Monday nights are great, getting burned out is not

So last night was our weekly softball game. We took our worst beating yet, though the team we played against was really friendly and fun. I’m pretty sure we will end the season defeated. The weather has been great the last few games, so it just makes for a great night outside. I was playing third and took a mean grounder right into my left knee. It will be interesting to see how it feels during my run tonight. I have pretty intense workouts tonight and tomorrow before backing off in preparation of the Minneman race this weekend. This was the first race that I did in MN last year so it will be interesting to see how much I improve. Hopefully there are no real issues with the knee.

After the race we are heading to Chicago for the 4th. It should be a great weekend. A lot of the dudes from Columbus will be there in addition to Becca and Jay. Jay, my brother in-law, is flying in directly from China. It will be interesting to see how long he holds up. He may be OK as his internal clock will be around 12-13 hours ahead, making him wide awake for prime time drinking. It should be a pretty big debacle overall. Stucke will be there, who I haven’t seen since Christmas, not to mention TD who I saw last during football season. Man I can’t wait for football season.

On the ride home from the track last weekend I was telling Steve that I was getting burned out on racing. It seems like every year I hit a point where I loose my motivation and just want to sit back and relax. Last year it was perfect timing as it happened when we were heading to France for “The Tour”. So to help give me some new motivation I talked to my coach about getting ready for a Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) in September. It sounds bizarre that training for a race way longer than what I’m doing now would give me the motivation that I need, but it does. Once my season of racing sprints starts they become a little bit repetitive (Not to mention this season was plagued with travel for work which really kills your fitness). If I throw in something that I’ve never done before it gives me a goal to shoot for, something unknown. I guess I like to push myself to see what I can and can’t do. Besides at the end of last year I really enjoyed the marathon training. Those really long runs on weekend mornings were really soothing. There is a great sense of satisfaction that comes from being able to make your body run for 3 or more hours at a time. The real challenge for me will be the swim. Well not really the swim during the race, but the pool time getting ready for it. I just really can’t get into long pool workouts. The time goes by really slow and I always feel out of shape in the water. I’ll have to do more swims in the lakes I think in order to keep my sanity. I haven’t committed by registering yet. I’ll keep you posted