My head is in kind of a weird place right now. I’m popping down to California this weekend, both to visit my sister and for my first race of the year, a Sprint at Folsom Lake. I’m definitely excited, but conflicted as to how well I expect to do. I also suffer a mental double-take every time I catch myself thinking of it as “just” a Sprint, something that was rather daunting not too long ago.
I’m in the best shape of my life, but I’m in the middle of training for Ironman, and don’t plan on tapering much, if at all. Even without a taper, my regular training pace is faster than my race pace was 2 years ago, when I was training for my first triathlon ever, but I’ll be borrowing my brother-in-law’s bike, which will slow me down a bit, and my wetsuit is now a touch big for me, which will cause extra drag, and I haven’t done any open water training yet this year.
So… I just don’t know. I’ll have fun, no matter what, but I’m very curious to see what my times end up being.
Thinking about how far I’ve come got me to thinking of the minor differences between then and now:
- Swim
- then: I may have still been wearing trunks at this time, and could manage a .5 mile in 30 minutes
- yesterday I swam 1.3 miles in 57 minutes (in a jammer short)
- Bike
- then: didn’t even own one, and had never ridden a proper road bike before, and was rather scared of the skinny tires
- Saturday I rode 55 miles (in 4:05), and loved every minute of it.
- Run
- then: longest run, ever: 7 miles, at 11:22 per mile
- yesterday I ran 12 miles, at 9:45 per mile
- Weight
- then: I was down to about 235, from 260 the year before
- now: 192, and still falling
- Veins
- I was always a little proud of the fat veins I had in my inner elbow…
- … not realizing they were part of a whole network of massive veinage that would appear over time, as I became leaner and leaner. Even my calves are starting to vein out. It’s freaky and I love it.
- Food
- then: Omnivore, but mostly meat and grains (bread/pasta), some fruit, very few greens
- now: Vegan, loads of fruit and veg, still lots of grains, but a much wider variety, and trying for about half gluten free
Tune in next week (or so) to see how I did at the race!