Off season started.
Bad shit happened.
Off season started again.
More bad shit happened.
I'm now on my 3rd attempt at starting my off season.
If you're taking notes:
Mike got sick (on top of the whole pulmonary embolism thing).
I got sick.
Then, Mike got sick again.
I'm pretty sure that Mike's 2nd issue was a key player in me having a cold for 3 weeks.
Then, 3 people we knew died in one week. (It was this past week).
DIED.
STOP DYING, PEOPLE. PLEASE.
Needless to say, I took some time off from training.
There's your update.
This week, I had a mostly successful week of training.
Coach Liz and I talked this week. (When I say "talk", I mean email because I'm an introvert. Introverts hate the phone. But if you heard the conversations in my head, you'd totally understand).
She sent me an email asking how I'd like to handle the off season. We'd had a conversation before, but then life happened. Honestly, I couldn't even remember what we decided in our previous conversation.
With the hands on coaching that I get at masters, it doesn't make sense for me to do a swim focus. Who shaves :30 off their 100 time? Who does that? THIS GAL.
We did a bike focus at the beginning of this year with great results.
It's time for a run focus. I, also, told her that I'd like to strength train more. (Obviously with the race schedule I had, I wasn't doing strength work).
BOOM! My off season is set: run focus and lot's of strength training. I love strength training. I'll be doing a number of 5ks and 10ks.
We'll see how well I remember how to run a 10k.
The next thing we did was talk about my goals.
I want to stress something. There are time goals that I'd like to hit. There are certain finish times that I need in order to reach some goals.
We train to those goals.
BUT when I am racing, I don't think about those time goals. I am always 100% focused on effort & attitude.
No matter how well trained I am, I don't expect a race to be a PR or a podium or to even hit a certain pace or time. There are too many variables.
Compare two races that I did this year:
AG Nationals: I PR'd all over the place. This race is set up for my strengths. I'm great on the bike on hills. That course was perfect for me. The run was awesome. It was a flat, out/back.
Las Vegas: I had an outstanding swim. I always swim well in rougher conditions. The bike had more and larger hills than Omaha and winds. I had an outstanding bike, but it was far from a PR. The run was a technical run uphill out and downhill on the return on mostly loose rock. It was also 98 degrees on the run. That was not a PR run, but I ran as hard as I could given the conditions.
How can you be disappointed with that?
I was equally happy with both. In fact, I might have enjoyed Las Vegas even more because I tend to gravitate towards races that offer more challenges; the races that require more mental toughness than others.
**
Back to the run focus. There are a number of races here throughout the winter. I love doing them. Last year, I missed the races because I was training for a half marathon. I'm excited to do them again. They are just so much fun.
My next race is the Annual Turkey Trot. Don't hold your breath for a PR with me coming off a cold and taking a couple of weeks off for training. DO expect another crazy fun, family race because JMan and Googs will be running with me once again.
