Day 1 of a New Triathlon Season

I am officially back at it as of today. Nothing major. An hour in the water and 40min of easy running. It feels good. In years past it seemed to be a big deal, but not this year. I think this feeling is positive. There is nothing to stress about and only good things to come. I've gotten out of the swing of training, but my routine will be fixed soon. I am getting about a 3wk later start at the season compared to last year....due to doing Xterra Worlds this year vs. not having done it last year.

I will be doing more group rides on the bike starting with tomorrow morning at 5am. Which reminds about how important the little things are like going to bed early in like...oops...5 minutes, get coffee and clothes ready the night before etc etc.

I am a little surprised how my fitness feels to have fallen off quite a bit over the last month, but I know it will come back. A couple weeks ago I was in the best tri-shape ever, so a drop should be expected. Good news is that my shoulder is feeling better. I still feel it, but it isn't a problem in the water as long as I don't yank on it and I haven't put it through anything close to a masters practice.

I am nursing a cold I picked up over the holiday weekend, but the symptoms aren't all that bad apart from keeping me awake all night last night. I expect to be better for the weekend's MTB race, Dawn to Dusk, where I will race the ~10hr race as a quad team. With 16 mile laps, pretty flat terrain and roughly 3hrs between efforts, I should be fine. I did the race last year as a duo in some of the worst weather ever, so I am looking forward to having a much different experience this year.