Thursday, January 29, 2009

The 2009 Plan. It's on!

Ok... after A LOT of thinking... A LOT of waiting (for my foot to come around) and a bit of indecisiveness I have finished up my 2009 racing schedule. I am definitely taking a different approach this year.

does anybody know where this is?

I will still be racing in some Xterra races and plan on getting to nationals, but I will be trying some new things. I really want to see how good of a runner I can become and also after being so focused last year on my Xterra goals I just want to have fun. This might shock some people who probably thought I would be gunning for another race in Maui this year... but that's not going to happen. No Worlds for me this year. Being so focused all of the last year on one goal definitely did a bit of damage on me mentally. I was totally burned out at the end of the season and am just starting to get the itch to race again. I have gone to Maui for Xterra Worlds 3 years in a row, I had a good race last year, so I am going to skip this year and save my $$$ and time... and sanity. I'll be back in 2010 and ready to do work.

Here's the schedule. It could still change a bit if I find some more trail races to do but as of right now it's the plan.

3/7 - Counting coup Endurance MTB (44 miles)
3/14 - St. Patty's day 10k (tradition)

Big Training Weekend
3/28 - XTERRA Chanoko Xduro- 21km (trail run)
3/29 - XTERRA REAL

4/5 - Carlsbad 5000 (road 5k, never done one before)
4/25 - 24 hours of Adrenalin - Hurkey Creek - 8 hour mtb race, 2-man

5/2 - Xterra West Cup - A Race!

5/9 - Xterra Malibu creek 14 miler - trail race
5/16 - San Diego Century
5/30 - Honu 70.3


***Start Running Focus***
7/11 - XTERRA Sugarbush Xduro- 20km (trail run)

8/15 - Pikes Peak Ascent - A Race!

8/22 - Bulldog 50k

9/26 - Xterra Nationals - A Race!

I will also be running the San Diego Track Club's Dirt Dog XC series. I think this is the best local racing.... hands down.

My "season" will officially end after nationals on 9/26 but I am considering a couple more fall/winter races and also plan to try some cyclocross.

Possibilities:
10/11 - Chicago Marathon
11/15 - Catalina Eco Marathon
12/6 - Xterra trail running worlds

That's it for now. Training is going well this week. This week is all about recovery. I have gotten a couple of runs, a swim, and fun off road ride. I have a big ride coming up this weekend and then next week it starts. My 2009 campaign will be officially underway! I'm going for it. As the days passed this week I began to get the "itch" now that I have it all down on paper. I know I have been putting a lot of miles in on the bikes, but I have not felt like I have been in full-on training mode yet... just kind of going through the motions. Enough of that. I am ready to kick my own ass on the trails and roads... we'll see about the pool!

Oh yeah... for 2009 I also started another blog. I know we barely keep up with Vo2 maxxed with how busy we but this one takes almost not time at all.... and I want to see if I can try a new (or just different) beer each week.

19 comments:

MJ said...

That is a pretty gnarly list.... lots of hard work there.... Sounds like a lot of fun.

Particularly jealous of the Hawaii 70.3 - was just there for the holidays and did some riding and plenty of swimming - it is SO awesome.

Cheers,

Unknown said...

This is a well thought out schedule of challenging events, diverse enough to keep you strong all season long. Nicely done. Peep these SoCal trail races if you haven't seen them yet, Bulldog is on there too: http://www.socalultraseries.org/

Justin Mock said...

Coming clear to CO, really should consider doing the full marathon. You'd be more competitive in the full (half has way more speedsters in it) and mentally it just seems right - you run up a mountain, you run back down.

Ryan D said...

go hard, or go home.

love it dude, Pikes Peak is gonna be sick!

GZ said...

JW - you better bring your A game bro. :) I will have the beer cold for a killer weekend.

runninggunner said...

Looks like a killer schedule. Definitely going to be some fun.

Matt said...

I have two goals this season:
1) run a successful 50k
and
2) run that xc series (this might be #1 since your description sounds really fun and the speed and suffer work . . .imagine.)

Epic, JW.

ramon said...

JW.....Coming to CoS. Very Cool!! The Ascent is brutal, stoked to see you charge it. I know you'll be ready to throw down. Beers after a must.

Matt Guenther said...

Dude...awesome call on the beer blog. I'll DEFINITELY be following it.

Carolina John said...

so just a few races and maybe a couple of marathons at the end of the year? Jeez, dude. that's the kind of schedule that would cripple most of us. i can't wait to watch you go through it. the pike's peak race looks awesome! good luck.

Benson said...

Holy over achiever. Nice list of races. should be fun.

Beer of the week...umm...that seems like not nearly enough.
BEER OF THE DAY please.

GW said...

Love seeing the plan for 2009. Awesome mix of races. Looking forward to overlapping at a few. My dad did the full Pike's Peak...it was nuts.
Glad to see another new post. I was getting worried that with the engagement and training we were going to lose out on updates.

Jim Vance said...

I was in college at Nebraska, and went to CO Springs for a vacation with the family. I was putting in a ton of miles, base training for XC season. I decided, what the hell, I'll go check out this Pikes Peak ascent, figuring I'm in pretty damn good shape. I didn't make it past 800 meters before turning around. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into! Just say no!

Vance

Kurt P. said...

JW, if you need a place near Sugarbush in VT, I might be able to help...

kurt at pbmcoaching dot com

xteric said...

San Diego.

J.P. Patrick said...

Where does the wedding fit into the schedule? That's your "A" race! Colorado will be an epic weekend!

Guernsey Man said...

Nice Bulldog!

Anonymous said...

James, check out the 50 Mile Ride (http://www.50mileride.com). It's a ride I co-founded 3 years ago and all of the proceeds go to Project Rwanda to buy bikes for coffee farmers. Last year we raised $37,000 with over 300 riders. Incredible day and course.

Sarah said...

So I'm backtracking here and catching up - now I see where you mention the new beer blog. GREAT idea! I am totally going to check it out and I will share any great beers I come across.

As for the race list - dude - we are TOTALLY in the same place mentally! I hear ya on the 'have more fun' this year thing. Your list looks awesome, I think you're going to have a really fun and KICK-BUTT SEASON!