This is supposed to be fun, remember????

Toward the end of last season (my first year of triathlon) I was training for a half Ironman distance race and was struggling to find time to fit in all the training. I felt an immense need to LOG MILES after reading article after article about these people who dedicate their lives to Ironman. Well, sorry Joe Friel, I'm no longer interested in that pursuit. Over the winter I used the Slowtwitch.com workout log and did a couple challenges and yes, it kept me motivated during the cold winter months running on a treadmill and biking on the trainer in my Chamber of Pain. Since I have been able to be outside, I have completely quit keeping a training log. That overwhelming feeling of "feeding the log" is GONE!! It would get so bad at times I couldn't even talk to my wife if I missed a scheduled workout for fear of snapping at her for getting in the way of my progress. That nagging voice in the back of my mind "There's someone out there working harder than you, you'll get beat, you'll embarass yourself" wouldn't let me enjoy doing what I absolutely had loved to do earlier in the year. I had crunched all the numbers, broke my training down into Zones by heart rate and perceived exertion, and researched every aspect of it to make sure I knew all the tricks. It was an obsession.
Well, I'm glad to say it was a temporary obsession. I realized that I LOVE running, I LOVE biking, and yeah swimming's ok too, but I put waaaaaaay too much pressure on myself. I dove headlong into the glamorous arena of competition and forgot it was the love of the three sports that got me there to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I'll be a triathlete probably the rest of my life and I'll still track my improvement and work hard, but I'm not going to let competing or some ridiculous sense of responsibility to a training log take all the fun out of it again.
Fun is one of the things that drew me to XTERRA and off-road triathlon. This just seems like so much damn FUN!! Forget about heart rate zones on a mountain bike, forget about perceived exertion on a trail run, just enjoy the trail! (well that, and you're probably in the Red Zone if the bike trail is any good)
That's the kind of spirit I'm trying to bring out with XTERRA Pipestem Creek. I hope it comes through during the two days you spend here in Jamestown this June with me.