Draft for 2015-2016

With my last long course triathlon race in about 4 more days (eeeeeek!!!) for this 2014/15 season, I am drafting down some key goals for the year leading to and including the 2015-16 triathlon season. Like my previous years, my personal thoughts on goals are that they must/are realistic - I don't commit to something even if it is in writing unless I know that I can include it in my schedule/lifestyle.

Balance and core values - I am not going to be racing another Ironman for the season. Personally, this lifestyle is not sustainable. You do miss out on so much of what is out there, outside of triathlon, if you immerse yourself in just swimming, riding, running and recovering hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year. Energy is not the only factor for Ironman-distance training, it is also the finance factor which does add up. I would rather put my energy and money into my life outside of triathlon - such as travel (and not just to the same locations, related to triathlons or not, year after year), food experiences, movies, shows etc etc. Another thing I have noticed with Ironman racing is that it takes a really long time to not only recover from the event itself but also getting back into the swing of training again.

Goals and Events
Lets talk sports goals for the year - I have already signed up for Challenge Shepparton in November. I really enjoyed the race last year and now will work towards improving on the same event (with a bit more training). This will be my main motivator over the chilly winter months to get out there and do some training! I don't find swimming to be a big problem with regards to training without the squad. Motivation and enjoyment for running is what I need so as much as I can, train with the squad. I have looked into running with a run squad on Tuesday mornings - the reason for this is to try something new and I will more likely to turn up to this session where a coach is present than a session where a group of people rock up and do whatever that is on the program.

Another event which I have signed up to is the Mornington Running Festival on the 6th September, running the half marathon. I really do enjoy the half marathon distances - be it a road event or trail.

Over the weekend of 17th May 2015, I will either do the Dirty Gran Fondo event or the Great Ocean Road half marathon. I am undecided between the two. Hopefully I can get my skills up enough to do the DGF event, otherwise, I will do the run.

After Challenge Melbourne, I will be doing a corporate tri as part of a team. I haven't done a sprint race since 2011!!!! My shortest race has been the Noosa Olympic distances, I don't know how to race fast anymore. I am really shitting myself, especially for the run, how the hell am I going to run 4km fast after I have just ridden 10km full ball? I don't think I have any fast twitch muscles left.

Some key goals which I would like to achieve in the next 12 months:
- Run a half marathon under 2 hours. I am finding that with my distance increasing to accommodate the requirements of running a marathon for Ironman, my speed has dropped significantly. I might key in a race in October for this goal, otherwise it will be the Mornington event in Sept. I haven't achieved this goal since Oct 2012 leading up to Shepparton where my fitness was at its peak.
- I want to sign up for a 100 x 100m swim challenge in 2015. It will be just a matter of finding an event which does not compromise my other goals. If there isn't an event, I will just need to find 3.5 hours out of my day, find out what the rules are and hopefully get a helper to count laps and witness.
- Race an olympic distance triathlon under 3 hours. I have only done 3 olympic distances races - all at Noosa. I know it is hard to compare apples with apples so I will not compare this with my previous races. An olympic distance race done in Melbourne will most likely be a wetsuit swim, the ride will not include the Garmin Hill climb and the temperature and humidity will most likely not be as high as Noosa. I will pencil this in for a 2016 event.

Key Sessions
- Continue with Lady Bombs hot laps at Albert Park lake. I found these sessions to be of great value especially in working on strength and speed.
- Strength and core session on Mondays - coordinate with swim session. It doesn't have to be long, 2o to 30 min will suffice.
- This will sound like a record player but the long rides and long runs are important for long course racing. As much as I can, I will make it to the sessions, especially long runs at Fairfield with Greg. I enjoy these sessions as I don't feel like I am running by myself. We tend to work on technique and hill work which is beneficial for me.

On the blog side of things - I am hoping to get it up and running again. It helps me keep tabs on how I am going and I guess this is evident over the last 4 months or so - stopped training, stopped blogging and in turn, stopped being excited about training...

Two more weeks.....really??

In two weeks, I have Challenge Melbourne! It is a half-distance triathlon - 1.9km swim, 90km ride and a half marathon. After Challenge Shepparton, I said that I would train better to get a better result for Challenge Melbourne. Two weeks to go for this event and I must admit whole heartedly that I have not done this.

A few things have come about since Shepparton. I did a trail run event which was fantastic. I resigned from my previous employer whom I had been with for 8.5 years on the 1st December. Since I resigned, I have had to spend time to train/handover projects and also do some prep work for the next role. I had mentioned that the new work is really close to my home - this has been great since I started on the 13th Jan.

So my brother and his wife (the ones who now live in Japan) came to Melbourne for 10 days on the 21st Dec. We spent a few days down at Rye and visited some touristy places down at Mornington. We went to the strawberry farm and up at Arthurs Seat. I did one run (of about 7km) around Mornington through the trails which I enjoyed.

I only did one ride over the Hell Week period which was the unofficial Christmas Day ride of about 70km, ride to the start, around to Black Rock, then to Pete and Sharon's house for breakfast and coffee and then a ride home. I didn't do too much after that but spent time with the family.

I didn't really follow the training program much but did a few 100km rides before work started for the year. A few swims in the sun and now I have a nice shade of tan in contrast to shape of my bathers. I did a few "long" runs since the start of the training program and just finished the longest run since my trail run last Nov this morning.

My training program has now settled down to the following until Challenge Melbourne:

Mon - Morning swim at GESAC before work starting at 5:45am.
Tues - Morning intervals most likely at Mentone rather than MSAC as my working day starts at 8am. Tuesday will most likely be a road ride as we can't do windtrainer yet due to the school closures.
Wed - Open water swims in the morning or same as Monday.
Thurs - Ladybombs in the morning, afternoon run intervals at Elwood.
Fri - Endurance swims at GESAC
Sat - Long ride.
Sun - Long Run

This weekend was the peak week for training so the ride, run off the bike and the long run was the longest distance. I did a 100km ride and no more. The program had 130km but I had too many things to balance up. I did however did my longest and best run in ages this morning. We did 3 laps of the Challenge Melbourne run course which was great for mental boost. We didn't end up swimming due to the conditions (being shit...)

I am really looking forward to Challenge Melbourne - it being the last long course event for the season and start to enjoy being out on the bike doing short rides and not "training" and spending time on being a friend, partner, daughter and sister.