Looking forward to 2011

Some people might think I didn’t make much of an effort to get back on track in time to run the marathon. After all, the doctor that checked me out even said he thought I should be able to run it, just not race it. Trust me, I wanted to be out there, the thing is I’d really rather be able to walk later in life. I’ve known people that have ended up having surgeries on knees and ankles after races and I really don’t want to go that route. The other reason I’m not going to run 6-12 miles of it and then quit is that there is a possibility that I wouldn’t want to quit. So why chance that mistake?

I’ve been thinking about what went wrong with the plan. Was the plan just to aggressive? Would fewer days of running mixed with more Swimming and Biking have worked to be a safer mix for me? Should I have scheduled more massages? So on and so on… My chiropractor had asked me about a month before the injury when the last time I took a significant break from training was. I kind of do what I can, when I can and when life gets in the way, that’s when the “breaks” would happen. Hmmm. Not a very good answer, I know.

So how do I improve on this? I feel like even though I’ve read a ton of stuff and I’ve got this big box of clues about how it’s all supposed to work. It’s still really hard to build the perfect plan when you’ve never built one before. So then what do you do? If you are lucky enough to have a few bucks, you hire someone to build it for you. That’s exactly what I’ve done. Of course it’s really important to get referrals and to see the person’s work before you hire them. I’d been considering this for a long while so I had coaches in mind. I kept waiting for the perfect situation to happen before signing up tho’. Well, I decided that having a coach start me off after an 8 week break would probably be as good a time as any. Starting next Monday, I’ll be following the advice of Mark Allen Online.

I’m looking forward to it. I like the thought of going into a workout knowing that there is a solid plan behind it. I feel a bit like a lab rat, do this and this should happen, if it doesn’t happen we need to change something. It’s going to be interesting.

This schedule has been tentatively approved.

5/22/11 Columbia Triathlon, Olympic Distance B Race
6/4/11 Mooseman Triathlon, International Distance A Race
7/24/11 NJ State Triathlon, Olympic distance.
8/6/11 Kinzua Country Tango Adventure Race. Swim Leg of Relay.
8/21/11 Timberman 70.3 A Race
11/6/11 NYC Marathon