A recap and goal

It's been over a year since I last posted.  The break in my writing doesn't actually mean there was a break in my training.  But my training hasn't been up to par as well.  So a quick recap of the last year:

I did put together my SoftRide, and have loved riding that bike since.  It's a heavy bike, there is no way around it, but the comfort of riding it outweighs the extra weight.  It was a good investment, and has been great for the 4 centuries I completed on it. Though I wish I was more motivated to ride, as this year I never even came close to the riding shape I was in last year.

Triathlons.  I completed 2 Olympic distance triathlons this year.  An achievement mostly credited to my stamina then my training.   After both races, I was ready to die.  As a side note, I placed 3rd in my division for the Litchfield hills triathlon.  Though it sounds impressive and the towel i received for the race is nice, there were only 4 people in my division racing that day.  So not quite the achievement that I sounds like.

As I said before this year, my training has been lacking.  I blame a good portion of that on a new found activity of unicycling.  But all that aside, i did still improve from last year.  In the Pat Griskus Sprint, i managed to shave off about 5 minutes of my time, and this time finish strong. (By that I mean out kicking 3 women in the shoot, but one of them had it coming, she tried to pass me in the last 50 yards, and well I wasn't going to have any of that.) 

One thing I have learned this year, is that it's not a good idea to sign up for all sorts of races ahead of time, granted that it gives you races to look forward to and train for, it also becomes a waist of money if you come to the race and perform poorly.  I can't say with certainty, that I will be able to train all winter and come out a stronger and better athlete in the spring, but i will try. 

Riding, is out for the winter, but it's time to focus on what should have been my strong side in a triathlon, the run.  With several of the fun winter races coming up, i am trying to build up my run to compete in them, and compete in the spring time trail races.