Offseason

Ironman Florida is on November 4th, 2017. I had registered in November 2016. A year. I had a year to get my ass in even better shape than I already was. That being said, full on training for a year is far too long. It's too much mentally, too much physically, just too much. I knew that this was going to push back my entire season by a few months. I didn't want to register for any early races with the knowledge that it would extend things even further. The training plan I had discovered had me starting IMFL training in May. That meant I wanted to do a 70.3 about halfway through, putting it right around the end of the July. I found Ohio 70.3. Perfect. I had already registered for the Chicago Triathlon again (because home turf!) which was at the end of August. Perfect. My season was set. Three tris, multiple stand alone runs, and a plan to revamp my nutrition. I was ready to get leaner, get stronger, get faster, and enter full on beast mode.

Nutrition was always a struggle. It continues to be. I am sure if I went to more therapy, specifically focusing on my jacked up relationship with food, I would be able to resolve a lot of my issues. Or, I could continue to eat whatever I want and just exercise more. Because that's a completely normal response to food....I found books by Matt Fitzgerald called "Racing Weight" and "Racing Weight Quick Start Guide." They're all about shifting focus from losing weight to lose weight to getting lean to perform better. I am not being paid by him, nor am I being sponsored, nor do I have any sort of personal gain from them, but I 7000% recommend them. I have not yet reached what I believe in my racing weight, in that I still am not at what I think it my optimum body fat percentage to maximize performance, but I am closer than I have ever been. I lost fat, gained muscle, and felt so much better than I have ever felt before. There was something to this science. It was while following this program that I reached my lightest that I have ever been in my adult life. Down 102 pounds in 7 years. So many ups and downs, some one step forwards and two steps back, but overall, only forward.

My offseason training had also changed drastically. I was utterly thrilled with my Arizona 70.3 performance, but because of my competitive nature, I continually thought "what if I could just run? What if I didn't have to run/walk? Would my knees hold out? Would I reinjure myself? Would I finally conquer this fear that is holding me back?!"

I had joined the Chicago Triathlon Club. Every Sunday morning, all winter, they held "muffin runs." the group would meet at 9, run for an hour, then go eat all the brunch. Any time food was involved, I was there! The first one just happened to be the week after Arizona. Sure, I had just done a 70.3. I only needed a week off, right? I went for it. Ran for a full hour, over 6 miles, no knee problems. Not one. Wait, what? Did that just happen? I hadn't been able to run that long for over a year. Just like that, everything was fine? Sure. Sounds great! This continued all winter. I was able to run more, and more, and more. I still treated my foam roller like my best friend, my IT bands and vastus lateralis muscle were inflamed and angry almost constantly, but I was running! Really running! 2017 was going to be my year.