"Catching up"

Sorry for the long delay, been meaning to post again but you know how the holidays go, busy busy busy... so if you haven’t heard by now, I qualified for the Boston Marathon last month!!  I had a great time running the Madison Marathon and finished with a time of 3:02:58.  I have a separate post about my BQ race which I started on weeks ago but still need to finish up and get posted so I swear I’ll get that done soon and fill you in more!  In the meantime I just want to follow up on what has been going on with me the last few weeks.

First of all I am currently just coming off a short running break (about 7 days) which I was using to let the legs heal up after a fairly heavy year of running (about 2,200 miles).  I have tried to make it a habit to take off the last two week of the year but haven’t been able to get more than a week so far haha.   I’m also on a short race break as my last race was November 30^th and I don’t have another until January 25^th…  I am missing the competition but in a way it is nice to get a break to focus on both my current training and the 2015 schedule.

I am also about 1 month into a 3 month national triathlon competition with my team from the Dubuque Area Triathlon Club.  The competition totals up the miles from running, swimming and biking and we compete both as individuals and as a team against the other triathlon teams and athletes across the nation, a great way to stay in shape in the off season.  I also plan on swimming again this year in the Iowa Games so it is perfect timing for me to get in the pool more.  So far things have been going great, I’m swimming about 2,000 yards a day(1.1 miles) and pretty much still base building but I’ll start working on speed this Friday and move on from there.   Almost all my biking has been at the YMCA on the spin bikes but I have been doing a bit on my home trainer which I’m going to force myself to use more to get used to being on my bike… as I’ve said many times biking is my weak link in triathlons so one of my main goals for 2015 is to bike much more than I ever have before, I’m really looking forward to the spring when I can get outside to practice though.

Last but not least I am very excited to have joined the MVRA Board (Mississippi Valley Running Association) as their new treasurer and I’m very amped up to work hard and make a positive impact!    I’ve seen first-hand the growth in the Dubuque running community over the couple years and look forward to working with the board members to make more positive changes… more great things to come, I can’t tell you how excited I am for 2015!... now if I could only get my race schedule complete! J