Learning from my mistakes & remembering what I've done right

This season I'll be going on my third year of competing in triathlons. This season will also be my last year in the 25-29 age group and I plan on going out big by placing top 2 in at least one race this year. Yep, that's top 2... third place won't cut it! I don't care if I have to enter into a race where I'm the only competitor in my age group or if I have to create my own race, it's going to happen! I placed in, or near, the top 10 in most races this season and also placed in the top 5 during a couple of races. I have the right mental drive and motivation, I just need to perfect my training.

Competing against others, for those top 2 spots, will be new to me this year since I've only been inadvertently competing against others for the past two seasons. My motto has always been "you're not racing against anyone but yourself". This motto has held true for the past two season. In the past, I've only cared about beating my past times with little care as to where I placed. Now I'll be looking at old races to get the times of the top racers and it will be their times that I'm competing against and not my own. Should be fun to see if I enjoy the sport more, with this new competitive motto, or if I get burned out trying to push myself too fast beyond my current limits.

This season, I'll also be competing in a couple of ultra and regular 26.2 marathons. Finding a balance between going long distances and running so fast my lungs bleed is going to be difficult. That is where this blog comes in. I feel that I should have been keeping a log of my training, the past two years, so I could determine what I've done right and what I've done wrong.

This blog may not help all that much this season but I'm thinking long term here. I'll be posting race reports, general thoughts and weekly recaps of the training I've done. Hopefully I'll be able to review this later and learn what I've been doing right and what I need to improve upon. Cheers to the 2009 race season!