I'm Tri'ing

I know I should not complain, rain is a good thing, but it has rained pretty much every weekend so I haven't been able to take the new ride out.  This weekend is also a bust so I'm hoping that next weekend will be a different story. This past week was not a good week for me.  I had a pretty rough work week and a few late nights in the office so I was horrible about my workouts but it happens, life happens, so we will just start again next week. I still haven't purchased my hydration system for my new bike and need to the get rear wing on so when the weather does get nice I won't have any excuses.  Plus I'm super excited about the data I'm going to get from my new Garmin 500.  I'm a junky for workout data!! Still waiting to hear about the June and July Olympic distance races but since an even scheduled for next weekend at the same location was canceled I'm not so confident that these events are going to happen.

This weekend I decided not to run the Alamo 13.1 on March 22nd.  I have not trained for this race and do not feel the effort I would put into completing the race would be deserving of a finishers medal.  I've had plenty of time to train for this race and instead of being dedicated to that training plan I have elected to be lazy and miss too many workouts. I was excited for this race, I was looking forward to the challenge and hoped that it would help me with my triathlon training but I did the exact opposite.  My disappointment level is very high and the only way I feel I can get rid of this is to get back on track with my dedication to my training. I'm scheduled to start my triathlon training plan mid April so I haven't blown my prep for my triathlon races this year but I'm going to spend the next 5 weeks getting back on track.  I need to focus on weight loss, strength training and the basics (swimming, biking and running).  I will also get back to recordin...

I'm 4 weeks out from my first race of the season and first 1/2 marathon.  Am I ready??  hmmm not so much.  I practically took most of last week off and here we are Tuesday evening and I still haven't made it to the gym this week.  Guess I need to get my butt in gear tomorrow!!  I have been struggling to get and stay motivated.  My longest run since last season has been a bit over 8 miles so over the next couple of weeks I need to work on adding a few more - 5 to be exact. This is not an A race but important to me since I have never done a running race longer than 5K, yes i have done a 1/2 marathon but I haven't run the entire distance and that is my goal for this race.  I want to be able to run the entire race to prove to myself that I can. Reviewing last years schedule I'm not too far off from those distances so I'm still in a good spot but I need to get serious about training soon!

I'm registered for 3 of the planned 6 races.  I will wait to register for Rock n Roll till later in the year when I decide if I want to register for 1/2 or full marathon.  The 2 Olympic distance tri's (June and July) that I did last year have not announced dates, sadly it's possible that neither of these races might happen. I read on one of the websites that residents near the Boerne City Lake haven't been happy with the traffic that the races bring to the area.  One of the race directors has submitted an alternate course option but that was in November and they haven't posted any updates. So I have 2 choices, limit my race schedule to the other 4 or try to find 2 other Olympic distances near by........need to figure that out.  REALLY wanted to go back and race Gatorbait.  This is the race that I got a leg cramp, flat tire and my odometer wasn't working as well it has a huge hill called Heartbreak hill and I didn't make it all the way on the bike.  So I d...

The past 2 weeks I've been trying out the TriDot program.  I'm currently on a plan focusing on the 1/2 marathon I have planned in March and then after that it is meant to move to a plan for the 1/2 Ironman.  I'm enjoying the program because it's something different than what I'm use to but I don't like that it's a 7 day a week plan.  It allows flexibility to move sessions around but I was a bit surprised at the volume I'm doing so early.  If I was going to stick to this plan for the remainder of my training I think I would get burned out very quickly.  I prefer to have at least 1 if not 2 days off a week and I typically do my long run during the week so I can do my long bike ride on the weekends.  But I'm going to stick with it to see how it goes. and her she is, the new tri bike that I purchased....isn't she a beauty!!! I have added a Garmin Edge 500  with speed and cadence sensor.  I also purchased an xlab turbo wing  with water bot...

This was the first year that  I tracked my distances.  I don't have any prior years to compare this too but here are my overall thoughts: Swim -117,400 yds (66 miles) Bike - 1547 miles Run - 466 miles Swim - I actually recalculated this to make sure it was correct - seems like a lot.  I definitely had an improvement in my swim but still have a long way to go before being a good swimmer.  Swimming in a wetsuit was a lot tougher than I expected. I really need to work on getting faster and gaining comfort swimming in a group.  I got a little panicked during the 1/2 IM swim when the faster swimmers where grouped around me.  I stopped a lot or did alternate strokes, which is not easy in a wetsuit. Bike - I'm a bit disappointed in this number, I thought I had spent more time on the bike but then I looked to see how far 1547 actually is.  Google maps says that it's 1584 miles from our house in Texas to our old house in Maryland so maybe that i...

Can't believe there is less than a week left in 2014.  I had an amazing year, both in life and triathlon life and I'm looking forward to what 2015 holds. I'm a bit disappointed at how I'm finishing the year because I had high hopes of getting to goal weight and working on some strength training but the back hindered that progress for about 4-5 weeks. I have to admit that I have been pretty lazy since finishing Kerrville but I'm working on re-energizing and getting back on track, which was the main reason I registered for Alamo 13.1 in March.   Yesterday I enjoyed a beautiful morning and was able to go outside for a 5 mile run, the longest run since Kerrville.  I remember when 5 miles seemed long.   I have my 2015 race schedule finalized, now just need to make sure all the dates work.  I've already ready registered for 2 of my planned 6 races, which is double the races I did in 2014 (3 races).  It will be even more important for me to get to goal ...