Ugh... off season

I hate feeling blah during off season. I mean, I know I did a marathon a 8 days ago and I need to take some down time, but I get in such a funk. I feel like I've gained a trillion pounds (I haven't, but I am seeing the scale creep so I'm being super careful now, especially with the giagundo bag of Halloween candy that's taunting me in the dining room - I haven't opened it yet!). I have this huge desire to get back into training, but when I start working out and I just want to be in bed... or on the couch... or working (did I just admit that?) Yikes... if I didn't have Beach 2 Battleship in 18 days, I wouldn't mind. Buuuut - I haven't swam since the end of September. How the hell am I going to get through a half Ironman... it ain't gonna be pretty folks!

I heading back to kickboxing tomorrow and I'm super excited. I went before the marathon for my intro class and loved it. But then I had the marathon, then I couldn't walk after the marathon, and then we went to Austin. So I couldn't go. I've drawn out a plan that I'm going to follow through the spring and it allows me to kickbox 3 times a week, swim twice a week, run twice a week and bike twice a week. I'm going to work on a lot of short fast stuff - no rides longer than 80k and no runs longer than 10 miles - that means intervals, intervals and intervals (with some tempo stuff and maybe some hills thrown in for fun). If all goes well, I'll be primed for the start of my season... which is still in the works. I have probably 80% of my races picked out. I need to finish that list.

Austin was great - Tom and I went into it thinking that it was going to be this amazing town and don't get me wrong... it was great, but we didn't want to move there immediately (that's usually how we gauge if we love a town). I will have to say though that the trail along Town Lake was amazing... I would love to have a place to run and bike that was filled with so many fit people. And we loved all the running and tri shops. That was about the only difference than Columbus (and the 90 degree heat, but I could do without that all the time too). Oh... and everyone there worships Lance. Like a lot. Glad we went... I'm not in a huge hurry to go back though.

Oh... and super exciting news - I won 2 blog giveaways!!!!! I never win anything! When I get my goods, I'll post all about them! Friday was my lucky day - although I should have played the lottery... maybe we would have stayed in Austing if I had won the $300+ million dollar jackpot. I could have been neighbors with Lance!

That's really all that's new in my world. We're having a little get together this weekend with 6 couples and I'm super excited. We haven't "entertained" in forever so it'll be nice. Not all of the couples know each other, but we know that they will all get along great and have things in common with each other. I love bringing new people together - especially such great people. Tom and I are really blessed to have such amazing friends. I value friendships so much and have learned so much about myself and my friendships in the lat few months. I can finally say that I'm happy with how things are. It hasn't always been that way and quite frankly - it flat out sucked there for a while. So Saturday will just be a reiteration of how great true friends are - and how lucky we are to call all of these people friends!