Gametime

Well, I spent the morning finally sorting out, organizing, and registering for the season's races. I gotta say, this was a lot of fun. Last year at this time, I was busy trying to sell our house. I was lucky if I got any kind of workout in, and life revolved around closing dates and move-in dates. Combined with the injury, it was September before racing was any kind of priority at all. So to be able to sit down for the first time in 2 years and really plan things out was cool, and brought back all that race-day goodness that starts flowing through the blood.

You'll see I updated the schedule over there on the right, but the gist:

I'll start out with the J-Hawk Early Bird Triathlon. This is very similar to another race that usually kicks off my season, and which I'll miss for the first time in 5 years, the Chain of Lakes triathlon in Alexandria, MN. I'll be sad to miss CoL, because it's become something of a tradition, but this race is only an hour away and should serve the same triathlon-minded purpose. It's a 500 yard indoor swim, 13.7 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. Should be a great way to kick out some cobwebs, get some sense for early season fitness, and get some base number for speed or work on the run and bike.

The very next weekend I'll head back to Minneapolis for a pretty special event, the Randy Bauer Memorial 5k. Randy was a friend of mine, but a better friend of my wife and our good friend (and Dakota's Godmother) Susan. Kind of a wise sage type of guy, who finished umpteen marathons in his life, before being outrun by cancer last year. You might remember, I wrote about him. Well, they're organizing an inaugural charitable 5k in his memory, and I'll be there. In fact, I'm going to run it hard, maybe shoot for that elusive sub-7. I think Randy would enjoy that.

In the end of May I'll run the half marathon of the Madison Marathon. Shoot for a PR there as well.

Finally in June we get into real triathlon season, kicking off with the inaugural Capitol View Triathlon. I'll be running the Olympic distance. Not sure what goals I'll have there, as the Oly's I'll be doing are all purposeful to the Half Ironman A race in July. Probably just run it strong and well, especially since it'll be my first Olympic distance in a couple years.

The next weekend is another special race - the Wisconin Triterium, which first kicked my ass in 2005 as I prepared for my first Half-Ironman, on the road to Ironman. It shares some of the Ironman course, and I remember it being a tough course, hilly, hot as hell. I hope to just do better than last time. Whatever that means.

End of June WIBA comes to town, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with friends and having a good couple days' workouts.

End of July, then, is the A race, and the big bridge on the way to Ironman next year, the Spirit of Racine. Going sub-6 baby, believe that.

After that - we'll see. The only real priority race will be a marathon in October, either Twin Cities or Chicago. I'm leaning towards TC, if only because I have lots of friends there that would be fun to spend some time with. In August I may do an XTerra race - we'll see what my man Brazo thinks of his XTerra in May. I may do Dairyland Dare, especially if my girl Erin does it (most hopefully with Chief of Stuff as well!). I had a lot of fun at the Devil's Challenge last fall, so we'll see if that's in store for September. And of course, we'll see about volunteering again at Ironman. I had a blast last year, but I may just want to hang in Verona and State Street and cheer them on this year. But hey - since we've haven't even cracked April yet, I'll just let that stuff come as it does.

I'm really excited about this race schedule mostly because, with the exception of Racine, all the races are right in my back door. In Minneapolis, I usually had a minimum 45 minute drive to any race, and usually further than that. I'm also excited that, since the races are so close, my family around here - much of the core of the Ironman Team - will be able to come out. That makes all the difference.

Meanwhile, I've had a great week of training and nutrition - everything right on point. A long 10 mile run last weekend, a 3 miler early in the week and 6 miles mid-week before another long run later today. I had two solid 15-milers on the bike, then yesterday my first long ride of 30 miles. It was cold out there, and that headwind was nasty - but it made for a great tailwind. I'll be adding incremental miles to my long rides until, by May, I'll be consistently at 60 miles or so. In another few weeks I'll start to work in speed work and intervals. The only thing that hasn't been consistent is the pool - and that's mostly because I hang out with Dakota during the day (in addition to work), and the lap pool hours don't usually coincide with when I'm available. I'll have to figure something out for that, at least until the ice melts and I can head to the lake for some open swimming.

So that's what's up with me. What's up with you?