This is the first springtime in five years that I’m not starting a training plan for an upcoming race (or already in a training plan for that matter). It’s a very strange feeling not having any sort of “swim, bike, run” structure as the weather is starting to break from the long winter.

You mean I don’t have to study an Excel sheet every week and religiously record my mileage and heart rate zones?! There’s no countdown app on my phone sending me aggressive notifications that the race is just “X” weeks away??

Nope. I am free to do as I wish. And I have been. And it’s been awesome!

I’m definitely having a blast with this “new normal” level of training.

At the end of January some friends and I signed up for ClassPass. (And no, although I wish this was a paid advertisement — it’s not.) ClassPass really is as awesome as I’m about to tell you it is.

ClassPass is a mobile app that lets you book classes with different fitness studios and gyms around your zip code. Membership includes a free one-month trial and then switches to monthly fees, which range from $29 to $79.

This is genius for someone like me who likes to switch things up.

Sorry spin studio, I love you, but there’s absolutely no way I’d ever purchase your monthly unlimited ride package. I’d die of boredom if that’s all I was ever doing. And for the price they charge? It better be!! With ClassPass, my home gym and a normal gym membership ($10 a month, hmm guess where I go??) I’m able to fit in so many different workouts. I’m never doing the same thing and that’s what makes it so fun.

My recent training has included:

• Swimming.
• Bootcamp.
• HIIT & circuit classes.
• Crossfit.
• Hot yoga.
• Kettle bells.
• Running (always, duh).
• Outdoor biking & hiking.
• Cardio kickboxing & combat conditioning.
• Spinning.
• Versa climbers.
• Lifting.
• I even busted out a surprise half marathon!

If there was ever a time to fall back in love with fitness (and to get my post-Ironman mind right) — it’s now.

And this couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, because just as I was starting to feel the itch for a training plan — I suddenly had all these options available at my fingertips. I’m valuing the fact that I have so much freedom and I’m not confined to just swim, bike, run for the next several months.

Although don’t get me wrong — that Ironman finish line is ADDICTING. And I think there will always be a part of me that wants to chase that high. But for now, I am learning to love fitness — the whole general term of it. To move my body and sweat to feel good, not just for a specific race or finish line.

No training plans, no time limits, no mileage expectations. I show up when I can (which is usually 6 to 7 days a week) and I put in work. The intensity is always there because, hey, that’s just who I am, but this balance feels really good!

CHEERS!