2 weeks off and feelin' it

I just took the last 2 weeks completely off any sort of athletic activity, right after finishing the LA triathlon. I partly planned it this way, and part of it was due to life, which tends to get in the way, but it was worth the time off - I ran off and got married in New York last week! I'm not going to expound upon it here as I don't like to get my personal life all out in my triathlon/run blog, but suffice to say it was a wonderful ceremony with great weather (for upstate New York, that is!) and a lovely honeymoon in Kauai, Hawaii, which was my first time there.

I don't have any races or events planned for the upcoming future, so part of the plan in this down/off season for me is to get a schedule in place to keep my motivation up. I would ordinarily plan for something big, like an Ironman or another BQ attempt, but spring of 2010 will be a very busy time for me, as I will likely be in Germany for 4 weeks followed up immediately by radiology board examination preparations. Believe it or not, the 4 weeks in Germany (and NOT the radiology board preparations) is the thing holding me back from a big spring-summer race, as I doubt I will be able to train to a satisfactory level for myself while out there.

I did a mellow 5 mile run yesterday, and my quads are already sore. It's amazing how rapidly you decondition after doing absolutely nothing. On the bright side, I've found that ability tends to come back very quickly, so I'm expecting to be back in some sort of decent shape in 3-4 weeks. I'm hoping to figure out some sort of serious swimming strategy for the winter season when light is short, so I can fill that hole in my triathlon repertoire.