Post-Ironman Training Summary

I had over 900 hours of training in the 45 weeks leading up to Ironman Wisconsin. Last week I totalled 35 minutes of training. My weekly total was 3 miles of running and 1,000 yards of open water swimming with Adam. I did the 3 miles on Friday and it was more than enough to let me know I'm not ready to run yet. My left hamstring got really tight after I finished the run. It was the hamstring that cramped terribly during the race last week. I feel great walking and doing normal activity but definitely have a lot of deep tissue damage. I've been enjoying my time off. I have allowed myself to eat whatever I want during this time off. I try to be very strict when I begin training so it's kind of nice to not think twice when I want to eat something now that I don't normally eat once I begin training. My good friend Beau Perkins who was in Madison to watch me race last week sent me this video of the finish. I'm really torn about what I want to accomplish next year. Part of me wants to abandon all the Ironman races and go for races like Rev 3 and other 1/2 distance races not part of the Ironman circuit. Another part of me thinks that next year will be my last year racing professionally and I'd like to do the Ironman circuit one more time to see how high I can get myself in the 70.3 world rankings. The difficult part of this is knowing that my travel expenses would probably outweigh the money I bring in from races unless I make significant improvements. To make things more difficult Ironman increased the amount they are paying the winner at all the races next year but offset that by lowering the amounts they pay 5th-8th places. I have a long list of reasons not to race Ironman that have nothing to do with the professional aspect...I am amazed at the Ironman craze that people have when there are far better values and races that put the athletes first like Rev 3 does. I've done quite a few Ironman trademarked events over the years now. Without a doubt from an athlete standpoint none of them compare to races like the Chicago Triathlon and the Door County 1/2 Ironman from a race experience standpoint. I have all offseason to sort this out so I won't bother trying to do it right now. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!!