I Wonder What's Next

So, after 5 months of training...I competed in my first (sprint) triathlon. I raced smart and hard and finished just one minute shy of my goal of 1:30 on the 300m swim, 16.1 mile bike, and 3.3 mile run. Despite coming in a tad short of my goal, I had a blast and would rank it as one of my favorite races of all time.

So now what?

I told myself (and my wife) that I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on triathlon until I knew if it was something I wanted to continue doing after this summer. My mind now starts to think of all the crap I can buy to gain a little speed. : ) So, now I start my wish list...

-Aerobars for my bike

-Faster cogs/crank for bike (already bought off Cowboy Jeff's bike)

-Wet suit (so I can keep swimming through the winter/fall)

-Triathlon seat post (for more aerodynamic positioning)

-new running shoes (mine are just about at their max mileage)

-Tri suit

I'm not sure if any of this stuff will actually make me faster. I'll have to start my research I guess.

So what's my next move? I'm not sure. I think I'm going to put about 40% of my energy into weight training, 40% of my energy into running, and 20% into swimming and biking. I'll likely not sign up for another triathlon until the Spring and will focus on preparing for running events for the Fall. Ken and I are thinking about signing up for a half-marathon in October. Ken and John are running their first full marathon in December/January...so I'm really tempted to join them. I'm just not sure I have the time to put in the weekly mileage I would need to safely run 26.2 miles.

I'm afraid if I stop swimming I will loss ground technically...so I'll likely continue one swim per week. I'd say I'm most proud of how far I've come in my swimming this summer...albeit at the expense of my running.

There is a part of me that thinks I'm not going to progress much more on the bike until I upgrade my bike. That part of me is probably wrong...so I'll likely keep pounding away over the Fall/Winter and re-evaluate in the Spring. I will say this, the only folks that were passing me at the race on Sunday where those with sweeter bikes. ; )