attmepting to break the curse...

first of all... i know it's cliche but I have definitely been "burning the candle at both ends". Work is kicking my ass right now. A typical day as of the past couple of weeks has been, wake up, train (ride or run), go to work, hit the gym at lunch, head home around 4pm, eat dinner, head back to work about 7pm, work unil 9-930pm, and finally head back home.... and a couple of nights I have had to jump on conference calls at 10pm to troubleshoot some issues. even though it may sound like it I am not complaining.

the only downside is less time to hang out with beth in the evenings. i have been missing our nightly dinners and she's usually asleep or just falling asleep when I get home. when I work at night i go into the office a bit later the following day so I am getting a little extra sleep and still getting some good morning training. this schedule will be pretty typical for the next couple of months so i just need to suck it up and do what i can.

This weekend i will attempt to break the streak of back luck (or a curse) I have had at Xterra Trail races. Saturday is the Xterra Malibu Creek Challenge Trail Run.

It's a tough 14 miler and will be my 4th Xterra Trail run. Here's how my first 3 attempts played out.

1. 2.3.2008 - Xterra Mission Gorge Trail Run (race report)
- I had the lead in this race and was on my way to my first overall win in any race when I was sent off course by a volunteer in the last 1.5 miles. I ran half a of a mile in the wrong direction and ended up finishing 6th overall and 3rd in AG . Shit happens.

2. 11.29.2008 - Xterra Topanga Turkey Trot (race report)
- I felt really good going into this race. I had been running a lot helping beth prep for the LV marathon and was looking for some redemption from the Mission Gorge race. It didn't happen. 3 miles in i was sitting in 3rd place and my race ended. both of my quads seized from my hips down to my knees. it was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me and also the last. game over. I finished the race... 20th overall and 10 in my AG.

3. 12.14.2008 - Xterra Crystal Cove Trail Race (race report)
- this was the weekend after running a 1:13:50 at the Las Vegas Half Marathon so i was definitely in good form.... but in the week between i landed hard on a rock during a trail run and hurt my foot. I ran again during the week and it didn't feel good. I decided to head up to the race and see how it felt race morning... again... it was not right and there some pain with every foot strike. like an idiot i raced anyway.... and raced hard. 3 of us got away at the start on the first climb and never looked back, but on the first steep descent my foot really started to hurt and just got worse as the race went on. I hobbled across the finish in 3rd place overall and 1st in my AG, but in a lot of pain. In that race it totally jacked my foot which ended up costing me 8 weeks of running. it was very stupid to race and a mistake i don't ever plan on making again.

after topanga. no stoked.


so as you can see... 3 races and 3 bad outcomes. hopefully this weekend i'll turn things around. i love these races and just want to nail one. my run training has really been up and down lately though and I haven't prepped very well for this race... it's long! I decided to put more focus into the mountain bike races so the running volume has taken a hit in the past month.

running volume for the last 12 weeks.

saturday should be interesting.

one last note... Skinfit is in full effect! From the xterra west cup, the idyllwild spring challenge, to Wildflower the team is throwing down. Check the Skinfit Blog for all the details.