Getting Lost

Virtually to the day, tonight marks the end of my annual training and racing season. One year ago as of tomorrow morning was the first time I was in the pool since I was a kid. It took months of TI drills and haphazard swim workouts before I could really call myself a swimmer. I'm still getting there. Countless cold winter mornings in the pool, followed up by the essential Starbucks stop before work. Getting up at 5:00, but not getting to work until 7:30. Yeah. That's the lifestyle of the triathlete all right.

Then there were all those afternoon trainer workouts, running workouts, weight workouts, stretch routines, core work and... Yeah, every now and again, recovery. Coming home from work in the dark, putting the music or the DVD's on and zoning out on the trainer, putting in the lonely miles. On the weekends, it was running through the snow-on the trail or on the road-in the cold, blustery wind. That's off-season training in the Northeast, and in no time whatsoever, it will be here again.

Looking over an entire years worth of data, I've put in 478 hours of training and racing since this time last year. My goal was 500, so I'm pleased with that. There are some goals I met this year, and there are some I missed. There are countless things I learned, and a number of things I aim to discover this coming year. Want specifics? Well, then you'll just need to stay tuned to the Grind, because I'll spell it all out right here in the upcoming weeks.

In the mean time, it's transition time. Time to get back towards (not 'to,' yet) the structured workouts. With so much emphasis on running over the last 5 weeks, I'll be getting back in the pool and on the bike to start building back some volume. I'll start with the weights again in a few weeks as well. I'd say by the end of November, we'll be ready to enter the first of the Base-building phases. For now, it's simply play time.

Today, I got lost in the woods (purposely, of course) but managed to find a few new pieces of singletrack at one of my favorite spots. There's nothing like new trails to ride in the fall. The smell of the leaves, the cool, damp air. Twisting, turning, dipping, diving and, occasionally, crashing. It's all good, and it's all right now.

Thanks for reading.