Feeling Stronger Every Day

That's one of my fav songs from the group Chicago. It's on my iPod as part of my jogging songs. IMO, this group also had some real duds, including the hit called "25-to 6 to 4." I can't make that math work no matter how hard I try.

Anyway, one of the things that frustrates me (and I suspect most of us) is that it's really hard to track progress when you are working toward an athletic goal, ESPECIALLY if you are doing long stuff. Training for short stuff sometimes gives you quicker progress because you are working on speed more than distance. But training to go long, well, takes a long time.

I've been doing serious triathlon training for a YEAR now--that means pretty much 6 days a week, every week for a year, with some very minor breaks for post race recovery, illness, travel and work. And for so many months, I just failed to see a lot of progress--I slogged through the miles of swimming, biking and running, but it was hard to see past my nose on progress. Part of that is when you are in the middle of training, you don't really see the final baked goods until you put yourself into a race after a taper, but part of it is that progress just takes time. And when you start out older and slower, it takes more time (sorry about that. I would change that if I was Queen of the world, you know).

For some reason, the last couple of weeks I have paid attention and noticed just how much improvement I have made over the last 12 months. For example, I had to do ten 50 yard hard swimming sprints on Monday. Six months ago, I promise you that I could barely sprint for 25 yards without needing a minute to recover from such pounding. Now, I can do a full 50 yards going hard at the same speed I use to churn out the 25 yards, with only a 20 second rest in between (TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: by the 9th one of these babies, I was cursing the water, the pool, my feet and my brain). Also: I did a short bike the other day and was cursing myself that I was only averaging 14.8 mph, but I looked back at Training Peaks and saw my average pace last year was only 14 mph, so I'm faster. Finally, and most fun, was my 4.15 mile this morning. My out the front door run starts with with a half mile uphill (no way to avoid this other that putting my house on stilts). For the last umpteen runs, I have huffed and puffed my way up this initial cruel uphill convinced I would crash and burn out before I'd even gone a quarter mile into my runs (I never did, but I felt like it). This morning (a beautiful morning to run, cool and clear and little wind, predawn and then a gorgeous sunrise--this is one of the reasons I run), I suddenly realized I was already at the top of that little uphill and I never even noticed running up it. I wasn't huffing or puffing or feeling wasted and the rest of the run was a sweet, easy lope through the sunrise.

So, there you are. It's really true. If you work hard, and persist, you will find improvement and success. My mom always told me that, okay, but it's sure nice to have it validated.

Many thanks to my patient coach, Claire Oliver, who has brought me to this point so far. Also a shout out to Patient Spouse, who puts up with so much crap from me having to spend 1-3 hours every day doing some kind of workout, sometimes to the detriment of time together.

Much more to do before my 70.3 in April but now I really and truly know I can do that race.