Best Off Season Yet!!

I am officially a month into my off season and about 13 weeks and 4 days away from my IMTX training plan starting, but whose counting?

So far this off season thing is the BOMB!  And I am not sitting around eating bonbons watching TV and getting fat!  My off season can be summarized best with running, weights, and low stress.  Its heavenly!

I have been running at least 4-5 days a week. I know my goal was 6 days a week, but life happens, people get sick, or just plain want to sleep in.  Nothing big mileage wise, I am just looking to build my base and be consistent.  It is already coming easier.  I did a 9 mile long run a week ago and it was the easiest 9 miles ever.  I felt great the whole time and could have kept going.  I loved it!  My 4 am runs I have a love/hate relationship with.  The love part is that I love getting them done so early, I love my running partner Jen, and it isn't hot that early.  The hate part is that it is at 4 AM.  Still not quite used to it.

WEIGHTS!  This is my new discovery and I kinda like it.  No, I love it!  I started a training plan for strength training this week a coworker referred me to from bodybuilding.com.  I was a little turned off at first just hearing the website name, because I don't want to turn into the Hulk, but the plan isn't designed for that.  It is to tone up, lose some weight and build muscle but not make me bulk up.  It is simple easy to do, and tells ME exactly what to do.  To do this I have to go to a gym.  I haven't set foot in a gym in AGES, probably because I hate treadmills or indoor cardio, other than lap swimming, and I prefer to do it all outside.  And I am completely clueless about what to do with all the weight machines, feel stupid asking, so I haven't pursued it.  However, this plan takes out all of the guess work and I know exactly what I am doing each day I go in.  The time thing is perfect to, it is literally on the 5 minute drive to my kid's school from mine, and I use the hour between me being done and them needing to be picked up to fit it in.  It's been great!  And there is just something about weight training that makes you feel like a rock star!

LOW STRESS!  I am not beating myself up for missing workouts, and with out the stress, I am not missing many!  Maybe one a week?  I love it.  My only goal is to do SOMETHING every day, but I am not making myself do one thing over another.  It has mainly been running, but with the new gym membership, I won't beat myself up if I decide to hit a Body Pump class instead.  It has been wonderful!

Another thing...Belle's make over!  It is almost complete.  She has new pedals (went with Speed Play Light Action), new tri specific bike shoes (Pearl Izumi Tri-Fly), new aerobars (Profile Design Air Stryke) and now she just needs a new bike fit and she is good to go!  I am so excited about this!  It will have me in a really nice set up for IMTX :)

I have been eating really well too since getting back into a routine with being back at school.  I am not counting calories, but try to have 5 small meals a day, each with a protein and fruit/vegetable with it.  However, I do have weight to lose, I get frustrated with the lack of progress I see when things are going well, so I have decided to meet with a Sports Nutritionist at TOSH on Monday.  I can't wait!

So, things have been quiet on the blog, but not in real life.  But, it is all good!  I am really excited about my off season and enjoying it being relaxed yet productive on the areas that I need to focus on at the same time.

In the meantime, Happy Training and Racing!