November...

You know its been a while since you've blogged when you have to google your own blog to get the page to come up on your computer... I've thought about writing blog posts recently but obviously it wasn't top of my priority list this past month. And then when its been a while since I've written anything I find it hard to know where to even start, so I guess I'll do what I always do in this scenario and just sort of write a random bullet list type of post...

~Let's start with running! After 3 months completely off to let my hip bone heal, I started jogging again this month. It's mostly been 3x/week, starting with 15min and working to 20 then 30... watching HR and keeping it low aerobic which means its slow and I take short walk breaks up hills to keep under my self-imposed HR cap. I've been adding in a longish walk/hike usually like 1-2x/week with the dog. We go in the woods on trails or on unmaintained roads with a lot of hills. That makes us both happy and is how I coped with some disappointing election results earlier in the month.

~Given my renewed capability of jogging for 30 straight minutes, I jumped into a little local run/swim race this morning. I didn't have any expectations about any of it- honestly I just wanted to be a part of the local race scene again because I missed it. I forgot my garmin at home, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Once again I learned that the key to my happiness post race is quite dependent on my expectations going in. If I keep them low enough, I'm super happy post race. :) Really, I thought *maybe* I'd avg 9min pace for a 5k run today (and I assumed that would feel hard), but when the horn went off I just ran as I felt and inched the effort up little by little as my trust in myself grew. I didn't run a 'fast' 5k but I found out after that I avg ~8:25 and it didn't feel hard so that gave me a ton of hope for the future. The race was a 5k run into a 1k swim, which is an odd format, yes, but fun when you're a swimmer! Hey look at me! I actually get to pass people late in a race! Woot! Obviously from the expression on my face here at the finish line, I didn't did deep into to the well this morning, but I did truly enjoy being part of the local race scene again. This is a series of 3 races, so next time we do it (January) I'll aim to go faster than I did today. I don't think that'll be a big ask. All I would really have to do is try harder. :)

~I could write a whole post on all the reasons why I am enjoying training right now (in fact, I will do that!)... but here's one reason. I have a great new training partner! Carly is actually an athlete I am coaching but we are quite compatible on the bike so we can ride together a lot on the weekends. It's been great b/c we push each other but we don't race each other... and she executes sessions like they're supposed to be done so neither of us have to compromise the purpose of the session in order to have a more social ride. It's perfect, really, because it feels like we are friends but also training partners and all the while managing to maintain a great coach/athlete relationship. It's just really good for both of us! She's a bad ass. She raced this morning as well and was 2nd female OA, breaking 20min for that 5k before she swam! #TeamBSC

~I've been swimming a fair amount. Something like 15-17k/week. Not huge volume, but big enough and its been consistent and has resulted in me feeling pretty good in the water. Last week I swam a 1k TT in the pool and managed to surprise myself by swimming faster than I thought I could (and faster than I have in a long time) so that was cool. The Double Roughwater (7k ocean swim race) is a week from today so that has been the reason for the volume. I'm looking forward to that swim this year. I haven't done a ton of long ocean swims this fall but I'm totally to the point where 5k in the pool just feels like another swim so I'm gonna try to give it a bigger push than I gave this morning at that little biathlon race...

Anyway, I have a ton more I could write about but we'll leave it here for now. That'll give me something to write about in the coming week!