Thursday, August 07, 2008

good karma, hard running, and more snow valley...


Thanks for the killer photo Rich!

It's been a good week so far and the weekend is shaping up to be really fun and I'll get to that later.

good karma...

So if you your remember reading a while back about how I was a huge tool and left my precious Zipp 404 race wheel on the side of the road up in Sonoma after Beth race Vineman 70.3. Well check this out...

1. Beth goes into Hi-Tech and in talking tells them what happened.
2. Somebody overheard Beth talking about the wheel and then sent Maria at Hi-Tech a link to this thread: http://community.active.com/thread/47909?tstart=0
3. Maria calls me and tells me to check it out.
4. I follow the directions in the thread and email a description of the wheel to Amy, the race organizer.
5. She forwards my email to Peter (guy who posted the thread) and he replies to me asking for a very details description.
6. I respond with a very detailed description and some photos.
7. It's my wheel and Peter is going to mail it back to me.
8. I got my wheel back!

here's my hot girlfriend and the infamous wheel... the last time it was ridden.


I am so stoked! I really can't believe that I got it back. After emailing back and forth with Peter he told me that he just saw it sitting next to a mail box and figured somebody had done exactly what I did. I can't thank him enough. Peter is a good dude and I trying to find away to pay him back. Ideas?

hard running...

Last night was my first track session with Du-master, Kevin Gillotti. He's getting for Duathlon Worlds on 9/27-28 in Italy. We have both committed to 6-8 weeks of track work while I build towards Xterra Nationals/Worlds and he gets ready to tear it up in Italy. Last night was our first session and it hurt... a lot. I haven't been on the track in a long time and wanted to mix up my training a bit and try to find some more speed. We decided of 4 miles of hard running broken down like this:

2 x 1 mile
2 x 1200
2 x 400

It was hard but we made it through and then knocked out some more 100m strides. It's going to be fun mixing it up on the track with Kevin and I know it will make me faster. I will still be hitting the hills on my long runs, t-runs, and tempo runs.

more snow valley...

The race last weekend got some pretty good coverage. My homeboys over at Amateur Endurance were out covering the race. I am stoked they came out. It was the first time Paul had the "xterra experience" and wrote a great article about it and also got a killer interview with Conrad Stoltz where he give me some props on my running. I am stoked they came out to cover the race and give some exposure to the Xterra scene. They have started a great site with tons of information. Go check it out!

There is also a good article on the Xterra site too!

Xterra Planet official Race report.
Amateur Endurance write up.
Amateur Endurance interview with Conrad and Shonny.
Random you tube video of the race.

The weekend should be fun. My homeboy Tom will be in town for some training and the plan right now is head out with for some mega miles on Saturday with Luke. It will be nice to have a 3 man crew on my last mega-base ride. Tom is also going to hit my local trails with me on Friday. I can't wait to get him out there. He has shown some of the best AZ has to offer and I finally get to pay him back... and then of course there will be plenty of relaxing and consumption for some cold beers. ... and the olympics & little league world series start and my DVR is programmed!

is it the weekend yet?

12 comments:

XTERRA ROOKIE said...

Your blog is awesome! A case of PBR and a couple bottles of wine might be in order for returning the wheel. What a dude!

Thanks for sharing your XTERRA experiences. Your blogging has a way of keeping me motivated.

Matt said...

Good news, nice work yada yada.
You rip, homey. I read the interview and The Caveman is all soul. I've never met the guy and I know he's all good. If anyone should have a little too much confidence, it's him. You're on his radar! Really nice.

Jamie said...

Damn. I can't believe you actually got your wheel back! That is awesome.

Some times people do actually surprise you and do the right thing I guess.

GZ said...

It you are willing to share, I am really interested in what the times were for that workout, including the rest.

Great story on the wheel. Pay it forward brother.

Carrie said...

Mail the guy a restaurant gift card as a thank you.

D a v e P said...

James,
Congrats on another great race last Sunday and your Xterra coverage!
Thanks for spreading the word about AE to everyone too!
Your wheel story is yet another example of how small and great this triathlon community really is.

Paul said...

Dude, Glad you got your wheel back. Good things happen to good people! You're on a tear right now!! Keep up the good stuff.

Ryan D said...

dude, i cant believe you got your wheel back! send him beer - lots of beer!

nice work on snow valley!

SixTwoThree said...

So glad you got your wheel back. When I read that I was hoping that somehow the blogging universe would find a way to get it back you. How to repay him? Hmmm, a case of Stella Artois, Jamba Juice gift certificate, Kona coffee, good wine - there are a few of ideas.

Jim said...

Make that beer and Kettle Chips.

There is now at least one more person in this world who has shown me that there are still some good people left.

The story is still as unbelievable as it was when you told me.

GW said...

Dude, great news about the wheel. Thanks for the comments and have a great weekend.

PaulDJesse said...

Hey man thanks for the pub for Amateurendurance. It was a blast watching the race and seeing how you guys do it. You had a killer race.

Conrad and Shonny were awesome, so cool to talk to.

One of these days I'll actually do an Xterra instead of just watching. That'll be a lot of hill specific training from now, but one day.

Thanks again.