Welcome to the new blog, and finally a bit of an update on the season!

Alright with an awesome new website going and now a lot more time on my hands supposedly I am going to try to keep a steady update on my blog through the off season.  Hopefully staying on top now will translate into when I am back racing next year and race reports will shortly follow races!  Overall is was a great year of racing for me, it started off a bit slow but it ended very well.  The last time I posted on my old blog I had just made it through the winter and was just about to start racing.  I had suffered a knee injury that was very hard to figure out and determine what needed to be done to solve it.  Thanks to a team of doc's we were at least able to get things under control and I could for the most part get through the year without sacrificing my running.  Here is a basic synopsis of the season:

April: After a leg opener at a road cycling race at the Air Force Academy I started off at Xterra West Championship in Las Vegas as the first important race of the year.  Had and excellent swim and was riding great when the worse happened, flatted on the bike while I was in 3rd.  I had to run a tube in the back tire due to a mechanical from pre-riding in the days prior to the race.  Of course that tube flatted and my spare flatted as well.  Will Kelsay save my day/race/season giving me a tube and air 15min later.  Got going and raced as hard as I could and managed to work my way back up to 10th, never give up!

The ridge home stretch in Vegas

May: Did a little sprint tri in Denver to hopefully take my title back at after not racing last year but didn't have quite the fitness and lagged on the run and finished 4th.  Later that month had a nice road trip to Waco, Texas with Will for Xterra South Central Championships.  I again had a great swim, but my legs just weren't there on the bike and I lost time and places.  A lack of a base on the run hit me yet again and I dropped a few more it wasn't horrible but not quite what I was hoping finishing in 7th.

Twisting bridge in Waco.

June: In early May I got a surprise email from Xterra asking if I wanted to go to Brazil for the first ever Xterra Amazon in Manaus.  That was an easy yes and it was an amazing experience.  I will post a long race report that I had written up in the near future.  Overall the race was good, fun and interesting swim, hard hot and humid bike and a tortuous run by the end and finished 5th.  For all the suffering I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world.  The following week I got to see the last of my best girlfriends from high school get married, another experience I wouldn't miss.  I followed that up with a trip to Richmond for Xterra East Champs.  I had a solid race with a good swim, an okay bike but a very nice run that really put a spring in my step and confidence that I just need to push harder and finished 6th.  The following weekend I headed to Utah for the Dinoland Triathlon again and defended my title there getting my first win of the year.

Diving in to the piranha infested Amazon

July: The month of July was all built around one race that just about every Xterra athlete guns for because we are just about all from Colorado we all want to do well at Xterra Mountain Champs in Beaver Creek.  Things had really gone well in training and all I could hope was that everything would come together for this race.  I had great swim and came out of the water first a good sign and just hoped things continued on that path.  Out on the bike I held the lead through the majority and came into transition in a fight for 2nd with Seth Wealing and Josiah Middaugh and we were trailing Nico Lebrun by only about 30 seconds.  I ran well but Seth was on top of his game and Josiah's fitness was a bit better than mine so I finished a very respectable 4th.  I have never been so sore after a race though and it wasn't until a massage 4 nights later that had me in the fetal position that everything finally got worked out.

Podium Xterra Mtn-Me 4th, Josiah 3rd, Nico 1st, Seth 2nd, Cody 5th

August: After Mountain Champs it was all about building toward Xterra USA Champs at the end of September.  I set things up to train through Xterra Indian Peaks which is just outside of Boulder.  It is an interesting race since it is a time trial start and you just have to go hard because you don't know exactly where you stand with everyone spaced out over the course.  I know I started 5 seconds in front of the next guy and as long as I beat him across the line by 6 seconds I would win.  I had the fastest swim and bike on the day and had a very good run that was continually getting better.  I successfully defended my title and racked up my third win of the year, the second was a minor mountain bike race.  Following Indian Peaks I did the Colorado State Senior Road Racing Championships to get in some nice hard training and was able to come in a respectable 5th after trying to solo the last 2-3km of the race and hold off a group of 4.  I also competed in Xterra Lory but had two flat tires and that ended my day there, but I did get to see my mom race her first Xterra and see her and my dad win their age groups.

Mom (Black Top) and Dad (#236) Xterra Lory Champs!

September:  I started off the month on a nice trip up to Whistler, BC, for Xterra Canada Championships.  This was a race I had been looking forward to every since it was on the schedule and had it not been for a last minute trip to Brazil this would have been the race I was the most excited about all year.  The riding in Whistler is renowned and it didn't disappoint and it was by far the most technical course an Xterra race has seen.  I had a decent swim but was quickly pulled to the front on the bike by Conrad Stoltz (I lead him though the swim so sometimes I get to jump on his wheel and enjoy trying to follow him on the bike).  I rode well but a mechanical issue caused a few problems and I wasn't able to keep up with the bullet train of Josiah, Conrad and Mike Vine on the bike.  I did manage to have my best run of the year and catch Conrad since he was a bit under the weather and grabbed my first true podium finishing in 3rd.

BC Riding-wood plank bridges

It was then on to USA Championships in Ogden, UT.  This is always a big race because it is the National Championship and it is the final race in the America Tour Series.  I was really hoping to knock one out and needed a bit of help from some other racers to improve my standings in the series with my slow start to the season.  I had an excellent swim getting out right at the front and was moving along well on the bike with Dan Hugo when Conrad flew by us faster than anyone could have thought, he was simply on another level that day.  I held strong on the bike but it was equally a very strong field and got off in in seventh.  I did set myself up well enough that with a less than stellar run due to some side stitches/cramps I did manage to hold my position.  I was #7 going in, I finished in 7th in the race and finished the series in 7th.

Dan and I chasing after Conrad

Well that brings you up to speed minus one race, World Championships.  I will bring a full race report for that one soon.  Hope you like the new site and I will keep you more updated here in the future!  Check back for my Worlds race report and my novel about Xterra Amazon.