What a long winter we’ve had in Chicagoland! Just when we thought we were getting a little break earlier this week, boom, 6 more inches of snow and temperatures back in the single digits.
The good news, though, is that I’ve gotten to spend a lot of quality time on my bike in the basement, right under a heating vent, preparing myself for the heat of Texas in May.
I ran the “Get Lucky” half marathon downtown this morning – we had beautiful weather (finally!) – high 30s, sunny. Just perfect. This was a great kick-off to my 2014 race season; it was nice to that winter training has paid off.
Sonja has had me doing a lot of low HR base-building this winter. Now we get to build to IMTX in May and I am so excited! Sonja is out of the country right now, so we all got a few weeks’ worth of schedules (we usually get a week at a time) – which is giving me time to obsess more…already looking ahead to my 4 hour bike next weekend. YIKES! (but in a good way – a year ago knowing my workouts too far in advance would have freaked me out)
I was thinking about it, and as far as racing goes, I don’t really have a lot on the schedule this year – well, volume-wise, I kind of do – 2 ironman races. But as of now, I only have 3 total races on the schedule: IMTX in May, Esprit de She in June and IMAZ in November. I guess I’d better start thinking about a few more races, huh?
Speaking of racing, Jake kicked off his triathlon season last weeknd in Sarasoata at the PATCO races. He was invited this year to race against great triathletes from around the country. It was a great place to test his fitness and aside from the fact that he did the entire bike on a flat (umm, fyi, not good for your wheel), he still averaged 20.5 mph on the bike. He came out of the water with one of the front packs (he’s been working SO hard on his swim this winter and it showed) and then he knocked off a 16:xx 5K. UM, I can’t even do 2 miles in 16:00 right now (ever?).
So – there you have it – a brief update. More to come…I’m excited to get this season started. I head to CA for the annual Slowtwitch Womens Camp at the beginning of April – I can’t wait!
