Reflections on 2014

Well I am pretty happy with what I accomplished this year.  It was a year off Ironman racing-so I was focused more on speed than endurance.  Also added some bike racing into my schedule and really had fun with that.  From a race accomplishments here are the highlights:

XTerra:

• Canadian National Champion
• 11^th at World Championships 
• Overall Woman at XTerra PDX

Olympic Distance Tri:   

•  9^th World Championships
• Overall Master at Portland Tri

Sprint Triathlon:  9^th World Champs.

 

70.3 Triathlon:   

• Calgary 70.3 5^th – with fastest swim and bike split for my AG.  Set a PR by 5  min  with a horrible run.
• St George 70.3 7^th AG

OBRA Road Race State Champ.:  2^nd 50+

Cross season is still going but I am going to end up with my highest placing in the series since I started racing 4 years ago

So—I have a lot to be happy about.  I also learned a lot and have some things to apply going forward.  Here is what I learned this year:

1. I like racing - -what I mean by this is I am happier if I get out to a bunch of races rather than picking one or two races race for the year and training focused on them.  It is tougher to schedule and still be able to peak for the important races and for the C races you have to make sure that you put the right amount of effort into them so that you don’t screw up your training plan.  I also like trying new races.  We kind of got stuck in a rut for a few years and were doing the same races -- those races are great, but it was a great adventure this year doing mostly new races!
2.  Bike racing is fun.  I added some bike road racing into my schedule - -it was a lot of fun and a great workout.  I will continue to include bike racing in my schedule going forward.
   
3. Strength training is really important as you get older.  In 2013 I made a big mistake and did not keep my strength training up towards the latter portion of the race season (2 Ironmans) and I really paid for it this year.  Let’s just say I had a chain reaction of several events caused by lack of core strength.  I ended up with tendonitis in my foot and have not been able to run much for most of this year.  I was religious with my strength training this year and am using off season to get rid of the last bit of the tendonitis.  I want to have a healthy 2015 
4.  Nutrition issues can sneak up on you.  I had issues caused by incorrect nutrition right before my biggest race of the year (XTerra Worlds).  They could have been avoided—but I was not paying close enough attention to my electrolyte intake in the weeks right before the race (high intensity and also trying to heat acclimate) and this caused me to almost not be able to start the race.  It certainly compromised my performance. 
5.  I need to figure out how to peak better.  I did a bike performance at the Portland Tri—3 weeks after Olympic Distance World Championships –on legs tired from an entire build week and a hard brick the day before that was about 15W higher average power than I did at the World Championships (it was actually my highest average power ever for an Oly tri)
6. I can push a lot harder than I thought I could.  This mostly applies to biking since I couldn’t run much this year.  But hope to apply it to my running next year.  Yes, it hurts – get used to it.

What I really love about this sport it the continual learning process.  This year was the 30^th year for me doing triathlon – so hundreds of races later, I find that I still have a lot to learn.  I also feel that in the past couple of years I have embraced the joy of this lifestyle and racing.  When I was younger, in pretty much every race I did I would always ask myself “Why am I doing this?  It’s hard, it hurts.”  Somehow, I always got past that and once the race was over that moment was forgotten and I went on to the next event.   I have noticed the absence of that question over that last couple of years – I look at each race as a gift and a celebration – regardless of whether it is going well or not—there is always something to be learned and there are always others to help and encourage—just doing that is enough to get me to the start line.  I’ve also spent more time in the past few years mentoring new athletes—I think this is where the joy comes from.  Watching people transform their lives is so rewarding and being part of that is the best gift ever.

What will 2015 bring?  Hopefully I will be able to apply what I learned this year and continue to grow as an athlete.  I will be racing Ironman again next year-at least one, potentially 2.  It will be fun to see what the year of speed will do for my long course racing.

Of course it actually takes a team to do all this.  I want first of all thank Don for being the most wonderful husband in the world and putting up with all this in addition to being the world’s best Sherpa and keeping all my bikes in top working order.  Special thanks to Kirk Whiteman of Tempo Cycling  who not only kicks my ass but has shown me I can do more than I ever thought I could.  Also thanks to Jarod Warf at Adapt Training for keeping me strong,  Altra Running for keeping my feet happy and Athletes Lounge for gear and sponsoring the worlds best cycling team!