I'm half crazy. Should I go all the way crazy?

Love this, an official race photo. I am going
to buy it. 

Coming in 40 minutes shy of my goal time, it's fair to say I crushed my half ironman. Read my blogs about the Musselman Triathlon in Geneva, part 1, part 2, part 3.

I'm not 100 percent sold on doing a full ironman (and if I decide, I don't know if I'm going to go with the capital I version). We'll get to the pros and cons of it in a minute. But for planning purposes, I'm going to assume I'm doing it, and I can always back down to the half later.

I'm a goal oriented person, always looking ahead, so I've just written out the following three goals for the remainder of the winter. Likely I'll take a break this winter from excessive cardio to weight train, as I did last winter.

1. Improve my cycling and swimming to condition for a full ironman in Sept. 2014.
2. Complete the Highlander Cycle Tour and the Wine Glass Marathon with no concrete time goal (under 5 hours in the marathon would be nice). Do the summer sizzler formula 1 and maybe another Olympic.
3.  Bike around all 11 Finger Lakes. (I might knock out Conesus or Honeoye this week)

To round out the year I'm doing the Summer Sizzler Formula 1 triathlon Aug. 10. You go shorter distances, then you do it twice! 400 meter swim, 17K bike, 3K run, 400 meter swim, 17K bike, 3K run. I'm hoping for another late-year olympic distance, and possibly a relay or two where I will be the swimmer.

I've decided to take the marathon easy. At some point I'll try and crush my PR of 4 hours 13 minutes, but now isn't the time.

On to the big question:

WILL I DO A FULL IRONMAN NEXT YEAR?

I've fantasized about it. If I do, my preferred race would be Ironman Mont Tremblant near Montreal (my first international race!) I don't know if I want to do a name-brand Ironman, which are more expensive, or just an ironman distance race. If I go for the latter, my preference would be REV-3 Cedar Point, a little cheaper and not too far from my parents.

It's a big commitment. So let's do a pros and cons list.

PRO: I'm young and childless. If I want to do something like this, now is the time.

CON: I have a full-time job, teach classes, have two dogs and an apartment to keep up. I got really worn down with half training.

PRO: Half training was totally worth it in the end. In looking at full schedules, it's not that much more, except for the weekend days. Plus it's only a few months. Looking back, training for Musselman just flew by.

CON: It's expensive. Crazy crazy expensive. We're talking $500+ just for the registration fee, then travel!

PRO: I'm thinking about it now, so could save for it. There are also other races, everyone mentions the HITS series, that are cheaper.

CON: I might only do one of these in my life, and maybe I would want that one to be a name-brand Ironman (the only logo I'd ever tattoo on myself, upon completion, of course.)

PRO: My support system is amazing and if I take the plunge I know people will have my back.

CON: While the equipment I have got me through the half, I love Flower but she still is just an entry level road bike.

PRO: It would be a huge accomplishment and one that I'd always have with me.

CON: Looks like there's a 17-hour cutoff. That means I'm thinking about doing an event that would take me almost that long. What sane person does that.

PRO: We've already established that I am not sane.


It's a lot to think about. I just emailed Ironman asking them how quickly IMMT sells out, I read that it happens fairly quickly. In that case, I do hear great things about REV-3!

Putting my money where my mouth is

File this under: "Did I really just do that?"

I know I've talked the big game of completing a half ironman time and time again. The process often went like this:

1) Say I'm going to do a half ironman.
2) Jump in the pool.
3) Realize swimming is hard.
4) Get a flat tire on the bike
5) Realize bikes are complicated
6) Look for another marathon

But I've done three things this week that will get me on the track to 70.3:

1) I signed up for swimming lessons. Next week Monday to Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. I'm going to be taking adult swimming classes at the Chester Carlson Metrocenter YMCA in Rochester. It wasn't expensive, and hopefully it's beneficial.

2) I hired a personal trainer. Rochester Athletic Club has a variety of trainers available, it's affordable and one of them is an experienced tri- and dualathlete. We'll see how it goes.

3) Saturday I'm going to a flat tire clinic.

Right now my goal race is the Musselman Triathlon. It's through the Finger Lakes, which will be amazing, but it's in July, which makes me nervous. I don't do well in the heat.

If I flub it or if something happens like the extreme heat warnings at Muncie, my backup will be the REV3 race at Cedar Point in September.

There's more to write, namely what I'm going to do in the next 6 months (teaser: bike ride in the Finger Lakes and possible Ragnar fun in the Adirondacks). But I'm teaching a spin class in seven hours and someone hasn't made her playlist yet ;) (Don't be confused, I set things to autopost in the morning even though I write them at night.)

#whatdidigetmyselfinto

NEW GOALS: Getting back to training

Hereby, I am announcing it. Jessica's marathon training blog is going to have a new name shortly. Because I'm giving up on marathons. At least for the time being. (Keep reading, keep reading.)

I've had a few other priorities the past couple months. All in all, I totally dropped the ball on my training.

It's kind of hard to admit. I excited about training for another full only because I was coaching with MIT. I wasn't looking forward to weekday runs, but I powered through them to get to Saturday mornings, which I lived for. It wasn't about me or what I could do. It was more about getting a group of first timers through. But I had to give that up when I took the job here in Rochester.

Since then, I haven't been that excited about running. The few times I've been out, it's felt good, but I haven't felt the motivation or drive to get it done. A big part of it is the weather, I just don't do well in the heat.

So I've decided that next year I want to earn another sticker on my car beyond the 26.2. So next year I'm going to go for the 70.3. (I will find a shorter tri to do first, of course!)

This is the one I have my eye on right now, the Musselman Triathlon in July in Geneva, right in the Finger Lakes. My other option will be the REV3 race at Cedar Point in September.

Most training plans are about 20 weeks long. So, if I'm going to do the July race, I need to start training in February. If I'm going to do the September race, I need to start training in March. That gives me plenty of time.


I have a lot to learn. First: How to swim. Second: More about the bike. I can ride, but I can't change a flat. Third, I need to get settled and in with a group here. There's a beginners womens' riding group that goes out on Wednesday nights, and Fleet Feet runs Tuesday, Friday and Saturdays. There's a triathletes group but they seem beyond what I can do.

Learning to swim will be the top priority. I'm trying to settle on a health club right now, and once I do, I'll see about lessons.

I also am going to try to run a half marathon this fall. I found a 3-day-a-week training plan to go off. It won't make me fast, but it will keep me going. I'll either run the Columbus half at the end of October, or find one here (no luck yet). Maybe I'll go for another half in early spring.

Lastly, a big priority for me right now is finding a new club to teach at. Finding a health club is hard when you have options! I miss teaching and am eager to get back to it. More on that later.

So, with a new goal comes a new focus. Stay tuned for more on my adventures learning to swim, learning more about the bike, and keeping the miles up on the Asics!

There's one more goal, but I'm wavering on if I want to make it public or not :)