Priorities

For the year leading up to the Ironman, or honestly, the year and a half leading up to it, fitness was very near the top of my priorities. Starting in January of 2011, my P90X workouts and marathon training runs gave precedence at times over work, friends and family. After the marathon and P90X were complete, it was on to bigger things – triathlons. From July 2011- June 2012 when I crossed the finish line at Ironman Coeur D’Alene, my life was consumed with swim/bike/run. I was often complimented for my dedication and drive toward the accomplishment of my goal.

Now that my goal is complete, I’ve been in kind of a no-man’s land when it comes to running and triathlon. I have been very much enjoying the time to relax, sleep in, catch up with friends and family and go to the group fitness classes I was missing during training. However, I also set up some races and goals for myself for post-Ironman with the intention of dismissing any “post Ironman depression syndrome” that I would encounter due to lack of training goals. I signed up for AFC Half Marathon which I will run this coming weekend, as well as planned to race in the Classic Triathlon in September (Olympic distance) and run the Long Beach Marathon in October. However, now that these events are starting to show up on the horizon, I’m not quite as excited about them as I expected.

First, AFC was intended to be a PR race for me and given my recent runs, I am starting to doubt I will be setting any personal records at it. Second, I am now doubting my desire to do the Olympic distance triathlon – instead I am most likely going to do the sprint which I know I can get away with doing without any serious training. Third, I am now considering moving the marathon down to a half marathon in October. With a very packed social schedule mostly involving weddings (1 down, 6 more to go….), it will be difficult to put in the training required to excel at the Olympic triathlon and the full marathon. I feel that my efforts at these races will be a bit half-assed, so rather than go into them feeling  unprepared, I think it may be better to just go a shorter distance. Although I know I could “make it work” by getting up at 5:30 AM every day and getting my training in, right now I’m enjoying sleeping in most days and taking at least two or three rest days a week. Double workout days, which used to be the norm, are a rare occasion these days and I don’t really want to go back to that lifestyle any time soon.

The competitive, Type A athlete in me is disappointed in my lack of desire to push forward, but the smart athlete in me realizes that I need to listen to what my body and my mind is telling me and give myself a break. I deserve it. I think that in long run I will be a better athlete for taking some time to reduce the intensity of my training.

2011 was the year of the marathon. 2012 was the year of the Ironman. There’s no need to push myself to achieve more goals in 2012. 2013 will be the year of the BQ. But right now I’m enjoying sunset walks and drinking beer and eating chips and guacamole while I cook dinner (been finding lots of new vegan recipes lately and having a lot of fun cooking!),  hitting snooze 3x in the morning, and spending the weekend celebrating the marriage of my best friends.

Have you ever been in a training funk? Did you find that taking a break made things better?