New beginnings

Today is Saturday November 15th around 6am.  The sun is just beginning to rise and a gorgeous orange hue is lining the base of the rich blue sky.  The trees outside my window are merely black silhouettes at this point.  I love that sky.  I'll miss this house, and my window.  I know I'll find another window and another view that I love, but I'm current etching this one into memory, so that I'll never forget it.

I find this time of year very pretty.  The frost on the ground is like tiny crystals.  Seeing my breath on the air, and feeling the crisp wind on my face makes me feel alive.  Everything slows down, the entire yard is still.  It is so peaceful and beautiful.



Today I need to get over to chapters to purchase next years calendar.  It is actually been the limiting factor in beginning my Ironman training.  You need the plan first, to take any action.  What I do, is I buy next years calendar, and beginning at the date of the race I work backwards with all the training I need to do to get to the race day.



That way each day, I open my calendar and know exactly what training I'm supposed to do.  I've been working with Gale Bernhardt's coaching plans for multisport athletes.  I bought the book a few years ago now when I began triathlons.  Based on the excellent results I had during my half Ironman, I'm convinced she knows what she is doing.

Once I have filled in the calendar, I will see when the real first day of hard core training begins.  I'm expecting it will be at the beginning of February.  I'm going to start today with the conditioning program.  I'll bike a little bit today, run a little bit tomorrow and start to swim next week.  Easy conditioning, nothing hard core.. the idea right now is to build the base for the muscle building that will start in January. All the training you should do in the winter months should be light, fun and easy.  Build a solid base for the muscle, power, and interval training to come.

The next big challenge for me is nutrition.  Nutrition in short distance races is quite simple and you can make a lot of mistakes without destroying your body too much.  In a 12 hour Ironman, the nutrition base you've built up by how you eat during your training, I believe, is critical.  I want to be healthy during the process and have a great finish to the race... so eating appropriate levels of carbs, proteins, vitamins and minerals during the next year and the plan for the race is my biggest challenge.

Checklist this week:
Make a plan for the race
Get a book on nutrition
Start easy conditioning in swimming, biking, and running
Mostly - have fun