, but the racing opportunities in the Pacific Northwest are limited to about 3 months of the year so you take it when it’s there!

On the Friday before the race I headed East to Idaho, taking the slowest most scenic route! I don’t really enjoy interstates so when I travel to a race, I also like to enjoy the drive getting to it!

My hotel was about 40 miles from the race site and having done this race last year, I decided to skip the pre-ride and just relax instead…Race morning was pleasant, since the race didn’t start until noon! I was feeling still pretty good when I arrived at Farragut State Park. I ran into teammate Tim Holland at registration, it’s always cool to see teammates at races…
I got set up, then went for a warm up ride and then a warm up run. Then it was time to suit up for the very very cold swim!

We headed down to the beach, I was prepared for the cold water with my Profile Design Goldcell, my neoprene cap and booties! However I wasn’t quite ready for the cold water, it was announced at a balmy 46 degrees! I knew I had to get in the water before the start to “get used to it” , it took me a few minutes to master the courage to actually put my head in the water, the result: instant Slurpee brain freeze!  Because of the cold water, the swim was shortened to 750m (instead of 1500m)…in my opinion, 750m in these conditions is plenty!
The race director fired his shotgun (it’s Idaho) and we were off! As I ran from the beach into the water, I tripped over a rock…my foot was partly saved by the booties but it did hurt anyways… then I started swimming and amazingly got into a pretty good rhythm. The tricky part about this swim is the current, or whatever is going on in this lake (which is a 1000′ deep), so you really have to pay attention to where you are going…

I got out of the water in 13′ and then started the long trek up to transition (up the stairs, across the field, it’s far). Once in transition, the first sign of “something’s wrong” appeared: I had to sit down to remove my wetsuit and put on my bike shoes! I never do this, ever!
Once on the bike, I go cranking like I usually do but it felt a lot harder than usual. I could not generate and speed or power, and my heart rate was thru the roof, almost like I had heart palpitations!

About 15 minutes onto the bike, my heart rate was still super high, even thou it had a few descents to “recover”, but that’s when I started getting dizzy! Then the headaches appeared…the bike course felt incredibly long, turns out it was a bit longer than last year and totaled 23 miles… I was doing my best to keep going, and as I was approaching the end of the first loop, I was starting to wonder if I should continue or not? My condition was getting worse as the race went on… but against my better judgment, I continued onto loop 2…
During loop 2, I got passed more than usual, had to pull over to puke twice, and I was getting so dizzy that I crashed head & shoulder first onto a tree that should have been avoided pretty easily under normal circumstances … I was feeling so bad at that point that I couldn’t eat anything to get ready for the run, and I was now very seriously considering throwing the towel … but, I hadn’t seen anyone from my age group and I knew I could be leading it (or be dead last).To top it off, a DNF meant no points… so I got back to T2, racked my S_Works Epic, put on my Avia Bolts, and went for the run …
bike: 2h09 (15 min slower than last year! Yikes)

The run was extremely unpleasant, the view was nice, but I had to concentrate hard to not fall, stumble or trip. The pressure in my head was unbearable and the dizziness was still very present. It took all the willpower I had to actually finish the race…The run course felt super long too, but it’s probably because I was feeling like crap! Finally, I had the finish line in sight! I finished in 3:28. I could not longer stand up, I had to lay down, someone got me some ice and 1/2hr went by before I could stand up again…
At the awards, I found out that I won my age group! Good thing I kept going and finished!

I find it a little ironic, I had tons of great races last year where I didn’t win my age group, and for once a super super bad race translate into an age group win … it’s too weird…

In any case, this is my 9th Xterra/triathlon season and to this day, I have finished every race I started. 

What happens in Vegas …

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Yes, I know, it’s been a few weeks since the Xterra West Cup in Vegas. I haven’t been very good with updates lately! So let’s recap the events of the past few weeks:

On April 22, I traveled to Las Vegas for the Xterra West Cup. It was to be my first Xterra of the season and I was super excited to race but also spend some time with the Melrad Racing team.
The trip didn’t really start on the right note, my flight to Seattle was delayed for technical problems (Horizon Air had to send in a different plane) and I missed my connecting flight to Vegas. I ended up taking a later flight and finally made it to my hotel in Henderson, NV at almost midnight!
I was pretty trashed from the trip and slept pretty well until I was awaken the next morning by a call from Melanie! I can’t really blame her, it was 8:30am, I should have been up already! We made plans to meet that evening to sort out gear sent by our awesome sponsors (wetsuits by Profile Design, cycling gear by Bellwether, peanut & almond butter by Justin Nut Butter, and helmets by Lazer). In the meantime, I went for a pre-ride with Shawn from Avia, and teammates Jo & Tim. The course was slightly different than last year but the big climbs were still there! I surprised myself by actually riding the entire tricky steep descent than I couldn’t ride without crashing last year… I credit this success to my Specialized S-Works Epic (was riding a different bike last year) and the the countless hours I spent on the Epic over the past few months…
On Saturday, I did a little swim, little ride and a little run…just to get the legs going. Around 4pm, the entire Melrad Racing team gathered at the Loews Resort for a nice little get together. It was really cool to be able to meet the entire team, everyone came (even team members that weren’t racing!), Dan from Nathan & I did some gear distribution (one of the many things I do as the team captain), we received wetsuits & bike cages from Profile Design, helmets from Lazer, cycling gear from Bellwether, peanut & almond butter from Justin Nut Butter, chain lube from Squirt, shoes and water bottles from Avia and of course, hydration products from Nathan. After this Xmas in April, we took a team picture since everyone was here!

Sunday, April 25 = Race day!
Pretty uneventful race morning, I went thru my usual routine. I knew this race wouldn’t be a cake walk, for several reasons:
1/ I hadn’t really been feeling myself in the weeks leading to the race. My run was not really up to par for this time of the year and I had been feeling overly tired for no reason.
2/ I usually try to race an point series Xterra before I race a Cup race (usually Xterra Real late March in NorCal) but I wasn’t able to go this year and I felt a little rusty.
3/ My age group was DEEP and populated by very talented and fast women (but I won’t let that intimidate me).

As usual, my goal was to race hard, have fun and try to qualify for Maui…
Just before the race my wetsuit zipper got stuck into my try suit… but teammate extraordinaire Becky Batizy fixed that! Thanks Becky!
The swim started in waves, and as usual, the women (and guys over 40) were the last to go. The swim went pretty well and I was ecstatic to see 26:30 on my watch as I got out of the water. This marks my best 1500m ever, beating my previous best (last year’s 27:30 here in Vegas) by 1 minute. My swim is finally approaching the level of “acceptable” … Back during my first few years as a triathlete, my 1500m swim was around the 35 to 37 minute mark, so a 26:30 makes me very happy! I have to credit this success to my super awesome Profile Design Goldcell wetsuit, this thing is amazingly comfortable and makes slow people somewhat fast!
The run to transition was long… once at the racks, I peeled off my Goldcell and onto my Specialized Epic I was. I had no real sense of how many 35-39 years old women where ahead of me. But I got to cranking and soon I found myself on the moon landscape that is the Las Vegas bike course. I saw many women with a 35 on their calf during the bike, and passed them all, until Cary Kinross-Wright passed me (Cary is a very strong Xterra athlete, I finished 2nd behind her last year on this very same course), I was actually surprised that she was behind me, and realized that I was probably doing fairly well. Seconds after Cary passed me, I heard her rear tire go: ppppfffffff! And I’m thinking: “lets get away!” That’s when I got this Lenny Kravitz song in my head: “I wanna get away, I wanna fly away”! So I proceeded to move into double time to try to hold off Cary, I knew she was a fast runner so I wanted to get as much distance between us as I could…
I was moving pretty well on the bike and towards the end of the second loop, I caught up to teammate Marcus Barton, and proceeded to point out to him that he was being passed by a girl! I guess it’s my role as the Captain of the Melrad team to be a little mean to the troops!

Back to T2, hoping that I was near the top of my age group (turns out I was 4th) and that I could hold on Cary and whoever else that may knock on the door. So far the race was going well; good swim and a very decent bike, but I was a little worried about my run. I was right, I started running and I had …no legs. The engine wasn’t firing up, there was nothing there. Right after I started the second loop, Cary K. caught up with me, and passed me like I was standing still, half way thru the second loop, another female with a 35 on her calf passed me, again, I could not respond, I knew then that I would have to try to qualify for Maui elsewhere because I wasn’t getting it here!
Finally, the finish line was in sight, and I crossed the line in 6th with a time of 3h11…
Some of my Melrad teammates got great results: Tim Holland won his age group, Jo Markham got 2nd, Fred Smith 4th (and 5th overall amateur), Meiling Yee was 3rd…

So that sums up my West Cup experience for this year…
Back home after the race, and still experiencing high levels of fatigue which is impacting my training. I’m hoping the issue will be resolved by the time of my next race which should be Xterra Farragut in Idaho on June 12.

Thanks to teammates Heather & Greg for handing me a fresh bottle half way thru the bike!