From the very beginning of the 2014 training season, I struggled. Over the break, I lost 30 watts on the bike. 30 watts!!! Coming back to training with high hopes of a fantastic PR for this year's Vineman 70.3 to find I had lost 2 years worth of work was like a punch to the stomach. But, coach was upbeat and though I might not got the PR I wanted on the bike, I'd work my ass off to do the best I could.
Over the months, the bike power slowly came back. But, there were other struggles. My asthma was a constant irritant. Every run required huffs off of the rescue inhaler. Even when not exercising, I had little lung capacity. My early races were close to what I'd done last year. Although I'm old enough that peak performance will never be what it was in my 20's, the fact that I've only been doing this for 5 years means I still have some improvement left in this body before I need to start thinking about PRs at a particular age. After the Morgan Hill Sprint, I got to work on resolving this. Happy to say, you'd barely notice I have asthma ... I didn't need my rescue inhaler at all at Vineman 70.3.
One of the areas I was to work on was losing a few extra pounds. I didn't work on this hard enough during the early months and trying to lose weight when training for long course is just absurd. I lost 5lbs of the 10+ I'd hoped and then hung on to that during long course training. I'm ok with this. If the weight trend year over year is 3-5lbs loss, woo-hoo!
Through this whole season, I've struggled to go hard when I was supposed to on the run. My long runs were not filled with the pleasure I've had in the past. The whole thing was a big chore. Chatting with friends Molly and Tea, I realized that I needed to walk away from doing long course next year. Since 2009, I've done 1-2 half marathons and l long course HIM or Aquabike per year. That helped me get through the training for Vineman 70.3. But, there was no joy in it. It became mechanical. It's no surprise that there was no joy on the race either.
So, I'm taking a break from long course. How long? I don't know. What do I mean by short course? I don't know. Here's what I DO know:
- I don't want to go back to infrequently exercising.
- If I don't have a race, I won't exercise
- I don't like running... not to mention my knees don't like it.
- I LOVE swimming.
- I LOVE biking
- I miss going to dog agility and obedience trials.
- I don't want to lose all of my running gains.
- I miss hanging out with non-triathlete friends.
- I want to return to long course with joy and excitement.
- I would like running better if I was faster.
- I like open runs better than the run at the end of the triathlon.
- I like duathlons.
Life is a journey. While I didn't achieve the results I had dreamed of, I learned a lot this year. It's all good.
