Count Chocula, Races, and Trainers

Hmmm...where to start. It has been a very slow start to the season for me this year after being hit by a car on my bike last season. The biggest hurdle is figuring out if my shoulder can handle swimming again. So the slow return ensued. It started with minimal effort and minimal yardage. Even then, I knew I was asking more from my shoulder than it wanted to give. But after working with Brian Mather, I trusted that what he said was 'okay,' truly was. Many people have asked, "How is your riding and running." To be straight, I have not focused too much on those since everything hinged on the variable of my ability to swim. If you can't swim, it's hard to make it to the bike and the run. So first things first.

Through a very slow build process, and a lot of muscle stimulation and isolated muscle work, I can say that swimming seems to be coming along at the moment. That is not to say that I don't find myself rubbing my shoulder from time to time, or rotating it around and around trying to alleviate some soreness...but all in all I think I am making ground on where I was after the accident. I think that is all you can ask for. I have not really had too many set backs in swimming, so that's good. My swim endurance is coming along, but speed still needs some work.

So with that off the table, training can slowly resume in the form of running and riding. Yikes. I ran outside last week and I think it took me a week to recover...seriously. I am bummed that our weather has not been cooperating either for outdoor rides. Last year, I don't think I had to ride on the trainer at all. This year, it looks like it will be necessary. Yawn...you want to make time completely stop, I can do that if you put me on a trainer :) Mark Hodgson said recently on a the Packfiller podcast that if he was only give on year to live, he would spend it on a bike trainer
because it would seem like time would stand still. 1 year would seem like 20. I thought that was a very good point.

So what does this year look like in terms of races? Tough call right now. Jessi and I sat down a bit ago and looked at many things coming down the road. The first and foremost, is our son being born ~May 15th. We decided that anything after that was a tad 'up in the air.' But before that monumental date, we could schedule. After that, we looked at when Emma had big swim meets and made sure that we were there for those. Then we looked at some races for me that I would be interested in doing. Since they would have to be before May (though that does not fit in my current fitness progression), I would probably need to travel to them. I like to keep travel time and stress to a minimum, so I decided on 2 of my favorite races...Oceanside 70.3 and Wildflower. Not only are they some of the most competitive, they are on the west coast and fairly easy to travel to. I have raced them multiple times in past, so being familiar with a course and its surroundings are important to me.

Both races provide an opportunity to race in a World Championship later in the year which appeals to me at this point. Wildflower is offering some slots to ITU Long Course World Champs in November (the 5th I think), and Oceanside has the traditional 70.3 World Champs that will be in Vegas this year; moving from Clearwater (finally) on September 11th (my birthday). Since Jessi is intimately involved with the REV3 races, I know we will be going over to Portland for that event on July 10th. I have heard rumor that this is a tough bike course and VERY technical...I'm in if it works out for the family. Beyond that, who knows. So, in short, I have 3 races. Maybe 5 if things go well. I have a few other things in the hopper, but those will not be decided upon until our new little boy is born. For a boy name, I am pushing for Count Chocula.