I have been in this sport for seven years now, competitively and I cannot say that I am happy with where my abilities lie. When I signed up for my first triathlon it was for nothing more then to challenge myself, nothing else was expected past that first event. Fortunately, or unfortunately, however you look at it, I was hooked on the sport. The next day I watched my first Ironman in person and 24 hours later I was signed up for my first Ironman.
Looking back on my first two years everything was new to me, the races, the people, the challenges, everything. I was introduced to so much, experienced more the I ever thought, and had no idea where this "adventure" was going to take me. Once I completed my first Ironman I realized this wasn't going to be a bucket list endeavor. The thought that I had a lot more in me to perform well over 140.6 miles intrigued me, but I also knew that I could give a lot more into my training and my performance as well. I wanted to do Ironman again, and the mystique of Kona intrigued me.
I was at a point in my life of a crossroads of sorts. Possibly going back to school, still with a lot of free time on my hands, with no real commitments. I started to "train" rather then exercise, but without any real leadership or knowledge of what to do, I was continually training in the "black hole" that so many fall into. But, with so much "low hanging fruit" left to pick I thought my training was going quite well still get PR's at many races.
Then mid 2011 happened and I started to go backwards. Racine 2011 was an absolute disaster and I started the struggle from the mental side of racing. Going off course in my next race and having medical issues in the next race and suddenly I was very frustrated. I got healthy, took on a coach, and my performance started to improve again. Then some changes in my life happened and 2012 was a survival of more then just training.
But I wanted more....
2013 is where I started to wonder. What could I really do? Where did I want to take myself? How far could I really go? I had some good performances, some alright, and one really good day that let me believe I was capable of a whole lot more.
I always thought it would be cool to "go pro" and with USAT's system of structure to earn your elite license it wasn't out of my realm. Unfortunately triathlon was never high enough on my priority list to really make it ever a reality. I always put work, school, family, and friends first...well not always but at the times that dictate what your true priorities are, and if I really wanted to "go pro" I would've made the opposite choices then I did sometimes. But...oh well.
So here I am, a 30 year old...almost 31 year old age-grouper with some mediocre talent and a few performances that let me know just what I might be able to accomplish. The "pro dream" is just about gone, at least it will never be the goal of my trajectory in my training, just a product. But I am still very young in the sport, with a fairly large foundation to perform off. And for the first time in my life while in this sport, I feel that I have a firm balance with my life demands, and exactly how, where, and when to focus my attention.
I can't really say exactly where I will end up in this sport, but I have an idea of where I want to go.
Goals:
Win local a local race
Qualify for 70.3 World Championships
Be competitive (top 5%) overall in national caliber races
So to wrap this up, I am going to go back to what I originally started in this sport. When I first started I wrote down the details of each session, this was well before I knew of TrainingPeaks or any other of those online programs to record and measure training. I started a blog of my journey, but it lacked a theme, idea, and direction. So I guess you could say I am "restarting" my blog, journal, or whatever you want to call it. I don't intend to share this publicly, it it gains attention, then I hope its for the right reasons. But hopefully I can track my path, and recall my training so that someday when I am far beyond my years of performing in sport, I can look back and recreate those moments that seem to be endless.
Let's see where I can go...
