Fall awaits me!

So here I am.. after another unaccounted for absence. Tri season is essentially over for me. I have a Timberman race report that I need to write, and I have a sprint distance tri next weekend (which I dropped down to from the olympic distance because I just wasn't feeling it), and that is it for me!

So what is on the horizon for me?

It's taking some time away from structured triathlon training this fall. As it goes with most other Type-A neurotic athletes, I struggle with taking time OFF - I made it a week after Timberman before I started to feel like a disgusting blob. So, not working out will not work for me whatsoever. BUT I am feeling the major effects of burnout. I need to do something about it so I that I can eventually return to triathlon with an excited attitude and kill my PRs like I was supposed to do this season (and that I KNOW I can do)! I was stuck for a while on what to do.. but after that week of doing nothing and a few days of just "meh" workouts, I think I have figured it out.

I am planning on doing a run focus in the fall (have already started actually) where I run 6 days a week, (with Monday as an off day with just a swim), ride long-ish on Saturdays, and then add other swim and bike workouts in during the week as I please. Long runs on Sundays. Running is what I really enjoy doing. I don't love weekly trainer rides, and I only really like to swim in moderation (i.e. when I feel like it). But I do love to run and I REALLY miss running for the sake of running itself and not for the sake of training and filling that workout in on my schedule. I also love fall races - especially trail races!

Another big thing is that I am shopping for a cyclocross bike. This is something that I have wanted to buy for several years, and I finally got my shit together and started saving money (turns out, you can't save money AND do Ironman if you're on the Alexa budget of can't save money worth shit anyways). I think it will add a lot of fun to my cycling routine, as I will be able to (attempt) to race cyclocross, go on shorter day tours on an actually comfortable bike, ride wherever I please (gravel trails, dirt roads, etc.) and ride slowly with other people to a fun destination with perhaps food and/or drinks (instead of just hammering away alone in my aerobars).

Test riding is going to happen this weekend with Solveig, on the one small cyclocross bike we were able to find in the greater Rochester area, and then I will go from there. Because I got so confused trying to compare bikes across multiple bike brands on different websites, I used my nerd skillz to create a crazy tiny cyclocross bike spreadsheet of all the bikes I could find in my budget and their tiny sizes. I was then able to eliminate some that wouldn't work (either too large, or didn't have the basics of what I was looking for) and narrowed the search down to 4 bikes that are all similar in size. I am hoping that by riding one of them (the one we found at  Geneva Bicycle Center) I can then make sure that this size bike WILL fit me, and I can look more in-depth at what each bike offers - spec-wise before I make the big decision and order the bike from a shop!

So this is my plan for fall - run a lot, get muddy, spend hard-earned money on a 'cross bike, get muddy on that, try not to fall on face in a 'cross race, and have fun! :)

And I am ALWAYS looking for fun people to get muddy with!!