Planning the 2011 Racing Season

I've started to look at races next year to map out what I want to try and do, what my wife wants to try and do and also looking at the longer race weekend camping trip getaways.

Here's the initial work up I've developed and it looks like March into May is going to be the busiest time of the year with two or three tris and the Sea Otter Classic in the mix as well.

While I enjoyed doing the Santa Cruz Sprint Tri, I think I'm going to go for off road triathlons. I just don't really care for riding a bicycle on the road and its hard to be competitive without dropping a big chunk of cash into a road bike that, to be honest, I don't even really want.

Anyway, here's the schedule that's starting to come together.

Two Wheeled Therapy

One of the best aspects of riding bikes for me is the peace and quiet, the chance to be out in nature with your thoughts, your bike and maybe a pal or two and some dogs. The other day I got a chance to go for a good ride in Nisene Marks State Park. It is a gorgeous park with excellent trails through the redwoods. The air is clean and pure and feels like magic.

There are also many miles of top notch riding trails. Some of which are singletrack paths along the sides of steep hills with dropoffs of a hundred feet or more. I'd call the place breathtaking but with all that fresh new oxygen around it seems almost hard to lose one's breath.

Unless it has been a couple of weeks since I've gotten some saddle time and my legs burn up early on and my lungs weren't used to having to work so hard. But even so, it always feels like I recover more quickly and can get back on the trail faster than if I were riding somewhere else without such heavy tree cover.

Mountain biking is a great combination of things for me. Its a chance to get out in nature, a chance to get some exercise and burn off some frustration and its a chance to think in ways that aren't really possible without the effort. Does that make sense? You know how sometimes you're able to figure something out even when you're not really thinking about it? A light goes on, the answer is clear. Biking is like that for me. The world becomes a simpler place, there is your front wheel, there are the pedals, there are your feet and away you go.

Reducing the distractions can quiet down the competing voices and thoughts in my head so that a certain level of clarity bubbles up from below. What might have been vexing before is clear and simple and it can become much easier to work through a charged issue (yes, I recognize that this is a vague term but I don't really care to elaborate).

Everyone needs a way to blow off steam, the important thing is finding that thing that works for you. Biking is one of valves and it helps that I love it! What do you do to keep your grip on your sanity?

Hidden Messages

I saw this sign the other day while I was out riding in Nisene Marks. It took me a hundred feet or so before I figured out what it had originally said and then doubled back to snap a pic of it.

The sign used to read Save Our State Parks but the SOS had been either burnt off by the sun or removed intentionally. I like to think that someone removed the letters on purpose to send a subliminal message that our state parks are sending out an SOS.

But more than just our state parks need saving. Our homes need saving, our economy needs saving, public education, the environment and, to a lesser degree, our sanity.

Luckily, the action that brought me to this sign is a big sanity restoring release valve in my life. And it means an awful lot to know how to release all of the pent up angst, aggravation and frustration that life inevitably brings on.