2 Days in a Row!

This week marked my return to the pool! I got to Masters swimming 2 days in a row. It is hard to believe what a toll 2 months off can do to your body. Out of the three sports in triathlon, swimming always seems to be the toughest to return to. And this is coming from someone who has swam since 4 years of age. I now know why we swam year round with only 2 weeks off in between sessions. So once I dragged my butt out of bed in negative degree weather and got in the pool I felt I was back where I belonged. It was hard, my body could feel the months of inactivity, but mentally I was sky high. I love to move my body and the off-season sometimes puts you in a routine where you can forget how great it is to be fit and fast. I got that feeling back, so I know now I will be safe for this upcoming year of training! The motivation is back :)
As for the training season, official IM training does not begin until March. So up to then I am just going to focus on my running, swimming, strength training and weight maintenance. It is so good to get the off season over with and back to training.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Today will be a day of work for me but that's ok since I received the best Christmas present ever:

Ironman Louisville 2010 entry.

Season plans are going to be revised slightly and I am loving it!

Boredom leads to UltraRunning

Crazy thoughts of ultrarunning are entering into my end. I am not so sure why. I have always loved to run and ran cross-country and track in high school but I was always a swimmer at heart. I am just dying for a new, tough challenge.............and ultrarunning would definitly be that.

It has been a very physically inactive week here for me in Vermont. A good friend of mine came out to visit from Wisconsin last minute so I was unable to take off work which meant my free time was spent visiting her. Totally worth it but my body reacts poorly to not moving at least once every day. I did get to do my Christmas and wedding dress shopping with her which was good because I am very good at postponing those sorts of activities.

So back to ultrarunning and other crazy ventures I have had time to dream of in my laziness. I have been looking at peakraces.com at maybe doing 50k at the beginning of summer and then a 50 miler at the end of summer. I am not sure if this is even something that I would enjoy but it seems like a very good challenge. And I need that in my life. I have no idea how to go about training for something like this but there seems to be plenty out there on the web. It also seems that Vermont has a fairly big group of ultrarunners in the area. I know that I may also be looking into this because I am not training for an Ironman this year (maybe, possibly a xmas present??????) and I am so bored professionally and physically that I always tend to think of extreme things to do when I get bored. Who knows what the future will hold but I do know there are some amazing challenges out there waiting for me!

Snowy Run

Depending on the day I am either complaining about the cold winters and planning to relocate or I am in such awe of the beauty especially when you get out on a nice snowy run. The best thing about running in the winter is that you usuallly warm up and feel fine. I have done many spring bike rides where I have never warmed up! Yesterday was one of those amazing days. It started off with a fun trip to a farm in Hardwick, Vt to look at some Lab puppies for Luke. They were so cute! We have to wait for the next liter but it was good to check the place out and start some planning if we decide to go through with this. Then we had a relaxing lunch, grocery shopping and then hit the snowy roads for an easy five-miler. I have been really good about staying conisistant with my running the last 2-weeks as my marathon training starts this Tuesday!I know in one of my last posts I mentioned that I missed the start day of my training plan.
That was for a 20-week plan. After a crazy work schedule, flying to Cali for a wedding and just being plain unmotivated I decided to wait and reorganize with a 16-week plan. The good news is I am feeling pretty motivated and have accepted that I may be spending some time with the treadmill this winter. Fine with me, as I stepped on the scale and the number was way off what I wanted to maintain for the off season. That is motivation enough!