The Preseason Cometh

Another winter comes
His icy fingers creep
Into these bones of mine
These memories never sleep

Ghost Story - Sting

After a a lost race season in 2012 due to a tibial stress fracture, I seem to be firmly on the mend. However, no one should expect me to be immediately back on the podium. No one should expect me to be toeing the start line. No one should be expecting much of anything other than seeing my friendly face at upcoming events.

I went into 2012 really gunning to achieve some fairly lofty goals. Sub 18-minute 5K, sub 1:22 half-marathon, sub 37:30 10K, USAT honorable mention in triathlon. All whisked away like a dream.

Instead, I will be using the first three months of 2013 just to continue a very slow ramp up to being strong in 2014. In other words, 2013 will be used to get back into race shape. Carefully. Let me underline that word: carefully.

During these first three months, there won't be any running weeks of 70 miles. No bike weeks of 160 miles. No swim weeks of 12000 yards. Nope. Be more like I'm doing now. Running about 15 miles a week, biking 70 miles, and swimming 6000 yards. Cautious. Careful. Baby steps.

Here are the races I plan to run during the first three months of 2013:

Race	Date	City
Resolution Solution 5K	1-Jan	White Bear
Yukon Days 1 Mile	19-Jan	White Bear
Hamel 5K	2-Feb	Hamel
Becker Community Center Chase a Leprechaun 5K Fun Run/Walk	9-Mar	Becker
St. Patrick's Day 5K	16-Mar	Fargo

I have a goal of just getting under 20-minutes in the 5K before April. With my low mileage, I think that will be a stretch. On the other hand, I am running those few miles each week very hard. Typically on the treadmill with built in intervals. For example, for one 5K treadmill workout I started out at 7:40 pace and increased my speed incrementally after each 1K. With 1K to go, I pushed it along at 6:20 pace. I've been reading more and more about top runners and triathletes running less miles, but making those miles high quality with built in rest days. So far, I like it. We'll see how this approach translates to race results.

The low training hours has also helped another aspect. After being out of racing for almost a full year, I have to say I simply have zero fire in the belly. I could care less about results. I simply want to be back competing. I suppose I should say 'participating'. I have zero desire to get up early just to get in a workout. Don't care. Not one iota. Perhaps after a slow ramp-up in 2013 I get back to serious competition in 2014. Maybe. Maybe not. Really, I just want to get through 2013 injury free and happy to see all your smiling faces again.

So, have a great holiday period as we end 2012. My "Annus Horribilis" And be smart about your training. Can't wait to see you all again. Hello 2013.