(Central Park in Spring. We're most definitely not there yet!)
Sort of. While still 45 degrees today, the weather feels as if it might be turning. Not that winter in the city has been that bad anyway. Spring is just a state of mind anyway, right? It's only weather. Plus, who doesn't love hours long indoor rides? Well, I don't and with the weather staying consistently above 45ish degrees, I'll be heading outside for as many workouts as possible. Though the efficiency of indoor cycling workouts and my new found love for my Kurt Kinetic Rock n Roll (with the Pro flywheel) will keep me inside during the week even as we move from spring into summer. Trying to get in a solid 90-120 minute outdoor cycling workout midweek in NYC is all but impossible. I've just accepted that my relationship with my trainer will be something of a permanent thing, and I'm okay with that. But we're definitely in an open relationship with the great outdoors.
Moving along. Thought I'd give a bit of an update of how training and just life in general is coming along. My posts have been infrequent over the winter which is good and bad. Bad, because, well, it sucks coming to a blog that has such infrequent updates. Not that I write about anything too extremely captivating (or not at all) but maybe there are occasional entertaining bits at the very least. I also enjoy writing once I sit down to do it. It's good because I've been incredibly busy. In most every way. After IMAZ this past November, I took maybe two weeks "off" to sort of recharge. I was still working out but it was flavor of the day sort of variety but there was certainly a day or two during those two weeks where I didn't do anything and while I certainly enjoyed that, I crave/craved for my routine. Creature of habit to the T. And I'm okay with that. Training officially started back up in December and hasn't slowed down since. The focus has been continually increasing my run mileage which means that for December, January and most of February I was just banging out miles. Not even any tempo work, let alone threshold work (thats changing as we move closer to race season). The bike workouts have been sort of the same. Lots of miles/hours. The pool is different and generally every session is quite intense. If I'm not on the verge of puking at the end of a pool workout, I know I didn't go hard enough. I'm extremely happy with where my fitness is right now. Especially as compared to this time last season. It's amazing what an actual year of training will do for you. It's all about consistency and to that end, I've maybe missed 3-5 workouts in the past 14 months. Just getting the work done every day no matter what has been extremely key. People sometimes ask "how?" considering I work full time and still maintain some sort of personal life. My answer is simply advanced planning - and lots of it. All the time. Every week. If I know I have a commitment after work that I have to be at, that means a very early morning the day of. You always have the time. Sometimes people just don't want to make the time for it. If it's important to you, you'll make time and sport is important to me. Simple as that. Work, works!
My personal/professional life has been quite busy as well. I won't go into too much detail (because I can't) but all is well. I work for an amazing company and have the best, most understanding boss one could ask for. And team for that matter. I'll leave it at that.
Definitely looking forward to race season. The winter always seems so incredibly long. My first A race this year will be at the Eagleman 70.3 where I've got some pretty lofty goals. Realistic, but lofty. After that, I'll essentially be racing every two to four weeks for the rest of the racing season. Which is super awesome. We train to race and I'll be racing a lot. Stay tuned for lots of race recaps - and hopefully positive ones!
Also, I'm very fortunate to announce that I'm working with the same wonderful sponsors as I did last season. Kiwami will be supplying me with the most exceptional fitting race suits, Xterra keeps me fast in the water in my Vendetta wetsuit, First Endurance will keep me fueled with the most scientifically advanced endurance nutrition available and Acme Bicycles is making sure that I'm fast and comfortable on road and tri bikes! I couldn't be more happy and am looking forward to helping promote these companies in any way possible. It is my job after all, but I truly believe in each of them and they provide me the opportunity to race at the highest level.
Dan Jarecke of Nice Tri is my wizard (coach) and that wont be changing. We haven't stopped working together since we started and that will continue until he breaks up with me.
Stay tuned. It's going to be an exciting year.