Schedule

While most people have their schedules and training plans ironed out months before this time of year, I am just starting to get a feel for what I want to be racing this year. . . I know that I want to focus on off-road multisport but the door is still pretty open as far as what "series" or specific events I am setting the priority on. I wont even get into my "non-structured training". Managing a spreadsheet of "options" is a bit crazy I guess....Its 2:30am now and I cannot sleep so here it goes!


I just added a bunch of mountain bike races and I have wanted to do a complete season of Xterra races for the last two years now. Variety is a good thing but I know I need some focus this year to accomplish some of my race specific goals. Too extremes it seams. I had several people strongly encouraging me to give a cross country race a shot after VQ and maybe next year I will just focus on the bike.

This year, however, I am signed up for and stoked to have my priority events all under the "Conquer the Bear" multi-event series. This will let me get in some additional new experiences as part of the series like my first snowshoe race, my first paddle race, my fist road marathon and my first cross country race. This frames most of my races for the season and should be an awesome lineup!






Feb 7th - Showshoe the Bear Race (2nd place overall)
May 31st - Big Bear Shootout (Cross Country Race)
July 11th - Paddle Fest Race (10K paddle)
July 19th - California Multisport #2 (Run,Paddle,Mt Bike)
Sept 12th - Big Bear Marathon -(26.2 @ Elevation)


Next up is an obvious priority for me because it pushed me to a new level last year and has to be the best type of racing I have experienced so far (I even made the homepage pic!). The California Multisport Series has an amazing line up of event directors that put everything into these races and it shows! The atmosphere, the courses and challenge is top notch and I am looking forward to taking it to a new level this year.





June 7th - California Multisport Vail Lake
July 19th - California Multisport Big Bear (doubles as Conquer the Bear too)
Sept 27th - California Multisport San Luis Obispo


My first race ever was an Xterra at Snow Valley. I really did not know what I was getting myself into at the time but I have wanted to do the series for the last two years but never seem to make it out to enough races to make it happen. This year I have a wedding on the date of our West Cup race and the final CalMultisport is the day of Xterra Nationals. With James not racing Xterra triathlons this year I just moved up one place in the standings at every race so I am trying to make the most of it ;-)

Here is what I am planning on racing now and we will see how it looks after Folsom (this weekend).





March 29th - Xterra REAL - Folsom, CA
May 10th - Xterra Del Valle - Livermore, CA
???

So with the series in place I have a handful of other races I am keeping an eye on. . . I would love to do another endurance mountain bike event but finding the "right" event is proving to be tough. Laps and road just are not the same as a point to point adventure. I also did my first Crit race last Tuesday and I was blown away by how INTENSE it was. Wow. Road bikes can be fun too! I need more weekends!

In two weeks Monique, Keevin, Chuck and I are all racing the Oceanside 70.3 (Half Ironman) and will be our longest triathlon to date. We all did the Santa Barbara triathlon last year (which was our longest tri at the time) and it was only natural that when we saw St. George full Ironman distance triathlon posted last week we all signed up. Yep. Ironman 2010! Yikes! It is awesome to be able to do all of these races with the crew.

Sean Clancy my buddy and coach is also racing Oceanside with us and I have been so impressed with watching his progress in his training. WHEN he qualifies for Kona and races this year Monique and I are going with him and Lisa to watch it all go down. I know after being there and watching that I will HAVE to do an Ironman in 2010. Ha! Sean is also signed up for the St. George next year and a ton of other friends so I am sure it will be a good time before, during and after the race.

So the next two weeks I will see some results of what Xterra will look like this year and then build a block of training right into the Oceanside race. I am not planning on "racing" Oceanside as much as taking in the experience and building for the series of races later in the year. I am still wide awake with anticipation!