What's Next?

I received the following comment on my last post from the lovely Doll, "I'm...curious to know what you two will be doing after your next race. Will it be an endless stream of training and racing training and racing? Or will there be a transition of maintaining a sensible workout without the end goal of a race?" I began to reply and then my comment grew enough to merit a separate post. Why not, right?

Good question, what ARE we doing? The major triathlons (70.3 or Half Ironman distance in particular) open up registration a year in advance for the lowest rate. Registration can fill up or prices increase before you know it! As races we want to do began opening up for registry, we've snapped up our spots, making 2012 a pretty well planned out year already. The rest of this year will be focusing on the Orangeman Half Ironman (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1 mi run) with two small sprints thrown in for fun (Pacific Coast Tri and Newport Beach Tri). After October, we will be doing some serious rest and recovery to allow our minds and bodies a chance to heal. Our focus will shift from having a training schedule to having fun while being active. Adam's wanted to get into rock climbing for awhile, and I haven't climbed in a few years, so we may take a few months and climb or hike a bit.

2012 is going to be a fun and exciting year for us! We will begin training at the end of 2011 as I find that starting training during the holidays keeps me grounded to my goals as opposed to slipping non-stop into the holiday madness of over-indulgence. We'll do our first race of the year in Oceanside at the Oceanside 70.3 at the end March. A month later, we're flying to St. Croix for a getaway of epic proportions! We're signed up for a Half Ironman dubbed "Beauty and the Beast" that's a world class event. It's beautiful, it's difficult, and best of all, we're staying for a week! After that, we'll have some time to recover and gather our cajones for our crowning achievement - the full Ironman.

What?! I know, I swore I would never do a full Ironman (2.4 mi swim, 112mi bike, 26.2mi run). Adam swore he'd never do a full Ironman. It's insane. It's brutal. It's impossible, right?! I mean, the two of us doing an Ironman?? Well...somewhere along the line...we started thinking we are capable of anything. At some point, we went from thinking, "That's insane!" to "Hey, we're insane! Yay!". I'm not sure what it says about us, but I think we're on the right track. I don't know that it's a distance we'll ever repeat and right now, the thought of doing it seems unfeasible and unrealistic. If there's one thing I've learned in the past year or two, it's that I just can't trust myself to know what's possible or not.

After that, we'll need some real time off. Mentally, emotionally, physically and financially. We've been tossing around the idea of doing the whole John Muir Trail for a long time. It would require taking about 20 days off work (which sounds like a great idea) so that would take a little planning. It will require some logistical wizardry to organize our food drops, how we're getting up there and back, and who's watching the cats...but it will be a journey of a lifetime. The JMT begins in Yosemite and traverses 211 miles through the stunning wilderness of the High Sierra up to Mount Whitney. We also are tossing ideas around for our own company (!) and we'll be dedicating more time to that as well. I don't think either of us will be leaving triathlon for many years to come, but we are going to mix it up a bit in the next few years!