I'm never doing this again...

These are the words that have come out of my mouth way too many times and yet, I find myself doing things over and over again.  As painful as may seem...

This past weekend, I found myself at the start line of Ironman Boulder 70.3.  If you've been following my blog, I wrote about my very first experience on this course in 2010.  It was painful.  I was signed up to race this year and really put to the test everything I've worked for in the past couple of years.

I don't want to brag too much about my swimming abilities, but while I swam lots when I was younger, and I've kept my swimming consistent but haven't really done much speedwork, I've seen a couple minute improvement and granted, I can now comfortably swim the distance, although not fast.  Two years ago, it was a victory just to get out of the water.

2010 Swim Time: 47:31
2012 Swim Time: 46:00

The bike has been a whole different story... I've been training pretty hard on the bike this year.  Mostly, because I need to make sure that by the time I get off the bike, I'm still feeling strong to have a good run. I had been successful at both big events this year: Oceanside and Coeur D'Alene and I had made it my mission to keep it that way in my 3rd event.  My only goal for this race had been to break the 3h mark on the bike... And so I did.

2010 Bike Time: 3:21:32
2012 Bike Time: 2:54:13

Now, run... this has happened to me a few times this year: I'm SO excited about my ride, that I go on my run feeling absolutely amazing.  While on my bike I was thinking that my only goal was to beat 3h on the bike, I got to thinking that this was a race, and I had been having a great year.  In addition, this was indeed my last triathlon in the F25-29 age group as I will be 30 next year so I figured I'd give it my all on the run.  Not only that, but the one thing I've been doing the most the past 6 weeks has been, well, RUNNING.  It was time to press the play button once more.

Just like I did in Oceanside, I got in a comfortable pace and just kept going.  I made a point of slowing down at aid stations and drinking plenty of water, it was getting pretty hot.  And all in all, I had a pretty amazing run absolutely crushing my previous year's run.

2010 Run Time: 3:19:47
2012 Run Time: 1:58:59

And just as that was a HUGE improvement, it was way closer to what my Oceanside time was: 2h13m. Granted, this time around, I was 10lbs lighter as well. Not only am I saying that my run improved significantly, which I'm basing on the times of my run races alone, but I'm sure that my bike has been pretty good for me as well, since now I've been strong enough to get off the bike and run a very respectable half marathon.

I am happy and now, I move on to another age group, more running, to getting faster, a new season and a new coach.