The Off Season Plan

So in past years I've gone long periods with no update.  Not this time.

Overall, things are going pretty well.  My training load really hasn't changed all that much from the season itself.  Just a bit less volume and a bit more intensity.  The other difference is trying to run 7 days per week.  So far I've only made it about 2 weeks without missing a day of running, but that's been due to life/laziness as opposed to actually needing a day off.

As far as overall progress is concerned, my running feels fantastic.  I've been doing some harder interval running as well as a lot of easier days of running and am finding that my natural run pace has improved to around a 7:50-7:55 type pace without any conscious effort.  That's a pretty big improvement as in the past my typical pace was 8:05-8:10.  And that was during the season, so not that long ago.

On the bike I've been having some trouble.  The new fit has really begun to aggrivate my glute and hamstring.  I saw the fitter and he really feels the problem is in my technique as I am pulling up on the pedal too much and engaging the hamstring/glute when I should be pushing more and using the quads more.  Basically my feet are in the wrong position thereby engaging the wrong muscles.  So for the next couple weeks I'll be really focusing on flattening my feet out and not hammering on my hamstring.  If that does not work I will be moving my seat down by about 2mm and see if that helps. 

Swimming is swimming.  I'm very unmotivated in the water.  Its not that I'm tired or anything like that, I just don't want to get up out of bed.  And when I do get in the water, I don't really want to be there.  I'm going to have to swap days so I am swimming with Scott.  If I can't motivate myself, I'm sure he can help.

My weight is doing pretty well.  I'm sitting at 197, so all the weight gain from a couple weeks off has been re-lost.  This week has been kinda bad, but I will be doubling my efforts next week.  I think part of my problem is the hamstring bothering me.  I have a nasty habit of slacking when I have an injury.  And when I say slacking...I slack in all ways.  I really get bad about things.  So I need to break out of that a little bit.

The crohns has been pretty well behaved.  I typically run into some issues as the off season starts up, and this year was no different.  But it was all pretty minor and didnt' cause any issues.

I am really hoping that in the very near future I will be replacing my mistress (bike).  I have been drooling over a speed concept 9 series for quite a while now.  I'm hoping this off season I'll be able to pull the trigger. 

As far as races and goals are concerned, I've signed up for the entire RACC run series.  So I'll be doing 6 10k's between now and March.  That will be more run races than I've done in my entire life combined.  I may throw in a 5k or two as well.  Possibly a half marathon or two.  Now that I've broken 20min in a 5k, I would like to see if I can get under 40min for a 10k.  I've never actually run a stand-alone 10k, so it should be fun.  November 11th is the first one.

Into next year I am pretty sure the plan will be to look for a 1/2 Ironman brand race in August to use as my A race.  If I do well I'll be able to qualify for the World Championships in 2014.  As far as other races are concerned, I'm still not sure.  I know I want to do a race in Minnesota so I can visit some friends.  Aside from that I think I'm going to look for some different races in the area that I've never done.  I may also do a very early season 1/2 ironman, perhaps Galveston TX.  I'm not quite sure yet.

Alright, that's it for now.