Knowing when to say when

So in the last couple of weeks I have DNF'd my first race ever, and won a weekend long challenge that involved a 5k run, reverse tri, bike TT, and duathlon from Friday to Sunday in pretty brutal conditions.

I learned a lot the last couple of weekends of racing, I learned the most from the DNF though. It was my first, and in a 5k of all things! The last 6-8 months have been a struggle for me. Knee issues, then knee surgery, and now still, recovery. Recovery is hard, you need patience, you need to create a understanding with yourself that you have to accept what is ahead of you even if it wasnt what you were "planning" in your head. My "plan" for this particular 5k was for a TT effort, and to set a baseline 5k to then train all season and run one again end of season and see if I can hit my open 5k goal. It was a warmer, very windy day out at Metro Beach and I tried to push into the wind. While I wasnt running quite as fast as I knew I could, that push into the wind and altering my running style tweaked my knee in a way that did not feel right at all. So, at mile 2, I stopped, dead stopped, and walked it in. Humbling. I felt bad watching everyone else run by me and offer words of encouragement to keep going, "come on your almost there!", etc, knowing that I should have been finished long ago, and you cant exactly explain the situation to them! Granted, it was the right decision, but humbling still.

Considering I came back that week feeling good, and was able to pull off the next weekend of racing just fine, I know it was the right decision since its consistency that pays off and not one workout alone. A year or two ago, I would have not made this decision, so mentally, Ive come a long way. Dont get me wrong, I still know when to keep pushing when its the mind playing tricks, but Ive learned when the body is truly saying no and not just playing tricks on me. I consider this a very valuable lesson learned :)

Follow up to baselines

I thought this would be a good time to update the baselines post with some data. Coming off the knee injury/surgery I put a bit more time in the pool around biking to work on technique a bit more and see if I couldnt get a bit faster. I decided to create a goal for myself to help keep me focused. I started this year/ended last around 1:44-1:45 per 100 meters for my 20:00 time trials. Nothing to complain about, but I wanted to see if I could dip into the 1:30's. This past Monday I hit 1:40 per 100 meters for my 20:00 TT in the pool. I was very happy with this, its early in the season, and it made all the work I did in the pool this winter/spring worth while. If I had not improved, then I would have had to re-evaluate my training to see if doing something different would help me obtain my goal.

Another scenario, one of the people I help coach in the pool seemed to be getting frustrated. I knew the person was progressing but they didnt feel that they were. So during a recent workout, I had them swim a fairly casual distance equal to their last TT distance and I took the time they posted for that normal swim and showed them that their now moderate swim was right around the exact same time their all out TT effort was just a couple of months ago! Not too shabby at all! But its nice to have that data to fall back on to evaluate where a person is at, has been, and where we're trying to get them to go. If you can see your progress its easier to stay motivated and its also easier to evaluate the plan you are following.