End of 2008

I'm such a lousy blogger. Wish I could be better, but oh well. The xc season had its ups and downs. After the last race I mentioned here, I ran a poor race up in Bellingham- a 10k hosted by WWU. My calf felt really tight for most of the race, not sure why, and I was pretty slow and my calf stayed sore for a few days. I took it really easy because I was headed back to Penn State for their home meet to run on an alumni team. That race was October 17th and I actually ran decent there. It was really fun to be back in State College and see good friends plus I got a ticket to the PSU-Michigan football game where we finally beat them for the first time in 9 years.
Then, November 2nd, was the PNTF xc championships in Seattle. I was fighting a cold and had a tough time on the hilly 10k course, but did manage to beat some guys that had beaten me earlier in the year. However, a bunch of new fast guys came out and ran for Seattle Running Club and I just missed making the top 8 to go to Nationals. So my xc season was over. We'll see how 2009 shakes out and if I can be stronger next fall.
But now I switch gears and as of December 1st, I began formal triathlon training again. The big race for me will be Ironman 70.3 Oceanside on April 4th. I've done this race in 2006 and watched it in 2005 and 2008. I know the course fairly well and I'm excited to go back and race there again. Its well organized and very competitive.
My training got a small hiccup from the big snow storm in Seattle before xmas so I only ran once in about 10 days and didn't swim at all, but I did a lot of spinning which is good. Now, we're in Sunriver, OR, for a week with family. There is a lot of snow here but I did run twice, xc once, and finally snowboarded today. I love the snow and I need to enjoy it since I heard it all melted in Seattle.