Muskoka 70.3!!

Well, I am now slated to compete in my first half-ironman triathlon... the Muskoka 70.3 on September 14, 2008. The race is actually sold out, but by signing up for a weekend training camp in June I received an entry into the race. Did I mention the camp is put on by Lisa Bentley? The same Lisa Bentley who has won eleven Ironman titles. How cool is that? So now I'm nervous and excited about both the camp and the race. Originally I had something resembling a plan for 2008. It involved some sprint races and was supposed to culminate in an Olympic tri in August. Suddenly that Olympic triathlon has turned into a final tune-up race for Muskoka. Doing a half IM was the furthest thing from my mind for 2008. I figured I would seriously consider one in '09, maybe leading to a full IM the year after that. Well, all bets are off now... the next 11 months or so will tell me what I'm made of. I'm very much looking forward to the challenge. Signing up for the race has (not surprisingly) already started to give motivation, even though I'll only being doing off-season workouts until mid-January. I won't actually start my 20-week plan for Muskoka until the end of April. Even so, I doubt I'm going to miss too many sessions before then. I always feel guilty if I miss a workout, but now the idea of missing one just scares the crap out of me. The idea of finishing strong in Muskoka got me out of bed Sunday morning after waaaay too many drinks the night before. Who would've thought a 10k on a cold Sunday morning would be just the thing to drive away that hungover feeling. Now that I think about it... with all this increased distance soon to come my way, I just might have to think about a new bike. Now that's something to think about!