That Was a Short Off Season

So after the Toughman this year I felt I had set, and reached, some pretty lofty goals for myself. I finished in the top 5 of my AG for all three of my sprints. I had clocked a sub :40 10k. And of course had an amazing first 70.3 experience.

I'm at that magical moment right now where the next year's season really starts to come together conceptually and I'm setting some even steeper goals for myself. Rather than dance around the issue, here they are.

1. Finish the LI Marathon with a sub 3:00 time, thusly qualifying for Boston even if they lower the qualifications.
2. Finish with a sub 5:00 70.3 at Mooseman in June.
3. Complete the 'Little Red Lighthouse' 5.85mile swim in September.
4. Finish with a sub 4:45 70.3 at Toughman in September.
5. Run both the NY Marathon and the Philly Marathon in the fall.

I know this is nuts but as of this moment I am in the best shape of my life, I have no injuries, and I am feel incredible motivated to accomplish these things. I have already begun a 25-week training program for the LI Marathon that will bring me up to 70+ mile weeks in March. Use this base to break into cross training to build up to Mooseman. Relax a bit then kick into speed work in the summer. I'm doing Providence 70.3 to gauge my late-summer fitness then attack the Toughman in the fall. NY and Philly Marathons will be my dessert for a year of intense training and racing.

I can't wait. Did 5 miles of speed work tonight and feeling good....

Reboot

Wow, this thing is dusty. It's been nearly two years since I've done any substantial work on this site so I feel I have some 'splainin to do.

In brief, 2008 was a fantastic year for me. I ran hard, broke into triathlon, met my wonderful 'coach' Alicia and ran 2 marathons in the same week.

2009 was an even better year for me personally, just not so great my racing. After starting the year off with a 3:18 in the National Marathon I then fell way off the bandwagon and danced my way through an aborted season. In lieu of training I spent most of my time traveling, moving in with Alicia and adopting two wonderful kitties. In October, Alicia and I became engaged and spent much of the rest of the winter in the early planning stages for our wedding.

By early spring of 2010 I was finally ready to jump back into training and although this blog was dorment, my season was far from it. I began the year with a tremendous finish at the Pittsburgh Marathon, 5th, 3rd and 1st place AG finishes in my 3 sprints, a 10k PR and a 5:09 finish in my first 70.3 distance triathlon. Sprinkled in there were also an open water swim in the Hudson, a few half marathons, 2 duathlons, losing nearly 20 lbs and packing healthy bulk of muscle as never before.

Phew - I'm tired just writing that.

I'm booting this blog back up as a means of pushing me towards my race goals of 2011, of which I have several pretty big ones - beginning with a BQ/PR at the Long Island Marathon in April. In pursuit of that goal I'll be following an 18 week marathon training plan, with my progress updated here! I'll have an update, along with some design upgrades rolling out shortly.

Oh and in case you're wondering, the wedding is in 4 days....

Hello World !

*Yawn*

Is this thing still on?

Wow... it's 2010. Almost a year since my last post. How are you? ... Mmhmm. So... last year. My season last year was problematic to say the least. I signed up for too many races, actually toed the line at only few of them, raced too hard, trained too light. I had some fun, Philly Marathon, a Long Island sprint, back to Block Island for the 15k. But ultimately it was an aborted season. Not that that's a bad thing, I had a lot of fun with my family and friends. Drank a lot of great beer, worked hard and most importantly got engaged!

But this year I've circled my wagons and am ready to go all out. My bike is tuned up, I have two new boxes of GU and a fresh pair of Brooks still in the bag. The goal - a Half Ironman in September. It's over 23 weeks away but I have 15 lbs to lose and hundreds of miles to run, bike and swim just to get there.

I can't wait.

Let's go.