I'm Officially Wintering in Tucson

So, I think I might have mentioned this before, but I am going to be spending the winter in Tucson.  I don't remember exactly when I decided it.  It might date all the way back to my 10th long ride last winter done alone in my basement when I had finally seen every movie ever made, including all of the really bad ones, and I thought I was finally going to go insane.  Whenever the decision was made, of course it never quite seems that real until you finally set up accommodations for when you get there.

Well, thanks to the power of craigslist, I will be subletting a place in northwest Tucson, a bit out of the city, from a guy who is going away for the winter.  This is great because it means it is not really a vacation property and in a way I'm doing this person a favor as well.  Plus, the location looks great, it's next to a golf course which leads me to believe that it is in a nice neighborhood, and according to Google maps, it is half a mile from a YMCA with a gorgeous outdoor pool and plenty of lap swim hours.  In short, I think it's just what I had in mind. 

This is exactly what I need on so many levels.  Obviously things have been a bit different in my life, we're still getting used to the idea that Dad is never going to be around again.  And admittedly right after that incident occurred I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to go away for the winter.  But time passed, and you know what?  It still feels like it's what I should be doing.  So I am. 

This is not my first winter of escape.  In 2003 I was living in Los Angeles.  That wasn't for the purpose of escaping winter but rather my brief attempt at having a career in the film business.  Believe it or not, that is actually what I went to college for.  Unfortunately, the summer before I left I also did my first triathlon, and the rest is history.  But anyway, I also decided to go out to Phoenix for the winter of 2007 in preparation for Ironman Arizona which back then was run in April.  I left my real job and headed across the country for what I considered to be the beginning of an amazing training experience. 

Well, when race day came around, although I was swimming and biking faster than ever before, I may or may not have tried to power through the hideous winds that kicked up on the bike course and somewhat sabotaged my run.  Of course, my marathon time that day is probably one I'd kill for now even though at the time I considered it a huge disappointment, and the overall time got me first in my age group and the Kona slot that goes along with it, but at the time, that wasn't good enough for me. 

But anyway, sometime during that fun outing I rode my bike from Phoenix to Tucson and realized very quickly that I'd picked the wrong city in Arizona to live in.  While Phoenix isn't entirely terrible, at least from where I was living, I was pretty much forced to drive my bike 20 minutes away from home and park somewhere to get a decent ride in.  On occasion I'd ride from my condo, stopping at lots of lights, riding briefly on the paved canal paths, then stopping at more lights.  But it was close to an hour of slowly getting out of town, which meant I'd spend an hour slowly coming back.  That is not the kind of riding I wanted to do.  And maybe for some people they don't mind driving their bike somewhere and riding, but that has never been of interest to me.  I like to get ready to ride from home, open the door and start pedaling.  And, fortunately, I think that this time I've gotten myself a place from which I can do that.

Having all of the details worked out makes it seem like much more of a reality and makes me much more excited about it.  I don't necessarily mind winter... until Christmas is over.  Then I'm sort of done.  I actually do enjoy skiing.  But I can't tell you the last time I went skiing that I wasn't with my father, who was always initiating trips to Cannon Mountain and when I worked for him sometimes he'd actually make me take a day off in the middle of the week to go with him.  Needless to say, I don't know that I'd be going skiing this year even if I did stick around.

So off I will go to warmer weather.  I really need to do this, I think.  I need the complete change of scenery.  I need to be in a place where I can just focus on the training and not worry about anything else.  I need to be free from distraction.  I used to be a lot better at getting myself through the training with other things going on, and I think that once I get back into that mind set, I'll be fine with it once again when I come back.  But for now, I just need that little push in the right direction. 

Because you know, if things don't turn around again next season, I don't think I can do this anymore.  I mean, this is sort of what I want to do with my life.  Or at least what I want to do with it until I get too old and ruined to do it anymore.  But I can't keep going back and forth from having decent seasons to bad ones for no good reason.  I completely respect the fact that there are so many triathletes out there who just want to go out and race because they enjoy it and don't really care what the outcome is as long as they finish.  I'm just not one of those people.  If I can't do it well I don't really want to be wasting my time with it.  So, I've got a lot riding on you, 2011.  Let's not mess this up.