less than eight months left

This is my training log, and diary for the 05-06 season.
summer02: montreal sprint tri, half-marathon
summer03-04: olympic distance
summer05: ottawa-kingston, bike race (gatineau grand prix), guelph olympic

Its been four years of training and I'm always striving for something new. I would never have imagined that I would even think about doing an Ironman back then, but its a goal that feels more and more attainable.

This season was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. At the end of last summer I was battling my plantar fasciitis, but was feeling incredible on the bike ever since I got a custom built Serotta Colorado III. I took the fall easy, around December I started to get involved with my current gf, 'becca. Training became pretty lax around this period (my own choice). Races starting popping up and I kept making excuses to not go. My favourite race in Guelph coincided with a friend's wedding, and so my usual start to the season didn't materialize. I also wanted to focus so badly on the Ottawa-Kingston ride in June that I spent A LOT of time biking and neglected the swim & run. The flip side was that I felt strong and extremely confident during Ottawa-Kingston. Aside from the brutal heat on the first day, my legs never felt tired and I was always able to push the pace, and flying up the climbs.

Thanks to the encouragement of 'becca and our bike coach, I found myself at the start of the Ottawa Grand Prix, in the novice category, two laps around Gatineau's 21km loop. I didn't warm up enough/properly and once the start gun went off I was anaerobic - big time. I knew I was climbing strong, and with good form but I had no idea how long it would last. I managed to hang onto a peloton for about one lap, before getting dropped. All in all though, it was exciting and something totally different from what I was used to.

Guelph 2 on the other hand was amazing. I had never done the race in September but with my sister in the area, I decided to try it. The swim went well 32:34/2:11, I was experiencing back pain near the end of the bike portion but I always felt within limits (but managed 1:07:34/34.6) and then 8km into the run, I ran out of steam. Nothing major, but enough for me to drop pace enough for a 48:20 run, about 4 minutes slower than my standalone 10km time.

All in all, injury free season, with definite improvements. Much more comfortable in open water than ever, stronger bike, (even though I didn't use my aerobars OR race wheels), and half decent run considering I barely did any.

What did I learn?

I need goals, and planned races. I have a hard time going at threshold, I'll take a stab at longer distances for next year. I need to really bust my ass on core and gain some upper body muscle mass; my swim times are 10x slower open water than in the pool. Must run more, as well as bricks.

Next year's goal: Muskoka, then Peterborough Half-ironman