My first of many 70.3s to come!!!

I know it has been forever since I last wrote to update. So here it goes. I after my last race in Dallas talked with my coach and since we had planned on doing a 70.3 we to a look and there was one in Arizona called the Soma Half. I was excited yet tired and would have days of great workouts and then be tanked, my recovery was taking a bit longer than usual but that is what happens at the end of a season. My best workout before the race was 20x400 ave. 72 all on the 2 min. It was a great workout both physically and mentally. I didn’t take the race prep serious as was evident when I went the weekend before to visit my brother in Southern Mississippi with mom and his girlfriend. I struggled bad the last week and in fact was only in the water one time over the last 7 days prior to the race, well enough excuses. I flew to Phoenix two days prior and was seriously thinking about bagging the whole thing but as always being in the environment always gets my juices flowing. So race day came and the I just told myself to grind all day, started the swim and well got off course twice so bad that a paddler had to tell me “you’re way off” and so got on the bike after a lame 30 min 2k swim. But knew that a bad swim wouldn’t break my race, but a fast first loop on the bike which was a three loop course would break me and so the first loop I was patient, and there was a lot of traffic so I just kept grinding. After the first loop I was feeling great and started to open it up and wow I had a great bike split for my first 56 miles race went 2:11 and then the run started my plan was to take the first half out easy and then let it rip the last half. All was going great, I was feeling great except for the dryness in the air would not let me keep cool for my sweat was drying faster than it could cool me, but that wasn’t the problem, at mile 9 I felt a pain in the inside of my knee that felt like someone had stabbed me and I thought dang my day is done. I was just praying I could hold on to the last 5 miles and the death march started and I just held on to finish the race. I did finish in 4:07 running a lame 1:23 half at end of the day. I believe that the knee problem cost me at least 5 min but all in all it wasn’t a bad day. I was top amateur and 11th overall, I loved the distance and plan to race at least 4 of those this next season. I have taken about 3 weeks off and started back this week, just light and this Monday my road to racing pro next season starts. I will be swimming 8 swims a week, 2 runs, 2 bikes, 2 yoga, and 2 trx sessions. I am committed and can’t wait to see what my second off-season training will do for me. I will try to update every two weeks, for it will be merely just talking about how training is going. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and am thankful for such and incredible season with both mountain top highs and some lows leaving my skin on the pavement. Thanks and Dream Big!!!