Pulling Back and not Falling Behind

On the trainer during Hurricane Isaac

    My Ironman may be over, but, my triathlon season is not. I still have an Olympic Distance Race in a month (Escape to Miami), a 5K Open water Swim Championship a week after, and, I’m closing out my season with a Half-Ironman (Miami Man) a little over a month after that. I still have about 2.5 months to go in my 2012 triathlon race season and I’m struggling to figure out how to re-tailor my training for these events.

    After racing 112 miles on a mountainous bike course, there is no doubt that the 26 miles of the Olympic course is going to mentally fly by. But, that doesn’t mean that I can just sit back and enjoy the ride if I want to place well. I need to turn up the gear and power through the course hoping that my muscles can handle it. But, can they? In a month from now, will my muscles even really be there anymore? I don’t know.

    It’s hard to force myself to back off of my intense Ironman training in favor of quicker, more intense workouts. I feel like I’m going to lose all the strength that I have gained over the past few months. But, no athlete can continue year-round at such an intense level. Yes, I still need to train hard for my Olympic and Half-Iron races. But, it’s a different sort of training. I need to add more speed work and decrease the amount of pure endurance training. I just hope that I can handle it mentally.

   Right now, I KNOW that I’m still in great shape. But, I fear that I’m going to lose it. I fear that I’m going to go out too hard with the endurance base no longer there to back me up. And, that fear is what, I think ultimately, could be my biggest hindrance in doing well in my upcoming races.

So, I've created a new plan....I'm going to work hard to overcome this fear by mentally leaving my Ironman behind.  For now, my upcoming races need to be the focus of my season, and not the race that has already come and gone.   We shall see how it goes.  Although, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...