Friday, October 12, 2012

Season Reflections

Another season has come to a close. The results on paper show 13 races, 8 overall wins, 3 top 8 finishes at the 70.3 distance and 51st at Worlds 70.3. I won my first 5150, Kansas City, and repeated as the elite winner at TriZou in Columbia. Glancing back at my season goals I see that I did not have a top 3 finish at either Worlds 70.3 or Long Course Nationals. However, I pretty much gave away a second place at Long Course thanks to bad bike tactics and completely blowing up my legs.

Not to dwell on races that are now barely visible in my rear view mirror but I’ll provide a few thoughts on a couple experiences from the past three months; which is coincidently the age of our new baby boy Stephan.

- Training with a newborn –

Being “caged” in a hospital for a couple days straight is not my idea of a good time. Experiencing the birth of a child is truly amazing, something I've been fortunate enough to experience twice now, and I’d spend 100 days there if it were necessary to take home a healthy child. However, once I know everyone is good I’m jingling the car keys. So after only a couple days in the hospital, and another at home, I was feeling the urge to get outside. I figured I better make the most of my leave and dug in with a 75 mile ride with race pace intervals followed by a track workout with some race pace 800s ending in 100 degree heat. I had done the workout on a cumulative few hours of sleep from the past several nights and earned myself a little cold from the taxing workout. After that I did ease into it a little better and tried to find more of a balance.

- Worlds 70.3, Las Vegas –

Worlds in Las Vegas was a great experience that I was fortunate enough to have my friend and coach Joe Company along to run some support making it pretty low stress. It was a good learning experience with a sub-par result which makes me anxious to return.

- Long Course Nationals, OKC –

With Nationals so close to home I was able to pack up the family again and have my support crew in greater numbers. An unusually low water level had us running 200 yards just to get to the boat ramp. I was 7th out of the water and chased fairly aggressively and caught the leaders at about mile 20. I paid for my aggression and rode the back half in survival mode trying to regroup for the run. I ended up 5th but missed an opportunity coming home just 40s out of 2nd place. In hindsight I needed to take that risk on the bike after feeling I had been a little conservative with some others this year. But it ended up being a lesson in what not to do.

I look forward to the rest of my time off as I play with the kids more, get projects done around the house, and try to heal up some injuries and work on some deficiencies that will make me stronger when I resume training.

Thank you to my family and friends for your amazing support once again this year.