The long awaited day is here. The end of the season. I'm so ready for a break.I've sort of been reflecting on this season all season. But now that I've had a few days of doing absolutely nothing, I feel like it's now appropriate for me to tie it all together and put everything into perspective.
The plan is to take at least 2 weeks off, but I'm sure I'll start getting antsy after a week. I'm not going to jump right in - I need to take some time off to get my hamstring completely back to normal. It's been doing so much better over the last month, but I was to be absolutely sure that it's healed. I plan on swimming and yoga for the next few weeks and then I'll start thinking about hopping back on the bike and heading out for a run. I finally broke down and got a Computrainer (with the CDA course no less) and am looking forward to training with it. I think it will be really beneficial.
So, my thoughts on this season...I don't think it was a great season. I never felt like I completely settle into things. I never felt like I was making progress. I also felt so unsure and unprepared. I felt tired a lot. I felt like I was all over the place. The whole plan of build, build, drop back down, build, build, drop back down never really happened. I didn't feel like I was pushing myself very hard - I didn't feel like my workouts were geared towards pushing me too hard. I don't want to go so far as to say that it sucked, but I was not happy with it. It felt harder to train this year than it did last year for an Ironman. I know I've complained many times about blaming it on the race schedule that I chose. I had 3 races in 6 weeks, followed by another set of 3 that were 3 weeks apart. It seems like most of my season, at least a third of it, was tapering. This drastic change in tempo really threw me off, and I believe this is why I just never felt ready. The pattern of go hard followed by do practically nothing did not have a good rhythm into which I could settle. It was not the same feeling of going hard, going hard, and then followed by a stabilizer week. Tapering is very different from stabilizers.
I didn't reach my goal of bringing down my half-IM time by 30 minutes. In fact, I didn't bring it down at all. In fact, I had my slowest two half-IMs of the 5 or 6 that I've done. Even my full IM time divided by 2 was faster than both of these this season. I don't want to use excuses, though I was sick for the one race. I suppose that's a somewhat legitimate excuse, but who knows.
I know I should be happy with my other results and I am for the most part. My shorter races in general were much faster than previous equivalent races. There definitely was improvement and most of it was pretty early in the season. My bike times over the shorter distances have definitely improved. And my bike time at Vineman was slightly faster then my 5430 time from last year despite being sick. And being that getting faster on the bike was another goal for the season, I guess I can say that I was mostly successful with this. It didn't show in my half, but it was definetly evident in other races. I broke 19 mph in several races. That is an accomplishment. It's just the my big goal was my half-IM and there was nothing even close about reaching that one.
Well, at least I know that I shouldn't do that kind of schedule again. At least I can take that away from the season. Other things to which I am thankful...I never got injured. The hamstring thing was definitely a nag, but nothing that caused extreme pain and something that I could still definitely run through. It was just a reminder that I need to do more stretching and to continue to be aware of how things feel. I am also really happy that Matt chose to tri this season, or most of it, with me. I'm not sure he'll do it again next year, but it was nice to have someone to "train" with (we could at least leave the house at the same time) and to commisserate with, as well as to celebrate with. I still have a few months to try and convince him that he really wants to stick with it.
And now it's time to start thinking about next year. Coeur d'Alene, here I come!
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