After smashing myself good in Muskoka I needed some time to recover and do some training. However, it was only three weeks till Dallas and then only three more weeks till Xterra World Champs and Clearwater.
So coach Lance Waston and I decided that Xterra Worlds Oct 26 and Clearwater 70.3 Worlds Nov 8 were the key races and training for these was the priority. This meant I took time to recover from Muskoka but I then needed to train through Dallas, the series finale of the Lifetime Fitness series. This was hard both physically but also mentally knowing that the 150 some odd thousand dollars at the race would be not as attainable. Regardless I went into it tired and not super excited to race.
A good talking to from Lance Saturday night and I snapped out of my funk and promised I would wake up Sunday with an attacking attitude. This I did and I had a solid race again.
Out of the water at the front of the main group (Andy Potts and Courtney Atkinson up the rode 30sec) and held that for most of the bike. A gap opened up and a group formed of about 8 guys 1min or so up the rode. I tried to bridge it when Stuart Hayes came around to go but I could only go for so long and then my legs fatigued. I came into transition in 9th and again had work to do on the run.
I built into the run and by the turn around halfway I had moved into 6th. It was at this point that I realized we had just run slightly uphill the whole 5km. I had then wished I ran out a little harder as I was gaining on Courtney in 5th but ran out of terrain and finished 6th again.
I was happy with how hard I dug and the effort I put out considering the volume of training I had done going into the race.
