40 and fit is now my goal for 2008

I had been basically slowing down these last couple of weeks since the Triathlon. I have been working out maybe three times a week, and nothing really heavy involved.

What I do not want to happen is to lose the gains that I've made. But, to be honest, it's a tough thing to keep yourself motivated when all you want to to is "stay in shape". The holidays, work, family, can easily derail you.

For me, I think I found my set of goals for 2008. Now that I've been officially bitten by the Tri bug, I knew one of my goals was to do the NYC Triathlon. So much so, I found a cable recap of the event on SNY TV and watched it. Brenda groaned when she saw what was on, but I didn't care.

But what else? Well, I am a member of NY Roadrunners. and I've always wanted to do the Marathon, so there is goal number 2. And since I had a great time at the NYC Half Marathon why not put that on the list as well? I am starting to see a pattern.

So in short, there's my goals, but I don't want to schlub my way through each event. I want to do well. So the best effort includes best preparation, I decided to set the bar of each event as follows:

NYC TRI: 2:40
NYC Half Marathon: 1:50
NYC Marathon: 3:50

I will be doing other events like some of the local runs and maybe a few other Tri's, but those are my "must do" events. And to hit those times I need to really get in gear and get in shape for them.

Too much for my 40th year of existence? I know that the midlife crisis is when a guy is supposed to go out and get hair plugs, a sports car, and a new set of threads, but in those respective categories I have too much hair (back especially) I already have the sports car, but I could use some new clothes. So hopefully all this working out will allow me to get some new duds for work and home.

More on how I plan to do this in an upcoming post.

It's gotta be the shoes...

In my earlier post about my first sprint Triathlon, I noted that I was a dweeb on the bike, with regular pedals with cages and my sneakers as my setup.

Now I'm in the process of bidding on some Specialized Carbon bike shoes, my size (10.5). I will hopefully get those and some clip on pedals by next week to get myself that one mph faster out of my rig.

On another note, I did a two a day yesterday, 5 mile run in CP and a 8PM swim training focusing on intervals in the pool. I'm beat.

Bike Ride nothing major Kids playtime more important

I did my local loop 3 times last night totalling out about 15 miles. It got dark out so I forsaked the fourth loop.

Before I went out though, I played with the boys. My oldest, Brady, is becoming more of a sharing person, offering up his cars to his younger brother. Unfortunately, Griffin still tends to smash all of Brady's neatly parked cars, which usually sends Brady into a fit that requires a "Naughty Step" moment.

These are the times that I value and crave the most. With work, school, and training, I'm sacrificing my time with them and Brenda.

I have to balance my training better, and force myself into an early morning training schedule. The problem being of course, I'm not a morning person.

Thankfully my current job isn't the hardest I've had. It's actually rather routine, and I rarely have a need to work after hours at home. I had to retrain myself in that regards because usually I am an after hours worker.

In summary, more training completed, not enough time with family.