- It's an assessment opportunity to see what my months of training have yielded, particularly the Total Immersion swim drills I've worked on for months.
- Michelle will be completing her first triathlon. I have run and biked with her on occasion and watched her swim and tackle many other difficult things and I am excited over how well she's going to do - the girl has an immense amount of drive and determination.
- Sam and Amber are coming to have fun and celebrate with us, even though Sam is still recovering from his knee injury and won't be racing. I am really looking forward to laughing with them.
I suspected a few weeks ago that I was on the edge of over-training, and even though I tried to dial it back a few notches, I'm afraid I didn't dial it back enough soon enough and slipped over that fine line into the domain of over-trained. So I've cut back even more on my workouts these past two weeks and am hoping that resting these next two days will be enough to put power in my pedaling and spring in my step on the run course.
A few months ago my challenge was to see how much better I could do than my first race. That I would improve was simply my baseline assumption. Lately I've struggled so much with my workouts that that assumption has vanished. But, I am still looking forward to the race as a simple test with objective results without any perception mixed in.
When I began to think that I might not improve over my previous performance, I asked myself if all these hours of training this summer have been worth it if I did not get faster. That answer is a resounding YES! Five years ago, I didn't think I'd ever run a mile again and now I run 12+ miles a week and ENJOY most of those miles. I absolutely LOVE the freedom of hopping on my bike and riding to the beach for a swim or on the Pinellas trail to one end of the county or the other. And SWIMMING! What began as a surprisingly difficult aerobic challenge in May has become an absolute joy for me over these months of swimming outdoors at my community pool. I've gained more muscle, lost a couple more inches, and left stress I carried in my body at the pool and on the trail.
Oh, yes, it has been worth it. And no matter how I perform on Saturday, I will be signing up for another triathlon soon.
3 comments:
I know I'm looking forward to it as well.
I think the next tri should be St. Anthony's Olympic at the end of April. Your son is hoping to actually do it this year. ;)
Actually, our new investment broker has been goading me to do St. Anthony's and I've been evaluating whether I will be able to increase to the Olympic distance in these next 6 months. An Olympic Distance tri is one of my goals for the coming year. Sign up is Dec 1st I think.
and you did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
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