FEATURES
New Year, New City, New Competition...
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Monday, 09 February 2015 00:10
By Dani Fischer
I won’t spend too much time recapping 2014, but wow! What a year. Thinking back to what my goals were heading into 2014, I can’t say that I accomplished all of them, but it was an extremely successful season nonetheless. I was undefeated for all 5 races during the month of June, including a National Championship in Long Course, BOUS, and ITU Chicago, placed a close second to the best amateur in the country, Heather Lendway, at Age Group Nationals in August, and surprised myself with a third overall place at Worlds in September. Even if I didn’t accomplish all of my lofty goals, I can look back on 2014 as a year of great memories both on and off the course that will last a lifetime. None of it would have been possible without the continuous support of my family, my coach Mike McQueen, my friends, my coworkers, and all of those following my journey.
As many of you know, I was granted my pro card shortly after Worlds, as I was planning on debuting at Austin 70.3 in October last year. After a long season, my mind and body were not cooperating due to fatigue, so I decided to forgo Austin and take a much-needed break through the end of September....
My coach and I started back up in October, focusing on getting the pop back in my running legs that I felt had dropped off as the 2014 season progressed (if you take a look at my 10K run splits, they got slower as the season went on). This 7-week run block was structured so that I was running 45-50 miles per week, and still swimming 3x/week and biking 2-3x/week.
A very significant life event occurred at the end of run block. I MOVED! My new home is the great city of Indianapolis, IN! I took a position as a clinical pharmacist with Community Health Network, the largest provider of integrated healthcare in central Indiana. Indianapolis provides greater professional, social, and athletic opportunities, and while I miss my friends and family from MN/WI, I am so grateful to get to start this new chapter in Indy.
After a quick transition week into my new surroundings, my coach and I entered into a 6-week bike block. The focus of this stretch was to raise and test my functional threshold power (FTP). We started with very short, high wattage intervals. At one point I was doing 12 x 1-minute at 364 watts with 1 minute of rest between each. I wanted to shoot myself after the 6th or 7th interval. The block ended with longer, 20-minute intervals at slightly above HIM wattage. I finished up bike block a couple of weeks ago and am happy to report that my FTP is at least 25 watts higher than 1 year ago!
After a recovery week, I dove headfirst into swim block. Since my arrival in Indy, I have been swimming with Indy Aquatic Masters, which was awarded 2014 Local Club of the Year by US Masters Swimming. Their coaches have over 80 years of combined experience as certified coaches. Indiana, as a state, is ALL about swimming. The facilities are state-of-the-art. A LCM pool is never more than 10 minutes away. I am now swimming 5 days a week and am more efficient and faster than ever. Which is still slow, but it’s a work in progress.
As for my 2015 plans, below is a tentative schedule of the big races I am planning on. This year, I will be solely focused on long course. There are several smaller, shorter races in the IA/IL/IN/MI area that will fill in the gaps and provide me opportunities to earn some prize money and have a little fun, too. And I will be doing it all as a proud new member of Team Wattie Ink., the nation’s most badass elite tri team!
April 19 – New Orleans 70.3
June 7 – Challenge Quassy
June 28 – Challenge Atlantic City
July 11 – Muncie 70.3
August 16 – Challenge Pocono Mountains
August 30 – Challenge Maine
September 13 – Challenge Cedar Point
October – Challenge Rancho Cordova or Austin 70.3
November – TBD
As always, thank you all for your support and well-wishes, and stay tuned for more updates! In the meantime, you can follow my journey on Instragram/Twitter @swishfisch.
-Dani
