My first full season of triathloning is in the books. The first thing I would say about it is that I'm hooked-- when I was in Copenhagen a couple weeks ago, I watched an Ironman, and experienced some serious triathlon withdrawals-- a sure sign that the triathlon bug has gotten in my blood. It wasn't a smooth season, but the bike wreck I suffered during my first triathlon of the year steeled my resolve to keep racing, and my calf strain during my final few weeks was little more than an annoyance.
Next, I'm happy to report my final two races went very well! I placed 26th out of nearly 200 and 3rd in my age group in the Lake Lure Sprint, and a little farther back but still in the top 50 out of nearly 200 in the Lake Logan International. I've since taken three weeks off of serious training, but have started back training for next season as of yesterday. And at some point in the past 3 weeks, my calf healed itself. The body is a magical thing.
Now that I've nailed the basics of triathloning, I plan to have aerobars installed on my bike, get a stationary bike trainer of some kind for winter training, and look for a serious training partner and/or a coach to get me to the next level by next summer. If all goes well, I'm considering stepping up to one half-ironman to see what that feels like. I'm looking at doing another four races or so next year-- enough to keep me motivated throughout the spring and summer, but not enough to take over my life.
Below is my final graph of my year of training. You can see a little dip in the spring after I had my wreck, but overall I'm happy with my efforts. Now that I have a solid base in place and plan to do more winter bike training, I anticipate a much earlier rise in my training volume in the coming season, likely in November. In the meantime, I'll be focusing more on kayaking, meditation, gardening, and a medical bedside ultrasound course I'm taking. And blogging!
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