It's A Wrap!

Now as the racing is done for the season, it's a good time to reflect back and see what has been achieved and what brought me here.

It has been yet again a very successful year. My goals for the season were to qualify early for the 2015 Ironman Hawaii as well as for the 70.3 Worlds, which will be held in Europe for the first time. I also wanted to do well in the Finnish half-distance championships, Finntriathlon Joroinen. As you may have read from my previous posts, I achieved all of these goals!

Regarding my performance, I feel I have gone forward but as the speeds get faster, it's increasingly difficult to make drastic improvements. It's only a percent here, another there. Swimming, however, remains still an area, where big improvements could be made. For the first time, I’ve now started to work with a swimming coach so be aware!

My training in general followed the same footsteps as last year. I tried to increase the volume just a little, but fell to very similar number in the end. As I've said earlier, my day job and family largely dictate my training volume and schedule, and therefore, I have to plan my training very carefully. There’s no time for junk miles! Otherwise, I don’t think the just shy of 600 annual hours, I was able to put in, would cut it. With only 36km weekly average, sometimes my running performance amazes even myself. Of course this makes me wonder what if… What if I quit my job and started to train full time. Certainly a very intriguing thought. Fortunately, I have my wife who keeps my feet on the ground.

As I write this, I’m already halfway through my offseason, which has been an important mental and physical break from scheduled training. I mean how nice is it for once to just go out for a ride without any pressure and enjoy the brisk autumn weather! Or to really concentrate on honing stroke technique when the body isn’t tired from all other training. Soon enough, however, it’s time to start cranking up the training again. 

First up in my calendar is a big one, the legendary Ironman Lanzarote in May. Before that, there will be some exciting news coming up during the winter, so stay tuned!