So a lot has changed in life over the past 6 months. After thinking about what I wanted to do in terms of events for the year I really didnt see myself doing anymore triathlon so I sold my bike. Thanks Matt! I plan to stick with short-distance running events from here on out. As we all know schedules change and we go through phases where life just gets crazy. This is one of those times for me.

June 26th, I got engaged to my amazing and wonderful girlfriend. Wedding plans are slow but we’ve got time. I proposed up in Big Bear at Castle Rock. It was perfect.

So Heidi and I started a garden with the extra space we have in our back yard. We planted tomatoes, green onions, spinach, green beans, lettuce, strawberries, and a couple herbs. The seeds have started to “germinate” and the garden is showing signs of life.

I also started a new job doing web development. The project I am working on is extremely challenging and rewarding.

So that is what has been going on in my life lately, lots of change and I feel really good about it all.

Feb 1 marks the start of training for the Holcomb Valley 50k. The race is at elevation, roughly 7000ish feet so it should be challenging. The race is mid June giving me about 4.5 months to get ready. This will be plenty of time to get ready. One of the things I am going to incorporate more into training for this Ultra is weight training.

So I kicked off training yesterday with a gym workout with Dean. I hope to focus a lot on core and strengthening those stabilizing muscles.

Check back for updates!

This week, Bryan Sheasby and I did a day hike up the Vivian Creek Trail in hopes of reaching the top of San Gorgonio. We started out on the trail a few minutes after 7:00am. We got our permit ahead of time to get a jump start on the trail. The first mile was steep. We ascended 800′ in the first mile. We slowly but surely continued along the trail looking for out first creek, the Vivian Creek. The trail wound through the forest and gradually climbed up and up.

As we were climbing both Bryan and I could faintly smell smoke and every once in a while I felt a gust of warm dry air. I didn’t really think too much of it until we got to mile 3 and we could see West out towards the entrance of the canyon. We saw thick black and red smoke, sitting at the entrance to the canyon!!! The first thing I thought was we need to get the F@ck out of here! The last place we want to be in a forest fire… is in the forest. So I convinced Bryan that we should head back down to the car/civilization. Half way down we saw 2 hikers. We asked them if they had heard anything about a fire and they hadn’t… same with the next 2 people who passed. So we decided to head back up.

This added 3 miles and 1200′ of climbing to the hike. Not to mention that now, after hiking 4.5 miles, we had been hiking for over 3 hours. We reached our second checkpoint, Halfway Creek, in good spirits. We crossed the creek which was about 2 feet wide and continued onward. Out next checkpoint was High Creek, 2.4 miles up the hill. We were hiking at a pretty slow pace and by the time we got to High Creek, we had to decide whether or not to continue. We were moving at a 35-40min/mi pace and at that rate we would be pushing it to get back by dark. Not to mention the 3 miles to the summit from High Creek had an elevation gain of 2500′! We weren’t going to make it. So we turned around at High Creek and headed down.

The hike was incredibly beautiful! When finished the hike happy to see the car. We traveled 13.4 miles in 8.5 hours. Check out the pics below.

[View with PicLens]

12►

Here are some pics from our last hike a few weeks ago.

[View with PicLens]

12►

So the big race is less than 2 weeks away and I am feeling great! I feel pretty confident! The nice thing about destination races is that you get to be on vacation, whie you race! I am really looking forward to vacation just as much as I am racing. I got my bike back from Rivet Cyclesport a couple days ago and my bike is all cleaned and tuned.

Tomorrow morning I am headed down to the San Diego International Triathlon to snap a few pics and write about the race. It will be nice to watch a race and get fired up for June Lake.

All right! Today was my last fiesta brick before my race. The workout was 15 minutes run z2, 4 loops bike (FAST), 15 min run z3. I ran today in the Saucony Fastwitch. This show is incredible – Super light (7.4 oz) and when combined with the insole from a Guide 2, it becomes a super squishy racing flat. Just beautiful.

The bike part went well. I beat my 20k TT record with a 33:58 (about 20 seconds faster than my pr). I am stoked because when comparing the conditions, it was much windier today.

The next 3 weeks of training are going to be brutal! I have 3 more weeks of the “power” phase as planned by Felipe at Breakaway Training. Definitly feeling pretty sore these days.

Today Doc, Paul, Carrie, Stephen, Tom and I drove up to Julian to do a trail run down to a waterfall. Known by the “locals” as the “punch bowl” it is a 50+ foot waterfall with a big pool at the bottom that you can swim in and rock jump into.

After driving 8 miles down a dirt road we parked, put on our packs and began our 2000′, 2.6ish mile decent. The tral is mixed, some technical rocky stuff and some soft sandy stuff. At the at the bottom of the valley you enter a green area with lots of trees and sure enough… there is a big ass waterfall. The water wasn’t bad… probably about 65ish.

The run back up is tough. On the way up we came across a realy cool looking snake. It hade a cool blue color to it. I’ve done ample research on poisionous snakes in Southern California and it wasn’t one but ya still, “leave it alone.”

This run is definitly a unique experience. It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there from Mission Valley. It is definitly an all-day event.

Pics to come soon!

Julian Waterfall Run

With the PCT50 in the past (not completed) my focus has shifted back to multi-sport. With just a little over a month until the June Lake Olympic Tri, my training is in full swing. With growing frustrations related to Magento and increased amounts of time put into exploring the world of online marketing and advertising, I am still able to train 4-5 days a week.

I am very pleased with my training thus far. My cycling is coming along nicely and it seems like each week, I get a little faster. Running has plateaued at the 8:15-8:20 pace. Each week I make sure to do a couple trail runs, usualy one of which is “gnarly.” “Gnarly” usually includes technical trails with lots of climbing. My swimming hasn’t changed much, I don’t go to the pool as much as I should.

I watched my roommate focus on swimming the past year, putting countless hours in the pool. He has made substantial gains, but that translates into a 4-5 minute reduction on his 1500m swim. At my level of competition, it seems I would see the 4-5 minute reduction of time faster by focusing on cycling and running. My swim is steady. 26-27 min for 1500.

At this point, I think a realistic goal for the JL Tri is going to be a 27:00 swim, 1:10:00 bike, and 55:00 run. This would put me right around a 2:33:00. Transitions are where I really excel so maybe add 2 min for transitions. 2:35:00 Not a PR but it would be a damn good race given the course conditions.

That *should* be fast enough to *hopefully* get me on the podium.

On another note, my weight continues to fall. I am at about 180 right now and will prolly get down to about 175 by race day, which I would be stoked on!

Today I did another test run on the leg! I ran 5.3 miles in Tecolote Canyon with Doc. The leg felt great the whole time. I am STOKED about this and it looks like, as of now, I will still be doing the PCT 50! I had 4 weeks @ 45-50 miles per week before the injury so I am going to build aggressively until the race. However, if at any point I feel anything in my leg, I will be tossing the race. As much as I want to do the PCT, I don’t want to ruin the rest of my race season.

Cheers & Beers!

Yesterday I rode with the folks from the San Diego Triathlon Club on the Great Western Loop. Holy crap that is a good ride, and by good I mean TOUGH. This happened to be the exact ride where 2 years ago I hit the guard rail and ended up in the hospital and on the couch for nearly a month. It is time to start gearing up for the June Lake Olympic triathlon and what better place than in the mountains on a course with lots of climbing!

After the ride I did a 1.5 mile run and I am pleased to say that it didn’t hurt. It would appear my leg has healed and I am ready to run again. WHOO HOO.