Triathlon Jambalaya

 

New Toys:

I got a new bike seat, the Cobb V-Flow Plus, last week and have had time to mess around with and go on some decent rides with it. Verdict: I love it! Granted I haven’t biked a century or anything so it might change, but the awesome thing is, I can return the seat up to 6 months after buying it. It took some getting used to, but there is no soft tissue pressure which is such a relief!

I finally got some fins for my swimming arsenal. My kick is really weak, (my legs are weak in general) so I thought I’d give these things a go. Verdict: Man, they make a difference! Yes, I move faster in the water and can really feel how my position affects the water flow around me, but man, they do make my legs work!

I got a case the new PowerBar Ironman Perform performance drink in the mail, for free, since I’m a Racine athlete. Cool, huh? They sent me the Orange Mango flavor and the bottles fit in the cages (which is nice). Verdict: Ok, I’ll be honest, I haven’t even opened it yet, let alone trained with it. I’ve been busy the last few days messing with my Infinit formula…had to get that tweaked a bit. But I’ll let you know when I give this stuff a try!

Training Mumbo Jumbo:
The short of it: I need to train more.

The short of it: I don’t really want to.

The long of it: This season has started out extremely slow but for no real reason. Even Britney has noticed it. I have time now to train, so that’s not a good excuse, but my head is just not into it. Training, that is. I still want to race and I’m certainly not throwing in the towel anytime soon, but I’ve just been in a multi-week slump that I can’t quite seem to climb out of. My mentality for Racine has slowly turned into ‘training to survive (aka cross the finish line)’ instead of ‘training to race’ like it should be. I’m not sure what happened, but I just can’t find my head!

Today one possibility hit me, not an excuse (because there is no excuse) but a possible explanation for my lack of mental sharpness this summer. At the end of July I’m moving back to Iowa City for a few weeks before permanently moving down to Texas for the next 4 years of my life. Here is a decently simple equation about why that is a problem for me mentally:

Where: B = Britney;
8 = # of years dating;
5000 = miles between TX and Italy;  
F = Family; x = various moods I can be in when thinking about them;
1000 = miles between IA and TX;
4 = # of years living in TX;
T = advancements in technology (aka skype) and
Y = Degree of homesickness

So, needless to say, my head hasn’t been in Iowa, like it should be, it’s too busy worrying about being in freakin’ Texas!

But today is a start to a new week, and I have a race on Sunday. Whether or not I’m actually ready is to be determined. Below is my training schedule for the week, so feel free to keep me honest during the week.

Next Season:
I found a full iron distance race I’m thinking about doing, the Redman in Oklahoma City in September. Although I would love to do a sanctioned Ironman event, the closest to me is Ironman Florida and that’s still 12 hours away. There is no way I could swing that on a grad student budget or a grad student schedule, so OK City it is.

Now the dilemma of training comes up. It’s clear through this season that I really struggle mentally with long distance training (a sign that an annual IM distance race is out of the question), but I’m still going to race Redman next year just to get one full iron distance race completed. So to keep me mentally in the game do I go with a personal coach or simply join a local triathlon club? Or perhaps both?

The good news is that by living just north of Houston, I’ll have several opportunities for both and have found several options within my budget. Obviously both have their pros and cons. The coach will give more personalized training, while I’d be able to meet new people with a club (which is a major plus since I’ll be in TX by myself!). So for those of you that have either or both, I’d love to hear your feedback!

 

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend, I’ve been getting caught up on the race reports (some with craptastic weather!) and have been excited to see how well everyone did!