Tuesday, January 24, 2012

And so it begins...

Right now I am eating mushrooms and kale. Dessert will be one, big, plain sweet potato. One week ago this would have been enough for lunch (or at least to hold me over for two hours), but given the fact that I am on my second heaping helping of steamed greens and fungi and I am still feeling famished, I have a feeling that it's already kicking it. You know, the unbelievable hunger that you can only really dampen for a bit before it comes back in full, angry force?

That's right, folks! It's training time again!!! Welcome to the 2012 season!! Now I have laps to swim, miles to run, and road tires to burn through! Well really right now I have hours upon hours to freeze my butt off...but hey, I just got myself some new three season cycling gloves and booties for my lil' tootsies in my bike shoes. Woo!

This season's race schedule is mostly lined up. I am especially sure of how the first half of the season will run, but am much less sure about how I'll be doing the second half. See, I've signed up for another half-ironman but like I've said in previous posts, I'm not sold on whether or not I'll be attempting the full this season. On the one hand, I just might not me ready. On the other, I don't know if I'll have time to train like this again next season. Soooo, what to do? And can I make that decision before Chesapeakeman fills up? Questions, questions.

One new development in my season is that this year I am avoiding Piranha Sports events. I normally compete in a few of their races a season as they were my first race and I have done well with them. Unfortunately, it was a Piranha event at which I had my blowup last season and I (and particularly my family) wasn't too thrilled with how the emergency medical help was set up. Basically there were few medical people there and there was no ambulance. I also found out that had I collapsed at an aid station (which almost happened) that no one would have been able to get help to me there. The volunteers had no way to communicate back to the base.

This is not to say that I am boycotting them forever. I have really had a fantastic time at their events and loved the atmosphere in the past. But I can't risk that kind of medical inattention. If I do decide to do one of their sprint events for some fun at the end of the season, you can bet I'll be calling them and asking about their preparedness beforehand. There were some complaints made about the situation last year, so who knows, maybe they're boycotting me!! hehe.

Blacklisted! Like an outlaw! Alright giving myself way too much street cred there.

Anyway, yesterday was my first two-a-day. Traveling up to DE for school stuff and then again on the weekends for my wife's hockey tournaments puts some interesting twists into my scheduling. Luckily I will likely spend most of this spring working down here with a different University, so the mid-week twists will calm down. The weekend traveling though? That will probably continue at the current pace for a while.

Off to eat my sweet potato and head to the pool. Lots to do today! Time to figure out how to fit it all in again...