New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year! New year, new job, new beginnings, new outlook. And somewhere in there is new goals but I haven't quite gotten around to figuring out what those might be just yet. The new job I'm excited about. It's interesting and there's a lot of information there that can complement and build on the foundation I have right now, and hopefully set me up for more in the future.

I ended December on an decent note, getting sick notwithstanding. The running challenge went okay, though I missed more days than I intended. I'm not sure of my final mileage but I think it's fair to say it was somewhere around 90 miles. To put it in perspective, that's closer to the mileage I was running when I was peaking last year, and right around the same as what I was running when I was training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. From a pace perspective, depending on the day, I'm somewhere in the low 8s or high 7s which is more of an April/May pace from 2009. Point being, my running has a good start for 2010 and now it's time to get my swimming and cycling in gear too.

So what's in store for 2010? Good question. My outlook is a little different. I'm not really making any resolutions or anything like that, and at this point I don't have any concrete goals. What I'm going on right now is 1) to be open to new things in all facets; and 2) enjoy myself more. I'm sure #1 can take on a lot of forms, but for starters, since Rick (Lapinski, not my dad), and likely Susan as well, have talked about how much they like yoga for so long I finally decided to give it a try. Haven't gone yet but it's on the way. All I'm hoping for is some help in tuning up some core strength and seeing what it's all about. As for #2, it's really about having less structure in training. I'm still planning on training hard but if something comes up and friends want to go ride on a day I was planning on running/swimming, or go fly-fishing instead, I'm not going to stress about a missed workout here and there so I can enjoy myself more.

The real change will be that I'm racing off-road tris more this year and only expect to be on my tri-bike in a couple races. I'll also be racing my mountain bike and am looking forward to that. I think in the long term it will add some good strength to my cycling and set me up better for cyclocross season and future seasons with road tris.

In the two quick runs I've done so far this year I've done the same route. Yesterday was at an 8:11 pace and today was at a 7:51 pace. No idea what the difference was but I definitely felt better today and could've kept going for a while. I like that feeling.