Excuses, Excuses. Life and Races.

2016 was full of life and races. None of which I recorded because of Life. However, I have decided to fill in blanks and blog again. The next few entries will be highlights of great races and places I've been able to participate in.

The summer of 2016 saw changes for me and my racing life and goals. I had gone on my own for training to regroup my thinking and level of commitment at the end of 2015. Spring 2016 I needed focus and a coach to plan my programs. Unwilling to rush into another coaching relationship held me back. However, I knew balancing recovery and training for three sports and adding trail running and mountain biking into the mix would make it more confusing. I couldn't do it myself and needed an outside source to put all the pieces together in a fashion I could trust and take confidence in.

Enter my new coaches, Jacqui (Slack) Allen and Ben Allen, Xterra Champions. Since I wanted to do more Xterra racing (off-road triathlon), getting help from people who understood and knew the sport would be optimal. Asking Jacqui to coach me was another thing all together. I worried that coaching an older, new-to-the-sport athlete would be well, basically boring. And I wasn't going to be a "star" athlete that would promote their coaching business like a younger, more successful athlete would; an athlete that could showcase their amazing ability to coach. Jacqui and Ben were kind, approachable, knowledgeable, and supportive. So began a new chapter of racing for me.

Xterra was where I should have started years ago. I always wanted to do the dirt, mud, Bad-A courses I saw on videos and television. But every time I tried mountain biking, I'd end up saying things I don't normally say and quitting about two miles in. Once I made it three miles! Finally, I was willing to give mountain biking a "go."

As a family, we began racing in a local mountain bike series during the summer that helped "force" me to do the hard things and gain as much experience as possible. This was a great opportunity to meet like-minded people in the sport in my community. It also forced me to swallow my pride and race despite my nerves and fear.

2016 was a summer full of learning to mountain bike and learning to trust my training. By Fall, I had raced a few Xterras including the Pan Am Championship in Ogden, Utah and in October, Xterra World Championship in Maui, Hawaii. Which is where the next part of my story begins again...