Happy New Years Eve! Today is the last day of 2019 and looking back, it was a pretty good year! I wasn’t sure if it could be better than 2018, but it was 🙂   On a racing level, I really tested my body by doing three 70.3’s and a 140.6, and managed to get a few PR’s along the way too.

Training related, during the second half of 2019 I decided to add some focus on improving my swimming as much as I could without taking away too much training from biking and running.  Previously my attitude towards swimming was that it was the shortest event, I was never going to be first out of the water, and as long as I was fit enough to swim the distance comfortably, I should be good to go.  Also several of the races I have done have been current assisted swims (not the reason I chose them, it just happened to work out that way with the timing of the races and my schedule) so I wasn’t motivated to spend too much training focusing on swimming.

However, when I signed up for Ironman St. George 2020 this past May (the thought of signing up for one IM while I was still training for another freaked me out, but I was afraid it would sell out if I waited until after Chattanooga) I knew I would really need to work on my swim if I wanted to have a good race there.  It would be a legit swim, like IMWI, and that one didn’t go so well with my huge panic attack and I wanted to avoid that this time around.  Plus, I wanted to try to get faster and was tired of being a middle of the pack swimmer.

So this summer I took a private lesson to check out my stroke and see if there were any obvious adjustments needed (and there were!) as well as joining a local Masters swim group on Monday mornings.  Not huge drastic changes, but  those small changes along with staying consistent in the pool (and also adding more volume) really helped get me a little faster!   So with that long term goal set, I just kept swimming, and now only 4 months to go, I’m by no means a speed demon in the pool, but I’m definitely faster!

This year I also was good about keeping up with my PT exercises to avoid injuries, and while I almost escaped without unscathed, I managed to strain my left hip flexor while at the Go! Saint Louis Halloween 10k at the end of October.  (I PR’d but have decided that PR wasn’t worth it!) So back to PT I went, learning that I had limited mobility in my back which was adding stress on my hips/lower body and … once again, still some stability issues with my hips/glues.  Boo!  I have since graduated PT and am now doing some fancy exercises for glutes/hips at the gym along with a shiny new overall strength routine that also includes mobility work.  2020, I’m coming for you and I WILL be stronger 🙂

Moving on to 2020 goals and resolutions….I am not entirely sure what my goals are (other than ‘getting faster’, lol) but I do have a few resolutions and figured typing them out would make them a little more real (and maybe more accountable):

• Keep up with Masters swims (tough during peak IM St. George training since I have my set workouts, but post IM in May would be a great time!)
• Keep up with strength training/PT exercises
• Cut out Diet Soda (such a huge weakness…. regular cola DURING races is still ok though 🙂
• Cut back on sugar (mostly just my daily Oreos and nightly Peanut Butter M&Ms)
• Remember my WHY when training gets tough, I GET to train and race!

Well that was short and sweet, here’s to another great year of swim, bike run (and other life stuff 🙂

Happy New Year!!!