It’s been a cold weekend. Yesterday morning and this morning, I ran outdoors in temperatures in the upper 30s and low 40s. Brrr. But it was fun. I ran 8 miles with my friend Poppe yesterday along the beautiful Lady Bird Lake, and today I did a 3-mile route solo in my neighborhood. Both mornings, I was tempted to sleep in and stay warm, but I got the runs done, and they felt great. Once again, I’m reminded that I never regret getting the workouts in. I only regret skipping them.

I’m getting back into full training mode. I’d made the decision last year not to race an Ironman in 2015. I wasn’t sure that it would be a good idea to spend that kind of time training with Dave having recently moved to town and us starting a life together. But more recently, I’ve been sensing a need in myself to have my training back in full force. Training isn’t something I did simply because I had the time to do it. It’s something I did because I genuinely loved the training and especially reaching a challenging finish line. So a number of weeks ago, I brought up the issue with Dave of a big 2015 race. Registration for Ironman Coeur d’Alene had closed, but it reopened for some reason. Seeing that opportunity tugged at my heart a bit, but I wasn’t sure if I should sign up or just let it be – let us be – for a while. So I asked Dave what he thought, and I wasn’t surprised when he said, “You need to sign up.” He knows how much training and racing feed me. Dave even gave me an entry into the inaugural South Padre Marathon as a gift for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. He knows. He understands. And for that I’m terribly grateful. So I signed up. I’m racing Coeur d’Alene again in 2015, and I’m super excited.

With the Ironman piece in place, I built my spring racing schedule. I’ll do my usual series of races leading up to the Austin Marathon in mid-February. Then I’ll take things up a notch by doing the Cowtown Ultra – a 30-mile road race – on March 1. Then I’ll do the MS 150 in April and the St. George 70.3 in May, both with an eye towards preparing for Coeur d’Alene. And then in June, Dave, my mom and I will head back to Coeur d’Alene one more time.

The holidays have been lovely, but the season of rest and relaxation is coming to a close. Rain or shine, the workouts need to get done. Cold weather or hot, I need to log the miles. I can’t make the decision each morning as to whether I want to work out that day. The decision is being made now. Want to or not, I will. It’s time to focus on the events of 2015. For various reasons, I skipped some races in 2014. There will be no skipping races in 2015.

Ironman training. I love it. It’s time to do this.