What the heck happened to me and my blog for the past five+ weeks?!? Same old story, I suppose: I have been traveling, racing, training, working, walking the dogs, eating, sleeping, and hanging out with Amanda. It's taken all my time!
Somehow it's now May, we're back in Boulder, and I am faced with providing a summary of events, so as not to skip over everything that has happened since my last post.
After Ironman Arizona, I got to enjoy a couple more weeks down in Austin. Amanda and I had a really great time there, and the final weeks were spent soaking up the final bits of sea level breathing before returning to oxygen-starved Boulder.
At the end of my stay in Texas, I enjoyed another great throwback weekend with my good friend, Todd Gerlach, aka the Gerlachness Monster, or the Buffalo. We spotted an opportunity on the race calendar to bring back a few memories out on the West Texas Plains.
Although the name has changed from Strutters to Striders, Jack and Ester Weiss' Ironhead Production long course duathlon has not changed a bit. It seemed like only yesterday when Jon Hill, Todd and others of the Austin crew were heading out to San Angelo for the first time.
Returning to Sanangelo, as it's spoken, was a blast. The scene of my first overal victory in a multisport event, the race's famous dirt road from hell was every bit as challenging as it was in the mid-nineties.
After the race, the dogs and I headed North and West to Albuquerque for a few days with my mom (and their grandma). We stayed there for three days, which gave us enough time to catch up with Mom, train a bit, and eat a good dose of New Mexico Green Chile.
I got comfy in Boulder for two nights after the Albuquerque stay. My next engagement was with the Multisports.com Ironman Coeur d'Alene camp up in Idaho. I love these camps as they are a great way to train the race course, hang out with a fun group of athletes, and to share a bit of knowledge and experience with thirty or so folks training for next month's race. Plus, it's always fun to laugh at Paul Huddle's jokes, and to catch up with Paula Newby.
Two more nights in Boulder were followed by a trip to St. Croix for the 70.3 race. This is one of the greatest races around, and it's in great part because of the relationship we have formed down there with our host family. The Isherwoods have been kind enough to take us into their home for six of the last eight years. We love the challenge of the race course, the level of competition, and certainly, the hospitality of our family away from home!
Both Amanda and I had strong showings in the race. We each managed a PR for that event, and we found that our training has gotten us to a good early-season level of fitness. To share the gory details of the race report right now would be time consuming, so I'll promise to post those thoughts at a slightly later time.
After STX, Amanda and I returned to Boulder for good. Although she is currently out of town, we're both really here now. Really. We had a great spring/ winter in Austin, and now we're back in BCO for the duration. It's finally stopped snowing (sorry to all of our Colorado buddies who suffered through it all), and the temps are starting to warm right up.
I'm about five weeks away from my next big race: Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I could not be more excited to return to one of my favorite race venues. I'm feeling fit and motivated to have a strong day.
Phew! I feel I can take a breath now. I hate to leave out the scintillating details of all the goings on, but I can now get back up to speed with current updates. Or is that what I say every time???
Thanks for checking in!
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