Hot Banana

Most of my weekends have been filled with laughter and plenty of time to just enjoy life...actually a lot of my weekdays could fall into that category as well. I am stoked I have such a flexible job that allows me to manage my own time. That is why I really didn't mind working last weekend for a network security cut-over. It has been a while since I have done one of those and it was a good reminder about the need for details, teamwork and what executing a good plan is all about. Not that it went well....it was actually a complete cluster but that is another story...

On Saturday, I had my grandfathers funeral. Yeah, weeks after we got my family organized and it was time well spent. What a weekend huh... Don't get me wrong. No complaints here. The only thing I was bummed about was that I didn't get to see my hero Paul for his 40th birthday bash and watch the rest of the Conquer the Bear participants finish the series. Jordan, the youngest competitor finished the series with his first marathon just days after getting back into the country from his summit of Indonesia's tallest peak. Now that is a busy schedule.

cooks corner, whiting, dreaded hill on the way to old camp & down the luge

I did have one window before the funeral on Saturday and I put down a good peak workout. I have learned a lot from training with Sean and one of the big influences have been to establish baselines for performance. How do you know if you are progressing or if workout A is more productive or better quality than workout B? I also continue to learn a lot from James and have tried to incorporate some running workouts he helped me out with recently. My running frequency and duration are helping me get more consistent volume than I have had all year I and I feel like this is the best quality running I have ever been able to keep up with. Injury free and stoked!

running IS fun!

One thing I have been thinking about is that I don't really have "race sim" courses... I found one that is pretty close to Xterra efforts and have been modifying it over the last couple of weeks. Better late than never! I start off on the bike a quick warmup and then a 10min 30sec all out granny gear stompin' wishin I had monster truck torque effort and then I nail it at race pace for the first hour. Then I just try to hang on for the downhill back down the luge. It is a pretty technical trail and the Spider has just been eating it up. The bike rounds out at just under 20miles and 3,500 feet of climbing. It is a downhill finish so the negative split effort comes from the run off of the bike through O'Neil park.

I love my Spider!

Hiding from the heat

THAT is a hot banana!

My body and mind are feeling pretty good and I made some changes to some nutrition and supplements after my foot issue a month or so ago. My good friends at FeedTheMachine.com have been hooking me up and keeping me healthy and recovering faster than ever. I started taking Hammers Tissue Rejuvenator and I am continuing to use it for maintenance. Good stuff. I also am taking SportMulti and a fish oil everyday. I probably should have been taking this all along with my volume going up and for overall health maintenance.

NO plans this weekend except we may volunteer at the Kenda CUP Mtb and Cyclocross races this weekend at Bonelli with TeamDuke. Then we are off to Interbike next week on our way to Xterra Nationals in Utah. Hope to see ya out there!