Training Update: April?!

My goal is to get back to posting regularly about my training; however, that would require me to train regularly. April was a fairly inconsistent month, and believe me I am full of excuses why - vacation to Colombia, birthday celebrations, dropped by my coach, uncertainty over what to do with no coach, etc.  But excuses won't cut it on race day. So, I'll just own the fact that I was pretty lazy in April. 

My approach to this season has so far been a bit incongruous to my goals, but I'm hoping to flip the page here in May and really buckle down to focus on my upcoming races -- especially since there are only 3 weeks until my first race!  However, my approach has been to focus on work and my relationships first, with triathlon not taking a backseat, but just taking a supporting role.  Triathlon this season is about fun first and foremost.  Those goals that I set are important to me, but they come after fun!  

So here is my April update.  As much as my training was inconsistent, it was a lot of fun! Quite a bit of training was done with friends, and that definitely helps with the fun and motivation factor.

Swim:  My swimming was a bit hit and miss, but mostly miss. I did make it to the pool a few times on my own, and got my butt kicked one day by Kim.  I also got to help out some OTC members at the Swim Clinic, which is always a lot of fun!

Bike: I finally got to ride my bike outside!! I would say the bike was the strongest part of my training in April.  Kirsten, Dale and I made the season-first visit to Alice's one Sunday.  I rode some intervals on the Parkway.  And I got out for an awesome ride on a beautiful day with some of my favourite people in the Gatineau Park last weekend to finish the month off strong. 

Run: I continued to run commute in April, rain, snow or shine! We also had a few fun group runs, including some fun downhill repeats and a run to help shake off my birthday party hangover (yikes!).  Last week, Jenn and I completed a run test (increasing heart rate each mile).  It was the first hard run that I have done in a long time, and unfortunately it shows that I still have a lot of work to do! Time to step things up a notch. 

Came home from Colombia to a ton of snow!

Other: I hit the driving range to celebrate the last day of April and the beautiful weather we had last Saturday.  It was definitely a surprise to see how well I was hitting the ball, and it has inspired me to try to golf a bit more this summer.