Shifting Gears

While this is barely half way through the triathlon season for some, mine is over. I completed 5 races all within a lightening fast 9 week season.

The main advantage to this season was that it allowed me to get quite a bit of racing experience under my belt in a short amount of time. When I made gains, such as in my open water swimming, I was able to immediately put it back to use and hopefully ingrain it in my brain and motor functions. I was also able to enter each race confident in my abilities, as I had usually just raced a few weeks prior.

While this whirl wind tour of Northwest triathlons had some advantages, it definitely had some disadvantages. After my first race, I felt like I never got back into the groove of training. I'd take some days off to recover, and then I'd take some days off prior to a race to taper... and I just never made very good use of the few days left in between.

Being a Virgo, I am a lineal thinker... a list maker... a list follower. When I have a plan, I am very good at following it. My weakness is in my flexibility, which is almost a prerequisite in this crazy sport that requires three separate disciplines. Missed workouts, due to whatever the current excuse was (the heat, family issues, work) were never able to be made up because of the short amount of training days I had between recovery periods and taper periods. I found it difficult to really focus my energy on all three sports. Often, when I did have time to train, I wasn't sure how I should use that time, and probably ended up not making the most of it.

As with my swimming, lessons have been learned that hopefully I will carry over to next season. My ultimate goal is to do a half ironman, and if I make the decision to do that, I can't let anything get in the way of my training. I'll need the support of my family, and especially Urs, since every moment I'm training requires her to work replacing me at the RV Park. I also can't feel guilty about taking time for me and for training. And, I promise, I'll try to be at least a little flexible.

But, I have all winter to figure out what I want to do next year. Now it's time to switch gears.

My next race is the Spokane Half Marathon on October 15. I started my training last week. I almost feel like a weight is off my shoulders since all I have to worry about is my running. I'm using an intermediate level 12 week training plan that includes 2-3 easy runs per week, one of which increases by 1/2 mile per week. It also has one day of tempo runs and speed work, which start this Wednesday with 6x400 and builds up over the course of the plan to 10x400. I know it's probably a lot harder than it sounds. I may end up dreading Wednesdays. Sunday is designated the typical long run day which increases by a mile almost every week.

Not including my last half marathon, my longest runs to date have only been 6 miles. Every week from here on out will be a new personal record long run. Sounds exciting. I'm really looking forward to it!

So... last weeks total was 17 miles. Since I've done nothing but eat, drink and be merry for the last several weeks, I think that's a good place to start.