Well, it's been an up and down season this year. And the biggest problem I've had is the number of changes I've made to "the plan". I don't know if anyone else out there has had a race season without an A-race or at least a significant goal, but let me tell you. It sucks.
In March I thought I had it all figured out...2 USAT 2012 events, 4 draft-legal races and a couple more non-drafting prize money races. Maybe I was reaching too far. But everything kind of went to s**t when the Miami Speed Tri was postponed and the race committee wouldn't even acknowledge my lost expenses after advertising my presence at the race (seriously, did they know I'm a poser anyway?). Then the Tobago Rainbow Tri cut their prize money in half two weeks before the race...luckily I noticed as I was about to book my flight there.
Things change, so what. Frustrating but nothing I can do about it. So I just put my head down and decided to essentially dedicate the year to "putting in the time." I know where I'm at in the sport; I've worked hard and earned some personal successes but I have big goals and the only way to reach them is to work my ass off for many more years.
The problem with that was I had very little motivation to actually race. I much prefered the idea of going out on my own to put in the time when no one was looking. I went through about ten iterations of a proposed race season, and by the time May came around I basically had no choice but to simply enter races as they came and what fit in my schedule.
Every race I actually competed in this year I was happy with my performance. The only "bad" tri's I had all year (ie. wasn't top 3) were Rev3 where I had a PB swim and one of the top run splits, and Draft-Legal Provincials where I bridged a 90 second gap to a pack, puked my guts out on the run and still finished. My real problem was the races I didn't actually do. I missed two based on how I felt that morning, and skipped another after missing a couple workouts the week prior and was concerned about my "lost" fitness.
Overall I feel I had a very successful season having figured out my mental demons, finally started to see the improvements I had been working at for so long, swim bike and run PB's in training and racing, and winning a couple along the way. I just struggled with motivation to race because I had nothing to work towards beside the essentially arbitrary goal of getting faster.
So with that in mind along with life getting in the way, I've decided to cut my tri season a little short and end things on a good note with Bulldog as my last of the year. I'm taking a couple weeks off structured training to regroup then start a bit of a run focus through the fall with the goal of learning how to run a 10k. After that it's right back to work for next season, which I have already set with a different focus from the last two seasons. But I'm keeping that top secret for now.
On that note, I'm undertaking another winter project to keep me busy and make sure I'll be fast next year! Details to come shortly...
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