Back in the Saddle

When you spend over 6 months thinking about and preparing for an event like an Ironman, there's an inevitable transition period following that event. Since February of this year, my workout schedule has been steady and packed, but as soon as I returned from Louisville, that schedule was scrapped. It wasn't so much that I was physically exhausted from the race, but more a sense of mental fatigue from the weekly regimen. To recover from the monotony, I've developed the following untraining plan:

1. Eating all the foods that I tried to limit during training (e.g. McDonalds, McDonalds, burgers, fries, candy, and McDonalds)
2. Sleeping in when I feel so inclined
3. Staying away from the pool
4. Off-road/trail running


I can definitely say that I've enjoyed executing this plan for the past few weeks, but now I feel like it's time to get back in the saddle (pub intended). In spite of the amount of time spent each week preparing for Louisville, I'm now starting to miss having a clear milestone or something  to work towards while I train. It seems like it's actually more difficult to just hop on the bike, go to the pool, or even go for a morning run without a pre-planned workout. Maybe it's the engineering mind that I have, but I think it's about time to get back on some sort of schedule.

I'm currently toying with the idea of setting up informal races or time trials this fall just to have some small milestones and a little motivation to maintain the fitness gains that I've made over the summer. We'll have to see if I can get a few other people to join me, but if not, keep an eye out for the results of the Shark's Half Marathon where I'll be sure to win my age group!