2008 was a remarkable year for the Dirty Avocados in many ways.  Aside from the obvious – we got not one but two teams across the finish line at Primal Quest – this team and its members had numerous amazing accomplishments.  

As I reflected back on the year, I noted that some of the more remarkable achievements were not evidenced in the race results but were moments and circumstances of overcoming obstacles that the casual observer would not even notice.  For instance, throughout 2008 no Dirty Avocado team DNF’d.  If you understood just how difficult it is to finish an adventure race and an expedition race in particular, you would understand just how amazing that really is.

Other amazing things that most just wouldn’t know:

            - Jen continuing on at Baja Travesia after falling into the cactus.  It was weeks before all of the needles came out.

            - Brian feet at PQ were trash after the first trek.  He continued for 8 more days, finishing PQ on some of the worse feet I’ve ever seen.  Three (3) weeks later he finished an Ironman triathlon.

            -DP finishing PQ on the second worse feet I’ve seen.  He had to take antibiotics after the race to heal the infections on his toes.

            -Will raced for 9 days at PQ with bronchitis.

            - Adam and Jen continuing on after almost drowning during the riverboard section of PQ.

            -Brian, Susan and Mike continuing to race at Baja after being lost for over 12 hours on the first mountain bike section.  Going from 4th to out of the top 10 is so difficult mentally – many would have just dropped out.

            -Will’s stepping up his biking as evidenced by his performance at the 24 hours of Cool and PQ.

            -Will, Brian and Mike continuing on at PQ after injury forced Susan to drop.  It’s very difficult to continue to race unranked and many teams simply won’t do it.

            -The entire team pulling together to get all of the training and certification done for PQ.  Without a doubt, we stepped up to the starting line as well prepared as any team.

In addition to these behind the scene accomplishments we did have some outstanding race results:

            -1st over all at Tahoe Big Blue (Mike, Brian and Rhonda)

            -2nd over all at SF Oyster (Adam, Aja and DP)

            -5th over all at Whiskeytown (Adam, Brian and Jen K)– with Mike and Susan taking 4th over all on a different team

            -8th over all at Baja Travesia (Adam, Adam and Jen R.)  Mike, Susan and Brian took 13th.  Mark finished in 10th with Gold Rush Motherload.

            -8th (unranked) over all at Gold Rush (Will, DP and Aja)

            -29th at PQ (Adam, Adam, DP and Jen.)  Will, Brian and Mike finished the long course in 18th -unranked.

            -Mike winning the Masters championship at the 24 hours at Cool and 4th over all.

            -Brian and Will completing their first 24 hour solo mountain bike race.

            -Brian completing his first Ironman Triathlon

            -Brian taking 5th overall at the Stinson Beach 20K.

In addition to all this hard work we raised money for the Make-A-Wish foundation and sent a child to Disney World.

The Dirty Avocados established themselves as a true team.  These accomplishments are not the result of one person, but a group of people supporting each other to make each stronger and faster then he/she would be by themselves.  And through it all, we became better friends and better teammates.

2008 was a great year.  At the end of it all, I can truly say that I’m proud to be a Dirty Avocado.

If you’re like me, one of the hardest parts of training is taking the time to rest and recover.  Not only during the training period, but also planning a regular rest “period.”  I believe that rest and recovery is a very important part of getting faster.  Especially as I get older, I find that rest becomes more and more important.

For me, this season was a long and hard one.  The hard training started in December.  Then I did BAARBawl in February.  Then March was Baja Travesia, a very physically difficult 4 day race.  In May I did the 24 hours of Cool – a 24 hour solo mountain bike race on a single speed.  The end of June was Primal Quest – for me 9 full days with only 27 hours of sleep.

After a couple of months of recovery (both physically and pocketbook), I did 3 weekends in a row – the Tahoe-Sierra 100 mile mountain bike race, then the Kit Carson 24 hours AR, and finally, the Tahoe Big Blue.  I finished the season with the brutal Whiskeytown AR.  I was exhausted.

Now I’m in my rest period.  Of course rest is a relative concept.  I still bike and run and roller blade and climb and generally play around.  But I workout when I want too.  The workouts are shorter and less goal oriented.  I try exploring new areas.  I don’t worry about putting in miles.  I just make sure that I have fun.  If I don’t feel like working out I don’t.  I sleep more, eat lots of ice cream and put on a couple of pounds.

As important as resting is physically, it’s also important to rest mentally.  To have fun, appreciate the past season and look forward to the possibilities of the up coming season.  This is a great time to consider what I did well last year and those things that didn’t go so well.  Analyze the things that went wrong and try to figure out how to avoid the same mistakes. 

Once I feel that I have recovered, I take another week or two off.  I actually try to get to the point where I can’t wait to start training again. 

The big concern I use to have was that I would lose my fitness.  The good news is that fit people don’t lose their fitness very quickly.  Sure, you won’t be as sharp right away, but a rested body is ready to get better and faster and can be worked harder.  I have been doing endurance events for 30 years. I have literally thousands of miles in my body.  A few weeks, or even months of active recovery (or even just sitting on my ass) is not going to cause me to lose significant fitness.

On the other hand, if you don’t rest, your body will eventually brake down.  You are more likely to suffer from injuries.  It will take longer to recover.  And mentally, I just can’t keep pushing. I get stale and flat.

The point of training hard is to get faster and stronger.  Rest is a necessary part of a good training program.  Enjoy your time off.

doing what I do best in the off season

Looking for information for this weekends Gold “Cold” Rush?

Sleepmonsters and SPOT will be tracking the teams. You can follow on the Sleepmonsters web site.. hopefully.
Historically coverage hasn’t been very good and usability and finding the race info and tracking has been worse.

But here is what we have so far…http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=6869

Good luck Aja, Donato and Will!

I will be making sure they are safe as their crew.
I will also try to post updates from the field here and in the above Mobile Blog.

-Adam