Melanie,
This is going to be my first full season of multiple XTERRA races. They are spaced out about a month inbetween each other, and I'm wondering if I should treat the first one as a "get through it and work out the kinks", and then go harder with the second, and all I've got on the last one.

I thought back to racing in college, and I never held back in a swim meet, I always went as hard as I could. But then again, those races never lasted longer than two and a half minutes. A 3 hour tri will take a lot more out of me. So I'm wondering if I should always give everything, or pace it out for a big effort at the end? I'm concerned about the recovery time after each race, will the hard efforts help or hurt me to go faster for the final race?

-Kim