2010 Race Schedule with Details.

 So in the athletic world, here is what's up with me lately.

I just completed my first half marathon on February 28th in New Orleans. I'll recap that race in a different post.

I have another half marathon scheduled for March 27 in Libertyville, IL. I'm training for this one by increasing my overall mileage, increasing the difficulty of the mid-length (4-6 mile) runs, and running up to 12 miles on Saturdays. I'm barely cross-training at all and I'm not lifting weights at all.

After I recover from that, I'll start training for a June 13 Sprint Triathlon in Naperville. I plan to follow the same training plan I used last winter but on the hardest level. Even the hardest level starts with some easy runs and rides, and works up to some crazy-hard brick workouts toward the end. For those who don't know, a brick workout is when you train two of the triathlon events in a row (ie swim and bike, or bike and run). A sample brick workout is to bike 10 miles, run 2 miles, immediately bike 10 more miles, run 2 more miles, bike 10 more, and run 2 more, resulting in 30 miles ridden and 6 miles run. This is actually only two-thirds of an Olympic distance triathlon.

To help with this season's tri training, I have two races scheduled for the month of May. I didn't race at all last summer, so when it came time for my first triathlon I didn't know exactly what I expect. On May 15 Jeff and I are competing in a 20k bike/5k run in Chelsea, MI. Jeff's only doing the bike and I'm doing both. Then on May 29 I hope to run in the Soldier Field 10-mile in Chicago. I'm hoping the Chelsea races will have some hills that will wake up my flat-land muscles. I'll treat that race as a brick workout. At the moment I don't own a geared bike, so unless I come into some money between now and then, I'll be doing that race on a single speed. Interesting!

The Soldier Field 10-mile doesn't really have a training purpose, I just really, really want to do it. The finish line is at the 50-yard line of Solider Field, which just sounds so freaking awesome!

The weekend of June 5 is Meredith's baby shower and I start my taper for my tri.

I haven't planned late June through early July's training schedule yet. 

July 31 is another sprint tri in Racine, WI, and to prepare for the open water portion of that race, I'm swimming a mile open water race on June 26. Hopefully the lake will be warm enough and e.coli free so I can spend July swimming in Lake Michigan. My first Olympic distance tri will be August 15, which will probably end my season, since my wedding is August 28 and my honeymoon is Sept 5-19.

I may run one more half marathon at the end of the year, perhaps in Denver, Las Vegas, or Houston.

Links to race registration:
Des Plaines River Half Marathon: http://www.allcommunityevents.com/desplaines_half_mar/dprhm_home.html

Naperville Women's Tri: http://www.uswts.com/?q=il_welcome.html

Chelsea Heart and Sole: http://www.active.com/running/chelsea-mi/heart-and-sole-2010

Soldier Field 10 Mile: http://www.soldierfield10.com/

Been a while...

Oops, I got kind of busy with the holidays and winter and training and fell off the writing wagon. I'm back now! yeehaw!

The last time I wrote I was training for a four mile Turkey Trot race. My goal was 45 minutes, and I crushed it! I came in at 43:52 which absolutely thrilled me. I was in great shape physically, but emotionally I was dealing with the ramifications of yet another job loss.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I went to see my doctor about depression. I know depression is a taboo topic to talk about. No one likes to admit that they can't fix their own problems. It was extremely hard for me to ask for help, but I really needed it. My doctor put me on a low dosage of Paxil and told me to give it three months then reevaluate. I went to Cleveland for Thanksgiving and had fun, then I went back to Chicago and pretty much shut down, waiting for the pills to start working. I tried applying for jobs but couldn't muster the strength. Around Dec 15, I started to feel better, and then it was time to go to Cleveland for Christmas. I loved being home, and while I was there I made a really important decision. I decided to earn my personal training certification and start looking for jobs at gyms! I'm very excited.

I'm eager to teach people what I know about exercise and to turn people into athletes. I love helping people, and helping them get healthy is the best way to give back. The studying is tough - it's very dry and between work, planning the wedding, and half-marathon training, I'm finding it hard to sit down and get through the book. I really need to make that happen before tax season is over!

I got my license last week, so I can finally start applying for jobs outside of the city.

Good things are happening!