Something is Working

You know how when you really enjoy something and you want to be good at it, you find yourself putting a significant amount of time and effort into it, hoping it will pay off. And sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. That's life, right? Over the past year I have been mildly obsessed with improving my triathlon skills (hence, the blog). I need improvement in all three disciplines to say the least.

Swimming - which is the new one for me, is where I could probably improve the most, but as it's the shortest part of the races, vast improvement there just doesn't make that much difference in the big picture. Although I am still plugging away trying to get better and faster. Because the longer the race, the more the swim time does matter - swimming 2.4 miles for an ironman in an hour vs. an hour and a half is a pretty significant chunk of time.

Biking - This is the view from atop the hill at Chatfield Reservoir a week and a half ago. Gorgeous. It was a 2 hour ride followed by a 4 mile run.

As I continue plugging away I do see improvement on the bike. The same rides over time have faster (albeit marginally) mph averages. This is the longest time portion of the races and the part where a person should be setting themselves up for a strong run. Walking on the run because you went too hard on the bike is significantly worse than going a bit easy on the bike and killing it on the run. The walking absolutely kills your time, and can be very mentally demoralizing to an athlete who has worked hard and put in the proper training.

Running - ok - I will openly admit that I feel the run is the strongest part of my race. It's the part I look forward to, which is a bit weird being that it is for sure the hardest part, the most draining, taxing on mind and body, and the only part of most races where I question my own sanity as to what I am doing, and why. And often during the run portion (of the longer events, at least) I vow to never do one of these again. Which is why my husband says you can never make a decision about a future race in the middle of a race! Agreed. Having said all that though, running is still the part I like best. And because of that, it is the discipline where I want to see the most improvement. And I am excited to say that I have seen some. As I stated above, it's really nice when you can put work and effort into something and actually see results. And since it is the run transitioning off the bike that matters, those are the times I am interested in. All the runs and rides are pretty hilly, there isn't anything flat around here:

April 26 - Rode 17 miles (1:07) - then ran a 2.4 mile loop (1.5 uphill and .9 downhill) at a 7:51/mile average pace.

May 20 - Rode 30 miles (2:03) - then ran a 4.2 mile loop at an 8:40/mile average pace.

May 26 - Rode 12 miles (47:29) - then ran the same 4.2 mile loop as above at an 8:11/mile avg pace.

Earlier this month during crossfit we ran a timed 5K. I did that at a 7:37/mile pace (23:40)

Last summer my only 10K race (running only) was an 8:08/pace (50 min), and my 10K portion of the one Olympic Tri I did was an 8:19/mile pace.

Here's to hoping the improvement continues.