You Gotta Be Prepared

I can't believe that last time I posted anything was July 23rd, just after I finished my first Half Iron(man).  Since then I have done pretty much nil in the way of training.  I have kept up my running base but other than that NIL, yup I got lazy.  (Ok, I did a bike race and I still do my running but just short distance to keep my base).

My goal when I completed my first Half Iron(man) was to sign up for Ironman ("IM") in Pentiction for 2013, but to be honest once I finished my race I had already made the decision to wait another year before attempting IM. The race proved to me that I needed to get more mileage under my belt before attempting IM.  And, as most of you know IM won't be held in Penticition anymore, this year was the last year and a new place has yet to be decided upon - but I hear Vernon is a front runner. 

Where I do my first IM is not important to me I just want to do it (but I would be very happy if it were Vernon as it is closer to Calgary and Jeff and I have very close friends who live in Kelowna who we could stay with the week before IM and during IM).

I was at IM Canada this year watching my friends race and volunteering at the finish as a catcher -if you ever volunteer at IM choose this job, you get to "catch" the athletes at the finish and they are so grateful.  They cross the finish line and are very disoriented, you take them by the arm (catch them) and lead them to water, food and rest and stay with them until you are sure that have regained all their faculties - be warned thou there is a chance you might get barfed on.

I was glad I went to IM this year, I was worried that I would sign up for next year to do IM but to be honest after watching these athletes work so hard to get to the finish line I knew that my decision to wait one more year was the right one.  I need to be in the best shape of my life (physcilally and mentally) to ensure I complete IM and it will be hard!

NOW...well now my training begins (again).  But this year I plan on changing some things:

• I will be cycling indoors twice a week as opposed to the once a week I was doing (staring Sept 25th for 6 months) with a group at Speed Theory with a goal in the summer to bike at least 200K a week;
• I will be swimming 3 times a week so I can shave 10 minutes of my swim time;
• I need to get some strength training in at least once a week, someone suggest I try the TRX so will be purchasing that and doing strength training from my basement each week;
• Grant from Vitalize will be coaching me but only every 3 months;
• I will get in more LSD runs (last year I slacked in that dept);
• I will be following my training schedule more religiously this year; and
• I will try to drop my weight to 140 pounds (last year I only got to 146 so I'll have to really work hard at this).

All this with the goal of shaving 1 hour off my current 8 hour Half Iron(man) finish time.

So...there you go.  There is an IM in my furture but not till 2014.  Like the Scouts always say - BE PREPARED!