The Best Part of Working From Home....

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The best part of working from home occasionally......getting to run with @dchammerette Was a little brisk this morning but she crushed it! . . . . . . . #running #xterrarun #gopro #bowie #salmingrunning #trailrunning #IFB

A post shared by Iain Banks (@iainbanks1) on Nov 21, 2018 at 4:59pm PST

Weekend of Racing...Uh Oh!

Just in time for the weekend double of racing at Xterra Atlantic Big Elk 21km (Saturday) and Ramseys Revenge Mountain Bike race (Sunday).  Perhaps it won't be a weekend of crushing it!

Xterra Big Elk is the 4th round of the series and is critical for series points as I won't be able to race the final round on July 9th.  The best 4 races count to the overall series so a good result should see me sew up first place in the 40-44 age group. Oh and it will also be my longest run since Eagleman 70.3m in June 2014!

Ramseys Revenge is close by to Big Elk and is the next day so the weekend will be spent in the comforts of the Candlewood Suites! (Lifestyles of the amateur athlete). It will be my first mountain bike cross-country race since we moved to the U.S. in 2004 (I have done some 50km's and 50milers) and will be fun to thrash again but ultimately is purely training for Xterra and some other goals to come later in the Summer.

Just in time for a full weekend of racing.... @adventuregeeks #xterrabigelk 1/2marathon on Saturday & Ramsey's Revenge MTB race on Sunday! #raceweight #trailrunning #salmingrunning

A post shared by Iain Banks (@iainbanks1) on Jun 7, 2017 at 7:53am PDT

Xterra Brandywine Creek 12km Trail Race.....2nd Overall.

For the 2nd year we headed back to Brandywine Creek State Park to open up the Xterra Atlantic Trail Race Series

 Jeez was it cold, with a start temperature in the low 20's and the wind building. After a 2nd place overall in 2016 I knew the course (Hilly and rocky) I was hesitant if I could better that. The main goal of the early season has to been to build the bike so run mileage has been much lower than typical. However, I felt pretty good and group of four of us quickly made headway through the course and it became apparent that one of us would be left off the podium. With about 2.5km I put in an effort that split us ever so slightly and coming into the final two hills there was two of us with one just a little back and the 4th (Mike Welch - fellow triathlete) just slightly dropping off. Up the final two hills it came back to three with me running in 2nd and just off first. A rapid sprint down the final hill to the tape left me in 2nd just one second back from the win and 25secs under my 2016 time.  Strava race file here   Sarah nailed the 5km to win her Age Group and knock 3 minutes off her 2016 time.

 A great workout, good race and faster than last year's time....It was also the first race out on the new 2017 version of the Salming Running T3 trail shoe. In tricky conditions - frozen ground, snow, ice and a little mud with a good selection of roots and rocks, it was flawless! I can't wait to race the Xterra season with this shoe #nonnonsenserunning

 Let me know if you want to try Salming Running and I'll shoot you an awesome discount code! Next race in the Xterra Atlantic series is at Seneca Creek on April 10th.

.@salmingrunningnorthamerica in the wild at @adventuregeeks #xterraatlantic Brandywine 12km this morning. Just missed out on the win...beat out by 1sec to get 2nd overall #parvillacycles #teamsalming

A post shared by Iain Banks (@iainbanks1) on Mar 12, 2017 at 6:37am PDT

Xterra Worlds 2015 Countdown: 1 day to go.....It's Time!

Saturday and just one day to go! An easy day on the books today started with Sarah and Dad running the Kapalua 10km trail race over the same course as the World Championship course.  It was awesome to watch Sarah race as I hadn't done that before (She raced earlier this year at Richmond but I ran with her) and it is actually quite emotional to watch....I think the fact that it was at the World Championships added to the whole effect including the cannon start!

We knew it was a tough course including a 3 mile climb, obstacles and a final beach run totaling 1200ft of climbing in just 6 miles! Sarah did great though, beat Dad by a few minutes with a 1hr 27mins finishing time and importantly a smile as well!  Dad ended up in 3rd in the 6X-6X age group (numbers x-ed to protect the innocent).

The Old Geezers Podium!

The rest of the day was spent chilling, hydrating and attending the pre-race briefing. Very uneventful to be honest and something needed to rest the body and mind ahead of what will be a demanding day both emotional and physically. The course is a doozy and has to be treated with a lot of respect. The course conditions as well as weather conditions can quickly turn the day into something horrid and the key for me is to really enjoy this experience while racing to my potential.  If that means taking it easier during certain portions of the race then so be it.....just from watching the 5km and 10km trail race today there were plenty of people that didn't respect the conditions enough and paid for it.

With that I'll sign off with the knowledge that I have done everything in my power to have a good day. You can bring out all the cliches that you want, like "The hay is in the Barn" and all that, and it really is. The bike is prepped and ready to rock, the legs have come round over the past couple of days, I can't do anymore.  In the words of Bruce Buffer....."IT'S TIME"....

Xterra East Championships 2015 Race Report....T'was hot and hard!

What a great race and weekend! Over the weekend of June 13/14 Sarah and I headed down to Richmond to take part in the Xterra East Championships race weekend, the 3rd stop in the US Pro Series. Yup we both took part!

We headed down on Friday afternoon and after spending a few hours on I-95 I was able to preview the Buttermilk trail section of the bike course. I had heard lots about the Xterra Richmond bike course( check out the course preview here) so really wanted to see the technical sections and prepare for the race on Sunday. I am glad I did as there are some gnarly sections that would catch you unaware on race day. It was probably at this point that I realized that my MTB skills are still gradually coming back after a 10 year layoff. I knew I would be losing time to the uber bikers on this course... Oh and it was a hot and humid 92 degrees that would hold over the weekend.

The exciting part was that on Saturday Xterra were hosting a 10km/21km trail race. Somehow I has persuaded Sarah to enter the 10km with the promise that I would run it with her. Not ideal prep for me ahead of the tri on Sunday but excellent that this gave Sarah the motivation of a race and besides it would be fun!

Sarah had nailed her training over the previous 6 weeks and really got consistent with her running.  Yes she was nervous ahead of the race having never done a trail race before and the threat of the Mayan Ruins wall and the dry rocks didn't help. We had a great time though and completed the race in 1hr 9mins which is awesome for a technical 10km.  Bad news is that she finished 5th in her age group just 4 secs behind a podium slot! She is already planning her revenge for next year.

Sarah on the Dry Rocks

After the 10km I got out onto the bike course again to see the rest of the trails. Good luck/bad luck happened halfway round as my chain snapped and I didn't have the parts to repair it. Good luck that it didn't happen on race day - bad luck that I was out in the sun and 3 miles from the race village. After a combination of running/coasting I got back to the village got the chain replaced and started the rest of the days recovery by binge watching Flip or Flop! With a 10km and too much time on the trail I was feeling pretty tired, not ideal ahead of the race.

Xterra races don't usually start until around 9am so the alarm on Sunday didn't come around too early. After setting up transition it was good to the lines that the pro field took through the swim course which you is certainly not typical. There are zig zags, sand bars, rocks and a mid swim run....definitely not your usual swim course. We headed off at 900am and I felt good in the water. I swam good lines, didn't get pushed off by the current and exited the water in around 20th place. Only down side was stepping on a rock during the middle of the swim which actually cut my foot. It felt bad to begin with but by the end of the swim I had forgotten and it wasn't until after the race that I actually remembered!

Walking on water

Through T1 and onto the bike! It was getting toasty and hydration and nutrition would be key for the 2 lap, 20 mile ride. The first mile or so is across the road bridge and then you dive onto the trails bordering the James River, the Buttermilk trails leading to Forest Hills and then onto the North Trails.  My aim was a) not to kill myself, b) enjoy it and c) keep it steady.  The first few miles saw the uber bikers whizz by and it really is amazing how they blitz the trails, I have a lot of work ahead of me but I think that will come in time. I have to remind myself that this is the first season of Xterra and I have probably ridden my MTB about 10-12 times since getting back on it in January.  

The course and atmosphere on the trails was great, at the most technical sections like the river crossing and the rock slab there were a bunch of people partying and having a great time

Party time on the Buttermilk Trail

Despite not being as quick as perhaps I would have liked, I stayed in the hunt and the 2nd lap got kind of lonely as the field was much more strung out. I also took better lines as I was learning the trail more, so much so that my 2nd lap time was almost identical to the 1st lap time.

On the North Trails

Having run the 10km with Sarah the day before I knew what I was in for and felt that with the hot weather and the tough bike course it wasn't going to be a day of laying it down on the run! Much like the bike course, it starts off tame along the canal and then throws you up the Mayan Ruins wall and onto the trails.

2.5 hours into a race this feels as bad as it looks!

My plan was to just keep it steady and to be honest I didn't have much left for the run at all....even if I had wanted to push the pace I didn't have anything left. The Mayan Ruins felt as bad as it looked and the Dry Rocks were both hot and hard.  Races are funny things though and as bad as you can feel you never really know how the rest of the field is feeling.  I made my way around the course at just over 8min/miles and crossed the line in 3hrs 04mins. 

Pushing it to the end of a hard day

Yes I was pleased to have finished a hard course but was a little disappointed in the time. It felt slow and I was totally spent. One of my goals coming into the race was to be close enough to the pointy end of my age group to see if I could grab one of the 3 automatic qualifying slots for the Xterra World Championships in Maui in November. With the race I had I didn't think I would be even close so it was with much surprise that I finished 4th in the age group and now have to wait on a potential roll-down slot if one of the top three do not accept. Again no matter how you are feeling it is always critical to push yourself to the end as you never know what is really going on with the rest of the field.

There are definitely some takeaways from this race and further work as I enter more Xterra races:

1 - Technical MTB skills are critical.

2 - Knowing the course really helps....next year at this race will be even better.

3 - Don't underestimate the overall effort needed in MTB'ing

4 - Despite my constant lack of swimming, I seem to be "ok".

5 - Overall strength needs to improve over simply swim, bike, run strength.

On-wards to the next Xterra race on July 12th at Xterra Ex2 at Rocky Gap.

Thank you goes to:

Parvilla Cycle & Multisport, Pactimo, Retul and of course Sarah!