Sunday, April 13, 2014

What have I been up to?

After another rocky start to my triathlon season, I think that I may have finally found my groove! So, what have I been up to in the past few months? Well, here's the short version:

I've been swimming...



I've been biking here...



and here...



I've been running...



I've been eating...







I've been recovering...

I've gotten presents...









I've had visitors...



I've seen cacti...



And here's the longer (but not too long) version:

I have been in the southwestern US now for about 5 of 8 weeks. I escaped the Toronto winter at the beginning of March to train in Arizona and Utah. I am so lucky that I have my coaching, my parents and my sponsors, which allow me to actually get away to train somewhere warm for this long.

The first 3 weeks I got to spend in Arizona. I swam with the University of Arizona Masters team almost every morning. I met some awesome, nice, super-fast swimmers there. No doubt my swimming got a huge boost of fitness from having such a great group to train with. I also did A LOT of biking...up Mount Lemmon, through the Catalina Foothills, along the Old Spanish Trail, through Saguaro Canyon. It was absolutely amazing. My running even started to come around as I escaped the treadmill and ventured outside in the Arizona heat and wind and even tackled some real hills! It wasn't all hard work - my mum was with me for the duration of my time there and my dad joined us the last week. Even a fellow triathlete, Faye, and her fiancee, Marty came and spent a few days! After about 80 hours of training in the Arizona desert I was ready for a rest week and to venture north to Utah. I dropped my parents off at the Phoenix airport and we said our goodbyes. Then I was on the highway, driving through the Hoover Dam, past Vegas and headed north on the I-15 to St. George.

My first week in St. George was an easy week. I settled back in, did some short swims, bikes and runs to keep the legs moving, but mostly I just relaxed and recovered. My second week here, this past week, was when the real training began again! I got re-aquainted with the St. George bike and run course - wow, are there ever a lot of hills! I met some cows who looked scary, but were pretty harmless. Had some good sets in the pool. Brought my run fitness a little closer to where it was pre-injury. All in all, a good week! The next two weeks I will be repeating this past week of training, only each week gets a little bit harder. Then I will have an easy week before I race in the US 70.3 Pro Championships :) After being inspired by fellow pro triathletes who have already started racing, I am getting excited to compete again!

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1 comment:

  1. Good luck at the St.George 70.3, Miranda!
    Hope to see you 1st Cdn female out of the water on Ironman.live.com!
    We miss you at WattsUp cycling!

    ReplyDelete