March and April have been fantastic months! March finished base training where I hit most of my goals; April started speed training, of which I have little experience, but am enjoying what I'm coming up with. In March I pulled a PR for 20 mile bike on flats, riding at 18.5 mph, and towards the end of April I snagged a PR for a 300 freestyle swim (in practice) of 3:55.
The real highlight of the last two months has been participating in the Galveston IM 70.3, doing the swim as part of a relay with two fantastic teammates!
I absolutely loved the race, the best thing being the talent that showed up. Lindsey Corbin was there, Miranda Carfrae was supporting Tim O'Donnell, and I swear I saw Charlotte McShane, but I'm not sure. Maybe that was just wishful thinking. I ate supper the night before with Matt Russell who took 5th, but missed the podium by mere seconds. We were talking about racing, conditions, weather, etc, because there was a storm rolling in the night before. Matt was so cool telling us about some of his coldest races. Speaking of the storm, we started with a 17 mph wind which put a good chop on the water, but then it kicked up to 20 mph for our biker and runner. I experienced a nice dynamic of the relay. We were all smiles, pushing hard, and having a great time, while everyone else was suffering because they were doing the entire race. I was pretty ok with not smoking myself for 6 hours.
Mauricio Cruz won the race although Tim O'Donnell led every leg of the race. Everyone was sure Tim was going to come in first, but Cruz rounded the last turn ahead of Tim a short bit before the finish. The announcer was fairly surprised. In the post-race interview, Cruz said O'Donnell has been one of his idols for a long time. This reminded me of the saying to train until your idols become your rivals.
Here are my March and April stats which I'm fairly pleased with.
May looks to be the most aggressively planned month of the year. I'll need to be locked in on scheduling pretty tight to make sure I hit these numbers.
As a bit of a side, as most would expect with a change in lifestyle, my weight is dropping. I've lost 13 lb since the beginning of Dec, and while I think I'm near settling out to an equilibrium, when I look at myself in the mirror I perceive I have a little more of me to give. I'm not doing anything special on diet, but making healthy choices most of the time. I choose whole foods most of the time, over cooked or processed; I minimize breads, pasta, and cereals, but don't completely eliminate them (what's life without pizza every now and then?). I eat red meat, but my most common meat is chicken thighs. Eggs and fruit are most common for breakfast. I do need to increase my discipline a bit more as I find I do reach for a junk food option a bit more than I like, when I am looking for quick energy or curing belly rumblings. Here's how my weight has slightly declined over time; nothing big and fast, but this feels healthy and permanent, and all due to focus on lifestyle rather than dropping weight.
I am going to close out these thoughts with one final plug for my teammates. My swimming wouldn't be where it is without the help of the team I swim with. I'm always chasing the faster people which motivates me to push harder. They are also giving me stroke advice which has proved invaluable. While I don't have a bike team to get the same benefit, I have a network of bikers who are always talking to me about training methodologies, tools, etc. While I can definitely do things on my own, I wouldn't be where I am today if there weren't others on this journey with me. Thank you all!
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