Saturday, December 20, 2008

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas



The winter weather finally hit Portland in full force last night. We woke up to two inches of snow and it just kept on snowing all day and into the night. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same along with some freezing rain.

I haven't done much since the marathon - a couple days of strength training and a lot of days of eating cookies and relaxing. I'm planning on getting back into more of a routine this next week with some more strength training and some days on the trainer. I was planning on heading to the pool today but the icy roads put a damper on that idea.

After CIM I started thinking about what I wanted to do for my next marathon. I would like to run one next fall but I don't know how that will work out with my schedule. The only races that would really work out for me would be Las Vegas or CIM, both of which are in the first week of December. Both of them would fit in with a 12 week training plan which would give me around 4 weeks of recovery after Lake Stevens 70.3, but, Vegas isn't all that great from what I hear and Jen isn't keen on going back to Sacramento again, especially since she won't be running (her Iron Man is on November 22nd). However, the biggest thing for me is that running a fall marathon would put me into a similar situation as I was in this year; I didn't have much of a base going into training. Instead of training for a fall marathon I think I will train for a couple of half marathons to build a solid base. Hopefully this strategy will set me up for a solid London race in Spring 2010; and really no matter what, running a marathon in London will be pretty freakin sweet. I'm also excited to train for a half marathon and see just how fast I can get. Although I know it's next to impossible for me, I would really like to try and qualify for the New York Marathon with a half marathon time. For me that would be 1:23:00 which I believe is around a 6:15 AP; and that in my opinion is smokin'.

In the here and now triathlon season is almost upon us. I'm planning on doing two Olympic distance events (Blue Lake in June and Hagg Lake in July) and one 70.3 (Lake Stevens in August). There is an open water swim event at Hagg that I would like to find out more about as well. I believe that is in late May or early June.

Overall I had a great 2008. I ran three half marathons, setting a new PR at each one, completed three sprint triathlons (I placed in my age group in two of them), and ran my first marathon. All of this after having hernia surgery in February. Overall it was a great year and I look forward to another great season in 2009. I am however, very aware of the fact that I will now be competing in one of the toughest age groups for the next ten years so I definitely have my work cut out for me.

Here are a couple additional pictures from today when we were walking around the city enjoying the snow.





Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

6 comments:

Marathon Maritza said...

Sounds like it was a great 2008!

That's funny about London, I was considering it for 2010 too!

Stay warm in that cold and happy holidays!

Anonymous said...

Great year this year & wishes for a fantastic 2009. Keep on smiling in your training & races.
Dragonfly on the Water...

Alisa said...

Portland snow...glad we made it before the snow really hit.

I am "sort of" organizing a blogger marathon meetup for Fall of 2009...I haven't picked anything yet but have a poll going on my blog to see what month would be best for everyone. I'm also trying to pick one that has a half option for those not wanting to do a full marathon---maybe you and Jen could do that and save marathoning for London =).

Aron said...

awesome year!!!

why dont you just do a spring marathon - eugene???? :)

i cant believe how much snow you guys are getting!! have a great christmas and stay warm!!

Kim said...

UMMMM BRRRRR!!!! what a great year you had! cant wait to see what 09 has in store for us! merry christmas to you and jen!

Steve Stenzel said...

Merry Christmas!!