Oops, not so fast

I wrote, but failed to post, earlier this week that I was done with my race season and enjoying the off season.  Unfortunately that was only half true.  I did enjoy several days of supposed off season, the only problem is that my season may not be over yet.

A month or so I’d spoken to coach about ending the season with the half marathon in San Antonio.  When I hit my tough spell, I decided I was tired, needed a break, and didn’t sign up.  Somehow this wasn’t communicated to coach and she assumed that I had.  This all came to light yesterday when she talked about building my training schedule around that race, and then ending my season.

This is further compounded by my ‘plan B’ I formulated in case I didn’t do well at Longhorn.  Plan B was for me to race again next month in Conroe at the Iron Star half Ironman.  I did well enough to not require plan B, but I’m still intrigued by the race.

I’ve spoken to coach about all of this, and she said it is up to me.  She didn’t recommend against racing in Conroe, only cautioned that I might not do as well as I want.  Now I have to decide to start the off season now, do a half marathon next month or really step it up and do another half ironman.

After some soul searching I’ve decided not to race in Conroe.  On the plus side I feel pretty good today and think I could do well.  I’m skipping the race because I’m on vacation this weekend and won’t be able to do any training, not a good plan with the race two weeks away.  I am also pretty excited about my current national standing and don’t want to do anything that might move me lower (silly I know).  The other drawback is that I would have no support team, and that is a pretty tough race to have to make it home on my own.

I’ve also pretty much decided to do the half marathon.  I booked a hotel room as many of the close hotels are already sold out, I have yet to sign up for the race.  I’m going to wait until this weekend and make sure I still feel like racing.  Right now I think I could do pretty well in that race.  It might be a good way to kick off the running season!