Something, something, something...

I've had a rumble of a thought crossing my head for a while now.  The idea stems from wanting some long-term goal, but not being willing to commit to one.

There have been a couple of ideas which have come up.

One is centered around competition.  Specifically, powerlifting.  The idea would be to scope out a local competition slated for late spring/early summer/summer of 2013, and from now to then working on getting into competition shape.

The drawback on that is that I'm currently in a massive cut, and I'm not sure how long that will continue to be the case.  To build up with powerlifting I'd need to eat a surplus, and it would feel a bit like throwing away all the effort that went into the cut in order to bulk up enough to make serious strength gains.

Of course, I'd feel like I was doing better if I knew some other people to encourage and compete against.  I know Athalos would potentially join me, but nothing is ever definite.

Another is more conditioning related.  Been thinking along the lines of "if you knew there was a zombie apocalypse coming, what kind of training would you be doing now?"  I've been thinking something aiming for improving my overall zombie combat preparation between now and the end of the year/January.  This would be covering the basics.  Running, bodyweight conditioning, maybe some swimming, maybe some light combat skills.

Drawback to this is measuring the progress in everything.  Running is measurable, and maybe also conditioning, but the rest is kind of floaty.

A third is working towards participation in a race of some kind.  A 5K run, a sprint triathlon, a sprint cycle-swim-cycle (is that a duoathalon? biathalon?), maybe just working up the fitness to participate in a Tough Mudder or similar challenge run.

There are drawbacks to this, but far less than with the others.  The major one is finding something I want to do, and something I can commit to doing.

I think the issue here is both the number of potential choices, and also my own hesitance at committing to the amount of effort involved in training for something like this.

Working up to a 5K would require me to start running, and then to continue running on a regular schedule through the rest of the year.  Running outdoors in the rain or snow is not something I enjoy, and training by running a 5K on the treadmill just seems like torturing myself.

Still, learning to run would probably not be a bad thing.  Learning to run would give me a serious boost to my cardio, and would give me some short-distance endurance.