Now What?

After a couple days of limping around feeling a little sore, I was ready to fully embrace the off season and all of its delights.  I think, in order, that meant...beer, sushi, more beer, donuts, more donuts, even more donuts, and pizza.  Followed by more pizza.  And Fat Tire.  The scary part is, I haven't really gained any weight.  Much to everyone's amusement, I'd really LIKE to gain some weight and not sit at race weight all winter.  I was so sick of junk food after the first week though that I greeted brussel sprouts with glee this past Monday.

I drove home after Thanksgiving, took Stanley to a couple days of dog shows (where there was a drive-by shooting), did a body fat dunk test (seriously, did all those donuts mean nothing to you, body?!), went back to work (that went about as well as expected), and have been managing Max being sick.  He's in the midst of a much more intense bout of prostatitis than he had a while back and we're waiting for all his meds to kick in so he can get some relief.  I've made the decision to neuter him now that he's done showing and that is likely to end his problems in this realm.  So my stress levels have been a bit higher than I'd like, without the hard training to boost my mental health.  Oh and the weather sucks too.

So...now what?  I've been on my bike for some slow small-ring spins to loosen my legs up. I swam once and my shoulder hurt when I did, so I gave myself a week off swimming to let it heal.  I'll get back in the pool tomorrow (really, I swear) and take it nice and easy.  I'm flying solo for the month of December without a coach, before I get back to training with the ELF in January.  I haven't been self-coached since August 2008 so it's good for me to have a break, even if I did panic when I first got the message from Training Peaks that she dropped me like a hot potato (I kid, I kid).  I'm going to spend a lot of time in the pool this month, take a TRX class (I want to learn more moves than the ones I know and do at home!), and reunite the trio of Awesome (Jen and Lisa) to do a little mountain ride in Tucson around Christmas.

My race schedule for 2012 is more or less set, though I have to wait until January to hear about the Alcatraz lottery.  I still can't decide if I really WANT to get a slot for that race or not...but I'll do it if I get the opportunity!  I'll get around to posting the schedule for next year in the sidebar sometime soon.

Until then, I enthusiastically raise a donut to the off-season!