Its Official

I'm going to Europe the day after Christmas! Sure I'm excited about crossing the big pond for the first time but I can't help but wonder how this is going to effect my training. Is it just me or is this how all triathletes think?

There is no doubt in my mind the vacation will seriously limit my swim and bike efforts. Even though I'm absurdly dedicated to my training here at home I don't think I can bring myself to waste part of a European vacation sitting on the hotel's stationary bike for two-plus hours. And there is no way I will attempt to swim 300 laps in a hotel pool slightly larger than a bathtub. The only discipline I can easily keep up with overseas will be running.

Weeks 7 and 8 of my plan are very important to the running mileage build-up and contains long runs of 16 and 17 miles respectively. If I want to keep the three 20-mile efforts planned in weeks 11, 13, and 15 I need to fit in these long runs. Otherwise I'm not sure I'll find time to do additional mileage build-up once the tri season begins. Missing those weeks would ultimately put a damper on my plans for doing the inaugural Beach2Battleship Ironman-distance triathlon in Wilmington, NC next November.

Now that I've convinced myself I need to run while touring Germany and France I'll need to do some research on where to run near my hotel. I don't feel like being mugged because I ran down the wrong street. Paris must have something like a Central Park I could enjoy. Stay tuned.