Its just about 3 weeks since I completed Ironman Florida, I’ve pretty much worked through recovery from the race with an eye on next year and what I will accomplish. This past season was good, a big step up from the season before and not so great performance at Ironman Wisconsin, but I know the deck was stacked against me for that race.
The main things I need to focus on this year is getting a coach, with Jason passing away once I was into my routine, I could not spend the time to find an adequate replacement, so now is the time.
I have been working through a free trial of a system call Tri-dot. I noticed the name on the back of an athlete during the run, usually a race is the best place to find new things like this is at a race, and I”m glad I did. This company uses data collected from thousands of other triathletes at all levels to dynamically create a training plan which builds on your strengths and your actual data. It uses the “big data” concept.
This means that I don’t actually have a live coach, but I have a training plan focused specifically on me, and my data.
Interesting concept, but we have to see how it works. So I was selected for their “PSP” program, which is a 2-month option to test drive the training plans and see how the data works for me. So far so good, although the issue I’ve seen is the fact that the intensity zones change almost daily, meaning I can’t really set my target zones a week ahead of time like i’ve always done. At first, this worried me, but I’ve worked a way to get through it.
The workouts are good, the strength training is amazing so far and is challenging me .. we’ll have to keep an eye on it to see if its worth paying for or just easier to do the training setup myself. The real challenge will come with being flexible when my schedule gets challenging.
The other thing I need to work on this year is nutrition and watching my weight. I still need a plan for that. I carry too much extra weight that I don’t need to, and I never feel good about it.
So my race schedule has been decided, and although I haven’t registered yet, I know what I want to do.
I plan to write more about my thoughts on training as the season goes on, I miss having an outlet for the successes I have.
Today is Thanksgiving, and I did the Wiregrass Wobbler 5K, a turkey trot… the goal of today was to just get out there, but more importantly work on my mindset to remember how far I’ve come in my competitive career.
Many of the other runners and spectators this morning saw my Ironman hat, my racing outfit and my level of fitness and maybe thought to themselves, “why is this guy running this race”. Well, I do it because I need the inspiration … when you compete at a high level like I do, you lose touch with the fun side of the sport and forget where you came from. A race like this makes it real for me again. A key race at a key time in my mindset shift for the upcoming season.
The course was short, definitely. My watch only had 2.86 miles instead of 3.1 miles, I did not get the chance to shift into my last gear with .25 miles to go. It says I did a 7:10/mile, which is unlikely, but when I average my 22:15 finish time with 2.86 miles, it says a 7;47/mile, which is real.
Oh well. No biggy to me … I had fun.
That’s about it for today …. more soon …