My Next Big Thing

As I referred to in an earlier post, I'm already working on the next "big thing" if you will, my next goal. There's a great article in this month's Runner's World about surviving the let-down after a big marathon and how to plan to keep yourself motivated. Sure, you need recovery time, but without a follow-on goal, its easy to lose motivation to train, and to lose the benefit of all that training.

So I have 2 levels of goal races, or actually 3. The first, most near term, is defined, but is a maybe dependent upon how I feel physically following the marathon. That being the City of Trees Half Marathon, on Sunday November 6. There are actually 2 half-marathons that I considered for following the marathon - both of which members of BOISERunWalk are training for: the Zeitgeist half and the City of Trees Half. Zeitgeist is on Saturday, November 5 and is VERY hilly, with 3 significant climbs. CoT is on Sunday November 6, but is a basically flat tour of downtown Boise in conjunction with the CoT full marathon. Both races are only 4 weeks after the marathon - hence the uncertainty - but the Zeitgeist race just seemed too aggressive, given the hills, and the fact that I haven't done any hill training (more fondly referred to as "specificity training" by Coach Mike). CoT seems more doable, barring any injuries (knock on wood).

My 2nd goal, also near term, is half for fun and half a challenge. It's a 5-mile "Turkey Trot" in Cleveland on Thanksgiving day, where we'll be visiting my dad. We did the Turkey Trot the last time we were in Cleveland on Thanksgiving back in 1997. The challenge this time is the reward: the first 50 men and the first 50 women will take home a free pumpkin pie. I'm going for the first 50 women. I don't know how much speed work I'll be able to get in between the marathon & Thanksgiving, but I'm thinking I should be able to be pretty darn close to 40:00 for the race (8:00 miles). We'll see.

The larger question is around my longer term goals. The first 2 will get me through the recovery month and get me to keep training. I know what I want to do next - I just haven't picked the race yet, not for certain. The next challenge is to conquer a triathlon. And like we did with Robie Creek, I'm not starting small. My (tentative) goal race is a half-ironman tri (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and one of the more challenging races: Wildflower in California May 5-7. Of course I know I'll need to get a sprint tri in there (at least) or maybe even an Olympic distance tri in there as practice, but I definitely want to try for the longer distance.

The trick is, I feel much less prepared to pull together a training plan for a triathlon than I do, or ever did, for a road race. Of course, I know there are tons of on-line resources (OnTri is a great one) and I have no fewer than 5 books on the subject here at home. Plus, I've got a couple of great resources as friends - my neighbor Jeff is a serious Ironman (he finished Ironman Canada in a smoking 10:36:-- WOW!) and my friend and cycling buddy Gina is a budding triathlete herself, having just completed her first Olympic distance tri at Emmett.

I know I can put one down on paper. I'd just really like to have a coach or trainer to help me be accountable too. Plus, I really need to take some swimming lessons. I mean, I took swimming lessons as a kid, but I hardly ever swim now, and I certainly never do laps - that's going to have to change. ;)

So there you go - it's out here. Wildflower 2006. Registration opens on December 1. I need to find some intermediate tris between now and then - probably in Seattle. Oh crap - May's not that far away! Maybe it will be Wildflower 2007.....nah!