Off Season Schmoff Season

Well the 2012 racing season has been in the books for about a month now, with the conclusion of the Chicago Marathon, and what a season it was! I did my first 1/2 Ironman and my first full marathon, both of which I will do many, many more times. Well...many more Ironman events than marathons at least. I took about a month off from any structured workouts, which was amazing. I was swapping 4:45 alarm clocks with 2 more hours of sleep, I got home from work and actually watched TV and I ate a little more of this:


Applebees Chicken Fajita roll-up with a $5 bottle of wine. Klassy with a K

It was awesome to not have a strict workout schedule and sleep in a little bit more...but boy did I miss racing, sweating and pushing my body. Nothing feels better than to wake up the day after a race or workout and barely be able to walk because you pushed your body to the limit. Now, in the past, I would barely workout until January or so. I might run a bit, or hop in the pool once a week, but most of that was due to simple boredom. I treated the "off-season" too literally. Nothing is particularly wrong with that, but it won't make you faster and it sure as hell won't make you stronger. I knew that if I wanted to progress my fitness level and get closer to the podium, I would have to start training earlier, much earlier.

 

I just submitted my application to Rock the W in 2013 with the Wattie Ink Elite Triathlon Team. You can read all about them on their website, but they are (in my opinion) the best tri team in the country. It's a group of 50 (in 2013 it will be 100) elite level triathletes from all walks of life who have one passion: racing. They span the country hogging the podium from sprint tri's to 1/2 Ironman to marathons and cyclecross races. The Wattie Ink team members are all 100% dedicated to getting faster, and that's what I need to surround myself with. And although none of them are in Indianapolis, the Twitter and Facebook following amongst everyone is second to none. That is my goal. They race hard and play hard and will blow by you in whatever challenge they face. The 2013 team will be announced on December 7th and I don't know if I'll sleep until that day.

 

Well I won't go into too much detail as to what I'm doing during the winter months because I can't reveal ALL of my racing secrets; but its something like this

 

Monday: Swim/Core

Tuesday: Leg strength at gym/30-45 min on indoor trainer or 30-45 min run

Wednesday: Swim

Thursday: Leg strength at gym/30-45 min on indoor trainer or 30-45 min run

Friday: Swim/Core

Saturday: Swim

Sunday: Ride 20-30 miles outside or 1 hour on indoor trainer

 

As you can see, its nothing intense. I'm simply maintaining a base fitness level so when Spring comes around, I can start to transition to more intense workouts and work on getting faster in all 3 diciplines. I'm also starting to attend a Yoga class at Life Time Fitness to improve flexibility, which is non-existent now and I'm putting a larger focus on strength workouts in my lower body. I've battled some injuries throughout the years and strenthing my legs and joints will help prevent those nagging injuries. While I'm still training 7 days a week during the winter months, if something comes up and I have to skip a workout for whatever reason, I don't get my panties in a bunch. I still have to enjoy life outside of working out involving many ice cream drumsticks and bottles of wine.

Lucy and I both prefer drumsticks with a caramel center

Although Indy got their first snow yesterday (0.2 inches), there's still about a month until we can expect regular snowfall. That means breaking out the warm cycling gear and enjoying the outdoors while I can.

Come Spring, I'm going to make regular trips to Fort Benjamin Harrison. This place is beautiful with awesome trails and some killer hills to put some power in my legs.

Well thats it for now. This weekend I'll post my 2013 race schedule and disect what my goals are for those races. I'm excited for next year to officially get started, but until then...theres still a lot of work to be done.