Change of Plans

I recently wrote a post about my plans for the spring. I was deciding between doing a spring half marathon or taking a longer off season and then jumping straight into triathlon training. That was before everything. Now I don't know what I'm doing.

I do know that I don't want to do a half marathon. Running races stress me out more than they should and more stress is the last thing I need. I also don't know how my knee is since I haven't run in two weeks. If I'm going to train for a race I want to be all in. I know I could beak my PR if I have a strong training cycle but right now I don't think my mind or body are ready for the kind of training I want to do.

As much as I want a new half PR, deciding not to do one in the spring has me feeling relieved. I want to enjoy training, which is why I'm going all in for triathlons in 2014. I don't know how to explain it but triathlons are more me. While I have running goals, the ones that get me truly excited are my triathlon goals.

I have a few races tentatively on my schedule that I will share when I know for sure which I'm doing. As of now the plan is to do a few shorter local road races to work on speed at the beginning of the year. My mom and I entered the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in April. I've heard incredible things about this race and my cousin and his wife will also be doing it. Fingers crossed we get in.

My big race for the spring will likely be the Columbia Triathlon. For the past two years I was too intimidated by rumors of how hard the course is to sign up, even though the race is only twenty minutes away. A few months ago I rode the bike course and loved it. It was not scary even in the slightest.

My dad was always my biggest cheerleader and never missed any of my races. We often talked about my goals and no matter how crazy they were he always believed that I could meet them. I don't want to jump back into racing and training before I'm ready but I don't want to sit out for too long either. I want to race for my dad and achieve all those crazy goals and dreams we talked about.