Just wanted to say that you have inspired me to get in to adventure-type sports. I've been an avid mountain biker for about 8 years, but the last few years have been very trying. I had gotten the West Nile Virus back in July 03, and have had a lot of complications from it. Mostly it has been a lot of right leg weakness, due to the virus "killing" some nerve cells. On top of that, I had developed a blood clot in the same leg. I have to take blood thinners for the rest of my life for that. So through all of this, I haven't been active at all. When all of this first happened, I was walking with a cane, with the doctors saying I would never ride a bike again. Well, that just wasn't going to happen. Although I have exceeded the doctors expectations by walking on my own and riding the bike again, I want to go farther. I want to get in to trail running, and become a better mountain biker. I know I have a long road ahead of me, but reading your journals and reading about Xterra type events has become my inspiration. Being close in age (I just turned 29) it's even more inspiring to know that you are one of the best in your profession. And the fact that you interact with us "mere mortals" is a huge plus. Thanks Melanie, and keep up the awesome job!

I think it is awesome that you have decided to start mountain biking and trail running again.

The medical community has to diagnose _base_d on the likeliest situations. If everyone was an athlete, with the drive and commitment to give their 100% to everything, I am sure there every illness would have lot more positive prognosis. You have already seen yourself that you can put your mind to something and prove the doctors wrong.

Setting small goals for yourself as well as a big goal is a great idea. Maybe you want to start with a goal of a certain amount of riding, or getting to a certain level of fitness. You could make you ultimate goal an Xterra race or something like the Trans Rockies mountain bike race or even the Costa Rica Adventure Race (a three day point to point mountain bike race. The bonus of these big goals is the super cool holiday they come with!

All of us are the same... there are no "mere mortals" because the only difference is attitude. If you don't believe in yourself and your own potential it is easy to look at someone else and think they have more talent, luck, fitness, opportunity.. whatever! If you believe in your own ability, it will not be long before people will be looking at you and finding inspiration themselves. I think you already know that and I think it will be great for you to make it to the start line at some point. It is NEVER too late to become an athlete!

Hey Melanie, thanks for the encouragement. I've been reading about "_base_" training, and was wondering exactly what that is. Do you have any recommendations about what specific training for biking and/or trail running? What kind of program do you follow? Like I said in my last post, I want to get better at MTBing, but getting out there and riding just isn't doing much. Please help! Thanks, and congrats on your 2nd Xterra Championship! Amazing!

I always like to preface this advice with the recommendation that everyone read something on coaching and periodization to familiarize themselves with an appropriate approach to training. Bits of advice here and there might give you some good ideas but will not bring about the results you want as quickly as some well rounded information will.

Basically (no pun intended), _base_ training isn't actually "easy" training, it is training that focuses on building an aerobic _base_. That means that the effort level must remain below your lactate threshold for the majority of the time training. You are teaching your body to be efficient and building specific strength on the bike (ie building cycling specific muscles through repetition - pedaling). For cycling, there are a lot of hours required to build a solid enough _base_ so that when you approach the season, you can build your lactate tolerance and threshold to a point where you can hold a lot of watts for a lot of time. However, you need a lot of time at lower watts in order to facilitate this.

This applies to running as well as the same is required for running muscles, economy and strength.

So, lower heart rates and longer training weeks is _base_ training. I put in lots of technical swimming to round out the winter training plan. I also throw in some sports that stimulate different muscles as well, some snowshoeing, squash, xc skiing (I am terrible) and some soccer to keep it interesting but also work some lateral muscle strength.

Good luck!