Thoughts about 2010

Working full time  has been a big adjustment for me, especially in terms of fitting in workouts!    Last Thursday I became painfully aware of just how lucky I used to be.  It was 67 degrees and sunny outside.  I was sitting at my desk looking out the window at the Carolina blue sky longing to ride my bike.

This weekend’s weather is not too good for biking – at 41 degrees.  I plan on riding anyway. 🙂

I will figure it out and I will have some good races next season.    As  a blog reader named Annie commented “It’ll smooth out. Quality not quantity!”  Very good advice, I like that alot.  Thanks, Annie!  I think that will apply to my blogs as well as my training.   I will do lots of bullet point blogs.

I need a training plan for the off season.  Something to give me a reason to wake up early before work and get my ass on the trainer, or head out the door for a run. So, here goes…this will be a work in progress as I figure out what works and what does not.  In general, 45min to 1 hour of higher intensity stuff during the week, and some longer stuff on the weekend.  Gone are the days of a 3 hour bike ride on a Thursday.

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday:  Trainer ride.  I am going to try the evening trainer rides at Inside Out Sports.  My new job is really close to that store.  If that doesn’t work well, I will do Spinervals at 6am at home.  I did that this past Wednesday and it wasn’t too bad.  It’s very hard to motivate myself to get up early for a hard workout.   My body just doesn’t want to move right away!   But I promised myself Chick-fil-a for lunch, and that was a great motivator!
• Wednesday: Run 45 minutes on treadmill in the evening.
• Thursday: Swim at Chapel Hill pool at 6:30pm.  Hopefully it won’t be too crowded. (I have not yet swum since my Ironman race, due to the tattoo. I am really looking forward to it!
• Friday: Run 6 miles outdoors at 6am.
• Saturday:  Long bike or long run
• Sunday: Long bike or long run (I will bike whichever day has the nicest weather)

I like to keep my long bike  ride at around 50-60 miles.  And my long run at 9-10 miles.  That keeps me in good shape for doing  1/2 Iron level racing for the next season.

Speaking of next season, I have no idea what races I want to do next season!  I’m so bummed that Setup Events took away my two favorite races: Bandits and Duke 1/2.  I love hilly races, and I want to do at least one Half Iron race as my ‘A’ race.   There are not any hilly half iron races in North Carolina now that Duke is gone.   And, I don’t want to travel far away to races due to limited vacation days at work.   Given these thoughts, here are some races that interest me.

Setup’s Competitive Race Series (NC, SC and VA)

• Kinetic Half, kind of hilly, Sat May 8th (3.5 hours away, not too bad)
• Over the Mountain, very hilly OLY  May 22
• Triangle sprint, hilly Sprint, July 10th or 11th (they have two days now)
• South Carolina Half, Aug 29 Sunday (almost 5 hour drive, and would have to take Monday off work,  so hmmm?)

I like the competitive series Setup races because they motivate me to train and race hard to try and beat the super fast chicks in my age group.  I’ll have to look at the less competitive  Trysports series races, and also the Finish Strong races.  Finish Strong puts on a really fun race.  They’ve added a half iron in Washington, NC. Not hilly, but a pleasant race venue.

Crazy Thoughts:

• American Triple T, which is a race weekend consisting of doing 4 races in 3 days, total of over 140 miles of racing.  There is one in the Spring in Ohio that is really super hilly.  They are doing another one in the fall at White Lake, NC that is super flat.  The super hilly one in Ohio appeals to me more, but is a 6.5 hour drive away.    Not too crazy about the White Lake race venue: flat, hot, sunny and windy.  But the idea of the race is really cool.
• Put my name in the hat for the Kona Lottery.  That race would definitely be worth taking time off work for!  Seriously thinking of putting my name in every year – and the year I get in will be the next Ironman I do.   What do you think?