Building up for the Spring Racing Season

The new gym aka pain cave!

If you live in Ohio or anywhere in the Northern part of the country then you probably know it's been a cold and snowy winter so far meaning that most of my training has been indoors. When you work 8-5 in Ohio in the winter it does not leave a lot of daylight hours to get the weekday workouts done but that's no excuse to skip them. Thanks goodness my awesome husband Steve finished remodeling our basement into a nicer indoor gym we can utilize during these long, cold months! I'm also getting in outdoor training as the weather allows such as last week's thaw out.

I am excited to once again be back as a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador for 2018! I think this will be my fourth year as an ambassador and I always look forward to this race and seeing my fellow ambassadors. This year the race is on Sunday, May 20th and I will be doing a giveaway contest in the coming months so stay tuned for a chance to win an entry to the race distance of your choice!

In addition to Cleveland I will be running the Hall of Fame Marathon again as a warm up for Cleveland. I am hoping for better weather conditions this time around and a faster time! I will also try to get in some shorter races in February/March/April in preperation for the spring BQ attempts. Last year I missed by about a minute in Cleveland but since I turn 40 this year I now have an extra 5 minutes if I need it (yippee).

I also am planning a return to multisport racing this season since I am on a multisport team and all (Snakebiteracing). I missed the fun of triathlon last year and especially logging all the bike miles. I think I must have went a year without even swimming but I have been back in the pool at least once a week this month and will increase that frequency soon. I don't know exactly which races I will do yet but am considering a bunch of sprint to longer races. I also bought a new tri bike so that's exciting! I really love my new Blue Norcross SP Cyclocross bike so I purchased a Blue Triad SP tri bike. So far I really dig it and feel like I will be speedy on it  especially with my race wheels.

My new bike :)

Here's a glimpse of my training for the last couple of weeks below:

Week of 1/1:
1/1 - Bike 14, Run 3.5 easy
1/2 - Core for 40 mins, Bike 16, Run 6.5 Speed ( 5 x 5 @ 7:30-7:45 pace and 4 x 1 min at 5k pace)
1/3 - Run 4.5 medium effort
1/4 - Run 3.25 easy, Bike 21 medium, 45 minutes Barre class
1/5 - Run 9.5 medium effort
1/6 - Swim 1600m easy, Bike 26, lift 30 mins
1/7 - Run 10.25 easy
Weekly total: Run 37.25, Bike 77, Swim 1 mile, Core x 3 days

Week of 1/8:
1/8 - Core 40 mins, Bike 20
1/9 - Run 9.25 with speed (tempo run with 400s alternating pace MP, faster than MP), Core 20 mins
1/10 - Run 9.5 easy
1/11 - Run 4.5, Bike 14
1/12 - Run 5.25 easy, Bike 10
1/13 - Run 2.5, Core 40 minutes
1/14 - Swim 1300m, Bike 27, Run 10
Weekly total: Run 41, Bike 71, Swim 1300m, Core x 3 days

This weekend is supposed to be warmer so I am hoping to get my longer run in outside! We'll see how it goes. Happy training everyone!

Cheers to New Beginnings!

A lot of things in my life have changed recently. I started a new job in a new industry this summer. I moved from the Mentor area to West Akron this fall. Why not change my blog too? I think I've been writing the Run Today Tri Tomorrow blog for at least five years and it's time for a change. I started moving in this direction when I changed my twitter and instagram names from "tripam" to "hoprunner". I wanted to have a blog not just about running and triathlon, but also about one of my other favorite hobbies...craft beer!

This new blog will allow me to address both topics - together or alone. I will still talk about my training and racing with whatever is going on but I will also start some other fun things such as a "Beer of the Week" feature that will allow me to share some of the exciting, new craft brews that I have tried. Some of these will  be local brews, others will be from my travels or just sampling beers from all over as I fortuitously stumble upon them.

With the beginning of 2017 closing in, I plan to fully transition to this new blog by January 1. So please bookmark this new blog address! I would like to invite my friends and followers to submit ideas for the new blog at any time. If you're interested in writing a guest post, I am open to that as well. I will still leave my Run Today Tri Tomorrow blog active for referencing old race reports, results, etc.

The big goal for 2017 will be completing my first 100 miler at the Canal Corridor endurance run in July. I will be prepping by running the Hall of Fame Marathon in Canton in April, the Cleveland Marathon in May and the Green Jewel 50K in June among other shorter races and specific training activities. If all goes well with the big race and I recover in time I will try to fit in some shorter triathlons and a few more running races in the late summer and fall.