Back on the trail (w/ race schedule)

After my enforced week of rest I've had a week of exercise again!

I've been doing the bike commute to work all this week, and while it's not a long ride, it's good to get back out on the road. Since the days are still short and the roads are in lousy condition from the grit/ice/plough/repeat, I've mostly been riding the mountain bike. The extra weight and rolling resistance is good training, right?

The bike trainer has also seen an hour of use (first ride since surgery) and I even got out for a lunchtime 21 miler on the Boardman (including a rather embarrassing failure-to-unclip moment).

I got back to the pool on Thursday too. Rather than using the waterproof "Workouts in a Binder" book, me and my swim buddy made up our own main set:

6x100: DPS, Mod, N/S  -- RI:20

Ladder: 1x50, 1x100, 1x200, 1x300, 1x200, 1x100, 1x50. (~1:50 pace)  RI:20

The main set got cut 150m short, due to the pool closing. Still, I got 2km down, including my warm up.

I should really head there today too and see if I can sign up for the new stroke correction classes.

Running has been a slow starter this week. None actually happened, but I did think about it!

My core routine has been resumed too. I got myself a Swiss Ball and a workout mat before Christmas and I've been doing a short ball workout every morning: crunches, back raises, push-ups and squats. I'm slowly lengthening it and will be including some more exercises soon.

So I'm back on the Ironman trail and I'm ready to start lifting the training again. All I have to do now is set a race and training schedule. The race calendar so far...

March: Lake Havasu City Olympic Tri

April: TriTaos Reverse Sprint

May**: Santa Fe century (maybe)

June***: Tour de Los Alamos; Billy the Kid Tombstone Olympic Tri; Storrie Lake Olympic Tri

July: Splash'n'Dash series, DamitMan Sprint Tri, XTERRA Dread Mon Tri

August: Boulder 70.3 (maybe)

August: Los Alamos Sprint Tri

September: Ironman Wales

After that, who knows... maybe the HITS Lake Havasu Half in November. Maybe Austin 70.3 again...

** Might be in Japan for this!

*** Thinking about the sprint distance for one of these tris...