Answering Joe Friel's season summary questions

I occassionally read Joe Friel's blog (he wrote the Triathlete's Training Bible). He provides some season summary questions at http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html in the Sept 27 post. Here are the questions and my answers:


1. What was the high point of your season? Why does this stand out for you? Was it what you thought it would be at the start of the season?
High point was probably the Rexburg Race when I did what I expected to in terms of times (after reviewing the course and changing my expected / goal times). The swim and bike and run went almost exactly as planned. I like it when things come out as planned. This is NOT what I thought it would be at the beginning of the season, which I thought would be meeting seasonal goals at the Bear Lake tri.

2. What was your greatest disappointment? Why did this happen? Is there anything you could have done to have avoided it?
Greatest disappointment was the Bismarck Tri because the swim was taken out and then I blew out my calf. I don't think I could've changed anything because I can't control the race, and I stretched considerably more than normal because I was worried about it happening. I guess I could have gone slower on the initial run, but I did back off when I started feeling the calf start to go out.

3. Looking back, do you think you trained as wisely and as hard as you could have trained?
I trained wisely but not consistently enough. I certainly trained hard enough when I did a workout. My bike training was consistent, but my run training was fairly inconsistent and I didn't hit the track and bricks like I had planned. This was because I was putting family before triathlon, and I don't have any problems with this. I had scheduled inappropriately more than anything, and I'm changing that this year by getting up in the morning and changing my body clock by about two and a half hours (up earlier, to bed earlier)

4. What is the one thing you most need to work on for next season in order to perform better?
Actually two things: The run needs to be much more consistent with the track workouts (actually do them!), simply running more, and doing more bricks (even just a one-miler off the bike). I need to swim a bit more to get down to the 20min mark, focusing on my new-found good form and pushing the entire race.

5. What would you most like to accomplish next season? Is it a good stretch and yet within your reach if you do things right?
I want to hit a 60-minute 40k bike. That is a very good stretch (10-12% improvement, depending on the course) but I think within my abilities if I am consistent in training and go hard enough in the race (not worried about what it does to my run).