Training has begun for the Augusta 70.3

So over the past weekend I realized how much I absolutely hated doing the Insanity workouts. Not because they were too much of a challenge, but simply because it was not fun. My scheduled had become, get home from work, say hi to the family. Rush down to the dungeon(basement), put on the video, proceed to kill myself for 40 minutes, look out the windows at what was almost always a beautiful day, then trudge back upstairs, sit for 20 minutes so I could stop sweating, shower, start sweating again, crash on the couch. This past weekend during our trip to Hilton Head I had a revelation while running with my dad while he biked and our two dogs. I missed the outdoors. It was a beautiful morning, beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and I had my dog at my side enjoying the fresh air together. I realized how much I missed triathlon training. It even hit me that it didn't even feel like training. It was just a nice time enjoying the outdoors. So it hit me. Why am I doing training that I hate, when I could be doing training that I love? So, I informally jumped into my half IM training this week. I'm using a program from the same person who wrote the program I used for the full ironman. It's by Scott Herrick and found on Beginnertriathlete.com. It changes up every week so the training never gets stale. Gives a lot of different swimming routines so that remains different every time as well. Given my experience and knowledge I'll probably modify some sessions here and there, but I liked it last time and was a good guide. So far this week I got in a 6 mile run on monday which took about 57 minutes. Now I gotta say, as much as I hated Insanity, I've definitely seen a difference. The last time I did that very same route was 5 weeks ago. I haven't done any running since and it took me 58 minutes and change, but I felt miserable. I had to walk a few times and I struggled mightily to make it back. This past time I cut over a minute off the time, and felt far far better. It was cooler though, so who knows. Either way though, I think Insanity did teach me to fight through a lot of pain and misery. I didn't do anything on tuesday. Oh well. Yesterday I got back in the pool after a long lay off, and it pretty much showed. My speed is still pretty constant, but my endurance doesn't seem like it used to. I did 1500 yards in 27 minutes. The main set, including warm ups(i tend to swim these at normal pace) was 1250 and I did that in 22 minutes. So I"m pretty happy with that speed. My focus this season is going to be on the bike and run. I'm very deficient in those, especially the run. If I can even get up to a relatively average run I'll be competing for the podium at every race. My bike has been pretty solid this year, it's been the run that's cost me. In each race this year I've lost places going into the run. My second race I went from second to third, and my last race I went from second to fourth. I need to at least hold position. My sprint tri 5 k time is around 8:25 min/mile. I'd like to get that under 8 by the end of the season. Overall goals for the season: Sprint tri 5 k: sub 24 minutes oly run: sub 1 hour Augusta Half IM: overall: sub 6 hours Bike: < 3 hours Run: < 2:15 If I can accomplish those two, I can come in under 6 hours. My swim will likely be in the 35 min range, or less(I hear there's a current). My plan is to push myself harder in training this year than I did last year. I'm going to incorporate track training and hill workouts. For my running training, I typically have 3 runs a week. I plan to do at least one hill/track workout, one tempo run, and one slow easy run. I'm so excited to getting back to tri training!