2017 is shaping up to be an interesting year; I quit my job to start a new business in January, so I’ve been essentially “starting a business” for the last 3 months (aka still haven’t made money from said business). Which also means I’ve been unemployed for the last 3 months. You may think that means I’ve been training a ton, but I haven’t really been training any more then I did before. Mostly because starting a business is a full-ish time job, and also because I had no idea what I was going to be able to race until very recently.

Since I didn’t know what my schedule would be like (ok, I still don’t), and I didn’t know if I would be able to afford racing (I probably can’t), I have put off deciding on any races until now, other then High Cascades since I paid for that back in December. But I did decide to go ahead with Coeur d’Alene 70.3, since I’ve been quasi-training for it, and I need goals.

I’ve really been focused on swimming; I think I’m getting faster, but only a race will tell. And wouldn’t you know, the first open water race is in a little over a week! And Hagg Lake is still in the 50s! Dear god it’s going to be cold. I’m already cold just thinking about it. I’m starting to wonder if I should swim in a dry suit 😀

The best news of all is that I’ve had ZERO knee pain with running! It’s a true miracle. We’ve done some pretty long runs in Forest Park recently, and I’ve had few issues. We did some pretty fast long runs too, so I’m feeling much more confident. I’m curious to see how this will change my race, since last year I felt my biggest limiter was having to keep the pace moderate to save the knee.

Finally, I recently acquired a Vector powermeter; I tested it out today. I have no real idea of what the numbers really mean, but I’m so excited to have yet another number to stare at while I ride ?.

Related, I can’t wait to do some more bike packing where I can toss my Garmin!