With the finish line in sight.....time for a new goal!

Seven weeks left! Only 49 days until I can start a normal life schedule with most of my weekends off, the ability to work-out without my pager in tow, and the ability to sleep through a night without being paged! Can you believe it? I can. It's been a long 4 years. This post, however, is not about the fact that I am nearly done with my first year of fellowship and about to start the more reasonable, controlled, independently driven schedule of a 2nd year fellow. It's about what I'm going to do with some of that new free time. It's time to start thinking about the Ironman.

When it comes to exercise, I have no shortage of goals. Some I succeed at every day (run at least 1 mile daily), some I am working towards at a turtle's pace (qualify for Boston) and some are in the back of my mind but I've made no outward moves to achieve (finish an Ironman). And there are others, like numbers of work-outs a week, number of marathons in new states a year, improvement in strength, etc, etc that I variably work towards with mixed success. But the Ironman goal has never really gotten much attention. Until now.

After years of ridiculous work-weeks, the next two years I will have fabulous amounts of flexibility in my job. Of course I'll work hard. It's not like I'm working part-time or something (wow, that could be great though). But I'll have some control over when I go to work and when I go home which is a crazy new concept for me.

So it's now or never.

When I started running, I went from couch potato to marathoner. There's something really tempting about the idea of jumping straight into full Ironman training. However, since I just learned to swim with my face under water last year and I don't even own a road bike, I don't think going straight from marathoner to Ironman is a good plan. I'll need an intermediary step, like a shorter Triathlon, just to make sure I a) don't drown, b) am willing to spend money on a road bike and c) don't spend hundreds of dollars on a race that I can't finish. Cuz if I do drown it will have been an absolute shame to have spent money on a bike and a race that I won't finish:)

Last week was kinda sorta supposed to be my first triathlon training week but I didn't get any swims in so I'm going to officially declare this week the first week. I figure if I make a big show about it, blog post and all, I'll be more likely to succeed.

I'm using this book that showed up in our apartment. I think Adam borrowed it from a friend. It's not like me to start a new training schedule without purchasing a new training book all my own, but heck, it's here in front of me so I might as well use it.

I'm following the Level 1 Half-Ironman program to start. I'm in marathon shape and have 2 marathons in the next five weeks so it's strange to see such short running segments. They call running for 35 minutes a training run? So short! So I'll be making some modifications, doing more running that I'm "supposed" to. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to view myself as a triathlete rather than a marathoner who is doing a triathlon!

This weeks plan:
Monday: 1200 yd swim in AM (ha! I think the longest I've ever swam is 200 yes so this seems unlikely!), 45 min cycle (6:30 PM Equinox spinning)
Tuesday: 30 min run w/ 6 x 30 sec fartleks in AM
Wednesday: 60 min cycle (6:30 AM Equinox spinning), 1200 yd swim in PM
Thursday: 5:45 PM Shockwave class @ Equinox
Friday: 35 minute run PM
Saturday: 60 minute cycle, 1500 yd swim
Sunday: 40 minute run

Yikes. That sounds super ambitious. Next up, making my menu for the week to fuel me through this madness!