Adventure Racing: Josh Crosby

February 16, 2005

EnduranceRadio.com

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com.  Thanks for joining us for another interview today.  We’re going to be adding to our library, as we have been doing over the past couple of months, to our adventure racing interviews.  We’re going to be speaking with Josh Crosby.  He’s an adventure racer on Team Revo; we’ve interviewed a couple of his team mates, and so we’re going to talk to him about the 2004 season and how that all went and what kind of things he’s doing right now to prepare for the next season or the next race and found out what he’ll be participating in in the coming months.

First the Race of the Day is going to be The Union Tribune Race for Literacy and Kids Magic Miles in San Diego on May 7^th and 8^th.  You can find out more about that race by clicking on the Race of the Day link right below the link to this audio.

So we’re going to be right back to speak with Josh Crosby in about 30 seconds.

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Josh thanks very much for joining us today, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us at Endurance Radio.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Well thank you for having me on the show.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well talk about your background first.  How long have you been in adventure racing?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I got into adventure racing about two and a half years ago.  My team mate, Pat Watson, kind of picked me up on a group ride when we were barreling up some canyon.  I was the new guy on the ride and he was talking to some of the other guys and found out that I had a rowing background and therefore figured I could paddle and asked me a little bit about my running background, and then we went on for a couple of test training sessions and he asked me to join the team.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Did you know much about adventure racing before you started?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Eco Challenge, that was about the only thing I knew about it.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “It seems like most people that get into adventure racing kind of start out in either triathlon, or maybe one sport; they’re cyclist or whatnot, and then kind of get into adventure racing from there.  What was your strong suit?  Was it cycling?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I rowed for the US national team from ‘92 to ‘99 and then I went to Brown University and rowed for their team in between and I would train with the national team during the summers, and then after realizing I wasn’t going to make 2000 Olympics I stopped rowing and pretty much didn’t do anything except that I slowly got into some triathlon.  I guess my background is definitely rowing but kind of built a strong base for many years and then that transferred really well, I think, to cycling.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “That is interesting because not a lot of people come from that particular background.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I don’t know many in the adventure racing world, but what’s good about the rowing is that it’s a full body workout and then you are able to build that cardio base, and also I think where it most helped me is in the head, in terms of racing and just racing and constantly being under the gun on the national team it allows me to transfer that into triathlon, and now into adventure racing.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now are you full time at this or do you have a job as well?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I’m kind of the renaissance man.  I mean I have an entrepreneurial sense, I guess, and I’ve been working on a few different projects, but I’ve kind of settled down with my indoor rowing studio, it’s called The Indoor Row, and I have a studio in Santa Monica where I have several classes a week and that’s going really well.  It’s getting quite a bit of press from places like Men’s Journal and the LA Times, and people are really kind of getting into it, so I’m pretty full bore on that right now.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Are you able to talk up adventure racing to some of your clients while they’re there?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Of course, yeah.  A lot of people wonder where I disappear to on the weekends, especially with this season coming up I’m going to be missing quite a few classes on the weekends, but they’re always curious and very very supportive and some of them actually came down and watched the LA 24 last year.  They always make jokes about, ‘Oh you’re not going to be around, I’m sure you’re going to be off riding your bike for 24 hours straight,’ or something like that.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Talk about last season.  Was that your first season with the team?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Last season was my second season.  It was my first kind of full season.  I was the alternate the year before and ended up doing five races with the team, and then this past year, I ended up doing all eight sprint races for the Balance Bar Series, and then ended up doing one 24 hour, which was LA and that was my first longer distance thing.  I think I’m hooked.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “How’s the whole team dynamic working for you guys?  I think we talked a little bit to Patrick about that, but how do you feel your team looks going ahead for 2005?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I think our team only gets stronger and stronger.  We have suffered a little bit from not having a real cohesive team in terms of the same team members every race, but the good thing is we’ve brought together a good group of core and alternates and everybody has worked really well together.  Melissa and I and Patrick raced for the first time in New York and ended up winning there and that was a huge testament to if you have good strong people and the right attitude you can pretty much do anything.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I want to ask you about a couple of the races that you’ll be doing this coming season and how you’re preparing for those, but we need to take a quick break.  We’ll be right back to speak with Josh Crosby.”

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Josh looking ahead for you in 2005, what kind of races do you have coming up?  What are you looking forward to?

<<Josh Crosby>>: “This year has been quite a confusing year already because the Balance Bar Series that we’re done for the last several seasons is no longer unfortunately.  That was really the crux of the sprint format racing in the country, so we have been forced to look at different race series and also please our sponsors, like Revo and Maxis, in terms of instead of just being regional go nationwide with our racing season.  So we’re going to be racing; its still not finalized completely, but our goal is to qualify for the USARA nationals which are in Florida, so we’re doing a lot of the Big Blue Series, which are based in California and Utah, and then I think we’re going to be doing a race in Pennsylvania, I can’t remember the name off the top of my head, and then we’re looking at doing a race in Texas, I think it’s the Lonestar Series or something like that.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now in terms of preparation as a team, will you be doing any of that, or pretty much training on your own and getting together for the races?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Patrick and I live 10 minutes away so we do a lot of training together, and theres an amazing group of athletes out here in general so we have really solid training groups out here.  Our other team mates are going to be coming from, Dave Marks and Wendy Splane, Phoenix.  Dave and I raced last year in the 24 hour and we’ve raced against each other for the last several years, as well as Wendy, and we’re very excited to be racing with them.  We’re going to be focusing on four person races this year and hopefully qualify two teams for nationals, and then I would take one and Patrick would take another.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you have a favorite in terms of what some of the races include in terms of challenges?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “I’m just looking forward to the longer stuff.  Every race I’ve been doing is 12 to 30 hours this year, and I do like to sprint because I like just going after it and going real hard for three hours, but I kind of realized that a lot of the big boys, so to speak, are doing the longer stuff and the expedition races, and some day I would like to be in that league.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now with the sprint distances navigation is not really much of an issue, with these longer ones it probably is; so how are you preparing for that and who is gong to be in charge of doing that for your team?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Well that’s one of the issues that we face this year.  One of our best navigators, or both of our navigators actually, one is going back, it was Vytenis and he’s going back to Lithuania, and then Melissa is actually in the armed forces, in the Navy, and she’s going to be over in Iraq on a tour of duty, I think, for three months, back for three months and going back for three months.  So our team navigators are pretty much gone but then Dave Marks is pretty solid with navigation and that’s kind of forcing us in a way to race the four person team because Patrick nor I are really ready to take on that responsibility.  I was brought on pretty much as the work horse and I’m pretty much known for that, so that’s kind of my role.  The communication is with which role each person play, I think the better the team functions.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I was just going to ask you that.  How hard do you think most teams; it sounds like you guys do it to try and make those roles firm before you get to the race rather than trying to figure it out during the race.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Yes of course.  Within a race anything can happen in the 24 hours.  After towing for 12 hours I hit the wall for a couple of hours and it took me a little bit to recover and then I was able, the last four hours, to really step up to the plate.  Dave and I worked really well together the last year in playing those roles and helping each other as well as helping Melissa.  So you want to define the roles beforehand, but you also have to be extremely flexible within the race to figure out who is hurt and who is not, and what needs to be done.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Is it much more difficult to do that when you have to always have alternates and switching people in and out because lives get in the way I guess?”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Yes it is.  All of us have jobs and that makes it tough and we’re all aware of that and we’re all very supportive of that because we realize that if we want to race we’ve got to get it done and whatever it takes, but the good thing is if you put together maybe a larger team, but you can really handpick those people, usually everything works out great.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well we’re just about out of time here, but of course you can find out more about Team Revo by going to the site and we’ll link to it right below the link to this interview.

Josh, thanks a lot for your time, I appreciate it.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Thank you very much and anyone looking to row come over to my studio and revolution.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “You know what; we’ll link to your website as well.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “www.indoorrow.com.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Alright, we’ll link to that as well.  You can get to Josh’s site by doing that.  Maybe we can follow up with you in a few months and see how the seasons going for you.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “That would be great.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Alright Josh thanks.”

<<Josh Crosby>>: “Thank you.”

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