End of season Wrap up Part 2

So I finally have time to sit down to finish this post, it has been a busy week.  So where did I leave off...right, what worked and I was going to move on to what did not work and what's next.

So what did not work.  In April I contacted a local company for VO2Max testing for zone training, what a disaster.  I was suppose to run my slow runs really slowly, almost walking in order to increase my zone 1.  In my opinion, it made me a worse runner, I felt sluggish and s l o w.  I gave this up after 2 months and joined the marathon clinic at my local Running Room.   

Something else that did not work was my biking, I am a terrible cyclist.  I really really need to work on this during the winter.  Biking is the longest part of a Triathlon so not being a good cyclist really hurts your performance and time.  I will work on my strength and do some hill training on the spin bike this winter, I am an OK runner and swimmer, next year is all about the biking.

So this leads nicely to whats next.  This year was about growth, doing new distances and pushing myself to prove I could do it...and I did.  Next year is about speed and constancy. I am working on strength and speed during the winter, in all three disciplines.  Next year is about building on this year, I can go the distance so now its about time and endurance, doing it better, faster, stronger then before.

Ironman: the final frontier. These are the blogs of the athlete Allyson. Whose three-year mission: to explore strange new races, to seek out new PB's and new distances , to boldly go where she has not gone before!...... whoop my Star Trek geek is showing.

So I have 2 fun runs left for this year, a 5K tomorrow and a 10k on New Years Eve.  I am looking forward to these races, to run with abandon and enjoy the run and the runners beside me.  After that is the Goofy, I am running that with my friends Barbara and Lori. This is for fun, time is not even in the conversation.  We are sorting out costumes and planning on taking photos along the way.  I then start the speed portion of my year, I have aggressive time goals for Around the Bay (30K) and my Half Marathon in May here in Ottawa.  The summer is Triathlon, a summer that will be book-ended by 70.3 Ironman events, with a few shorter ones in the middle and a late fall marathon will finish off my year. 

I have a solid plan, goals and a great coach, I also have a secret dream/goal for next summer not running or triathlon related, crazy I know. I am looking forward to the journey and what it will teach me about myself. To me the race is the icing on the cake, the exclamation point at the end of the sentence, its the training I really love. Who would have thought I would say that, me the confirmed couch potato who though those who did these things were crazy.  I could not have done these things without a community of runners and triathletes who train and motivate me, my awesome coach and my family, especially my marathon man, who love me unconditionally and put up with all this training and expense.