Thursday, January 7, 2010

Gettin' back to it.

The gym finally re-opened in our building. Yeah! And, I survived without too much damage. Considering my sporadic workout schedule, the holidays, and the weather at the end of December I did OK. I only gained 3-5 pounds (depending on the scale) and didn't lose too much fitness. Now I am back at it in earnest, both training and blogging.

We are in the same calendar year as the race. Scary! It is barely 9 months away so it seems more real than ever. I guess I can no longer claim to be in Phase I of my training but I would say it was a success given where I started in August. I didn't lose quite as much weight as I hoped (probably because I went backward in December) and I am struggling with running now because of the weather. However, the progress I made before then convinced me I will be ready come September 12th!

For Phase II I need to start ramping up the sport specific training. That means more swimming and biking along with still doing as much running as possible. The weather makes the running more difficult (we have about 20 inches of snow on the ground right now) but I'll do as much as I can. Luckily Twinsburg Fitness Center has a nice pool and I still have my trainer at home so biking and swimming won't be too bad. It's just a matter of making the time.

Phase II will last until about 25 weeks before the race when I will begin a regimented daily training plan that will carry me through to the race. That number "25" seems pretty daunting considering I've never trained more than 6-8 weeks for anything before in my life. It will be interesting so stay tuned.