Now what?

Lately I have been thinking about what happens when you set a goal, work towards a goal, and achieve a goal. What comes next?

(This reminds me of the old Roadrunner cartoon where Wile E finally catches him and then says, "Now what?")

I thought, after I finished my last triathlon, that I would keep up my training. So buoyed would I be by that last race of the season that I'd be looking to start improving on next season's times right away. That was two weeks ago.

Since then, I have eaten a whole lot of Halloween candy. Probably more candy than I ate all summer long. And I've taken many, many days off.

The rest days (at least some of them) were part of a planned recharging of my body and mind. The Halloween candy... not so much. I am starting to fear the very real possibility of a backslide.

So after some introspection, I've decided that maybe I don't really want to spend all winter in the pool after all, or riding a stationary bike. Maybe in order to stay fresh, I do need to take a break.

So I spent part of this week drafting a plan for myself. Because I'm feeling quite aimless without a plan. My new plan involves maintaining some amount of swim and bike fitness by incorporating one swim and one spinning class a week. It focuses a bit more heavily on running in order to ramp up for a possible spring half marathon. (I still need to find a new route, because my old one - which took me past the town cemetery - is now pitch black when I am out doing it, and there are no streetlights in the cemetery. Way too creepy.) And today I ventured back to a BodyPump class, which I really enjoyed for a while until I quit cold turkey about two years ago. I enjoyed it a lot again today, although right now I can hardly move certain parts of my body. Even typing is painful.

But I'm not too bothered by that, because this new direction seems like it might work for me. Maybe.

To be continued...