off season and other things

October is a nice time of year for me. You have a refreshing break get your plans ready for next year and start training slowly. With ITU Cross worlds being announced for the end of may next year, puts me in an interesting spot. Its a good time of year for me and May as always been a strong month for me racing wise (if i'm not slamming my finger in car doors). But if I am going to go I have some serious homework to do. Sardinia Italy looks like a great place. Will be interested to see the course etc. Then I can make a smart choice on if its worth it to go I am really thinking I might. After being off my mtb since end of July I rode for the first time on Sunday with Sean B, Felt nice to be on the bike everything still felt the same. I thought I would suck after taking that much time away. I have been spending much more time on the road bike working on fitness. Skills are there now its time to learn how to not let guys like Josiah ride me off their wheel on climbs and wide open flats. I am making a big investment on myself for 2015 going all in so to speak. I will still keep some of my jobs but I will cut back on some things to be able to race a little and have more consistency in training. The big reason I am able to dial things back is having some great sponsorship help! 2015 will see me in a lot of new products. Like to Thank Smith Optics and Blue Seventy very pumped to be supported by 2 great brands! Also a very Big thank you to Tom and Paul at Ciclowerks. They kept my bike running in top shape and help me with any bike related detail! worth the trip to Waterloo for sure! some photos from Whistler this year ! always fun riding.

Season Review and 2015 thoughts

Figured it was time to talk about the season I didn't really blog about. I think the blogs are going to make a come back. At least Im going to try and make it happen on my end. 2014 season for me was great building year, but still walk away from it wanting more and knowing I could have done more. As anyone who reads this blog knows that I ride a mountain bike a lot. That changed mid season for me this year. I started only mtbing once a week if. The rest was spend on a road bike and the difference it has made is massive. My fitness is much better and in turn I have become a more balanced rider all round. The other thing I started doing was swimming!! since from the 2011-2013 I was pretty burnt out from swimming and swam if twice a week and if I did it would be under 2k... (that won't cut it anymore) About a year ago now I started swimming around 4x a week and made a world of a difference. I now swim faster then I ever have and love the water again. I keep writing about making that next step I really thought what I did last year would get me there but I realize now that what I have been doing has got me to the edge but I have to figure out who or how to get up there. 2015 Will see me make a come back to draft legal racing. I did one race at the end of last year and had a lot of fun with it. I think it will be key to upping my xterra game. I will also have a more involved race season, this year I wont have a wedding. That will free up some time! I have some pretty cool video stuff that will soon be released so stay posted. This is some of my 2014 Race photos...

Xterra west champs recap

Xterra West champs Race report for this race will not be a fun one to type though my frustration is very high and after having time to reflect on the race I am still having trouble seeming the glass half full. Last October I made a commitment to myself and others that support me. I lost around 10 pounds swam way more and got much faster and to run injury free and become stronger off the bike. In my training I have started to see indications that I might be on to something special. My training has been consistent and with high motivation so I felt good where I was going into this race. Now on to the race. The day was super dry and hot so I knew my nutrition would have to reflect the kind of heat of the desert. My clif shots and blocks worked great along with my Honey Maxx drink. I had a really strong start to the swim my work has really paid off in my first lap of 750 I was 25 seconds or less back from Dan and Craig but in the second lap lost little more time to them I have yet to see a full break down of results so I really don't know what I was back from the leader but I think it was around 1:00 or so. I still need to work on finding away to have a stronger second lap and hold my position better but with talking to most of the guys seems everyone is stepping up there game in the water so I feel good that I was still able to get my self closer to the front of the race. Vegas has long steep lose gravel climbs so there is no faking it on this course cuz if your not fit your going to go backwards very fast. In the first lap I got passed by soon to be race winner and Josiah he was flying and had no chance staying with him but he passed me much later into this bike then in 2011 so I knew I was still riding strong and the 10-12 pounds I lost showed going up the climbs. For the rest of the first lap I was working on closing the gap to Matt Leito. On the start of the second lap I was sitting in 8th. The second lap the winds kicked up making it little more challenging. A group of 3 guys rode there way up to me and once they passed me I started to feel tired so I took another clif shot and seemed to do the trick as I started taking time back from the guys that passed me. Now this is where my race took a turn for the worse first my seat post came lose so I have to stop and bang it back in place and then later tighten it. As seen in picture. Got back on the bike and right back to the chase my legs felt good and I felt strong no longer feeling weak. Then we hit a section on the course called the second river bed. It has very deep ruts so if you get off you line it can be a problem. As I came into this part I had caught some of the sprint Xterra athletes so there was a guy walk thing through this. I called out I was coming but he moved right into the line I wanted. Rather then get off my bike and not risk it I kept going only to find myself go over the handle bars and blow out my front tire. No big deal right. I get my co2 and resealer and it seemed to work then it went totally flat again so I got out my tube and used my last co2 and maybe in the rush of putting my tube in I put a hole in it and that did not go. At this point all I could do was walk my bike and cheer on the women now as they passed me. On the bright side I was having a great race and feeling good and all I can do is guess where I might have finished and that's what eats me was not the way I wanted to come back. But a good lesson was learned that sometimes playing it safer is the better choice. I look forward to get the monkey off my back and have a ripper in bama