The "Beyond"

Lately, as you may have noticed, I’ve really been sub-par at keeping up with the blog. Sometimes it’s because of the lack of interesting things happening and other times it’s because I’m just not someone who cares to detail everything going on in life. But that is all going to change… well, kind of. In an effort to liven up my posting, I’m going to start talking about that whole “beyond” thing that I originally mentioned in my first post. It seems so far removed now but when I started writing, I intended to fill in the blog with the occasional, non-triathlon-but-still-cool-sport post to keep things interesting.

Well, now that I’ve gotten bored with my own posts, I’m going back to the drawing board and opening up my book of plans. As a teaser, here’s what I wrote out a couple weeks ago when trying to figure out where I want to take this newfound obsession and commitment to endurance/outdoor sports.

List of activities and goals to accomplish within the year:
Triathlons – more serious, start competing at races
Soccer – join at least one elite-level competitive team
Rock Climbing – start climbing at least once a month
Beach Volleyball – find a more consistent group of players that go out every weekend
SUP Paddleboarding – buy a board and paddle, use this for my recovery/relaxation days
Snowboarding – finally break away from my novice abilities
Trail/Ultra Running – get off the roads and save my knees the pain
Bonus activities: learn to surf, attempt windsurfing, dabble in kayaking

The problem with all of this is that I can’t really commit myself to each of these things in the way I want to so I need to formulate some sort of plan and prioritize each activity to reflect the desired commitment level. Some things will come naturally – trail/long distance running can be incorporated within my triathlon training while SUP paddle boarding and even (somewhat) rock climbing fit well on those recovery training days. Unfortunately, I’ll need to schedule soccer and volleyball a little differently because of the effects they have on my legs and body. I can’t exactly spend a few hours shredding myself on the field/court and then expect to go out for a 3 hour brick ride-run the next day. So those will have to be targeted when I’m in a low point during triathlon season or just during the offseason (hmm, beach volleyball during the offseason… we’ll see how that goes). I fully expect triathlon training to take a minor hit because of those two sports but I’m ok with that.

I’ll save you the extensive calendar of priorities and schedule I created last week but basically I’m trying to figure out how to cram all this fun into my other life commitments and still make it out alive. Either way, it should be an exciting year of more than just triathlons.