now what?

i'm sure folks might be wondering that...now what? Is he going to do another Marathon or just call it quits?

it's been a while since i posted to this blog last.

Well, to answer you questions here we go:

1) waiting for new baby boy to come (January)
a) finishing guest room - almost done!
b) getting furniture and closet supplies for baby room

2) working, working, working - trying to stay employed, putting in overtime - the usual

3) exercising
what?!? is he crazy? didn't he just run a marathon? what?!?

That's right, I'm still exercising/training. Slowly but surely.

As you all might remember, I plan to do triathlons next. Specifically i expect to race in the Kansas Ironman 70.3 (half-ironman) in June 2009.

To that end, I'm doing what I call "maintenance" training. Defined for our purposes here, Maintenance Training is the exact right amount of training to compensate for any turkey, chips, beer, wine, chocolate eaten while keeping the same weight and general fitness level as before the holidays.

Now, as some of you know I can never just do the bare minimum so, I've also added "base" training. Base Training is really training to ensure you can perform for long periods of time at a reasonable heart rate. Example: Run 6 miles or so.. but run it at 70% of your maximum heart rate or lower. Before you get bored, understand that for many it's nearly impossible to run at any speed while keeping your heart rate below 70%. The theory here is that by the time you are ready to do speed training for any race in the spring/summer (i.e. Peak Phase) that you can run/swim/bike reasonably fast at a lower heart rate. Make sense? So, by the time I race, I need to run 8:30 minute miles but, because my conditioning will be so good due to base training, i'll not burn out quickly at 8:30 minute miles but sail through them as if i'm lounging... then (on the last 3 or 4 miles of the run portion of the race) I'll put the hammer down, raise the Heart Rate to 90% or so and burn down my competitors as if they were standing still!

Well, that's the plan anyways :)

Either way, I've started incorporating 1 to 2 swims a week (each a mile) and 3 or 4 bike rides (upright bike due to economic conditions preventing me from buying a carbon triathlon bike) of 21 miles or so each a week, and am trying to plan on 4 to 5 runs a week of 5-7 miles each. That sounds like a lot - and it is. Believe it or not though, I'm really just doing what feels good right now... If it doesn't feel good because I'm trying to hard or burning-out or just out of energy or not motivated... i don't do it.. Remarkably though, it's working. I haven't gained a pound since the marathon a month ago. OK, I gained 1.25 pounds over thanksgiving... but that will be lost in the next few days on runs.

Well, that was a lengthy update but it's been a while honestly and I know how much you all miss these updates...

I'll try adding some funny posts along the way as I did before to keep things lively of course :)