Happy Birthday Tri

Last Friday I had lunch with Anne.  She is training for an Ironman in August.  I'm not sure how many she's done, but I do know that this is not her first.  She is the instructor for the swim clinics that I've done.  I left lunch with Anne thinking about a lot of things concerning my future with triathlons.  She asked me what my goal was...and I was honest when I told her it was to do a half Ironman.

My main concern with a half Ironman is the beating that my knees will take.  I have done enough half marathons to know that my knees really suffer in the training.  Since I'm now going to be training for a half marathon along with a swim and a bike, maybe there will be less stress on my knees.  I don't know. 

My other concern is my schedule.  Ryann is going to be a senior this year and will have a very hectic performance schedule with all her singing groups and school productions.  Then there's graduation in early June and leaving for college in August. 

I did some googling and found the perfect solution.  A half Ironman in Venice, FL on Nov. 10th.  Based on past performance schedules, there shouldn't be anything going on that weekend with Ryann.  Plus it's the weekend before my birthday.  So Stephen and I can take a long weekend and go to Florida.  Happy birthday to me!!! 

So now I have plenty to worry about.  The swim is in the Gulf of Mexico.  From the photos I have found, it doesn't look like the surf is too bad, but it's still outside my comfort zone.  This makes me even more determined that I should be doing the Assateague Assault to get some experience with surf.

I had asked Anne about training plans for a half Ironman.  She said that I can find plenty for free online.  So I googled training plans and found one that looks really good to me.  I will need to really ramp up my training, especially the running. 

So here we go...I'm training for a half Ironman!!!