I'm Tri'ing

I went and did it.......I signed up for Ironman Texas next May..........wow, that is so scary and exhilarating at the same time.  But first I have Kerrville, then Ironman 70.3 Austin, and I probably need to do a marathon or at least a 1/2 marathon. I need to focus on what is in front of me and not get too far ahead of myself but I need to ensure that I have dedicated training sessions, unlike this week which I was quite the slacker, but I'm ready to get back on track with a solid week next week.   I know that in prep for the Ironman I will need to deal with the mental side and not just the training side.  I'm sure I'll write a few more posts, sadly they will probably be very weird, unorganized and might not make sense to anyone but me :>)

Tri for Old Glory 2015 Race Report Olympic Distance Overall - 3:12:13 Swim - 39:38 T1 - 4:51 Bike - 1:21:54 T2 - 2:07 Run - 1:03:46 Weather We have had a lot of rain this year and it was hard to know what weather would show up race day.  We were scheduled to have rain and were lucky that the rain stayed away and the sun stayed away, at least until I had finished. Swim I felt good on the swim, the water was very clean and since it was a small race, very little congestion.  I thought my siting had improved and kept me more on track that previous races.  I'm very pleased with my time but realize there is room for improvement.  Realistically future races this year will not be this easy because there will be ALOT more people! Bike Before the race Rob had been telling me to go all out, leave it on the course, I feel like I really tried to do that on the bike.  I did slow down a bit towards the end but overall very pleased. I decided to take my road...

Next week at this time I will have completed my first race of the season.  As always I'm nervous, I look at finish times from last year and think they are much faster than I am, I drove the bike course and realize the road is horrible and there are lots of hills and I question every second of my training.  Despite feeling like I have made a lot of progress in the past few weeks and feel like I'm strong I feel like I'm totally not ready for this race.  I get so nervous leading up to a race, I question everything I have done and doing to prep. It doesn't help that recently I have been thinking a lot about doing an Ironman next year and this makes me question everything I do.  I want to do an Ironman, but I question if I have the ability to do it.  Everyone seems to have more confidence in myself than I do.  There are days I think "of course I do this" and then there are other days I say "what the hell am I thinking." So yet another day of being wis...

Finally race season is here.  My first race is in 2 weeks, July 5th.  I'm super excited to finally race, although I have yet to decide which bike I will be riding.  The weather has NOT been cooperating so I haven't been out on my tri bike since last week.  The original plan was to get outside twice a week.  Keep the fingers crossed that tomorrow I'll be good to go. We are going to go up this weekend and drive the bike course to see what it's like that will also help me decide what bike I'm going to use. I'm ready to go, I was hoping to be down a few more lbs, but it's the first race of the season and this is not one of my A races, just a primer, something to get me going. I've also been thinking a lot about next year and whether I'm going to go for an IM.  The hubby says goes for it, some friends and family say go for it.  I just don't know yet! Training is going well, I think my swimming is improving, wish I could figure out how to be a ...

I decided to look back at last year around this time to see how I was doing, both weight and training.  Well that was a bad idea.  I'm up almost 10 lbs at this time last year.....eek and my training is a bit behind from last year, not swimming as much yardage or biking as many miles but running more just a bit slower.  So I clearly have some work to do.  It's good to reflect on where you were and where you are.   I'm not blogging or sharing as much information about my training that I did last year largely because I don't feel like documenting all the details again on my blog as I'm already doing on my spreadsheet and trainingpeaks.com so why add more work to the plan.  I'm proud of the work I put in this week and I'm looking forward to the coming week.  I want to lose that additional 10 lbs before my race in 4 weeks!

Hard to believe my first race is less than 5 weeks and sadly this week was the first time I took the new ride outside and oh my so much training is needed.  But the good news is that it's an Olympic distance and I know that I can do the distances and if needed I can do my road bike and even better news is that Kerrville is still about 4 months away.  I've had some good weeks of training but now I need to step it up a notch to insure that I hit all my sessions, put some solid time in the pool and get outside on the bike!! BTW, the new girl still does not have a name......she has the potential to be scary, although the aero didn't bother me much, she is loose and the gearing is SO very different than my roadie.  So getting time outside with her is very important to the HIM races this year.

It seems every year when race season is over I say I'm not going to blow everything I worked for and then at the beginning of every season I find myself working to recover from a too lazy off season and lack of motivation to start the new season.  During this time I always find it difficult to get motivated and back in the groove.  I'm sad to say that this year is no different.   The off season was too long and too lazy.  I always struggle with motivation - do I want to do this again this year, can I do this again this year, do I have the ability to get to a reasonable race weight, can I get through these races??????  I know what I need to do to be successful but some days it seems so far away.  Again, this year is no different. I'm 4 weeks into my training plan and things are improving.  I'm starting to build my confidence, starting to get back on track.  Life will be changing in a few weeks and I want to take full advantage of the extra t...