The year is starting to pick up speed. Over the last few weeks I completed the first cycle of my 12 week 70.3 race prep plan. This week is recovery/ assessment and it is welcomed. Yesterday I completed my swim time trial and shaved another forty seconds off last month's time. I also achieved my goal of 800 meters in less than fourteen minutes (I had five seconds to spare). This hurdle means that my swim stroke is now at least proficient and I can begin working on improving swim fitness. Being so cold outside has led me to spend lots of time on the bike trainer, so I am curious to see how that works out. I haven't ridden on the road in almost a month, so I feel like I may have lost some fitness, but lots of people smarter than me swear by trainer workouts. If the wind ever calms down and temperatures warm up enough I'll test it out. I'm also curious to see how my run time trial will be. I made nice improvements each cycle up to now, but with the new plan the focus has switched from speed building to endurance building.
The Houston half marathon was a success and now all focus shifts to the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas 70.3. This is a half ironman distance race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) in Galveston on April 10. Everything centers around Moody Gardens with the swim leaving from Palm Beach and coming out at the paddleboat dock. The ride is along the seawall over the San Luis pass and back, and the run is a four loop course around the Moody Gardens complex. This race is also the US Pro championship, so there should be a good turnout of professional triathletes. There will be a few firsts for me in this race. In addition to being my first 70.3, it will be my first race to be fully trained and tapered under one of Coach Boo's custom race prep plans. It will also be my first race dictated by Coach Boo's pace guidelines. I am confident that these will combine for my best race to date. I am excited that Kyle will be joining me for this race, but unfortunately David is still sidelined with an injury. The triathlon world will have to await his race debut.
You may have noticed a recurring theme throughout these posts. Obviously I am a big fan of Coach Boo's training methods. When I submitted my last set of assessments he replied with the following: "Here are your increases during the past 8 weeks...
Swim - 7 TriDots or 2:21 on 800m TT
Bike - 7 TriDots or 1:49 on 15-mile TT
Run - 2 (almost 3) TriDots or 2:34 on 10k TT
Very strong and disciplined work! Thanks for the effort. I hope those stats find their way to your blog. Pretty impressive progress". Well here they are coach- with no intention of bragging, but testifying to the validity of the TLET system. I am not just a fan of the training system, but I am a big fan of Coach Boo. In addition to his day job/ husband/ father of three responsibilities, he coaches 62 athletes including 7 elite/ professionals. He recently started a junior triathlete program as well. As the founder of Tri4Him, he continues to provide a growing infrastructure for over 250 triathletes to glorify Christ through sport. It is apparent that he is a man led by the Spirit for the increase of Christ's fame. In the village required to make an Ironman, we are very fortunate to have Jeff Booher as mayor.
A few weeks ago my family and I joined the launch team of Neartown Church. Neartown is a newly formed body "inviting busy people to experience the peace of life with Jesus Christ" meeting in downtown Houston. This was not an easy decision for us to make, but we realized it was far less a decision and far more an act of submission and obedience. Like most of Neartown, we left a church that we loved and had no desire to leave. That being said, we are very excited about the future. We have a highly skilled pastor and membership I look forward to building and increasing relationships with.
Jacob is starting tee ball and the girls are enjoying gymnastics. Claire is excelling in school and Jacob was awarded the "character award", for which I could not be more proud. Bella continues to fulfill our parent's prophecy of "someday you'll have a child that...". Nicole is the steadfast tie that binds the household together and does a wonderful job doing so. These are my reason and my purpose
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