Well, this hasn't quite been the year I was hoping for. I can't say that I thought uprooting my new family and moving to a new part of the country would be easy, but I didn't think it would be this difficult. After 7 months up in Boulder I feel like we are finally hitting our stride here and settling in. More than anything it seems the move and the attempt to find two sufficiently paying jobs has taken a toll on the piggy bank. We've managed to sit fairly comfortably, but there hasn't been any extra money for racing. So instead of the 6-9 races a year that I'm used to, I was only able to compete in Kansas 70.3. A race in which I did not quite hit my expectations...
However, things could have been much worse. Although the lack of racing meant it was harder than normal to keep my focus in training, I was able to continue training pretty much unobstructed in paradise under the tutelage of Cameron Widoff. That's not too bad at all! I feel like I gained a great deal of strength this year, however without racing, I haven't had much concrete evidence of this. But I am ready to begin my build for a big year next year.
I have taken a few weeks to unwind and refocus and tomorrow I start the long build for next year's tri season. I'm going to make a few changes to help keep the focus for the coming season.
1. I am going to focus more on my run this coming season. As part of that, I have set a series of time goals and run races that I plan on doing over the winter.
2. I am going to be on a cycling team with some friend next year. As of now we are called Tidewater Textiles Racing. Even if they are not tris, the competition and racing throughout the year will help me keep my eyes on the goal.
3. I am going to select a race season that I can actually... race. And then I am going to make sure I pay for the races and travel ahead of time so that there are no excuses to not race.
The overall goal is still to become a professional triathlete. Now, it is time to eliminate all of the distractions.
It's hamma time.
