Pre-Race Relaxation

As of today it’s three more days until my first half marathon and I am looking forward to the race with great anticipation. I am not really nervous but excited about what’s to come on Saturday. I realized how cool I am about the big event when I received a message from my brother this morning, telling me to stay calm. All I could think was that there’s no need to worry since I am more excited about the half marathon than anything else. Obviously I have no clue how it’s going to go. I don’t know how I’ll react to the added pressure of the race situation. I could worry about whether I’ll be able to take care of all necessary bathroom stops before or during the run and I could be concerned about not making the cut off- but I don’t. I am curious and confident. And I think that I’ll be able to reach the finish line in a rather decent time. Then again, even if I won’t, I am not going to beat myself up. I have been strictly following the training schedule and I have seen a lot of improvement in my running. That alone is reason enough for me to be satisfied. It also gives me confidence in my triathlon pursuit. I believe that I will be able to finish the olympic distance race come July if I stick with the training plan (which I have printed out today). All is good in Readytotri-land. And I’ll let you know how it went on Saturday. Until then I’ll be hydrating and eating lots of carbs!

2012

Well, well... I am realizing that I am not a daily blogger. But whenever I get around to posting here, I enjoy sharing my thoughts and training efforts with you. 

So, here's what's been going/what will be going on:

First of all I turned 30. This makes me have to change the "about" section of this blog. This is hopefully going to be the year of my first (and second) completed triathlon, completed half-marathon, and relay-marathon. The first event is actually going to be the half-marathon in early April and my twelve week training plan for that will start in 1.5 weeks. Although I have been steadily running, I am excited to officially start my half-marathon training soon. If you ask me now, I find it quite hard to imagine that I will be ready to run a half marathon in about 4 months from now. Crazy! But I am a training-plan person and know that I will stick to it once I start. I guess it kind of has a placebo effect on me because I am positive that I will feel ready to go the distance when I have stuck with and completed the training plan.

For christmas I got myself the new and improved p90x program which is fittingly called p90x2! I have finished the first week of the 90 day program and am hooked. I like the challenge this routine poses for me after I have gotten used to the moves in the previous sequel. I am going to have to see how often I will be able to fit in one of the workouts since I will be running about 4 times a week and I will also be cycling and swimming. In any case, it's a great supplemental workout and since I like it so much, I am sure that I will make time to fit it in here and there.

I asked people to give me money for my birthday because I still need a lot of equipment for the triathlon. There's so much stuff I need and I just couldn't decide what to do with the extra cash I got. I am definitely going to need a triathlon suit and wet suit for the races, but I will have rare use for them during training. My road bike definitely needs to be a little pimped and I would like to get aero-bars and proper bike shoes. Right now it's just so cold outside and I am mostly using my stationary bike. Having said that I have come to the conclusion that I will use the b-day money for a indoor bike trainer that holds my actual bike. That way I will be able to use my bikey and I can work on my my position and set up. I have also found a series of indoor-bike-training-videos that I would like to purchase. That way I should be able to get through the second half of the winter with some nice cycling-sessions.

As you can see or read, I am totally pumped and ready to go! 2012 here I come!