i want to do it all…

i’ll be the first to admit it… i suffer from some kind of training/racing ADD.

after Xterra worlds in 2008 i was pretty burned out on triathlon training and beth was in the middle of training for the Las Vegas marathon… so i started running a lot and thought i wanted to focus on that.  i ended up running the las vegas half marathon and set a PR for the distance.  then i hurt my foot and was forced to just ride.  not a bad thing.

i was able to put together some solid mountain bike races last year and was really starting to get strong on the bike.  when my foot healed i started running again, did some races, but was still focused on bike racing.  then came the fall and I ended the moutain bike season by winning the Rim Nordic Series and the Kenda Cup championship race and then jumped headfirst into cyclocross.  all it took was one race and i was hooked.  i raced 10 races in the Socal Cross prestige series, i got quite a few wins in the 3/4′s, and was able to take the series title.  in november towards the end of cross i completely stopped running to focus 100% on cycling.

it was the first time in years that i was not running… not even a little bit.  so for the first half of year a trained my face off on the bike and was making big gains thanks to the help of cody.  i raced a bit and was doing ok, nothing great.  then at the end of march i got the itch to start running again… and so i did.  i have been running again for just over two months and it all came back very quickly… way quicker than i anticipated.  i completed a stint of 30 runs in 30 days (inspired by slater) and in that time had some of best mountain bike races of the year at Sea Otter, The Whiskey 50, and the Traverse.

so since running was going so well i decided to jump into the Xterra Mission Gorge 15k trail race (see my last post) and that went way better than expected.

so now the year is half over and i am stoked with where i am at fitness wise, but i really want to keep pushing myself and trying new things.  i am so inspired by what beth and all my friends are doing.  their training and racing lifestyle is inspiring and contagious.  i have so many friends that are killing it’s hard to not what join into fun (pain!)… here’s just some of the people that are killing it and helping me get out the door every day and pushing myself…

beth – blowing me away on a daily basis with the things she’s accomplishing… and it’s not coming easy.  she works HARD!

team SlaMo – i have known slater for a couple of years now and the way he’s progressed is beyond impressive… and he’s just getting faster… scary!  Monique has one of the best attitudes out there and is setting PR’s all over the place.

trevor – after battling injury last year he is back on the xterra war path.  he’s coming around and getting fitter by the week.  i can’t wait to see what the rest season has in store for him.

ryan w – only really in his 2nd year of focusing on the bike the work he has put in is paying off.  he’s probably the only person who gets out on the roads earlier me to get the work done.  he’s been killing his races this year.

sean – i don’t even know where to start with this guy.  can do it all… adventure racing, IM, MTB racing, road cycling, TT, running… FAST.  incredible athlete and has the right attitude… has more fun training and crushing himself then anybody i have ever met.  he is an incredible source of knowledge and always has good advice.

ryan d – another nutcase.  crushes IM’s and then backs it up with RAAM.  he’s not normal!

toby – the multitude of things he’s done is nuts.  he just goes with the flow.  100 mile running races, mtb racing, climbing.. he goes BIG.

allison – doing it! works full time and races on the Pro MTB scene… and kills it.  everyweekend it seems like she’s up on another podium.. and she works hard for it.  no compromises.

ian & charisa – i am lumping these two together because they, as well as beth, are on team dirk and they are both neo-pros on the ironman scene.  i won’t even say they go big… that would an understatement.  they go HUGE and they seem love every minute of it.

luke – after focusing on endurance mtb for a couple of years decided to tackle the hardest IM out there…. IMSG… and crushed it!

tatiana – 22 and and crushing dreams like it’s her job…

and this is not a complete list by any means… there are so many more and i don’t want to leave anybody out but if wrote the list of all the people that inspire me this would go on for days.  so it’s pretty easy to see that i am surrounded by people pushing their  limits and more importantly having fun doing it.

I want to crush dreams… my own!  as slater posted about we joke around about crushing dreams, our own and each others while training and racing:

“My buddies and I always joke about “crushing dreams”. Sometimes we joke about crushing each others dreams on a long climb or how we escaped a crash that may have crushed our dreams of ever walking normal again…well, you get the idea. To me, the truest since of “crushing your own dreams” is to exceed your own expectations so much that it may have been a bit better than you even dreamed about…”
it’s all in good fun and makes training with each other awesome.  so with all the being said/typed… i am going big!  i am full on planning mode for a summer of fun and a fall full of cyclocross.

so there is some serious planning in the works…

…and some more photos from the weekend!

nyla got her first bath. she loved it!

epic burgah!

more epic eats. grilled fish salad.