How Did We Get Here?

I thought I'd put my current state in a bit of context. After all, if you are coming along on my journey, it might help to know how we got here.

As I write, I am one week into the triathlon off season. The 2007 season in my mind was a bit of a transitional season. I would consider my 2005 season to be the best of my short career. I was finishing up grad school, had some extra time on my hands, and no kids. I did several Olympic and Sprint races, and capped my season off with the Redman Full Iron Distance Triathlon in Oklahoma City. Ironically, the 3rd edition of that race is being held today.

I was so eager to get an Ironman under my belt in '05, that I rushed the training and did the race with a solid 6 months of training under my belt, but no real foundation for which that work was built on. The race was a great experience, but I was very glad to be done and back on the couch for a while after I finished.

Four weeks later, my daughter Reagan was born, and my priorities shifted to career and family.

As it happened, 2006 was a lost year from an athletic perspective, so 2007 was a year when I got back into the swing of training and racing.

This year, I did the Houston Half Marathon in Jan, the Lone Star Quarter Ironman in Galveston, TX in April, the MS150 Houston-Austin charity ride in April, and the Old College Tri at the beginning of May. My son Jake was born on May 25th, so I took a few weeks to spend time with him before getting back into the swing of things. I did the Disco Duathlon (the swim was canceled) in July, and my "A" race for the season, Timberman 70.3 in New Hampshire in August. I finished up the season last Sunday, Sept. 16th with the Dave Scott's Texas Man Olympic Distance Triathlon.

None of my races resulted in earth shattering performances. I had some good races and some bad races, and for the most part was happy with my effort, but I finished the season up more motivated to improve than I was proud of my results.

So that brings me to where I am today. I really wound things down after Timberman, hung on to enough fitness to do the Texas Man, and am coming off a week of R&R.

My focus now is on building my leg strength back up, dropping this gut I have developed and slowly adding on some running miles. You learn that I am the world's worst runner in no time, so I'm really going to try to get the mileage up this fall and winter to see if it helps. We'll see.

The plan going forward is to run 4 days a week, lift 3 days a week, cycle once, and swim once for a while. I'm going to keep the runs slow while I build up the miles over the next 4 weeks, then will drop 1 weekly trip to the gym and start using one of my 4 weekly runs to do some speed/tempo work. I have a history of running injuries (shin splints, IT Band, and most recently Plantar Fasciitis) so I'll really have to be careful here.

Yesterday I ran 6 miles down around Town Lake in Austin, TX while there visiting my parents. Town Lake in my mind is the best place in the US to run. Today, I hit the gym for a weight training session focusing on legs and core.

I'm ready to be sore tomorrow, but so be it.