Somehow the month of June is upon us already and I am only 2 weeks away from starting one of the most dense racing schedules ever. May turned out to be another great month of training and I'm really starting to see the results of all of my hard work. Below is a breakdown of my running totals and averages from the past 3 months. The mileage has remained pretty much the same but my average pace has been dropping significantly. My average mile time in March was 14:07/mi which dropped down to 13:15/mi in May while keeping my average heart rate about the same.
While this pace is still a lot slower than I was running just a few years ago, it is trending in the right direction and that is something to celebrate. Over the last several weeks I've also managed to complete several runs with a sub-13:00/mi average and even a few 1 mile splits that were sub-12:00/mi. One of my best recent training runs came during a 1 hour interval run just a couple weeks ago.
I'm also happy to share that I have been seeing progress in cycling as well. I increased mileage significantly in May and managed to complete several rides outside as well. Even with these gains, the best part of all the cycling has been getting several rides in with my friends, Adam and Kyle. It is amazing how much more quickly a long Saturday morning ride seems to go by when doing it with friends.
My success extends far beyond the metrics that are collected by my Garmin Forerunner. Some other observations that I have made in the last month aren't as easy to measure:
- My clothes have been fitting much better
- Going up and down the stairs is MUCH easier
- My running form has felt a lot smoother
- My confidence is higher
- I was able to do a weekend of work at the cabin without having to take breaks
- I'm seeing more definition in my muscles and feeling much stronger
I'm very excited for what is to come in the next 2 months. The Quad Cities Triathlon is 2 weeks from today and I'm starting to feel ready. My longest/hardest workouts are officially behind me but I still have a lot of work to do. This morning I decided to get the my QR PR3 time trial bike out to begin the processes of getting reacclimated. The ride did not go well and I ended up only going about 45 minutes instead of the 1:30 that was planned. I think there were 2 primary contributing factors and neither of which I can do much about in only 2 weeks. The first is that I should have gotten the bike out a long time ago to build my confidence and get used to riding in aero position. The 2nd is that I need to lose more weight (I know, what a surprise). As soon as I got home I spent about 30 minutes getting the bike prepped to be on the trainer in my basement. I've decided that I will race with the K2 this year but want to keep working on getting used to the PR3 again for next year.
Another big thing on the list is to get some open water swims in during the next 2 weeks. I was all ready to go last week but we ended up having storms move in during the evening hours. I'm hoping to get in 2 or 3 before race day to help build some confidence there. The good news on this front is the warm temperatures should have the water at Big Creek a lot more suitable for swimming. Oh yeah, somehow I managed to misplace my tinted goggles too. I've looked everywhere that I can think that I would have left them with no luck at all. I just have a feeling that as soon as I buy a new pair they will turn up.
Lastly, I need to start putting together my race-day strategy. I'm leaning heavily towards playing it safe and focusing 100% of just finishing the race comfortably. With 2 more triathlons quickly following the QC Tri, I will have opportunities to learn and improve with a quick turnaround time. Since it is a sprint triathlon fueling won't be a huge issue so I plan to have 2 bottles, 1 with regular Gatorade and the other with water and possibly 2 GU gels just in case I need them.
No comments:
Post a Comment