Almost Go Time

I’m getting excited.  Really, really excited.  It’s almost May, and May means it’s time to race again!  In fact, the first race of the season is in just 3.5 weeks—but I’m getting ahead of myself.

 

Last week I got a chance to sit down and meet with my coach over coffee.  We usually just converse via text or training peaks, and he’s usually pretty hands off.  He writes my workouts, I do them, I write notes, and if there’s something in particular noteworthy or needing comment/answering, he’ll text me.  I’ll get a Monday morning “nice week, good work!” text if it’s warranted.  We’re pretty simple.  Get workouts, do workout, repeat.  So, it was nice to take the time to just chat.

 

Fitness-wise, he’s pleased with where I am.  I think we are both surprised with how my running is suddenly progressing (KNOCK ON WOOD!!..that sounds really cocky, but I’ve seen improvement not only in things like speed, but also in my pacing and overall execution), but he is just happy about it and confident.  We talked about how funny it feels to be training for a half, versus a full.  He pointed out some data info, we reviewed what was coming up and started discussing the upcoming race season.

 

I think that’s when it hit me.  It’s finally here!  And so suddenly!

 

In  3.5 weeks, I have my first race—and 70.3 distance, “local” race.  It’s only “local” in the sense that I’m driving 5 hours to get there…but it’s a small event, so it’ll be really nice and laid-back (well, hopefully) and have that awesome local feel.  I’ll ramp up and hit it hard, but it’ll be there to work out the kinks, remember how to race, and hopefully get some of these nerves out.  :)

 

Because just 5 weeks later, it’s time to GO at the CDA 70.3!!  And THAT is a race I want to RACE.  We talked about that course, my strengths and weaknesses, and he told me how he thinks I can do there (basically:  he has a lot more confidence in me than I have, buuuuut we’ll go with it…).  It obviously isn’t my “biggest” race of the year, but it’s the next most important and the intent is to race it as well as possible.

 

I was also informed that, following CDA, I will be forced to purposefully lose a little bit of fitness.  Probably a good thing he gave me such a big heads-up..but it makes sense.  With another 2+months after that until Australia, it makes no sense to try to top out and then..keep getting better (or maintaining), so I’ll have a couple weeks to go down a bit, before another big build, and then… World Champs!

 

He said I could do some interim stuff.  I could do another 70.3 (possibly Canada, but I really want to just be a spectator, with Mac doing the full!) or just some local sprints/Olympics.  I’ll have to work that out in the next few months, but it would all be low key and with low expectations.

 

Other than short- and long-term season talk, there wasn’t much more to go over!  He reiterated being pleased with my numbers (and seeing improvements in my running form, hahahah), and thanked me for being so easy to work with!  This is probably we don’t meet too often—it’s all pretty straightforward, and although we communicate fairly minimally, we cover everything important.  Do the work, get it done, be through with it.  :)

 

Anyway, of course I left feeing super pumped up.  I’ve been having some great workout sessions and feeling myself really “ready,” but having that talk kind of made it real—no more of this pre-season and building, it’s just about time to see what’s there!