Things have changed

Well, there has been a lot of team drama in the last couple of weeks. We did the Foothills Trail trek (67 miles in 38 hours). We put in at Sassafrass Mtn. SC on Fri. Dec 31st at 10:15PM and we finished shortly after noon on Sunday at Oconee State Park. It was gruelling, and we learned a lot, which was the point, but it did reveal that one of our teammates has an unmanageable temper that is exacerbated by sleep deprivation. What is now referred to as 'the meltdown' occured just after 2006 came in and has altered the course of the year.

At first the team did not want to rush to judgement about the meltdown, or make any hasty decisions. We had another team training on Saturday Jan 7th, 70 mile bike ride around the Cohutta Wilderness but at the last minute meltdown man wasn't able to come. The rest of us went out for the ride which was equally as gruelling as the trek. We got in about 55 miles before we had to find a take out point and get rides back to town. Sunday morning was a team meeting which was supposed to hash out the issues so that we could move forward. Meltdown Man did come to the meeting but unfortunately it did nothing to allay our fears. Team Captain made the decision yesterday to replace Meltdown man with one of our alternates for the race. Although this changes a lot for our race I am very happy about the change. I feel bad for Meltdown man because he was very committed and excited, however, the risks were too great and the captain had to make a decision for the benefit of the entire team to ensure that we finish the race safely.

The adventure racing community is very small so I hope that when we inevitably meet up with Meltdown Man in the future that things are as friendly as they were before the incident.

It's really warm in Atlanta this week. The change in the team has me reinvigorated and I'm getting back on track with the training that was somewhat derailed by the holidays and the two epic training events that we had. Ran 8 miles home with 15lb pack last night in 1:18 avg HR 164. Came back in this morning in 1:20 (not sure about avg HR). Big spin class tonight! Orienteering event this weekend. woohoo