Thoughts ahead of 70.3 Indian Wells 2024

4 weeks. That's what is left of this season. I've got a lot thoughts and feelings going into this one.

The first half of the year went pretty well. A handful of days with a sickness and a small battle with shin splints, I made it to the starting line of Coeur d'Alene. The race went well enough that I started dreaming about what level I could reach by the end of the year.

Shortly after returning home from the race I broke my rib and did very little for about a month. That was followed by a month of training in varying degrees of pain. I was able to get back to it and had my eyes on Indian Wells and a chance to earn a slot at the 2025 70.3 World Champions. We had a vacation planned but I was ready for it. I spent my time in Hawaii with family relaxing but also getting a lot of running and strength in. The last night of the trip I caught Covid and was flattened for a week. I watched my TSS score tank and a feeling of helplessness wash over me.

I had the Mission Bay Sprint coming up so I kept everything endurance based leading up to that. I did much better than I expected but was frustrated because I could imagine what I could've done had I not missed a week of a training.

That week I had been seriously considering finding a coach. I had thought about it a lot in recent weeks but I really felt I needed help navigating some of these obstacles in the future. It's exhausting trying to stay positive and push myself. Additionally I felt lonely. For an entire year I had trained on my own. That's a lot of hours just inside my own head. On social media I saw a call for athletes to apply to Team Mauna, the racing team for an apparel company. I had never heard of them but found out they were local. I applied and a coach reached out. I didn't think they were a good fit but it inspired me to reach out to another. I got on the phone with them and felt like they could push me in the direction I wanted to go. I did get accepted to join the team so I guess I'm a Mauna Athlete now 😉.

I spent a day thinking about it. I could start with them immediately or I could wait until December. They happened to be planning to race Indian Wells (they're a pro) and so I decided to dive in head first. We started right away.

Having a coach has made a huge different. One big difference has been run volume. My coach immediately increased the volume of running having some kind of run workout just about every day. It has been so good for me. I've struggled on the bike workouts a bit which is surprising. And swim has improved tremendously. Having normal swim workouts has made it easier for me to push myself in a way that's familiar. 12 x 100s on a hard interval vs 6 x (100 fr, 100 pull) which just never made sense but I didn't want to modify every single swim workout. So I just did em.

Aside from the workouts being better, I get post-workout comments or I can comment and expect a response within a day or two. It's just nice to get feedback on the workout or even nutrition plan.

Ok so 1 month out and I've got a coach, I'm swimming and running the best I have all year and I believe my bike will come around. What can I do at this race? I have no idea to be honest. Ideally I'll be under 5 hours. The ride is flat. The run is hilly. If my coach is right and I nail my nutrition on the bike (1000mg sodium and100g of carbs per hour) then I should get close.

I'm excited for the race but I'm really looking forward to Oceanside. I'll take a couple weeks off after this race for the holidays and to deal with some dental issues and then get right back to it. I heard recently that you really don't see the gains of the work you've done in a given year until the following year. You'll definitely improve but it's not until year 2 that the growth really happens. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do.

#tillmyhandsbleed