3/5 - 3/11/2012

So this was a fairly mellow week...just focusing on recovery workouts and getting the mind into position for some quality and ramp up work for Oceanside at the end of the month. Thought I might share some of the other stuff that I was thinking about this week since there is not much training to report.

This is a sampling of the music I have listen to when I am working out or trying to get pumped up. It starts out with some 'dubstep' which I had never heard of until just recently...it is gritty, energetic, dynamic and the perfect blend of agression and rhythm to get the cylinders firing I think. Then comes a smattering of music I like for various types of exercise in no particular order. I was so stoked to find out about this sight that I aded a 'workout playlist' tab above to start gathering music that I like to train to.



I also had the time to get out and do some fun social stuff this week...meeting some friends for a birthday celebration, potluck dinner at another friend's and going out to see an awesome band on friday night. It is always really cool to see a great group of musicians up close and jamming. It was A.C. Myles at the fog bank...I had never heard of them before but these guys were good! They got the mid-life crisis crowd at the Fog Bank all whipped into a frenzy :)

Other than music, I also draw a lot of motivation from the inspiring stories of others that have conquered adversity in their own lives, set goals for themselves and put in the hard work to achieve those goals. This is a feature on USMS about one of the masters swimmers on my team Jeri Gintert, her solo Trans-Tahoe crossing and the very inspiring story behind her motivation to undertake such a challenge.

http://www.usms.org/features.php?id=280





My favorite part about having an easy week is that I can make some of my training rides fun and adventurous...spending time catching up with friends, the glue that gets us all hooked on endurance sports. This is a shot of my buddy Paul who took some time out from his busy schedule to go bouncing around on some single track with road bikes...one of my favorite ways to ride. This always gets me dreaming about a custom Rock Lobster and long off-road CX adventures :)

It is fun to have more time and energy to socialize and do fun things I wouldn't normally do, but with extra time my mind always falls back to all of the things that I could be doing with my life that would serve greater purpose. I was glad to read in an article about a friend of mine who is a long time professional athlete that this conflict is not just of my own creation and he put it well, saying "...every professional cyclist out there knows that they can do something better with their life, they could make more money, they could make a bigger difference in the grand social scheme of things by doing anything else..." I know I have a long time to make great contributions and in some ways I do feel like I am gaining the tools to go after those some day. For now though I added some links to local organizations that do vital work and could use any help that is available. If you are not local to Santa Cruz I am sure there are similar ones in your area but these kinds of places do the work our society desperately needs and if i could give each of them unlimited resources I would in a heartbeat.

Swim 12,000 yds
Bike   9.5 hrs
Run    22 mi

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