Vacation on my mind

This cold weather is slowly coming to an end, but I still can't wait to run in some warm sunshine.

Twelve more days and we will be bathed in the warmth of sunny Florida.

It has been awhile since we have been to Florida, as we have gone to Mexico for the last few years. But this year we are going back there and taking my son Nicholas and his fiance, Nicole. The recent cold snap has only made us wish we were going longer than a week!

While on holidays, training will be put on the back shelf. I am well on target and the rest will do me good. When I get back there will only be 7 weeks left until IM AZ! Those last few weeks will be working on staying healthy and strong and starting to think about the "other" elements of the race. Specifically thinking about my transitions and nutrition for race day.Last year, I did not put too much pressure on myself to get out of transition with any urgency. Everything was geared towards completing the 140.6 miles as comfortably and as sensibly as possible. So I made plans to transition into dry clothes for each leg of the race. This cost me a considerable amount of time, but I think in the end it was worth it. I obviously enjoyed it enough to sign up for another one!

This year though, I will be prepared to do things differently in an effort to knock some time off. These are easy minutes to gain if you develop a plan and think about what you really need for the event at hand. I will use the same plan I do for half IM races. Wearing my cycling clothes under my wetsuit, and running in my biking gear, as well as just acting with more urgency.

On the nutrition front, I am going to experiment with some food that is more satisfying. Possibly a bagel and peanut butter during the bike ride and reduce the amount of calories that I take in via liquid. That added a bit of time with additional pit stops, but it was effective from the standpoint that I did not bonk at any time. This will require some thought, as I will not change last year's plan unless I am absolutely certain that I have a better one.

On the training over the last few days, it has been on plan and I finished the week with 13 hours and 1 minute versus a schedule which called for 13 hours.

Friday I did over an hour in the pool and covered 2,600 metres. The workout was a combination of drills and some interval swimming. I continue to work on maintaining good mechanics as I start to fatigue.

The evening was a quick 10 km run in 45 minutes. Nothing too fancy here, just got out and made it happen.

Saturday was a 2 hour effort (on the treadmill!), which resulted in 17 miles. Had some new tunes so I was zoned out and only checked in to mix up the incline every once in awhile.

Today I will look at the plan for next week and make the adjustments I need to accomodate getting the hours in. I am anticipating a lighter week as far as hours with potentially some longer cycling workouts.

Have a great weekend!