List of Possibilities - Spring/Summer

I found an old skinny-lined notebook with only a few pages gone.  Perfect.  Because it's about to fill up fast.

We're sorting out the summer List of Possibilities.

Felasco and Croom are long over.  So is the cold weather.

The windows are full open and we need to align some summer goals.  It's race season!


The Summer List always starts with checking the XTerra race schedule. 


Off to the XTerra website... 

http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/  

Check the dates for the five races we had pencilled in:    


March  -  XTerra Miami at Oleta

The Rocky Mile section of the run course at Miami XTerra.

April -  XTerra Caloosahatchee

The 2010 XTerra at Caloosa - a wild and crazy mudfest.

June -  Richmond, East Championship XTerra


July - First Coast XTerra, Hannah Park in Jacksonville

XTerra JAX 2010

TriLady holding on to her lead.

August - XTerra Lake Placid, NY  (Just because.  Can you think of a better place to be in August, even if you do need a wetsuit?)


These five XTerra's will be our core races.  We build the rest of our season around them.

But when I go to look up the dates, three out of five have disappeared from the schedule.  

Jacksonville is still on.  

Richmond is still on.  (So stair running is still on the training list.) 

Oleta is gone. 

Caloosa is gone. 

Lake Placid is gone.


Now what?

I hate this damned economy.


A good goal is hard to find.

Meanwhile,  the Wickham Park Marathon is at the top of the run list. 

There is an XTerra off road trail run series. 

The ride around Lake Okeechobee lingers undone.  

(I think we should add to the Lake O adventure factor by making it a night ride, especially if the season gets away from us and the open sun is too much.  But once Scout pointed out the evening mosquito factor, sun and wind suddenly seem much more attractive.)


The rest of the months stretching away from now til summer are open season.  Full of Possibilities.

So far, we're not doing too well.  Working 7 days a week kinda squelches weekend plans for Popeye.  But there's light ahead.  Both in the lengthening days, and at the end of his current project.

The rides for March so far have big X's.  Rides that we didn't make.

Here's the first GoneRiding mountain bike race that was on the spring list.  It was Sunday.  We missed it.  Hailes Trails. 

I love this video!  It's a view from the front - something I've never seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE_PI7KDNpI


Enjoy the video. The only other way to see the course at Hailes Trails is to race it.  See GoneRiding.com for the next one.

Since I was checking out the GoneRiding site, I took a look at the Hammerhead 100 at Santos in May. 

I am disappointed.  It is four loops of 25 miles.  I know.  It's only practical to conduct a race using a looped course.  And 25 is long for a MTB race loop.  But just the same, I had fancied that somehow, someone, had managed to map out 100 miles, never repeating the same trail.  Santos is one of the few places in Florida where that might even be possible.  

Although we also missed out on the Econ and Graham's Swamp this weekend, hanging close to home netted a chance to crew (i.e., act as human fenders) for PieMan and Scout on their double wide sailboat, the catamaran Sunny Skies.   

Can you believe we made it through?

6 inches to spare - and not on each side.

3 bridges, then out into the Indian River.  

On the water again. Feels like coming home.  I fell right back into all the old familiar duties and motions.

Sailing is one of those things you never forget.  

Just like riding a bike.


Hmmm.   There are races closer to home...

You just need a sailboat to do them.  

Now there's a Possibility.