Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Understanding What Works For Me

It was so nice to get back home yesterday after being on the road for over a week. The trip wasn't as financially prosperous as I'd hoped but I laid some good ground work and I know it will pay off in the coming months. The highlight of the trip was definitely spending the weekend in the mountains with AD and taking part in the Hinton, Mountainview Triathlon.

Today after a long day of doing administrative work in the office during an incredible day in Grande Prairie I was happy to be home and get on my bike. Amber said it was perfect weather out there and she had a great ride so I was itching to go. I started out towards Bezanson (our usual route) and was a little surprised to have a headwind on the way out. It was a bit of a sufferfest and I was hoping to go a lot faster but after 43mins of struggling it was nice to turn around and have the wind at my back. I finished the 50km route in 1:21.04 and felt fairly good throughout.

I was doing some thinking this weekend about the progress I've seen with my training and racing over the last couple years. Many athletes try to find that secret formula that will raise their ability to the next level. I'm not saying I've discovered it, but I think I have found what works well for me. I've started to see some real results in all three disciplines after concentrating on intensity. Of course you need to have a base to work from but the intense training and racing Amber and I have been doing over the last couple years has really help raise my overall fitness and I've seen it with setting PR's in every race I've done so far this year.

The intense bike classes and cross-country races we did over the winter have really paid off and I'm super happy about how my season is going so far. It is also the reason I enjoy racing, there is no way you can train intensely enough to push yourself the way you do in a race. Racing teaches you to get used to the suffering and allows you to push your body further than you ever thought possible. My body is even recovering a lot faster and I am not hurting as much as I used to in previous races. Here's hoping the intense training translates into a good Ironman, of course I'm going to be working on a lot of base work but I intend to keep up the hard intense efforts right up until August 31st. I know I'm going to qualify for Hawaii again if I can keep up the hard efforts and push myself to a new level. Guess we'll see soon enough.

1 comment:

Amber Dawn said...

Well you are right about one thing, whatever you are doing seems to be working...you just keep getting faster!
Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store, superstar :-)