Onwards and upwards

The big ol' TNT training schedule officially kicked off this morning at 5:30 in the pool at the Lab School. Everything was the same as I remembered from last year except for two things: we weren't locked out in the cold waiting for a lifeguard that never showed and I didn't have horrible butterflies in my stomach not knowing what to expect. All in all it was a little .... underwhelming? In the "not overwhelming" sense of word, not the "not exciting" sense. It was interesting to see the faces of the new participants and wonder if I had the same look prior to our first swim practice 12 months ago. I was in the "fast lane" this morning by default, but it looks like we have some former competitive swimmers in this group, so I may demote myself once they get back in the groove. I've kind of plateaued with my swimming ability, and my aim is to keep myself there with maintenance workouts and focus more on my running this winter in prep for the 1/2 marathon ...

... AND the freakin' 1/2 Ironman I just signed up for!

Holy crap. I mean, holy crap!! I've been going back and forth on this for a couple weeks, and after talking to Teen I took the plunge. There will be a group of us going up (and a couple more doing the Olympic the same weekend), so it should be a fun trip. The #1 reason (by far) that I waffled is that Liz may not be able to come up due to end of year school duties. I really, really want her to be there, but will understand if she can't come. #2 reason is the schedule I've now set up for myself:

4/27: St. Anthony's Olympic in St. Petersburg
5/18: Columbia Olympic in MD just north of DC
6/8: Mooseman Half Iron in Bristol, NH

That's 3 weeks from first to second Olympic; I did 2 weeks between North East and Annapolis this year, but that was the end of the season, and I didn't have a 1/2 Iron (!!!!) looming over me in another 3 weeks. I'll definitely need to treat Columbia as one long workout and not "race" it. It's a hilly course and I could easily get myself in trouble if it takes me a few days to recover from that one.

Hopefully the 1/2 marathon will get me in running shape to tackle this, but I have a long way to go. The biking is what I'm more worried about; we won't get to put that many miles in with our St A's captain duties, so I'm going to need to squeeze in what I can. That may mean lots of time in the trainer. Ugh. I'm pretty scared of this one but pretty excited at the same time. If my legs can hold up to the run, I'll at least be able to finish. And, really, that's a good enough goal.

Holy crap!!