I've done a triathlon. Now what?

On September 8th, I finished the triathlon I had been training for all summer: Iron Girl Rocky Gap in Cumberland, Maryland. .5 mile swim, 16 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run. It was very very fun, and sealed the deal for me and triathlon hopefully living a long life together, for better or worse.

Here's what my training looked like for those months. Click to see the calendars larger.

May it began. I was hesitant to get in the pool.

June. More consistency and increased swimming yardage.

July. Man I am serious here. Look how few days off there are!

August. I've never been this consistent with any training before in my life.

September doesn't have much to show; I hurt my back and had to scale things back a bit.

In general, I feel I trained pretty well...consistently if nothing else. I really enjoyed it. I looked forward to most workouts and it helped break up my days working by myself. 

Looking back, I think I could have taken more rest. I was worn out a lot when swimming. Definitely my weakest link.

Looking forward...well I'm still working on a base/maintenance training schedule for winter. But the goals and focus for the next few months are this:

1. Lose more weight, get leaner.  Eating healthier is helping this. I feel like I've finally balanced the constantly hungry feeling with the right kind of food to keep me fueled. But damn, I like sweets.
2. Get stronger in general.  I have no upper body or core strength, and, well, swimming takes a lot of that. My swim is pretty slow, so I'd like to make it better.
3. Get stronger on the bike. I watched my legs get bigger and bigger as I trained, but I lack power. The Saturday morning 45 mile ides I've been going on have illustrated that as I creep up every hill. 
4. Figure out how to run faster. It may just be that I'll never be able to run fast. But perhaps if I get all these other things in line, I can see how I can strengthen my run. 

And why? I have to ask myself why I would spend 7 - 10 hours currently on training. Is it my hobby? Am I winning? Is there some ultimate goal?  I think the answer to the why is simply balance. Balance for my health, my day working solo, and the empowerment and happiness my accomplishments (no matter their size or impressiveness) give me.