Sick of being sick... and injured

I raced Xterra Indian Peaks recently.  In 2011 I won this race (my first Xterra win) and was hoping to do the same.  I hadn't raced it since then, since it was shut down for a while (replaced by Xterra Winterpark/Snow Mtn Ranch).  Unfortunately, when I found out Ben Allen was racing, I knew it would be tough.  I've beaten him in the past, but lately he has been extremely fast.  I, as the only former winner to toe the line, was #1.  It was a time trial start, so I started first.  I took out the swim... well... like I normally do... FAST!  I built up a good lead, but Ben eventually caught me and I drafted off his feet.  He left me in transition and I simply couldn't close the gap.

The race took place at 9000ft+ in elevation, which usually helps me, but not today.  I rode alone on the great bike course and then ran reasonably fast.  Due to an earlier foot injury this year, I couldn't run full speed, and I ended up taking 3rd by someone I never knew was near me (shame on me for not realizing this with the time trial start).

Now I have Xterra Aspen coming up this Saturday, with my old training partner who now lives in Spain, Ruben.  We were always pretty equal in triathlons, but he didn't MTB.  Recently, he's gotten into downhill mountain biking, so his skills have seriously improved.  He's also won a couple of Xterras as well.  It is going to be an interesting race.

So... I've been sick for a week now, and I'm finally feeling better (last night's Master's meet helped)  Hopefully my fitness hasn't' degraded too much.

I don't have photos from the last Xterra, but here we are swimming at the master's meet:

And some videos of the whole meet:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkMTdv0_tES3MCSlTS49vrf8laMQ2r-gy