It has been a while.

Life has changed fairly dramatically since my last post. In February I was laid off, and I got a new job in April. The job has allowed me to grow in many ways, and best of all is still supportive of my spending my weekends racing. Lunch rides and after-work rides are common, and I have easy access to my favorite places to ride. Life could be much worse.

Since I last posted, here's a little re-cap of my races:

2009 (October) XTERRA Nationals: I still felt the effects of the Ironman and the day was a death march. I was undertrained for Coeur d'Alene, and dug myself into a pretty big hole physically. I think I'll keep Ironman off my radar for a few more years.

2010 (April) XTERRA Real: 3rd place podium, had a pretty good race despite a sizeable crash. The two and three a-day unemployment workouts did me well.

*Somewhere between these races I figured out that I can race in the heat. My being miserable is offset by having good legs. This lesson turned out to be helpful.

2010 (May) XTERRA South Central Championships (Waco TX): Missed the podium by 1 second. Got out-sprinted at the line by a girl from San Diego, who has since become a FB friend. Loved the course, did ok in the heat and humidity. Didn't get a slot to XTERRA Worlds in Maui, but qualified for the 2011 ITU Cross-Tri (offroad triathlon) World Champs in Spain. I'm hoping to go, so there are probably some yard sale/bake sale/pan-handling events in my future. And I'm cool with that.

2010 (August) XTERRA Portland: I love this race. Drove up and stayed with my relatives which was nice, and enjoyed(?) the 100-degree weather the Portland area was having. I got 3rd in my age group and discovered that my feet cramp when I am dehydrated.

2010 (September) XTERRA Nationals (Ogden, UT): I flew out and met my dad (just like last year) and overall had a much better race. I took 19 minutes off my time from 2009, and again had a decent crash. This one resulted in an exploding GU packet that I swear is related to that bag that Mary Poppins pulls full-sized lamps from. It was absolutely everywhere. I discovered yesterday, more than a month after the race, that my helmet has a spotty coating of Pineapple Gu on the top. Go me. I didn't do anything crazy in the standings, and I got beat by the girl who beat me in Waco, but I'm encouraged by the improvements and looking forward to taking more time off next year.

Now that the bruises have healed and I took a month off just to be lazy (I seriously just rode my bike yesterday) I am gearing up to start it all over again. I have another month of unstructured (aka impulsive) training, then I'm back on schedule with Coach Felicia to focus on the Spain race.

There might even be some blogging.