and another Race in the bank

today was another short 4 km Trail Race , I had the option to do 8 km or 4 km, I decided to do the short Option and the Plan was, to run really fast and it worked out the Way I wanted it .
 Trail runs tend to be a bit tougher than Road runs anyway and it was slippery at certain areas and a huge amount of People which actually slowed me down once or twice. I think this is the first time that this has happened to me, I'm usually the one who slows others down. I gave it everything during the run and  I had to walk once or twice but  that was OK for me as well.
I just had a look at my stats this month and so far I have done only this month 241 km on exercise , most of it comes from cycling but 28 km from this is running, not even remotely enough on the running side but I'm getting there. I don't think I have ever done in my life so much exercise and  I actually enjoy it quite a bit.If this should be my so called Midlife crisis then I have to say , why didn't it come earlier ?
 I have a huge amount of Fun , I'm energetic and I love the Challenges I have given myself .
Next stop will be a couple more Trail Races and then in April my first real Adventure Race.
Training's wise , I'm looking forward to more Cycle rides with the Triathlon group and I'm seriously considering to do a triathlon Trainings Camp over Easter.

Cycling, Running and a Triathlon Club

Yesterday was a another "long" Cycling Ride with the Triathlon Club that I want to join. We did a 40km Ride which included one or two quite though Hills but  I have to say I really enjoyed most of that Ride.
In the Evening was the new members Meet and Greet Event from the Triathlon Club and  I got quite a few nice tips , it seems I have found my Triathlon Club.
I will order now the Club gear in a Couple of Days and I guess putting it on, during a Race will put a tiny bit extra pressure on,
 I don't really want to finish second last in Club Gear, just because I might not have trained enough,
that would be  a bit too embarrassing.
This will be another motivation to do good regular training, which meant that I was out for a short run this morning.
I also have realized that it is only 15 Weeks until my first planned Olympic Triathlon and I'm not remotely in a shape for that one yet.
At the same time I know that I'm improving all the time , I'm tracking my results with Endomondo and I checked now through the History , I'm getting faster , I do longer distances, and I do a lot more cross training , if I  can keep this up then a Olympic Triathlon in June should be possible

Discussions between the Couch Potato and the Racer

The Couch Potato and the Race is the same Person ,ME . The Part of me which is the Couch Potato was today very loud and very annoying ,it tried  to stop the Racer in me, nearly the whole Day.
Sounds Crazy ? Maybe it is, but here are my internal Discussion I had today with myself.
Today I was signed up for my first 10km Race of 2012, the Race was in the afternoon , rather unusual, but it should not make a difference it's still 10k.
So I woke up this morning and the Couch Potato immediately tried to convince the Racer to chicken out of the Race , first argument : Your Back is still to bad, if you run it will hurt more .
Racer, yes maybe you are right but it feels OK today and I at least can start and if it starts to hurt then I always can quit.
Couch Potato now : but it is cold and rains out there, you will get sick if you do it . Racer , I can wear a rain Jacket, but yeah I might not do it , you are right , the Weather is bad my Back is still not OK .
Couch Potato : Yippee , ten minutes later the Racer in me : are you crazy? If I don't go today, I again will end up sitting the whole Day around doing nothing.
Couch Potato : Yes, and what is wrong with that ? Racer , shut up, we are going .
And the Racer won this argument , I'm writing this, after I successfully finished my first 10k of the Season , yes it did hurt a bit and it was cold but I'm proud of myself that I did it .

This is for everyone out there who has this Couch Potato Daemon as well,  I always have to fight against it, but  I have to say these Day's the Racer has won more often then the Couch Potato.
 The best Way for me to win the Argument is to show on social Media ( Facebook / Twitter etc ) that  I will do a Race, as soon as I have written this on a Public Site, then it means to me a serious Commitment and that trick works for Races and events ( I'm still working on the regular Training bit ) .

The best Example for this is, when  I did last Summer my Night Hike , I was scared about that Hike , I was seriously in doubt, that  I would be able to finish a 33 Km night Hike , so to prevent me to chicken out of that, I posted like crazy on Facebook and Twitter and I did the Night Hike and i was telling everyone what I had signed up for.
It was the toughest thing I ever did, but  I did it and the Couch Potato in me was silenced quite a bit. however that was not the biggest Surprise.
The biggest Surprise came after the Hike, when I told the Guy who guided us through the Night, that I actually had wanted to quit at the First Checkpoint but something in me told me to continue ( probably the Racer ), his simple answer was : I wouldn't have let you Quit this, you posted so much about the Hike on Facebook/Twitter, from that I took it that you really wanted to do that.
So Couch Potato for the Rest of the evening you can take over  but tomorrow we are going for a Bicycle Ride .....