Plans for the Spring

I have mentioned before about the idea of doing things that you enjoy instead of just exercising for the sake of exercise. Another thing that I think is helpful is to schedule activities in order to keep yourself excited about getting and staying in shape. Here are the things that I've got planned for the spring so far.

Spring Outdoor Soccer Season

 I play for Hibernian FC in a local adult league. We play 10 Saturdays starting at the end of February going to the beginning of May.  It's a fun team to play with, we are sponsored by a local pub and it gives me a group a team to play with pretty much year-round.

My First Duathlon

 So what is a duathlon? It is basically a triathlon that replaces the swim with another run; it goes run-bike run. This is good for a couple of reasons: they can be held anywhere (not constrained to being by a body of water or pool) and they are good for someone (like myself) that are not as strong of a swimmer. We are off for essentially one week in the spring from soccer so this is the duathlon I decided on:

 

FS-Series Cary Short Course Duathlon. It is a 2.5 mile run, 17.65 mile ride, and a 2.5 mile run on Saturday, April 7. I decided on the short one (half the other distance) because of the other things I am trying to do and because I wanted to be able to "race" it instead of just finish. This is the third of three duathlons in the FS Series; I would have liked to have done at least one of the other two but I didn't really want to miss a soccer game. I have done a few of these on my own before but not this long of a distance; it will be interesting to train for and I definitely excited to try it. Here is the link if you want to check it out or sign up.

My First Half-Marathon


One of my goals for the spring is to race a half-marathon and now I am signed up for one.

 My current maximum-distance for a run is 7.5 miles and I am constantly increasing distance so I am not too worried that I will be able to run the whole distance. This is 13.1 miles on Sunday, April 15; yes, one week after my duathlon and one day after a soccer game (I think I will be playing goalie that whole game). Here is a link to the RunRaleigh site. This will be another step on my path toward reaching my other goals. (And here are my originals/longterm) 

Hopefully I will be adding other events to this schedule soon (the possibility of a "mud run" has been brought up). Here is the lead-up and review of my first 5k that I raced late last year. If you have any other ideas, let me know but it's already going to be a busy Spring!