Fliegler qualifies for Xterra World Championships

Carson City's Janice Fliegler gives new meaning to the term stay at home mom.

One would think that Fliegler stays active enough raising five children - all ages 6 and under - but she has also become an accomplished athlete in the Nissan Xterra Series. So accomplished that Fliegler has qualified for the Xterra World Championships to be held in October in Maui, Hawaii.

Fliegler took second in the 35-39-year-old division at the Xterra West Championships in Temecula, Calif., in May to qualify for the World Championships.

Actually when Fliegler didn't have children, she would procrastinate she said, allowing her the excuse not to train for an event like Xterra.

"Now I don't have that opportunity," she said. "I learn how to be more organized with my time. I figure out a way. It just takes commitment and some time management."

With her family life, Xterra events are the right fit, Fliegler said. Fliegler enjoys doing all three aspects of the triathlon and Xterra events - swimming, bicycling and running - so she gravitated in that direction.

"I've always been a runner, bicyclist and a swimmer," Fliegler said. "It was just a natural progression to do triathlons. I was always doing all three."

Fliegler has done a half triathlon -a 1.2 mile swim, 50-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile half marathon - but doesn't see herself doing an endurance triathlon.

Xterra events - which are done more on off-road settings - are more to her liking anyway.

"I'd rather just do off road," she said. "I don't enjoy long distance anything. I don't have the time to train for that kind of stuff."

The Xterra World Championships will consist of a 1,500-meter swim, a 30-kilometer mountain bike ride and a 10-K run. During the event, Fliegler will bike up a steep climb to the top of a volcano and will run over lava rocks.

Fliegler saw the event televised during Super Bowl weekend. She said competitors finish "filthy and totally exhausted."

"I want to challenge myself and see what I can do," Fliegler said. "I just enjoy challenging myself. The whole thing of being off road."

Fliegler got her first taste of a challenging herself when she participate in the Donner Lake event that features a 400-meter run, a six-mile bike ride and a two-mile swim. She remembers the event well as she should because she was pregnant with her three-year-old daughter, Sophie at the time.

"That's how I remember my first one," she said. "I didn't feel anything. I didn't even know."

She'll do Donner Lake again this year. "It really suits my strengths," she said. "That's a good distance for me. It will be good training."

Fliegler will also do another Xterra event in August in Utah and will do the Xterra National Championships in Lake Tahoe in October.

She did her first Xterra event two years ago. "I really thought I was going to kill myself," she said. "I did OK."

To do a dangerous event like Xterra, one has to be tough. "A lot of people fall. There's a lot of injuries. It's just inevitable," Fliegler said.

Fliegler recently found that out when she punctured a lung and may have broken a rib. "I don't know if I broke a rib or not," said Fliegler matter-of-factly.