Your results are in

Thanks to all of you who voted in the off-season poll, and to those of you who left such great comments. Here are the final results:

• 44% of you will be focusing on your weakest event.
• 22% of you will be doing something other than what was listed.
• 16% of you will be increasing training intensity.
• 8% of you say, "What off-season?"
• 4% of you will be decreasing training intensity but focusing on something else like yoga.
• 4% of you will have 2010 as your first season.

Already I've found myself not living up to my goal of focusing on my weakest event: swimming. I like running so much, and it's easier to get ready for than a swim, that I just go out and do it instead of hitting the pool.

In my defense, though, there are only a few milder days of fall left, so I'm trying to take advantage of them by being outside. There will be plenty of cold days ahead to go and warm up in a pool. I will actually start heading to the pool more here in the next couple weeks.

Again, thanks for your votes and for your comments. Have a wonderful next week!

I want to hear from you

As I head into the off season, my last race of the season complete and in the books, I have been thinking about what I'm going to do over the next few months. Having specific race goals for the next season, I strongly believe, is the biggest factor in how we triathletes plan our winters.

With this in mind, I'm considering an early season half-iron distance race, but definitely either doing the Cedar Point Rev3 half or even pushing for the full at the end of next season. So, for me, I have to start getting much faster in the pool.

Now, I completely understand that tris aren't won or lost in the pool, but when you're such a slow swimmer you can barely make that cut-off time, being stronger on the bike and run becomes moot.

Here's a stat to back me up: In my last tri, a 1,000 yard swim, my pace was 2:48/100 yards. If I could knock 30 seconds off of that I would be happy. If I could knock off one minute, I'd do cartwheels in my front yard.

So, as I think about my own winter plans, I was curious to see what everyone else is doing. At the top, right part of this blog, you'll find a poll. Please take a second to vote, then drop me a line to let me know what you think. If you clicked "Other", let us know what that is.

As always, thanks for stopping by.