Season is over... Now what?

Well, this last weekend I wrapped up my tri season by racing on a sprint distance relay team with my girlfriend, it was her first competitive 5K (I did the swim and bike) and my 8 year old daughter did a kids race and we had a blast. It was a fun way to end the season. The weekend prior I finished my "a race", my first olympic distance course. I had been following the "Sprint to Olympic Bridge" training plan and it worked really well. I finished in just under 3 hours which was my goal time. I felt great on the course until about the last 2 miles of the run which is when the hurt really set in, but learned some lessons and had a great time and am ready to get after it again next year.

So that leads me to my question... I really enjoyed working out with a plan to stick to, it kept me motivated and on track with my training. It was very nice to wake up and look up the daily workout and go do it as opposed to figuring out what I felt like doing (and it certainly work to help reach my goal for the year). But now that I've finished up my season and the plan had ended I feel a little lost again and am starting to look forward to next year. I have signed up for the Boulder 70.3 next year (Aug 5th) as my long term goal. That will be my A race for next year with a goal of finishing (no time estimate yet). SO I plan to follow the 20 week half ironman training plan with puts me starting in mid March, which should provide pretty reliable outdoor training weather up here in the north. That leaves plenty of time between now and then so I figured I would also do the 20 week winter maintenance/prep plan to lead into starting the Half Ironman plan. However, that still leaves about 8 weeks free. Should I just plan on enjoying some time off and just stay active or should I add some of those free weeks between plans for a short break?

Just a little more back ground that may be relevant. I got serious about working out for the first time in about 10 years back in Feburary with the intent of dropping some extra weigh that had been getting stacked on over the last few years. I started with a couch to 5K program and was challenged to attempt the local sprint tri by a friend. We I realized having a goal to work towards was a huge motivator for me, once I completed it I loved it and thus the passion was born. Training for a few races has taken me from not being able to run around the block to finishing the oly mentioned above and has helped me drop about 40 pounds. Running is still my weak point, I can do a stand alone 10k in just under 60 min, but off the bike it still suffers a bit. Im thinking its just the lack of training time (just 7 months) and should continue to improve over the upcoming year. Swimming is what I think is my strong point, in my last sprint I swam an OW 1000 yards in 16.30 and have swam an OW 2.4mile in just under 2:20.00.

Sorry I know that was a lot. Im really just looking where to go from here going into my off season and wanted to see what some others though to see if my plan was on or off base. Also, feel free to tell me to just suck it up and find an online coach if thats what you think would be best. I just have no experience with anything like that and am a little apprehensive not knowing what that would entail or if I feel like id get my moneys worth without having a recommendation.

thanks in advance for help,