HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2006 is wrapped up, “off” season/down time is officially over and I’m ready to go! My mind and body are rested, refreshed and recovered from last season and I’m re-energized, looking forward to a great 2007 season of training and racing.

With a step back in the training over the past couple months, I have had a chance to reflect on the past season as well as look forward and do some planning for 2007.

2006 was a year with a lot of good training put in, but my race performances didn’t seem to back that up. I never felt really “sharp” or fast last year, so as I plan my season I am taking the steps to make sure my game is on and I am racing like I know I can. So far, training is going really well; I’m right where I want to be…building a solid base for an excellent 2007 season. I feel good (so much better than last year at this time, when my body was trying to fall apart on me) and all the little things are coming together.

I have some big goals for the year…the BIG one being to qualify for the Long Course Worlds Team and race at the Long Course Championships in France, in July. To qualify, I will need to race well and secure a spot at either the CA 70.3 race at the end of March or at Wildflower in early May. I will keep you updated on my progress!

It won’t ALL be about swimming, biking and running this winter… I’ll have some playtime on the ski slopes with Dave, too. We zip up to Mt. Hood whenever our schedules, and good snow and good weather align just right. We’re also heading down to Tahoe later this month for a few days of skiing with friends. I am learning that play is so important in keeping the enthusiasm and drive going.

Later this month, I take off to Arizona for some warm weather training! I have been doing most of my bike training indoors, so I am excited to ride outside in the sunshine…with friends! What could be better?

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2007! Thanks for reading and stay in touch.

Racing Locally

Racing Locally

This race season has not been short on travel - I’ve been all over the country in the past seven months, including San Diego, San Francisco, and Long Beach, California, St. Petersburg, Florida, Honolulu, Hawaii, Racine, Wisconsin, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Chicago, Seattle, and Boston. It is great to have the opportunities to travel, to check out new race venues, to see different parts of the country and to see friends who I only see at races. But, along with the travel comes, well…travel! Dealing with airports and the breaking down, packing up and rebuilding my bike are some of the details that can get old. So, after traveling to my previous nine races it was a huge treat for me to race locally this past weekend!

Saturday was the 18 th annual Columbia Gorge Aluminum Man Triathlon. (This race was actually my first intro. to triathlon. Back when I was 13, I did the swim portion as part of a relay team). This race is held in my hometown, and I can even see the swim course from my house! It was so nice to sleep in my own bed the night before the race, and ride my bike down to the transition area on race morning. Racing on the roads where I do most of my training, and having a cheering section (Thanks Dave, Sally, Anna, Alex, Leanne and Leona for coming down!) made this race especially fun.

Although the field wasn’t huge and the competition not quite as tough as my other races this year, it was a WINDY day (20+ average, with gusts up to 28 mph) so I did have the wind to battle it out against. The race started with a choppy, rough swim in the Columbia River. I decided to swim without a wetsuit - the water temp. wasn’t bad, but I could have used the extra floatation in the rough water. Just a short 800 m. swim, and then out into the wheat fields east of The Dalles for the 50K bike course. The wind was coming from the west, so for the first part of the course there was a great tail wind. That portion went by all too quickly, and then it was into the wind back to the transition area. There is a great, long downhill toward the end of the course, but unfortunately even the downhill didn’t feel good and fast with that headwind! The run course was a flat out and back along the river; into the wind on the way out then a nice tail wind push for the last 5K push.

It was a fun day of hometown racing, and I had less than 19 hours to rest up and do it all again the next morning!

Sunday was the first annual Escape from the Gorge Triathlon in Cascade Locks, OR. Just a quick 45-minute drive took me to a fabulous Alcatraz qualifier race. In its first year, this was a pretty small race, but I imagine it will quickly grow into a premier race in the Northwest. Race directors did a great job mirroring the Escape from Alcatraz race – the 1.5 mile point to point swim started with a jump off the Sternwheeler; the 18 m. bike course had some big “out of the saddle” climbs as well as some screaming downhills, and the 8 m. run course included a dark tunnel and a stair climb.

It was a sunny, clear, calm day to Escape from the Gorge. I had never raced on back-to-back days before this past weekend, but I am so glad that I did it. Racing near home was great and the racecourse was so beautiful, it really helped take my mind off how heavy my legs were feeling!

If you are like me, as one season winds up I am already looking forward to scheduling races for next year. Keep these two Gorge area races in mind for the second weekend in September.