Wednesday, May 04, 2011

The Thinking is Done and the Plan has arrived!

After about a month of really thinking what it is I wanted to do with biking and running this year, I have come to some conclusions.  Every year for the last several, I try something new.  Well this year is no exception.

In the fall I bought a mountain bike which I have yet to ride.  The first order of business for me is to learn to ride it.  Last week I had made the decision to only mountain bike race but as of Sunday I decided to stick with a couple of road races, and a couple of mountain bike races.  Am I scared about the mountain bike?  Yeah!  This is new item one.

Item number two is not totally new as it has the word run in it.  However, I have been a road, track and cross country runner, but never a trail runner.  I will be running the Trans Rockies 6 day trail race in late August.  The race is 120 miles long, goes from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek, through the heart of the White River and San Isable National ForestsMy partner in this run is Dr. Sharisse Kyle.  I figured it was best to partner up with a Sport Medicine Doctor who can fix me along the way!  Seriously though, Sharisse is an amazing athlete. She is very easy going which is opposite to me so we should have a great time.  By the way, I just really want to finish.  I believe my calf which I tore in September has finally healed completely, and I have managed to run consistently for 5 weeks now!!  Sunday was the first time I ran and completely forgot that I had an injured calf.

Item number three is track cycling.  I am planning on learning to ride on the track and will throw some of my training on to track.  I am really not sure why I did not do this two or three years ago. As in running, training and racing on the track improves top end efforts required in racing.  This is an experiment for me to see if, at my age, I can gain more top end speed and power.  I do know that as a high performance distance runner, returning to the track and doing track races, resulted in marked improvements in my 5km / 10km times on the road after retiring from the marathon distance.

Three new items for the year!  That is a lot but I am out there for fun now, and pretty much do whatever these days!

Here is my race plans for the season:

June 16- 18 - Banff Bike Fest Stage Race
June 25/26 - Mtn Bike / Trail Race - ?
July 9 - Sinister 7 Trail Race
July 30 - Aug 1 - Niklas Bow Cycle bike races
Aug 21-26 - Trans Rockies Trail Race

It is a big season, managing three very different things- mountain bike, road bike, and trail running- but life is about exploring and learning.  I put my time in as an elite athlete and now it is about doing different things.

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