Let the training planning commence

Well, it has been a while since I posted life got in the way of training and commenting on the training or the lack there of.  When 2012 started I was ready to have a fantastic year of training and racing but putting the final touches on my dissertation and the subsequent defense, celebrating my promotion, traveling for work and pleasure and finally moving according to Google Maps 5,500 plus miles away between HI and VA kind of put a damper on the highly detailed and excellent training and racing plans.  I actually completed one of the three half marathons I had planned - Kona Half Marathon in June.  I am glad I had the opportunity to run this race and would love to run it again.

Now, that I've settled into a new job in a new town, in a nice house and having achieved a very respectable time on my semi-annual physical fitness test I am ready to start the planning and training for my next half-marathon.  The next one on the schedule is the Iron Girl Half Marathon in Columbia, MD 28 April 2013, which is 6 months - 1 day and 2 hours as of 2133 on 26 Oct 2012.  I'm actually starting to get excited about taking the time this weekend to put a solid training plan together and let the training begin next week. 

Let the training begin Energy Lab here I come

Today began the first week of training for the Kona Marathon and am excited and scared at the same time about battling the lava fields, the energy lab and the Kona winds.  Let's just say I am glad the limit for the race is 9 hours.  The goal is to complete all workouts in the training plan.  So, let the training begin, the documentation of the experience and I am going to make this my best marathon yet. 

Right now Kona is the first of three on the schedule for this year wow hard to believe.  Yes, 2012 is base training in running.

Review of 2011 numbers

While looking at the numbers for 2011 I realized I did not do a good job at all of keeping track of the activity the miles or hours are associated with, so the numbers below reflect the many run and very few bike miles logged this past year.  The numbers do not include the swim miles because I did very few and did not track those at all.  The year had very few races because of the need to strengthen and rest my left knee since I had an extreme case of an overuse injury and coming down with/recovering from pneumonia.

Total mileage for 2011 = 401.94
Total number of training hours for 2011 = 94:31:22.13

The beginning

I've been thinking long and hard on whether or not I would start a blog on my training and decided yes it was something I wanted to do and share with others.  I have learned a lot and gained inspiration from the blogs I read on some what of a regular basis for the past few years and hope mine will do the same for others.  But really I am doing this for myself as an outlet to the frustrations of training and racing and the up and downs that go along with that of an age group athlete.

This initial post is not much and I cannot promise that future posts will be shorter or longer or on a regular basis.  Over the next few days and weeks provide more information on my beginning of becoming an age group athlete.

Happy New Year and Have a great 2012.