It is hard to believe that the 2011 triathlon season is already over. With the end of the season there is a feeling of emptiness that comes over me during that 2 weeks of being slug(aka recovery) after my final race. Therefore I wasted no time though in signing up for my main event of 2012, which will be Ironman Muskoka 70.3 in Ontario, Canada. Why Muskoka? There were several reasons. Time of year, vacation, and a lake swim. Ahhh…I feel better now! 🙂
I wanted a race that was later in the season so I can make the most of the warmer weather training and also hit some of the local shorter races too. Muskoka is September 9th. The other advantage for me is that early September in Canada should be a little cooler, but not too cold(I hope). This is still earlier than my final races this year in October, which I felt were just too late. Early September is nice cause it gives some vacation time left after the masses go back to school and work. Which leads to the next reason.
Spending some to Canada is something I had wanted to do again. I love Kingston and I have never been to Toronto, at least since I was very small. We can then bundle a little vacation afterwards and check out the area a little more. It will be like an international adventure! LOL! The culture shock could be a little challenging! 🙂
The other reason was that I wanted a nice lake swim that I can pretty much guarantee a wetsuit swim. Although this last half IM in Miami actually not bad at all without one, but it is pretty nice with one. I had read some reviews on this race and it sounds like the race is a bit hilly, but that can be relative to the reviewer. I am used to hills so I think it will provide a nice challenge. Lake Placid is not by any means flat, so I should start getting used to it. Of course I thought that the bike for Miami would be a piece of cake being so flat, but with that headwind it was no cakewalk. Flat courses force you to constantly be pedalling whereas on downhills you can get a little reprieve sometimes.
So the stage is getting setup now and I have that milestone to start working towards. Should be challenging, but what fun would that be if it wasn’t. Next will be time to start filling in some local races. I am hoping to get back to the Belleplain sprint down in NJ again. That was where I did my first duathlon and D&Q events do a nice job of organizing their races.
