What started out as a "what if we did THIS race next year" conversation with Ms. Molly turned into a late night conversation of....
What about this?
Or this?
Or what about that distance? Is that one too close to this one? How far of a drive is it? Exactly HOW far is too far for me next year?
In other words, pretty much coming up with my race schedule for next year.
There are still some gaps, but I can fill those in later. Of course, I can't speak for Molly who is currently in off season mode....so much so that she doesn't even know how to log into trainingpeaks.com anymore.
Maybe that's an exaggeration.
But maybe not.
I think I'm set for locations. Now, I need to figure out distances.
So far, here's what I'm thinking about:
Possibly a Feb half marathon. The jury is still out on this one. I have a 10 mile race already this month. So, if I want to do a half 2/2 is my only real option. Current contenders: Surf City in CA and some race in Colorado Springs, but I can't remember the name.
The only issue with the half marathon is that I'm not really used to running one so early in the season. If the Surf City half works out then that's a bonus.
NEXT!
March 16th, Bartlett Lake in Scottsdale, AZ. Still not sure which distance: sprint or Oly.
Then, I'm at a loss for April and May. Out thissaway, the only real options are running races. I've usually filled my schedule with running races for these months. This year, I'm not sure.
In June, welcome to my first A race! YAY! Back to Loveland L2L I was stumped on this one. Sprint or Oly. Didn't really want to run a 10k, but I just couldn't resist the Horsetooth climb again, which looks like this:
Last year, I was going through a phase and wasn't exactly trained to do this type of bike course. Granted, I did extremely well. I did probably about what I expected. However, I want to see how I can improve upon last year's time.
That's June.
July, I found the Tri Rock Series. It's right in my back yard. Why not? Sprint? Oly? I have no idea. YET.
THEN AUGUST! "A" Race #2: USAT Nationals I can't even begin to tell you how long I have wanted to do this race. But, I always had to put it off because of the boys' schedules. School starting, summer sports programs and getting them ready for school.
I am beyond excited for this. I have been so patient.
There will be more....low priority races; I'm sure some long distance open water swim events will end up on my calendar again this year. I'm eyeing some bike TT's for earlier in the season.
Finally, drumroll.....I am hoping, fingers crossed that THIS is the year that I get to go watch the IM World Championships in Kona. I've been talking about it for about 2 months. Fingers Crossed. That's not really a race for me....but HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE????
I guess....there's still a lot of unknowns, but at least I'm heading in the right direction. I think I am anyway.
Really for the first time ever, I have the freedom to do whatever races I want. I can't tell you how good that feels.