Winding down or gearing up?

That is the question, and that is what I am trying to figure out. I can't decide if my race season and training season is starting to wind down, or just starting to gear up. Maybe a little bit of both? It is definitely up for interpretation to say the least.

One could say that I am finally winding down my 2011 race season. I am running a half marathon this weekend on Saturday, and then once that is done I am officially 4 weeks out from my second Half Ironman triathlon of the year. The Half Ironman should be my last major race of 2011. Its been a year full of races that have seen me complete in the vicinity of 15-20 races consisting of triathlons, running races, half marathons and half Ironmans.

But at the same time one could argue that my race reason is just starting to gear up. After these next two races in the next 4 weeks, I get 8 weeks to finish off my marathon training, and kick off the 2012 race season with the Houston Marathon on Jan 15. Once that is done, I have 10 weeks to turn my focus backs towards triathlons as I will be doing the Galveston Half Ironman again on April 1, 2012. Once that is done I will have another 8 weeks to fine tune things and try to improve heading into the Kansas Half Ironman in June. And that just puts me into the halfway point of the year, not even including the races I will be doing later in 2012 helping me build into Ironman Texas in May 2013.

So like I said its up for interpretation, I could either be winding down or gearing up. Either way its going to be one fun ride...