FEATURES

Minnesota Grown...

Friday, 11 November 2016 23:10

By Nicole Heininger (nicoleheininger.wordpress.com)

After a few months of battling what felt like a “losing” game in Texas, I made the decision to head back to Minnesota to train and race as I was accustomed to. To put it simply, this was the toughest season racing for me, yet it was the most rewarding season through training and learning more about myself as an athlete. I was physically getting stronger and faster; I felt great throughout the season. My coach, Jennifer Harrison was kicking my butt in shape and my body was responding well. On the contrary, mentally and emotionally I felt beat up at times. The majority of races didn’t pan out as they were suppose to; whether the swim was canceled, the distance was altered, the race was delayed or restructured, this took it’s toll on me. Likewise, emotionally there were several incidents I had to get past in order to stay focused and continue moving forward throughout the season.

At this point, I had three racing flops in Texas and was eager to change that in Minnesota. Unluckily, race flops continued in Minnesota and I had to deal with...

them as they came. In short, my race season was heavily affected by weather, which is not something I could control.

Trinona was the first race I had planned to race in Minnesota. I signed up for the Olympic distance, however, after morning storms and waiting it out for several hours, the race directors made the call to proceed with only the sprint distance. Although I hadn’t planned to race the sprint, I stuck it out as I was able to finally get a solid swim/bike/run race finished.  READ MORE