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| Over 75 miles with a month to go! |
My other goals aren't far behind as I am on track to finish those early as well.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Swimming Goal Accomplished
At the beginning of the year, I set several goals. One of those goals was to swim at least 75 miles in 2017. As of this morning, I have officially accomplished this goal and it isn't even December yet!
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Des Moines Turkey Trot 2017
It was a cold morning with temperatures in the low 30s and light winds. The conditions were good for me to have a great race but a PR just wasn't meant to be today. My official time was 28:48 which was 35 seconds slower than my current PR of 28:13.
My overall place of 546/2,301 put me in the top 1/4 of all 5K finishers which is one of my best places ever. Although I am disappointed that I didn't break my PR, it really was a good race to end my year.
I have a lot of big plans for next year and "post season" training starts on Monday, but for the next few days I'm going to take some time to reflect on the past racing season. It was my longest season to date and there were a lot of highs and lows along the way. Look for a post reflecting on the top moments of my 2017 racing season in the next week or so.
I hope that you all have a very happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of you who take the time to read my posts and provide encouragement along the way.
My overall place of 546/2,301 put me in the top 1/4 of all 5K finishers which is one of my best places ever. Although I am disappointed that I didn't break my PR, it really was a good race to end my year.
I have a lot of big plans for next year and "post season" training starts on Monday, but for the next few days I'm going to take some time to reflect on the past racing season. It was my longest season to date and there were a lot of highs and lows along the way. Look for a post reflecting on the top moments of my 2017 racing season in the next week or so.
I hope that you all have a very happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of you who take the time to read my posts and provide encouragement along the way.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Swim Stroke And Planning For Next Season
With my triathlon season a distant memory and my racing season coming to an end a week from today, my focus has started to shift to the off season, or what I'm now calling my post season. I have spent a significant amount of time over the last couple of months reading books and articles from some of the top triathlon coaches in the world to help improve my knowledge base as a self-coached athlete.
My post-season will begin the last week of November and run through the end of January. My focus for that time frame is to focus on my biggest weakness, swimming, and to try a variety of workouts with decreased load and varied intensity. 4 weeks ago I started to work on completely overhauling the pull of my swim stroke. I'll spare the details, but my focus has been around developing a high elbow catch and a better feel for the water. Erin gave me a book on swimming that was written by a former Olympian and I have learned A LOT from that book. The author suggests giving it 2 - 3 months to focus purely on form using a variety of drills and techniques both in and out of the water. I am only 1 month in and happy to already be seeing good progress.
Improving my swim is my biggest goal for the post and pre-season, but that is playing into my larger goals for next year which are starting to take shape. I'm still working out the specifics, but the high level goal is to lose weight and to get faster. It is difficult to focus on all 3 disciplines, so my primary focus will be to improve my swim and run times (the bike is already my strongest leg).
My schedule for next year is starting to take shape as well and I will be racing A LOT. My current plan is to have only 1 "A" race for the year, and that will be the Olympic Distance at the Des Moines Triathlon, which is usually held on Labor Day weekend. In addition to that race, I plan to focus on shorter distances next year for both triathlon and road races. At this point, my season will kick off in April with the Drake Relays Road Races 5k and the Grand Blue Mile.
For triathlon, I am going to try to compete in the entire Heart of America Triathlon Series. That is a series of triathlons around the state of Iowa. The first official race of the season, which doubles as the championship race from the previous season, was the Cyman Triathlon held in September. The series will come back in mid-May and run all summer including about 7 - 8 different triathlons. I competed in a couple of those triathlons last year including Accel in Waterloo as well as Bluff Creek near Ogden. The top 3 overall men and top 3 overall women as well as the top scoring man and woman in each age group will qualify for the championship wave at next years Cyman. I am planning to compete in the sprint distance for all of those races and my goal is to qualify for that championship wave. That is correct, I plan to, at a minimum, win my age group for that series.
I really feel like going into year 3 of triathlon training, I have a good foundation and know what I need to do to improve my speed in all 3 disciplines. The difficult part for me will be staying disciplined enough with my nutrition to lose the weight that I want to. I am currently just over 250 lbs and want to be below 225 lbs going into my first triathlon in May. That is as far as I have planned so far, but am thinking there will be even bigger aspirations by the time the Des Moines Tri comes around.
More to come on goals for next year in the coming weeks along with the plan to get me there. For now, it is back to work because I still have 1 last race left this year.
My post-season will begin the last week of November and run through the end of January. My focus for that time frame is to focus on my biggest weakness, swimming, and to try a variety of workouts with decreased load and varied intensity. 4 weeks ago I started to work on completely overhauling the pull of my swim stroke. I'll spare the details, but my focus has been around developing a high elbow catch and a better feel for the water. Erin gave me a book on swimming that was written by a former Olympian and I have learned A LOT from that book. The author suggests giving it 2 - 3 months to focus purely on form using a variety of drills and techniques both in and out of the water. I am only 1 month in and happy to already be seeing good progress.
Improving my swim is my biggest goal for the post and pre-season, but that is playing into my larger goals for next year which are starting to take shape. I'm still working out the specifics, but the high level goal is to lose weight and to get faster. It is difficult to focus on all 3 disciplines, so my primary focus will be to improve my swim and run times (the bike is already my strongest leg).
My schedule for next year is starting to take shape as well and I will be racing A LOT. My current plan is to have only 1 "A" race for the year, and that will be the Olympic Distance at the Des Moines Triathlon, which is usually held on Labor Day weekend. In addition to that race, I plan to focus on shorter distances next year for both triathlon and road races. At this point, my season will kick off in April with the Drake Relays Road Races 5k and the Grand Blue Mile.
For triathlon, I am going to try to compete in the entire Heart of America Triathlon Series. That is a series of triathlons around the state of Iowa. The first official race of the season, which doubles as the championship race from the previous season, was the Cyman Triathlon held in September. The series will come back in mid-May and run all summer including about 7 - 8 different triathlons. I competed in a couple of those triathlons last year including Accel in Waterloo as well as Bluff Creek near Ogden. The top 3 overall men and top 3 overall women as well as the top scoring man and woman in each age group will qualify for the championship wave at next years Cyman. I am planning to compete in the sprint distance for all of those races and my goal is to qualify for that championship wave. That is correct, I plan to, at a minimum, win my age group for that series.
I really feel like going into year 3 of triathlon training, I have a good foundation and know what I need to do to improve my speed in all 3 disciplines. The difficult part for me will be staying disciplined enough with my nutrition to lose the weight that I want to. I am currently just over 250 lbs and want to be below 225 lbs going into my first triathlon in May. That is as far as I have planned so far, but am thinking there will be even bigger aspirations by the time the Des Moines Tri comes around.
More to come on goals for next year in the coming weeks along with the plan to get me there. For now, it is back to work because I still have 1 last race left this year.
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