Winter endurance training requires taking advantage of your environment. In the mountains of Colorado, that means snowshoeing racing and winter multisport events. With most of our base training completed, it was time to test our fitness levels with some competition. The past three weeks have included some of my favorite winter races.

On February 2, we raced the first annual Pedal Power Winter Triathlon at Ski Cooper in Colorado, which included a 5km snowshoe, 10km mountain bike and 10km skate-ski. As with any mountain competition, there were some tough local athletes. Greg decided to save his skiing skills for Mount Taylor and I ended up duking it out with the local endurance legend Mike Kloser. I was able to build an advantage during the initial snowshoe and the snow bike was basically a wash. Going into the ski I had about a 40-second advantage. Mike was definitely the superior skier, but I managed to hold him off by just 11 seconds.

February 10 marked the North American Snowshoe Championship at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Greg and I broke away right from the start, putting a big gap on the rest of the field. It was a seesaw battle all the way with neither of us able to gain an advantage. With about a half-mile to go, Greg surged ahead on a flat groomed section and I thought it was all over. I kept pressing and realized that he was starting to come back to me. The final 150 yards included a deep powder section-my specialty. With less than 50 yards to go, I had taken the lead by a couple steps when the race suddenly became interesting. Face plant!Again I thought the race was lost, and then it became even more comical. As I was scrambling to my feet, Greg also took a spill-right on top of me. We both got up and dashed for the finish line. After 49 minutes of racing, it seemed it would come down to a lean at the tape. Just before I got that chance, I went down again about 10 yards from the line. Greg did not.

Onto the next race-the 25th anniversary Mount Taylor Winter Quadrathlon in Grants, New Mexico. This is the best-organized winter event I have ever participated in; the support from the local volunteers is phenomenal. The race begins with a 13-mile road bike uphill. We whipped up the pace off the start and only a few racers were able to match that pace. At about Mile 10, the road got steep and Greg and I were able to put some distance on the field. Going into the five-mile run, I had gained a slight advantage on Greg. The next leg was a three-mile uphill ski with skins and the final mile to the summit was on snowshoes. At the summit (11,300 feet above sea level), I had closed to a two-minute lead-half way. Next we had to retrace our steps with a downhill snowshoe, ski, run and bike back to the finish line. Luckily for me, Greg's downhill ability on skate-skis leaves something to be desired. I held my lead to the finish for my fifth consecutive Mount Taylor win.

With about six weeks until the Cape Epic, Greg and I seem to be very evenly matched, which will be very important since we'll be on a two-person team in South Africa. We will have two final tests before we leave for Cape Epic-the XTERRA winter world championship on March 8, followed by the USSSA national snowshoe championship on March, both in Ogden, Utah.