Bored...but with highlights

I guess my recent blogging habits have reflected my exercise mood: I'm in a weird, unstable, and unfulfilling state of post-season training. I do have to keep reminding myself, daily, that I'm post-season, as opposed to pre-season. But I haven't done anything fulfilling in weeks, and I find my motivation for weight training is waning. Next week I'll get out and start doing some base hours (time being more important than distance) in the three disciplines, though.

On the weight training side, I've been focusing on balancing my muscle mass and strength/capability. I do this by performing single side exercises, or non-conjoined exercises (dumbbells as opposed to bar). Single-leg press is evil. Single leg ham curls are more evil, but I'm gonna have a sweet butt from it! I digress; the main importance for doing the single side/individual effort exercises, other than symetry, is to develop stabilization muscles and connective tissues, something that can be grossly neglected in repetitive motion exercise like cycling (especially with clipless pedals) or running in a known route with little need for adaptation. Trail running would not qualify, since you are constantly changing and adjusting stride with terrain.

Anyway, through the grey of the recent training, I've thoroughly enjoyed last weekend (some AWESOME wines enjoyed with great dinner at Northampton) and Halloween with Grace. Oh, excuse me: a purple Care Bear that we walked around my co-worker/friend Shane's neighborhood. This is the first year she "got" it, and knew she was getting candy. Motivation wasn't so difficult, unlike last year. The weather was much nicer, dipping into the mid 50's I think.

Today Grace and I went and had coffee (chocolate milk for her) and bagels at our local coffee shop. That was really nice, and the owner (Dana) is again going to join us at church tomorrow. She said she really had fun last week, and looks forward to it again. Oh, and by "us" I mean Grace and I; Mendy is playing Navy this weekend. Early mornings for her, and some interesting dynamics within the leadership structure. After that, we went downtown to Carolina Triathlon to see if they had any running shoes on sale in Mendy's size, but no luck. So I had a "dirty hippie" (coffee with a shot or two, thanks Ben!) and talked fitness stuff. Then, Grace and I went and rode race cars (go-karts) at Frankie's Fun Park. She had an absolute blast, and Mendy actually drove Grace on the third time on the track. Mendy's got the pics, but they clearly show both had tons of fun! Grace loves it, and was so amped to ride them, she was urging me to drive faster and faster on the way to Frankie's. Funny stuff!

Robin had her race today, but by the time things settled, we realized it was too late to call at 9:30. She ran for probably close to 12 hours, so I'm sure she was sleeping like a baby on NyQuil by then. I'm sure the race report will be interesting, entertaining, and quite eye-opening for those of us with enough sense (j/k) not to do ultra-marathons. Not sure if anyone else raced, but I hope it went well.

Welcome to off-season 2007

I was so happy to cross the finish line Saturday. Not because I has set the world on fire with some blistering pace, or had broken through some fantastic distance barrier. I just wanted the competetive season to be over. Burn out.

All in all, it was a good race. I felt strong in the water, held a decent pace on the bike (especially considering some of the monster hills on the course), and had a good run. No podium finish, but 5/17 in my competitive age group, and 18/145 overall. During the bike leg, toward the end, I realized I still had to run and was filled with dread. I had noticed the burn out building over the last few weeks, but it really peaked at that moment. Much like Paul noted recently, I've been having trouble gathering enough motivation to train like I need to be. I just wanted the season to be over.

I know I'm not alone when it comes to these end-of-season sentiments and attitude. While some people can keep charging on at a constant pace, year in and year out, I think it's a function of truly maximizing your training and ability, along with cycles of peaking, that drive an athlete to desire - almost require - a break in the intensity. Surely many elite athletes also attribute an off season to injury prevention, be it soft and connective tissues due to altering the training focus, or joints and bones due to recovering focus and intensity and reducing complacency at the limits of performance.

So, I have done nothing since Saturday's race until today. I will probably ease into some training this week, but it will be low-key. My plan at this point is to:

• Rest tired muscles, connective tissue, and brain cells
• Get/keep moving with some aerobic benefit
• Hit the gym hard to build up some muscle mass in key areas, for about a month
• Begin base mileage and aerobic capacity building
• Chart my reentry to next season's training cycle

For the last step, I will need to decide on next year's race schedule. For sure, I will be more selective than this year. I also intend to include a greater variety of events, such as more running events and a couple of purely cycling events. I think that there's a different dynamic to competing in the single event races that will help me achieve and keep an edge in multi sport. I hope to break through some barriers that I'm sure exist, wherein I'm holding some of "it" back for the next leg of the race.

There are also some exciting things brewing for next year that I will share with you guys as soon as I'm able to. For sure, it's going to be an awesome season and I will realize a hope/dream that I had toward fall of last year, around the time that cycling was forever infused with my life and running was becoming a personal challenge.

But before all of that, it's going to be a great fall and winter with my family and friends, tons of good food, and reflection on my first of many years training hard and competing in triathlons. The good people I've met and relationships I've formed this season have opened my eyes, and the community that came together to help and support me when I tested physics was incredible, as were all the well wishes, thoughts, and prayers from you awesome folks. Thanks for listening to me, laughing with me, helping me, educating me, and entertaining me. Don't go getting slack on any of it, though! ;-)

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff.