First loser

This previous weekend I participated in my second triathlon of the year, the 5th Annual Payson Sprint Triathlon. The men's results can be found here. If you follow the link you will observe that I lost the event but managed to beat all other losers. I feel good about that result and my personal performance, though I think I may have been a little too relaxed during the run and could have squeezed a little more time by going for broke. I ran a faster per-mile pace in the Tempe Olympic-distance a month ago, and the Payson race was half the distance. But I safely blame my slower run in Payson on the higher elevation and the empty course and subsequent lack of external motivation—chase bunnies—which I've grown accustomed to having in order to bust a gut.

The Payson race was my last triathlon of the “season”, meaning that I have nothing lined up this side of bicycle prison. I'm now trying to figure out what to do. I have thoughts of shifting to a heavier bicycle-oriented training schedule—despite the heat—and doing the Mount Graham hill climb and trying to vindicate myself in the Skull Valley Road Race. I have other thoughts of taking an “off season” of sorts and focusing on my swimming. Focusing on swimming is both practical because it's my weakness and refreshing because summer in Phoenix is hot. But swimming is, well, just not as appealing as riding a bicycle.

While I'm trying to figure out what training to do in the future, I'd like to take a few posts to describe the training I did so far this year. Whatever I end up doing during the rest of the year, the first half entailed what I rate as the best continuous bit of training I've carried out in my life, and I feel that I've continued to learn useful information about how exercise works and is suppose to work. I'd like to share that wisdom. However, I'm out of time for meeting my Monday publication deadline, so we'll have to wait until Thursday to begin my Philosophy of Training.