Life Gets in the Way

Wow. I haven't done a damn thing fitness-wise in too long.

Between working full-days, finishing up projects at the house nights and weekends, getting everything ready to move overseas, I just don't have enough time left to run, bike, or swim.

I'm at the stage where I might get a workout in and then enough time passes until the next one that I have to battle soreness...again and again.

I will be happy to get to our new home and get settled in. I'm looking forward to discovering new routes to run, riding the miles and miles of bike paths that the Netherlands has to offer, and getting into the water of a world-class zwemcentrum.

I long ago found some races to do when I get to the Netherlands. It's part of my strategy to ease the transition into Dutch life - bring along the familiar. I just hope I get back into shape by then.

Gearing Up

I had a pretty good run last night and a good (short) ride on Sunday. I was forced to take a few days off due to soreness above my right knee. It felt like a sore muscle at first, then more like a contusion when I tried massaging it. I'm not entirely sure of the cause, but I play softball on Wednesdays which puts a different set of strains on my body than endurance training does. I'm thinking that I tweaked something while sprinting, because I don't recall being hit there by anything or anyone.

I just added another race to my calendar, the Rodney T Miller Lakeside Triathlon in Decatur. I'm treating it as a warm-up race for my two "A" races this year: Evergreen and IronAbe. These are both qualifying races for Age Group Nationals. I set my goal early in the year to qualify to go to Portland. After looking back over my previous results in these races and hoping to train harder and get faster, I have hope of hitting this goal. The qualifying standard is a top 33% A/G finish in a qualifying race, or a top 10% A/G finish in any USAT sanctioned event. In my previous races at Evergreen and IronAbe, I was within striking distance of top 33% finishes.

Intro - What's this blog about?

I am an age group triathlete. I started entering triathlons in 2004 as a way to focus the training I was doing to stay in shape. Prior to triathlons I biked for fitness and recreation. I joined USA Cycling one year intending to do a race or two, but never did.

This blog will serve as my personal brain space - somewhere to collect and distill my thoughts and bits of information that are useful to me. If someone else gets some benefits from it, that's just gravy...mmmmmmmm, gravy.