*taps microphone* This thing still on?

Time to blow the dust off this thing and maybe play a little catch up, shall we?

Now, what did I write about last? Right. Road 2 Hope. Where I set up my training paces for ATB. Which is now about 3 weeks away, so sort of missed blogging that entire training cycle. Oops.

Obligatory run proof picture.

I've been primarily focused on running, trying to get back my speed. Thanks to a killer training plan from Coach Z, I'm feeling pretty good. The paces that were oh-so-hard back in December are getting easier and easier.

Run volume is up over the last few years - even the year I was marathon training!

It's been a lot of volume, compared to what I've done previously, which has made for some interesting very early morning runs and even the occasional evening run when that was the only time I could fit things into my schedule. I don't enjoy evening winter runs - it's just so hard to talk myself off the comfy couch to go out into the cold, and the darkness plus heavy evening traffic makes me nervous. The sheer volume of drivers who can't be bothered to use their damn turn signals is astonishing. Fortunately due to the relative mildness of the winter, I was able to use the track for some of those runs, where even though it's dark at least no one is going to make a left turn directly into me!

Night runner attemps to set up cool instagram photo and has total fail. This was the best of the lot. I should just stick to taking pictures of food, really.

So yeah, definitely haven't been slacking on the running. Nor have I been slacking on the cycling. Just finished the high volume Olympic base training plan on TrainerRoad, which was good if occasionally painful fun.

Rearranged a whole level of the house and now I have a real paincave.

I started the build plan this week, although I will take a break from it around ATB to allow for taper/recovery. The main triathlon goal race this year is Guelph Lake I in June, with the Milton sprint beforehand as a warmup and Niagara in July because if I'm going to do two Subaru series races, I might as well add a third to get in on the series point thing. Then Iron Girl in August for fun. I'm not sure at this point if I'll do any late season triathlons. Since the current plan is to maybe possibly think about running a marathon (!) at Road 2 Hope in November, I will probably want to focus more on running at that point. Dunno. That second half of the year is a bit up in the air.

Trainer selfies all basically look the same.

Swimming is...well I've been to the pool, usually twice a week. Occasionally three times. Sometimes once. Holding pattern there; basically just maintaining fitness. Pool hours are a pain in the ass to schedule around, and I lack the motivation to really put in the kind of effort that would be required at this point to make significant improvements to my swim. So, I play mermaid a few times a week and call it good.

The band is an evil torture device.

So that's the catch up. Lots of run and bike, a little swim, and a big race coming up. I'll be back with a race report in a few weeks.

Oh, goals? You want to hear about my ATB goals?

Well, the answer is I don't know. Although this training cycle has gone really well and I'm feeling pretty strong and in good shape to match last year's effort, a lot will depend on how my back is feeling on race day. I've been diagnosed with piriformis syndrome - a somewhat dubious diagnosis for various reasons, since the evidence base for its existence is somewhat, shall we say, nonexistent.  The cluster of symptoms is real (and I have all of them!), but the exact underlying cause is somewhat questionable. But that said, identifying that my 'hamstring' pain really originates in my low back has been a gamechanger in treating it - rather than weeks of pain, with the right treatment I can get it calmed down within a day or two, using stretches, foam roller work, and my best friend the heating pad.

But when it's flared up speedwork can't happen. So if I'm in a rough patch around the race (or it flares up during the race), well, speed will be out of the question. So at this point I'm largely planning to keep my training partner Fab from going out too damn fast over the first 10k, then will see how things are feeling. Hope for the best, but prepared to jog it in if I need to. I've certainly run this race enough times now that I don't have anything to prove to myself - and my main goal this winter was to regain my run speed, which I already know I've done. So no matter how the race ends up turning out, I'm happy with where things are right now.