A Toast to 08

Sigh. I've been reflecting a lot these past few days. Even more so after last Thursday when the top 7 guys on the XC team left to go to pre-nationals in Indiana. Yup, the weekend before in Abilene I was, "Number 8" as I have begin to refer to myself. I was pretty disappointed at first but I still have another chance to make the team to Nationals at conference and regionals which are coming up in November. I think its been taking my body a lot longer to adjust to running 50-60 miles a week, my ankles/achilles/feet have been a horrible nuisance these last few weeks. Sometimes their fine and other times they'll ache and hurt so bad it hurts to walk.

My lower leg issues and failure to make the "A" team have prompted some of these "moments of reflections" along with a massive fluctuation in my energy levels and motivation. I'm not sure what my problem is and I've been pretty discouraged the last couple weeks. So I started thinking about the whole season and what I've accomplished.

I accomplished all the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the season. Qualified for Sprint Worlds again, broke 18 minutes off the bike, recorded a top 10 finish at Nationals (And Worlds). In fact, I didn't finish outside the top 10 all season and recorded a couple overall wins to boot. Here's a quick rundown of my results.

03/08 Athens YMCA Sprint Triathlon- 3rd overall
3/29 Lonestar Sprint Triathlon- 4th overall
04/20- USAT Worlds Qualifier in Alabama - 7th overall (I think) 2nd overall
04/27- Mckinney Triathlon- 1st overall. - And on my birthday too!
05/25- Capitol of Texas Sprint- 2nd Overall
06/06- Sprint World Championships- 8th 16-19. (3rd American) I NEVER want to swim in 51 degree water again!
07/06- HOT Tri- 1st overall- Though there was a huge mix up with the course and I believe I really deserved 2nd.
08/09- USAT Junior ITU National Championships- 7th overall.

Along with all the tri's I did 10-15 bike races, winning a few of them and getting enough starts to upgrade to a 4.

Looking back I am nothing but pleased with my season. I was very consistent and continued to improve as the season progressed. I had a number of breakthrough's in my run and improved a little on my poor swim. All the hard work paid off and it was well worth it.

It's been long though. Since January my training has been focused and pretty intense. First with the goal of qualifying for worlds, then performing well there, then getting ready to race some draft-legal tri's which ended up being just nationals, but I recorded a solid performance there. This spring was tough. I was training 15-20 hrs/week, working 15-20 hrs/week, and taking 16 hours of classes. There were many mornings in January, February, March, and April where I left the house at 5:30 am and didn't get back until close to 11 pm. Many days I didn't want to train, many times I was so tired at the end of the day but had one last swim or run to get in. But it paid off, I had a fantastic year and took some huge leaps forward with my training and performance.

I can't thank my coach, Shelly enough for how far she has taken me in the last year. Last year at nationals I finished 39th and couldn't run sub 6:30 minute miles off the bike. Now it's a bad race if I'm not running close to, or below 5:30's. She has taught me a lot about training, recovery, and nutrition. I'm excited to be on an awesome team- IconOne Multisport. And looking forward to the future.

For now though, I'm ready to be done. I'm enjoying cross country but its getting to be more of a struggle. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I'm ready for a break. Or, the "offseason" as we call it. Thats not to say I want to stop working out. Quite the opposite in fact. But I want to take a break from structered training. I'm ready to bike 4 hours because I feel like it, run 15 miles because I want to. I want to go mountain biking, trail running, camping, backpacking, rockclimbing. i want to stay up late, eat bad foods and not feel guilty, sleep in when I feel like, or get up at 5 am because I want to run before the Saturday morning group ride.

So here's to 2008, and whatever may come in 09.