Climbing the ladder - toward the 70.3

The sprint tri on March 17, 2575 Miami (Ft. Lauderdale, really) went well, a pleasant way to get back into racing mode.  Next up was an Olympic tri, Nautica South Beach International Distance.  That race went fine.  Of note, the ocean swim was very choppy this year, unlike the smooth nice swim in the same race last year.  More importantly, I was compelled to change a flat in race conditions, right after the swim.  That was not pleasant.  I had only had to do this twice before, during group rides, but never during a race.  I did get up and riding and finished.  Of course, my time wasn't great, but if you subtract the tire change, it wasn't bad. 

Next up in the future is Haines City, In part it is one of my goal races and in part it is a training exercise for the full in November.  Call it a B+/A- race to IM being the A race.

After that, I will be doing one more Olympic in September as a tuneup and I might add one sprint in the summer, perhaps a Triathlon Trilogy race.  This year is much more about training.  It's a switch from my typical pattern of doing lots of racing and using races as my speed workouts.  It is going to require more discipline this way.

My key discipline focuses for now - weekday consistency, and a clean diet.  I am good with getting long workouts in on the weekends, but I've got to nail down the weekdays much better.  I also want to drop 10-15 pounds before the training gets too intense (and I will be needing to eat lots of calories).

Warming up at the sprint on Ft. Lauderdale Beach - RA!!!! Says it all about my love of the game.