Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Taking stock


Thanksgiving is tomorrow. A good chance to take a few days off and relax a little bit. A good opportunity to take stock and look at where I'm at (and where I've come from.) Let's break it down:

Overall health:

This is a big positive for me. Since the beginning of the year I've lost almost 20 pounds, from the mid 180s down to the mid 160s. I can attribute that to a big change in my diet and more consistent training. Because of that, my cholesterol levels have dropped from "dangerously high" to "acceptable-borderline."

Sport specific:

Run -- No doubt that the big story here is my knee. After an injury in March, I had microfracture repair surgery to the femural articular cartilage of my left knee. After six months, I'm back to running at nearly 100% function. Performance has suffered, but I've built back up to a one-hour run at a steady 10-11 minute/mile pace.

Biking -- Again, the knee surgery pretty much killed the summer riding season for me. Since surgery, I've had a long ride of 40 miles and I was right about the middle of my age group at the Giant Acorn Sprint Tri. I think this is going to have to be the point of emphasis if I want a good finish at Eagleman.

Swimming -- This is the brightest spot for me. I lost the least amount of time in training and have increased the yardage I've been doing from about 4000 yards/week to 6000+/week. Those aren't epic numbers, but enough for solid improvement. I'm holding ~1:45/100 yard pace for long swims (1750 yards +). I'm not going to rule out being able to get that down into the 1:30 range.

Mental health:

A lot of things need to go right if I want to suceed in the upcoming year. The key to making it happen is going to have to be good mental focus. I've got to train consistently, with the proper mental focus and determination. Most importantly, I've got to remember that all of my decisions will impact my performance. I've got to eat right, get enough sleep, and stick to my schedule even when I'm thinking about wimping out. Having a coach is a big help, since it takes the stress of coming up with the plan off of me. I just have to execute it!

Fortunately I've given myself plenty of time to put it all together. So I'll take a few days easy, then kick it back into gear for December.

Ken

Keep me honest -- check out my training log.

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