Regrets, I've had a Few...

When I found out I won a Kona Lottery slot, the first thing I did was panic. Then I freaked out a bit. Then I started to plan all the things I needed to do over the summer to prepare for the race. A lot of those things never happened. Mostly because of laziness and a bit of A.D.D. (I have trouble staying focused.) So these are some of the woulda-coulda-shoulda things from this past summer, along with my excuses.

I shoulda swam more. My condo building has a genuine lap-pool an elevator-ride away. I had visions of me being down there every morning at 7am doing laps. Well that sure didn't happen. It takes me a long time to wind down at night, especially if I'm out riding/running until 8 or 9:00, and I just can't get myself in bed by 10 or 11:00.

I shoulda got a bike fitting. I've had 4 fittings on 2 bikes and I have never felt comfortable in the aero position. I can't go a half-mile without feeling my shoulder tensing up. Part of the problem is that I'm just using clamp-on aerobars on non-tri bikes, but maybe I could have improved something. Would the 5th time be the charm? I don't know. The other thing is that I always felt like I was sitting kind of low on my new bike. I've been using my old bike this past week (after shipping race bike of to Kona) and I'm sitting higher and it feels better.

I shoulda gone shoe shopping. I'm not thrilled with my running shoes. There's nothing really wrong with them, but nothing great either. They have the odd quality of feeling OK to run in, but uncomfortable to walk in. After my previous shoe model was discontinued I went to lots of stores trying to find a new shoe. I bought and returned two other pairs before settling on these. Maybe I would have found a better shoe, maybe not.

I shoulda dieted better. I likes me my sweets. I am weak.

Having said all that, there are some positive things: I think my swim form has improved. I did many more mid-distance bike rides than I have in previous years. And I really upped my running mileage this time around. Hopefully all that will cancel out some of my shouldas.