Race Plans. Or...Racing Dreams?

I was emailing with a race bud last night, continuing into today, talking about training plans (which, FYI, start in earnest around Feb 1, 2011). We were also talking about possible races we'd do as a group next year. I was just updating some race ideas last night, while watching Sherlock Holmes on HBO (funny, I saw a friend on FB say they were watching, so I turned it on too). Here is what I'm tossing about now, we'll call it Draft #1-2011 Season:

April 9-Racine-Mt Pleasant WI 1/2 Marathon
May 7-Wisconsin 1/2 Marathon
June 11-Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon
June 26-Pleasant Prairie Olympic Triathlon
July 17- IM Racine 70.3 Triathlon
Sept 11- IM Wisconsin

As draft #1 stands right now, my race buds will be racing 5 of these 6 races. The only one they are not racing for 100% certain is IM Racine, as they will be up in Door County WI racing a 70.3 the same day! They complained the Lake Michigan water was too cold in Racine, I told them "NEWS FLASH", the Door Co. race had some colder water temps than Racine's the past few seasons! Well, actually my race bud Johnny will be doing IM Racine by my side, so it will still be a blast. I'm hoping it won't be 93 degrees and humid like last year, so the kids can come down and see their old man.

All of these races are pretty close to home; the longest drive will be Elkhart Lake, which is about a 75 minute ride from home. The closest? IM Racine, about 2 miles from door to the beach start. BTW, 214 days left till IM Racine (the Iron App on FB just let me know that, pretty cool app IMO).

I just checked the temp, it is 15 deg F outside right now. I was debating an outside short run, but forget it, IT'S TOO DAMN COLD. I did jam out a nice easy 5k treadmill run after work last night. I followed up with a killer ab workout (decline sit ups), kettles bell swings, 20 lb heavy ball squat and toss and bench press/pull downs on the Universal, all 3X12 sets each. The abs were feeling it last night, as I sipped some English tea and watched Robert Downey Jr. I tried to sit up to grab my fleece while sitting in my leather "Dad chair", and whooaaaa!

Today, I feel like 6 bucks and change, ready for another workout. The weight lifting and core strengthening in the off season is a new training approach for me, and I must say I feel like it is working, even after only 4 weeks. Another 6 weeks to go, along with a few new training tools starting January 3rd, 2011. More on this in a later post-I'm excited about a few of them!

And the dreams part. I did not dream about racing last night, not even close. I actually had a dream we had sold our house and moved, and we had said goodbye to the neighbors. I can still even picture the "new" house's basement, as I was planning to remodel it. Weird.