I can't believe it's May. This year has vanished so far. Between training, the kiddo, buying a house with Steph, and work, it seems that I/we have had no time for relaxing. Anyway, I'm hoping to regroup here soon, and get the stress levels down. In the meantime, here is a brief recap since Worlds last November.
I have avoided writing a recap of Worlds because I didn't know how to write it without being negative. It was beyond humbling, yet again, and left me with a lot of doubt about how to proceed. I had never prepared for it as thoroughly as I did, and after having a pretty incredible season leading up to it, my confidence was pretty high that I was on track for a good result. Sadly, my body again rejected the punishment in the heat. Ultimately, the main thing I was proud of was not giving up. I do want to go back, but not in 2016.
In any case, I had fun in Hawaii after the event with Steph, Scarlett, and my brother. We toured the island, Steph climed Haleakala on her bike, lots of snorkeling and hiking, killer food, and some much needed time to decompress after the long season.
Luckily I have people in my life that were able to remind me that the season wasn't defined by one race. So, after sulking and getting over my self pity, I decided to keep going in 2016. In fact I will be racing Elite this year, and I am super excited and equally as nervous.
Knowing my run was a definite weak link last year, I put in a lot of winter base miles per coach's recommendation, and it's definitely paying off. My bike feels stronger than last year, and I'm making gains on my already pretty solid swim.
I was able to test my early fitness at the Intermountain Cup Red Rock Desert Rampage. Racing in the Expert 19-39 category, I went for the early hole shot, but paid for my efforts and had to work my way back to 8th overall over the 19 mile course. Steph was 3rd in her category and Scarlett completed her first official mountain bike race. It is great to be able to share these activities with the family.
Since I'm not racing the full Xterra Pan Am pro series, and Vegas Xterra was removed from the schedule, Steph and I traveled to Boulder City, NV for the RAGE triathlon. Wind during the entire drive there and 20 mph wind in the forecast for race day had us very worried. Race morning the wind continued and made the swim super choppy. I had a great swim despite the waves, but had a mechanical issue on my borrowed TT bike. I got going and fought the wind the entire 24 miles to post the second fastest bike split. On the run, I caught and tried to put time into the guy who was 3 minutes up on me (from a different wave), but couldn't get away from him, so settled for 2nd place overall. Steph, battled the choppy waves in the swim & wind on the bike, and had a great run split to come in top 12 overall in the women, and 3rd in her age group. Super proud of her, considering she had 2 outdoor rides on her TT bike, and has never ridding in that kind of cross wind with a bike that's nearly a billboard. TT bikes are great into/with the wind, but are brutal in crosswinds, so it's something we get to work on.
Now we are finishing up moving into the new house, and preparing for Xterra Oak Mountain, which will be my Elite debut, and another step in Steph's preparation for IM 70.3 Boulder in June. I'm bummed we couldn't race Gator Terra in Arkansas this last weekend, but really looking forward to racing the Oak Mountain course again and showing it to Steph.
Please check out my sponsors. Without them, it would be nearly impossible to accomplish what I have over the years. I do have discounts available for a few of them so contact me or reference the discount codes under their links.
Looking forward to the season ahead. Stay tuned for further updates and photos!!
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