Who ever knew Id learn from Candyland?

So its been over a month since I last posted anything new on here. What is really hard to believe is that I have now been a second semester senior for a month....are you sure I didnt just get back to school last week? I guess it is what it is, I have still yet to hear from graduate school or decide precisely what it is I will be doing after May. It's a work in progress however, and although I am a bit nervous about the change I am working on embracing it. I love it here at W&M, that said I will enjoy things such as not having to share a kitchen with roughly 250 other kids, and being able to go to sleep at 10 p.m. without the rest of the world around me planning on 4 more hours of being awake (which is something I have desired to do quite frequently as of late).

As you probably have guessed by now the main reason I have not been posting daily or evenly weekly blogs is because for the past month I have spent the majority of the time I have been awake either in class or training. Last year I trained by myself, trying to swim, bike and run some each week. It ended up more like riding alot, running some, and swimming one time a week. This year I have Debi Bernardes of Youcandoit coaching kicking my ass. When I found Debi I was somewhat skeptical of the benefit of having a coach, I knew most pros did, that said, who would push me harder than i pushed myself. I now wish I could put my foot in my mouth. Thanks to Debi my training now has much more structure, Im getting in the pool 3+ times a week and I am doing workouts. Although this leaves me in a great deal of pain at the end of the day and when I wake up in the morning, especially after 16 hill repeats, I am looking forward to the dividends in the future.

One thing I have learned is the amount that I can push myself is much further than I had ever thought. Killer workout in the morning? Probably going to be followed by some sort of swim in the afternoon. I am not underrating the importance of listening to my body, that said, I feel like frequently we all can do ALOT more with our bodies than we think possible. This i am learning.




Unfortunately the hardest part of the training, and something that it seems as if I will forever work on is patience. Last week I got a pretty nasty cold which took me out for a couple days. In the meantime I spent my downtime looking up results for professional races. Seeing the times I was immediately invigorated to get back to training because I feel that I can compete with these guys. That said, I am young, 22 is far from prime for a triathlete. Harnessing my energy and learning to accept that these guys would absolutely love to teach me a lesson in humility is a must. Much like Candyland, training frequently involves going forward, then landing on Lord Licorice and having to take a few steps back. Unlike the days of my younger years, I cant cheat here, there is no overshooting the evil Molasses Monster Gloppy (who was probably moving at least 1min/mile faster than me this morning) or escaping the wrath of Queen Frostine. Patience is a virtue goes the old saying. That it is, and that I am still working on.