Leah here. It’s been a solid 2 months of work, of putting hay in the barn. Work I like, certainly, or I wouldn’t be a triathlete. But after last year’s once-every-other-week race carnival of starting lines, crowds, tests, free breakfast tacos and finishers medals, it was weird to have such a long stretch of just training. Eight weeks of just getting after it, after a seven week break from being an athlete. Eight weeks of going out and doing what I’m supposed to do every day, watching my numbers, and quitting when I’m supposed to be done. Some days I may complain because I’m tired or don’t feel like it right then, but it’s really not hard to get myself out into the fray as right now it’s mostly all easy peasy pace.
But does so much easy peasy mean sucky at racing? It feels like that if you want to get good at something, you should practice it. I’ve, in the past, spent a lot of time doing a lot of race pace and speed work and not put much faith into slow, easy miles being anything but junk. I am starting to like this method training, but it does leave the question of – am I really improving? Can I put it together at a race? All this easy zone 1/2 work – have I forgotten how to hurt?
It was also interesting going into a race I’ve done before at a completely different place in my training. Last year at this time, I was a runner right after half marathon season, who hadn’t had a break from training in a while. This year, I came in as a triathlete who is at the beginnings of base building after a nice long winter’s nap. What would that mean? I postulated that it would translate into bigger gains on the bike and swim, and coming up short on the run from last year.
I’ll post the full race report later, but let me spoil the ending. I got my first overall female win for a race, ever. Sure, it was small (10 girls total), and sure, I probably won’t be able to say that again this year because I’m usually in the middle third of my age group, but I’m taking this moment to celebrate. For all women that entered into the contest yesterday, I came up victorious. I executed a pretty solid race if I do say so myself, and beat out the next woman by 1 point!
I’m also pretty excited that I was able to perform solidly. I got my heart rates where they were supposed to be. My results were predictable. I like when things go by the numbers. Especially when the end result is NUMBER 1! 🙂
So, I’ll take this week to bask in my glory, and enjoy a recovery week, and get ready to hit it hard again for Build 2 in March.
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