Lots of reflections in one big paragraph!

On my walk at lunch on this beautiful day (70 degrees and sunny!), I thought a lot about this past season and next. Some of the below might seem choppy but I'm kinda just letting my thoughts go (and don't really feel like editing)...

This past season was a great one for me in many ways. I kicked the season off with a great race at the Honu 70.3. This was my second half ever and I went sub 6 hours -- 40 minutes faster than my first half (Rhode Island) in 2008. Then, at the end of the season, I took on the Pumpkinman half and did 5:50:56, an 8 minute improvement from Honu with no prepping as I was in recovery from IMLP. I did a few other repeat races (Shelton and Cranberry Oly) and did faster times than the previous year at both. IMLP, the race of the year made this a great season all on it's own! I still don't know what made me sign up. Whatever it was, I'm happy for it. When I did the Rhode Island 70.3 in 2008, I was making the turn for the second loop on the run when my brother decided to videotape me as he ran by my side. In pain and on the verge of giving up (though I would never give up!), I turned to the video camera and said very clearly "I am NOT doing Ironman!" Ha, well, so much for that! When I had my first talk with coach John, far before the training season started, I told him I wanted to finish IMLP under 14 hours, could I do that? I need to give myself more credit! I did 12:35 in my first Ironman, a time I couldn't have been happier with. I hope I am never not completely nervous and scared out of my mind for Ironman races, it's a pretty awesome feeling to have and following it up with a finish is pretty awesome too. Also this season, I was sponsored by Bear Naked, which was a cool experience to be a part of. My biggest improvement and the one I'm most proud of is biking. Going back down memory lane when I bought my first bike, I fell straight over when I tried to clip into the pedals. On that same day, my first bike ride ever, Joey and Justin thought it would be a great idea to bring me up a road called Hilltop Drive (you can guess from the name, it's a road straight up a steep hill). Not even halfway up and I again fell straight over while fighting the incline and not being able to snap out of my pedals to catch my fall. Now, I make Hilltop a part of every ride when I'm in Ridgefield, even if it's just riding up it once only to go right back down before heading home. This past season I upgraded my race bike to a Cervelo which means areobars! Just the thought of areobars scared me before this season. I took my first ride alone on my new bike and quickly overcame a fear of riding areo bars! I finished my season with my second marathon ever, the Baystate marathon, and set an 11+ min PR. But most importantly, the best part of training/racing this past season has been that I've gotten to go through it all with my family - racing and training with them and having them their for support is unbelievable.

Top 10 training memories of this past season:

1.  Buying my first ever carbon bike (and treating it like it's my little piece of gold). My first drive in the car when I had to bring it along, I packed it up IN the car instead of on the bike rack because I didn't want to get it dirty with dead bugs... hahaha!)
2.  Biking my first ride over 70 miles which came out to be 116.82 miles with Justin, all while trying to beat a bad storm!
3.  Going for swims in Walden Pond - mine and Justin's best discovery of the season!
4.  Doing the Hilly 100 (though it didn't exactly come out to 100 miles) with Joey in the cold and rain. This route ended with a climb up Cains Hill that Joey feared he wouldn't be able to shift up due to frozen fingers, but we both made it!
5.  QT2 - yes, very much a love/hate relationship :-) But, seriously, my ability to get past my dislikes in foods so I can eat more healthily.
6.  Running on the treadmill only ONE TIME and discovering the peacefulness in winter running.
7.  Joey breaking his derailer at mile 82 of a 100-something bike ride followed by us all sitting on the side of the road for over an hour as we waited for a ride home while dogs barked at us and bugs bit us the entire time.
8.  "Night of the Living Dead" bike ride with Justin.
9.  Rich guy lending us his rich guy car to go get our car 20 minutes away as we were stranded in the middle of a ride in the dark. The entire time thinking we were going to get pulled over and gunned down by the police for driving a stolen vehicle.
10.  Getting hit by reality and getting terribly winded 10 minutes into our bike ride in Hawaii (head + wind = tough riding) and getting extremely worried that I was doomed for the Honu 70.3 just a few days away. For a positive memory, being able to jump into the ocean for a cool down dip halfway through a training run!

Next season:
Ironman races are still in the books for me, but next season I've decided to focus on 70.3 distance races. There are positives and negatives to training for an Ironman but in reality, next year, I think I'll only have the sanity to train for 70.3s. I'll focus on improving at the half distance and then take on another Ironman in 2011. That's the plan and I'm stickin' to it.  This way, I'll have more time on the weekends and nights to do other things than swim, bike and run, like have a life. I'll also be able to do more races next season which I was itching for this season. With an Ironman race, your entire schedule and race calendar is planned around that one race. And, let's face it, I'm broke and want more for my money. I can get two half ironman races for the price of one full Ironman. Sounds like a deal to me ;) A focus on halves will also allow some more time to train for a marathon or two. A Boston spot is my carrot and I'll keep running till I get it!

Those are my (many) thoughts for today. Since I've gotten to reflect, I though it'd be appropriate to end this with a picture of me finishing my first race ever - the inaugural NYC half marathon! Ah, the start of it all!!