It has been a slow, shaky start to the year so far. Training is always a struggle after time off. I had 3 weeks off training this year and put on about 8 pounds (also known as muffin tops!). Our bodies need the rest, but so too does our heads, and it’s not fun getting back into shape. For some reason this year was tougher than previous years to get going again as I found myself suffering a bit of depression. It was probably due to the idea of all those brutal hours of training I need to do in order be back into Kona shape, which ultimately didn’t mean anything in 2015 after crashing out of the race.

There are so many emotions associated with training and racing, and I just hadn’t had the highs I was looking for in 2015. In fact, I haven’t had that many highs for quite some time and I began questioning myself and the season ahead. I was waking up later than normal and struggling to get out the door to train. For weeks I didn’t enjoy one minute of working out and I couldn’t wait to be done. I found myself breaking down in tears on several occasions and often I simply rolled over and went back to sleep instead of bouncing out of bed when the alarm went off.

Thankfully around February I had visits from family and friends which was enough to take my mind off training and racing.  10 weeks later, I finally started to show signs of my fitness coming back and I began losing some of the winter weight. However, the next 5 weeks I could hardly train due to one illness after the next. First a cold, then a bad case of food poisoning and finally the flu where I spent 5 days in bed! I was wondering if this year was ever going to get off the ground! But somehow I managed to get through my first race of the year, a half iron distance in Guadeloupe where I finished in 2nd place.

That was the turning point. I pressed the reset button and took the time I needed to do what I had to do, like a trip to Faster wind tunnel in Arizona to get dialed in on my new bike. I also withdrew from IM 70.3 Brazil to give myself a few weeks to put my head down and train in preparation for the Cannes International Triathlon. It payed off as I won for the 2nd year in a row and had a very solid performance (you can check out my Pioneer power file here).

Since then I have been training in Antibes, south France with Jenny Fletcher and the TriTraining06 crew. This change of scenery and venue has been highly motivating, so much so that I decided to race Ironman France, where I have some unfinished business after getting DQ’d in 2014 because I didn’t wear my number belt on the run!

My next race will be Challenge Rimini, Italy on 8 May and I can’t wait!!!

In other news, I just launched TeamLC and the Leanda Cave Foundation collaboration with my agent, Lou Cantin and USAT coach, Kris Swarthout. These two projects and my coaching company, Leanda Cave Coaching, are a few projects I have been working on in my off season. Please check them out below and follow along: