on the road again

I'm finally getting back into the swing of training again. Things are settling down, december is almost here, and I think we know what we're doing as far as where we are going to be living for a while. The debate was not if we are going to leave the Seattle area, but when. The way its panning out at the moment it looks like we'll be here till the end of summer. Its probably not what we wanted, but its the practical thing to do. I have to say this place is starting to grow on me a little. I never get tired of the trees and hills, or seeing snow covered mountains in the distance. I'm not wild about the city, but as we've been able to expand our horizons a little more I'm finding more places that I like. We travel south to Tacoma a lot more often then we go north to Seattle.
Although the rain prevents it (for my tri bike any way), most of the towns around here are very bicycle friendly. Thats one category this place definitely has an advantage over Austin in. As much as Austin likes to tout being bicycle friendly it never was in my mind (I thought even El Paso was better). The streets are too narrow, the bicycle lanes were not very usuable or convenient for anyone riding a significant distance. Living down south, I was limited to a very few safe routes because of bridge crossings and a small amount of roads with significant shoulders to ride on. Getting out of the city was always tough too. Most of the county roads were narrow and shoulderless, and could be very busy with traffic and unforgiving rednecks who did not like to share the road. It was getting boring riding the same routes all of the time, and it even got me to thinking about finding somewhere else to live that would be more conducive to riding. But I think you would be hard pressed to find a better town to swim and run in, so many great pools and places to run. Deep Eddy and Town Lake, how I miss thee.
I found some nice places to swim here that are close by. The aqautic center across the street hosted the Goodwill Games in the 80's, so thats pretty cool. Unfortunately, it is often busy with swimming/diving meets and it costs $5 for one swim. They don't give a very good discount for 3 month passes either, and open lap-swim times are limited. On the positive side I think they will be hosting the NCAA Championships this spring, and the Olympic trials! That should be awesome, I would love to see some Olympic swimmers in action. So far I like swimming there, the water temp is nice and its well maintained. There is another place close by, but I'm going to have to be sneaky to get in there. I don't wanna pay $8 to swim for one day, thats effin crazy, but I have secured a key card from one of my clients who doesn't use his. I feel guilty for cheating but $8 is too much, I just hope they don't notice the picture on the card.
I think the toughest part about staying here, which isn't necessarily terrible, is getting to races. There are no spring time triathlons anywhere close by. The season doesn't really begin till mid-summer, so I will be traveling to races...and traveling far. I've got a bunch of possibilities listed, but I'll just have to wait a little longer to see which are feasable. As far as Ironman goes I don't know. I'm dying to get to one, but Ironman Texas sold out immediately (as did most of the North American races), and I'm only left with a couple of choices. It looks like St. George will be the one. However, we have a lot on our plate at the moment and I just don't know if training for a full Ironman will be doable. Hopefully it doesn't sell out before I know if I will be able to put the time in to train for it. I figure I should have a better idea by the time January rolls around. As for the other races it looks like I'll go to Texas in April for either the Ironman Texas 70.3, or the HITS half-iron. The HITS race would probably be better prep for St.George if I can do that. After that it gets easier with actually having some quality races within driving distance by June.
In the mean time it looks like I'll be doing a lot of running races and some duathlons. Trail running is big up here, which I'm very excited about. That season starts in January and should be a lot of fun. I feel like if I have a root in running its trail running, it reminds me of when I was a kid and running around all over the mountains and desert. I absolutely love it, and I'm even getting the Ultra bug. I think I'd much rather do a 50k Ultra on the trail vs. a marathon on the road. Just seems a lot more exciting.
Suffice it to say, I'm excited in general at the moment. Lots of good things going on, and only good things to come. My body feels really good and strong and ready to bring on the miles. My goal here for the next month or so is to keep building to be ready for some serious training and make for an injury free year. I think we've got most of my weaknesses spotted and will be working on fixing those. I've got my first private Pilates session here in 30 minutes, should be fun. I've also been working hard in the weight room, and am finding some new ways to make that work for me. Base training is beginning too, and I'll begin a training plan in the next couple of weeks. Still just getting back into the swing of things at the moment, no regimented training yet, but glad to be on the move once more.


Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving,
ff