Wrapped up and Moving On!

YEAH!  The holidays are DONE and I'm just about recovered from a bad holiday flu/head cold.  I am absolutely ready to get 2012 training fully underway.  Another lethargic hour on the couch with Lifetime movies or marathon day of "Beyond Scared Straight" or "Storage Wars", and I might just have to write some other new goals for the year!

Before getting the "joyous" flu, November and December were packed with a couple of fun, busy weeks.  Susie Q and I started off the month of November having a great P.R. run at the Hot Chocolate 15k and then spent Thanksgiving week swimming, running, golfing, hiking, and lounging in Palm Springs.  Last year we went Christmas time when the desert had their yearly rainfall in one week, but this year the weather was amazing and the trip was incredibly relaxing.

We took a quick trip back to NJ in December for an early Christmas with my family.  Always good to spend some quality time with the family, nephews, and extended family!  Anthony schools me on everything there possibly is to know about trains, and William knows everything about Lego mini-figs.  It's pretty entertaining to see such passion and how much information can be in such young minds!

The past 3 weeks...I'm just writing them off!  BUT today I feel like I'm almost back t o feeling like myself.

Wrapping up 2011, I felt good about the year, that was until I actually found what I wrote as my goals:

• IMWI < 14 hours [swim:<1.5  bike:<6:15  run:<5] 
• Kansas 70.3 < 6:15 hours [s:<38m  bike:<3:15  run:<2:15] 
• Racine 70.3 < 6 hours [s:<38m  bike:<3:00  run:<2:15]

Goals achieved: ZERO

Momentarily, I switched to thinking "BOO!  This year was a BUST!"  Not sure what juice I'm drinking, or maybe it's my attempt for more positive thinking / actions in 2012, but I quickly switched to being proud that I raced to the best of my ability on each of those race days.  When it comes down to it, the most important things in my life did not change and are not tied to a stop watch.  I won't judge success or failure of a year based on those times, but of course I'll continue to keep setting them!  If you shoot for the stars, you might just land on the roof!

For 2012...the schedule is looking the same as 2011.  Chalk it up to good timing...or maybe I'm a just a creature of habit.  Highlighting some of my 2012 goals:

TRIATHLON
Since I have another year of training experience under my "tri shorts"...I'm keeping my goals on par with last year:

• IMWI < 14 hours
• Kansas 70.3 < 5:57 hours  
• Racine 70.3 < 5:48 hours  

Last year I had a huge ramp up to get the bike and swim volume up for Ironman distance.  Any "run" focus was lost in the shuffle.  No pun intended, but my Ironman run did become a shuffle and I am determined to not repeat that experience.

RUNNING
Along with my triathlon goals, I have target goals to P.R. a half marathon and 5k early in the season.  I'm looking forward to seeing some good results from some hard work.

STRENGTH
Last year, I didn't do any strength training and felt the consequences.  I've been back on the strength training wagon for about 3 months now and LOVE it.  Although I'm not "seeing" the results I may have wanted to see at the turn of the year, statistically things are moving in the right direction.  I'm feeling stronger and I know my weakness that I need to focus on.  Best part...wrist has been essentially pain free! 

I was able to do pull-ups and chin-ups before the wrist injury and went back to ZERO.  My new target date is MARCH 1st to be able to log some back on the board!

My game plan with training has switched up quite a bit this year, and I'm excited about the changes!

Last year, I did a computrainer class and swam with the local master's swim team.  This year, computrainer is not fitting in with the work / life /training balance and I'm going to be hitting the home trainer and trying to monitor the data from my power tap/hr/garmin to monitor the workouts as a trade-off.  I may have to target my focus during the workouts a little more diligently than being in class, but the time savings in the commute and hauling/packing/setting up the bike is worth it.  And if I don't like how it's going...then I'll sign up for class!

This year I'm heading back up to Lake Forest on Saturday mornings to swim and workout with the Tri-umph gang.  A great group of triathletes and coaches and I'm looking forward to it.

Last, but definitely not least, I've chosen to work with Coach Kim Schwabenbauer this year.  Last year I worked with Kim closely on the nutrition aspect leading up to Ironman and had an extremely successful day on that front!  Coach Kim's enthusiasm and passion for the sport is contagious and I'm excited to be tapped into working with her as an athlete this year. 

Cheers to a healthy and happy 2012!