Here we go:
The last 10 days I spent time in Nevada, Lake Tahoe in order to acclimatize to altitude and to improve my technical riding. I stayed with my friend Lance Seiffert, about 40 minutes North of Incline Village. That’s were the Xterra Nationals will take place on October 5th. Lance not only gave me his car, the whole upper level of his house plus access to his climbing wall in the living room, but he even treated me a massage with his therapist. I am spoiled now. I was also lucky to meet up with former downhiller and Expert MTBer, Tim Walker, who guided me through some insane trails around Lake Tahoe. These trails are considered to be one of the most precious/ beautiful places on earth to ride a MTB.
One day after a training ride, I was sitting in Starbucks, working on some training plans for my athletes (see my coaching here), as Gene Murrieta walked in. I first got to meet Gene at the post race party at Xterra Temecula. He is a former XTerra athlete and now action sports photographer. Check out his website. We met the next weekend and I now own my second portfolio of about 200 swim, bike and run action photos taken by a serious photographer. Credits to Gene and thanks for taking the time!
A couple of days ago I arrived in Ogden, Utah, where I stay with Jim and Deb Heffner for one week. They are the nicest people ever. They own a Victorian style villa, which has a basement with theater, countless bedrooms and bathroom, kitchen cabinets as big as my bedroom in Hawaii and a romantic yard with overwhelming flower arrangements, sitting areas, pavilions and a swimming pool. My bed is so comfi that I slept 11-12 hours the first couple of nights. Live is good, isn’t it!
Next time you are going through Ogden, make sure you visit Tyler, who works at Bingham Cycles. Tyler is mechanic, artist and expert MTBer, and showed me the trails up at Snowbasin. The other day he took me at a hike to a gorgeous mountain lake at Snowbird Skiresort. Afterwards we went to a Vegan Place in Salt Lake City, called “Sage”. It was the healthiest dine out I’ve ever had!
Also worth mentioning are the young guys from Bikers Edge in Ogden. Smart mechanics, thinking outside the box. They found a solution to fix my waterbottle holder to my extra small MTB and they have awesome customer service. Those guys are also skilled in throwing parties and will take charge for this year’s Xterra Mountain Champs post race event.
It is Wednesday, now and I just finished my last interval training before the race. The altitude still bites me a bit when putting in effort in the pedals. The next days will be spent having a BBQ at my place, prepping for the race and lots of resting. Pictures of this trip to Lake Tahoe and Utah will follow later on as soon as I am back on the islands.
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