I'm back in the groove. Consistent training has again entered my life. After racing in Hawaii last October, I tried to carry over some of that fitness for a bit. I wanted to race the Rock Canyon 1/2 Marathon in Pueblo, Colorado in early December and race it well. Well, my body had other plans and I got sick the week prior. Major bummer as I had held off on taking a proper off season in preparation for this race. That kind of forced me into my off season. I didn't like it initially. The routine of early wake ups was hard to let go of. Eventually, I got used to the extra sleep. Unfortunately, I got used to the lack of discipline with my eating. Let's just say, I wasn't real picky with what I put in my body for those 6 weeks. Between the strength workouts and reduced workout time, I fully planned to put on some weight. I now sit about 10 pounds heavier than my race weight in Kona. The wait gain was by design but not quite that much! The good thing is that it will be easy to get rid of now that I have some consistency back in my workout life. Even though I was enjoying some down time, I made sure to get at least one 3 hour workout in each week. This was intended to help me to ease into higher volumes down the road. These 3 hours were aerobic in nature but extremely beneficial. I got on the bike for 4 hours this morning. Even thought the weather is the warmest we've seen in months, I was forced to to hit the trainer as I had to get into work. The workout was fantastic. I felt better than expected and I pushed the upper end of my aerobic threshold. Very encouraging. I'm looking forward to a better season than 2009. I'll touch on my 2010 plans in a future post.
