26   JA NUARY 2013

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Among the highlights of his well-rounded career,34-year-old Josiah Middaugh is an eight-time XterraUSA national champion, two-time USA Winter riathlonnational champion and one-time USA Long Coursenational champion. He most recently took second at theXterra World Championship in Maui in October. Mid-daugh makes his home in Vail, Colo., with his college-sweetheart wife, Ingrid, and their children, ages 8, 7and 2. Tree years ago, when Ingrid was pregnant withthe couple’s third child, Josiah was recovering from hisfifth knee surgery and thus set out to earn his seconddegree, a master’s in human movement. Nowadays,he divides his time between family, work as a personaltrainer at local gym Dogma Athletica and as an onlineendurance coach, and racing virtually year-round. It’s a jam-packed schedule—one that has inspired Middaughto adopt some rather interesting methods of time man-

agement. By Holly Bennett

 » PROfile « 

JOSIAHMIDDAUGH

»When I first moved to Vail, straight out of college,mountain biking was thething to do. I went to thepawnshop and bought someRaleigh mountain bike for$400, which I thought wastop-shelf! I raced a 100-milemountain bike race twoweeks later. It was the VailUltra—13,000 feet of climb-ing. It was terrible! I didn’teven know what chain lubewas. It was pouring rain andwe went over this muddypass that was all clay, andit gummed up the gears so Icouldn’t shift. I rode a 12-mileclimb standing up, in the bigchainring. My back hurt therest of the time and I totallybonked—but I finished.

»The first year that I racedtriathlon, when I was 22,I qualified for Kona at theHalf Vineman. I was youngand naïve and thought, “Ican double that distance, noproblem.” I was totally new tomultisport. I went to Hawaiiand again I had the learningexperience. I think I walked60 percent of the marathonor more. I didn’t know whatsalt tablets were. But livingin the Vail Valley I gravitatedmore toward the off-roadstuff, with all the terrain wehave access to. Xterra endedup being a better fit for me.

»Since I’ve had kids, and alsoworked at least two jobs andtried to maintain the profes-sional racing gig, I’ve tried tostreamline everything I do tobe more time-efficient. So forthe last 10 years I’ve been eat-ing—for the most part—theexact same thing for break-fast and for lunch. Every day.Breakfast is plain whole-milkyogurt with granola. And Ihave these jars with differentnuts and seeds, but the jarsare labeled “courage,” “de-termination,” “motivation”and a few other things. Whenpeople ask what I had forbreakfast I tell them, “I had abowl full of courage!”

» I grew up in a bohe-mian settlement in northernMichigan. There were severalfamilies of like-minded peoplethat started a community—itwasn’t a commune, but it waspretty close! We had a com-munity center, and on week-ends we were like workerbees, building houses forneighbors. It was an amazingchildhood—everything wassimple and we were living offthe land a lot.

»Growing up with brotherswho were really good ath-letes, I always did a little bit ofeverything. My senior year inhigh school, I won the confer-ence in the mile, the 2-mile,the half-mile and the polevault. I played basketball andbaseball. My dad did a reallygood job of realizing wherethe talent was. ... He was afootball player, so it was re-ally cool that he encouragedme to run. He actually startedrunning with me.

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