my Triumphant Return to Arizona

My 'A' race this year is Ironman Arizona in November, which I'm calling my Triumphant Return to Arizona. I want to PR my race this November, because it's been a long road trying to race again in Arizona.

My first IM was IM Arizona in April 2006.  My second and fastest (11:53) was IM Arizona April 2007.  My third was April 2008, that was the year they had a second iM Arizona in November, and it's been in November since.  I've done a total of nine IMs, but I haven't managed to make it back to Arizona.  In 2011, I signed up but dropped out because it was the same weekend as my middle daughter's Dad's Weekend at college. I didn't want to disappoint her.  In 2012, I signed up but dropped out because of work pressures and time constraints.  And I signed for this last race, and was training hard, but then I crashed and broke my collarbone and that was that.  And not only did I have to cancel IM Arizona, I also had to drop out of IM Los Cabo that's coming up in March, because it's just too close.

Last Wednesday, 15 weeks after surgery, my doctor cleared me for swimming, running; he cleared me in December for biking.  So now I'm fully back to training. Last Wednesday I spent 15 minutes in the pool to find that my collarbone is fine, but my shoulder has range-of-motion issues from 9 weeks in a sling. I did a lot of stretching since then, and this morning I spent 30 minutes in the pool this morning for a total of 500 yards. Nothing longer than 100 yards without stretching. But it's coming back pretty easily.

I think my plan is going to be based on Fink's Competitive plan. Probably a half HIM in June, and a lot of biking and running. I have swim coach in mind who is also a rehabilitation therapist; hopefully he has time on his schedule for me.