So, I picked a horrid time to create this blog apparently. In the aftermath of doing so, I went through that whole "get out of grad school, move across the country, and get a job" thing. Now that I've found myself in New Mexico with a postoc though, it's time to get started with a few things. It turns out that the people here are on average pretty sporty, so I'm expanding my exercise-related stuff to include running/trail running and hiking. Cycling is still my primary interest, but it doesn't hurt to have variety does it?
In terms of actual goals for this calendar year, they are pretty conservative with respect to cycling but pretty ambitious otherwise. Here's the breakdown for 2012:
9/9/2012:
Enchanted Circle Tour - Century
9/22/2012:
Pajarito Trail Fest - 15 mile trail run just across town.
10/16/2012:
Day of the Tread - Marathon
The century should be a decent way to see how I do with long endurance rides in this new climate (high desert is a very different animal than Michigan). Assuming that goes well, next May I'll probably try the Valles Caldera Double Cross which will finally be a legitimately nasty ride. In terms of training, for the moment it is coming almost entirely from commuting to work. I'll get the course profile up here at some point, but the vital stats are a round trip of 16.3 miles and 1k' climbing daily - so actually pretty legit for a mere commute. I have every other Friday off with my work schedule, and I'm looking into spending some of that doing "the loop" as it's called here (30 mile loop starting in LA, heading down to White Rock and back up again so you get some decent climbing). Again, I'll get the course profile up here at some point.
As for the running, I only started running regularly about two weeks ago (primarily treadmill miles since that works with the kiddo's schedule) which would be why I claim that the running goals are pretty ambitious. As it happens, there are 17 weeks between when I began running to the DotT marathon, and this training plan required 18 - perfect right? We'll see if I can make it - I'm not having any problems with cardio, just the specific leg muscles for running instead of cycling so in principle this is a tractable problem.
