Why I finally joined a Triathlon Team.....

After completing 7 half iron distance, racing at Nationals and countless sprint olympic distance races, where I sometimes was self coached and sometimes coached from a far, I finally broke down this season and joined a triathlon team. Why you might ask? What  would possess someone to join a team after going through all the training and racing alone for many seasons? Honestly I was ready to change it up.

This season I will be tackling another 3 70.3 distances and oh wait theres that little thing of I am running a marathon again. I needed some new motivation to get me through what was going to be a long season with some serious training.

So there is a local team near me that actually is a race director too. I looked over their team calendar. I had done a few of their races. Asked a few questions and before I knew it I was talking to my coach about adding this to my training. She 100% agreed it would be a good new add to the training. So I paid the money and I was in. Perks include: race discounts, team support at races, team workouts and built in training buddies. So far I have done a few open water swims. It has been nice to get that in my training this year. Usually I am 100% pool swimmer then race day I am trying to get used to my wetsuit and my sighting. I also tried the team bike time trial this week. More on that another day.

I have even started doing some of my long bikes with a team. This past weekend I enjoyed a ride with some friends on another team. It was just nice to have people out there to help push along the training day. I was always so opposed to being on a team or training with people because I thought on race day it all comes down to me and what I can get myself to do. But when I was growing up swimming my swim races were all me... and a trained with team so maybe there is something in there that works for me. I enjoy the fact that on race day it all comes down to me and what I put in for work. But for now I am going to enjoy the fun of training with others, the push of training with others, and just use it to find another part of this sport to love!

My team is MRA multisport- if you are from the area def check them out. The races are great! And there are plenty of training opportunities that you don't have to be a member for.