2007 Season Review

***this may be a long one.

I can't believe I am already through my second season of racing and training. The season flew by and was a lot of fun. I definitely had my ups and downs but all in all I feel like I accomplished enough to be happy with my season but also came up so short that it will no doubt fuel my training over the off season and all of next year.

My main focus coming into 2007 was to get back to Maui for the Xterra World Championships and have a good race. That was it, but then as I started training for the Cali 70.3 I really started to get excited about maybe qualifying for Clearwater... Let's just day I got way ahead of myself.

I will just break the season down by chronologically by sport:

Running:

2/15 - San Dieguito Half Marathon – 3rd AG/5th Overall – 1:15:45
3/17 - St. Patty’s Day 10k – 2^nd AG/5^th Overall – 34:11


I only did two running-only events this year. My first race of the season was the San Dieguito half marathon in February. I ran it in 2006 in 1:21:47 and it was my second half mary. I was definitely stoked with my race this year. My only other running event was the St. Patty's day 10k at Mission Bay. This was also just the 2nd stand alone 10k I had ever competed in and even though the course was long I pr'd. Jim kicked my ass though!

Mountain Biking:

6/24 - Rim Nordic #1 – 1^st AG/Sport
7/15 – Rim Nordic #2 – 1^st AG/Sport
8/26 – Rim Nordic #3 – 2^nd AG/Sport
1^st Overall Rim Nordic Season AG/Sport

I did my first bit of mountain bike racing this summer. I wanted to do it just for training for Xterra but totally fell in love with it. I liked the idea of just crushing myself on the bike and not having swim beforehand or worry about if I would still be able to run afterwards. I raced in the sport division but have just upgraded to expert so next year the racing should even kick more of my ass!

Triathon (road - non-xterra):

2/25 - Desert Classic Duathlon – 1st AG
3/31 - Ford Ironman California 70.3 – 4:52
7/29 – Solana Beach Triahlon – 1^st AG/1st Am Overall
9/9 – Pacific Coast Triathlon – 3^rd AG

I only did 4 "road" triathlons this year after doing quite a few last year. I really just lost all desire to race on the road. I just love Xterra racing. 3 of the 4 races were just for training and I went into them pretty tired and beat down. The 70.3 was the only one I trainded specifically for and it was an experiment. I blew to pieces on the run after jacking my nutrition. You can read about it all here. The other sprint races were fun. I always like going and just blowing it all out for ~60 minutes.

Xterra:

4/21 - Arizona Xtreme Off-road Triathlon (Xterra point series) – 2nd AG/5^th Overall
4/28 – Xterra Castaic – 1^st AG/2^nd Overall/1^st Amateur
5/20 – Xterra West Championships – 3^rd AG/3^rd Am Overall
6/17 – Xterra East Championshps – 2^nd AG/4^th Am Overall
8/5 – Xterra Snow Valley – 2^nd AG/4^th Overall
9/30 – Xterra USA Championships – 7^th AG/72^nd Overall
10/13 – PBR Off Road Triathlon – 2^nd AG/4^th Overal
10/28 – Xterra World Championships – 4^th AG/8^th Am Overall (2^nd American)/39^th Overall

Xterra was obviously what my season was based around. The goal of the whole season was to get back to Maui and put together the best race I was capable and hopefully that would get me on the podium. While I just missed getting on the podium (by seconds) I had the best race of my life. I finally put it all together. Next year will be more of the same. It's all about Xterra.

I am really excited to start training for the 2008 Xterra season. I learned a lot about how body reacts to certain types of training, volume, and intensity. I will put in a lot of time on the bike over the coming months as I feel like that is where I can continue to make the biggest gains, but I will get more into 2008 in posts down the road.

Thanks for reading!