Happy Pace Coaching

tackled his first 70.3 turned 69.1 due to a cancelled swim at Chattanooga on Sunday. The shortened race and congested bike course left him feeling hungry for a full race experience, so he decided to race Lakeside Double Sprint last night. He got 6th overall and won his age group with a swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, in the warm evening.

Last weekend .simon.tri completed her first triathlon since 2017 at She Tris Super Sprint, prepping her for her priority race in a few weeks.

Another weekend of racing and big training! won her AG at the Sassafras Struggle 8 miler and PRed each lap of the Tiger Town Classic Road Race. Happy athletes showed up in Tucson, AZ ready for a week of spectacular riding. We did a post-travel spin out ride to get ready for a big day of climbing.

Running took a big step back in 2024. I ran 520.5 miles vs almost 1k in 2023. On average I was doing 3x 30-40’ runs and almost always all easy. It was enough to keep a base in running while focusing on cycling. Despite the lower run volume, I didn’t lose much speed. My sprint tris and 5K times were all very close to the previous year. I just had no running endurance. Running has always been a challenge for my body and one day my knee will not allow me to run anymore. This year was the best my body has ever felt though, with a light amount of running and heavy cycling focus. Although this balance isn’t ideal for being competitive at long distance triathlons, it was a great balance for me and my race schedule in 2024.

Cycling was my primary focus in 2024. Mid January I started a riding streak leading up to my AZ cycling camp. I rode every day but two (skipped for good reasons such as vomiting for hours) until November. I rode over 10k miles averaging 200 miles a week. Admittedly my cycling fitness didn’t improve much. Why? I only had loose structure to my training and spent a lot of time riding with others, not prioritizing doing the work I needed to do. I choose to focus on riding for fun vs riding for maximizing my fitness because that’s what I needed in my life at that time. Yet I had good results in my cycling races, including overall female win at my first gravel race, third overall female at Hincapie Chattanooga, and fastest female bike splits in the sprint tris.