2009 plams and yup finally its here.serious training....

Happy New Year everyone..try to keep the rubber side down.

So that's the end of what has been a somewhat directionless but good fun(training wise) 2 months. I've worked hard, lost just a little bit on the fitness front and gained a bit in weight but have generally had FUN. I did a MTB enduro XC race, 2 extremely debilitating charity rides and heaps of hilly training rides plus just a tiny bit of track work. But now the time has come to get back onto the tram lines and head in the direction of...what?

2009 for me will be a track year, so my 2 peaks will be in March/April for the Nationals and October for the Worlds. Sadly the world road champs, the World Masters Games and the road Nationals are just before the World Track Champs and so have to be given the flick for 3 reasons..no money, not enough annual leave left after 2008's 7 weeks in Europe and no time for adequate recovery. Of course if I retired 2 of those problems would be solved..but 1 would be made worse!

Last night I had a Skype contact with my coach and this morning(?as a new year's gift !?), my new training plan was waiting for me and is a mixture of ergo,road and track plus a weekly kettle bell session for core stability. Designated shorter distance endurance and speed work...groooooaaaaaannnnn. Deeeep breath.

And finally a side note regarding my TRAC project at work (mentioned on a post a week or so ago) so far we have 17 teams registered and ready to do their virtual walk/run/swim/cycle or whatever around the country. It starts on Feb 1st and with a workforce of ~700, I was hoping to involve ~100, but it looks like that might be an underestimation. We're very lucky with the timing since the week before it starts is "Healthy Eating Week" and "The Biggest Loser" starts in Feb.

So far I've had to make executive decisions as to whether golf, a skiing holiday and bowling would count (yes,yes,no) and all teams have come up with extremely inventive names so I can see I'm gunna have to have a prize for the best team name. I have a letter ready to go out next week to various businesses begging for prizes or give aways...fingers crossed.