It’s the last day of the year and with it comes all those other wonderful things: best of ’08 shows, year in reviews, the Spengler Cup final, and the Canucks losing to the Flyers.
You can see this site is already in transition into the new year and it’s time to jump on the year in review bandwagon.
If there is one word to describe the year it would be learning. I learnt how to work hard on a consistent basis. I learnt what a taste of success was like. I learnt about disappointment. I learnt to be a triathlete.
This time last year my biggest goal was to learn how to deal with two workouts a day on a consistent basis. I was getting ready for Worlds in June and had been “training” with a workout once a day with an occasional two a day on the weekend.
It was a day in late September this year when I realized I finally had it. Between a morning swim and then an afternoon bike ride with some weights thrown in after I had logged 2.5 hours of training with a full day of work in the middle. I then headed out for the night without thinking twice about it. Somehow 2.5 hours of exercise in a day had become “somewhat” normal.
I also got a taste of what success was like this year. At the Vancouver Sprint I came off the bike and into transition to find an empty transition area except for one bike. It was a sight I had never seen and one that I hope becomes more familiar.
In Sooke I came off the bike in the same position with one guy ahead of me in my heat. This time I could see him and was determined to catch him. Somehow the image of Javier Gomez got in my head and I just visualized myself running like him. Two kilometres later I was leading and coming down the finishing straight I’ll admit to looking back, enjoying the moment for a second and giving a small fist pump.
Neither were what I would call “big” races but the mental images and feelings I remember from them don’t know that. They’re in the memory bank to be used when I need a little pick me up.
But with success obviously comes some disappointment. A DNF at Cultus Lake due to the cold water and disappointing results at Nationals and the Fall Classic are a couple. But you learn (that word again) from them (get a new wetsuit, bolster your swim training, and make sure you’re mentally focused) and get better.
And then there was Worlds. It’s strange how something that seemed so all consuming can in the end turn out to be just another race in the season. It was neither a great nor bad race. I didn’t have any real expectations so I felt neither disappointed nor satisfied. Looking back on it now it feels almost like a non-event.
I will say this about Worlds though: while the race itself turned out to be a relative non-event, the idea of it changed me. Without it to motivate me, I would not have committed to the sport as I have. Driving overnight to races, flying across the country to qualify, becoming familiar with the world at 5:30 in the morning, climbing over 10,000 ft on a bike to the top of a volcano in Maui, going beyond what I realistically thought I was capable of doing, all of it would not have happened.
So while I looked past it quickly, I know it set the foundation for something even greater next year.
A quick summary of highlights for the year…
- Maui training camp
- 10,000 ft climb up Haleakala (right)
- Age-group win at UBC Sprint
- Heat win, 4th overall at Sooke Sprint
- World Championships
- 2nd overall Vancouver Sprint
- 3rd overall Kits Challenge 1.5k open water swim.
- PB’s
- Swim – 23:50 1.5 k
- Bike – 23:20 (42.17 km/h) 16.4 k Time Trial
- Run – 35:57 9.5 k (37:50 10 k equivalent)
- 466 hours of training (not including gym workouts)
