Monday, February 15, 2016

Olympic...maybe?

I have enjoyed dabbling in triathlon.  Last year I focused on marathon running.  It is difficult to do both.  Some do both, I realize.  I doubt those people have young children.  If they do--and I am sorry totally not trying to be judgmental--they are not spending large amounts of time with them.  Either that or they are starting their workout at 4:00 am everyday even on the weekends.  Anyway thankfully this not a popular blog or I would receive hate mail from all these mama ironman triathletes who try to convince me that it is possible to have it all.  I am not going to try to have it all because it's not worth the stress, sacrifice, and missing out on quality time with my kids.

So anyway this spring/summer I am back to triathlon.  I do want to run another marathon and try and break 4 hours...maybe even qualify for Boston...a gigantic maybe.  I am keeping up on my running fairly well and am running 9 minute miles sometimes dipping into 8:45.  But I do not want to train for a marathon right now.  I miss the early morning sunrise runs and running to downtown and back.  I have sweet memories of  doing those long run around this time last year.  But the idea of actually doing it is not enough to motivate me.  I am not convinced my IT band is back to normal either.

January was not an easy month mentally and emotionally and February has had its moments. I feel like I turned a corner and I don't feel nearly as out of sorts as I did in January or the first week of February.  It's not been all bad, but I feel a bit drained.  Rob & I have been fighting some intestinal bug for almost a week now.  It did not knock either of us out.  Neither of us missed work or were on the couch for long periods of time.  It is taking its time to heal.  I think some of mine is stress related.  My running friend said last week Monday I was running fast like I was working through my stress and she was probably right.

I did sign up for Beaver Freezer and I am looking forward to it.  It's a sprint tri and I have been doing all the training necessary that I could probably do it tomorrow if I had to.  I have not been on the bike as much as I would like to, but I have not neglected it either.  I would love to do the Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon in June.  There's a few factors right now that scare me such as:  1)  the swim is 1.5 K which is 1700 yards--about 34 laps.  And it's open water.  I swim about 31-32 laps Wednesday mornings. I never feel like I am dying afterwards.  But it is a big workout.  And it's in a pool.  Open water is a whole different world. I need to be able to get into the VB's lake and maybe do a Hagg Lake swim.  Again time consuming...and costly.  The Hagg Lake timed swims are not free.  2) I still get quite of a bit of anxiety biking. I still worry about falling, flat tires, not being able to clip in or out in time.  I need to get some good rides in before June.  It's hard to schedule a 1 1/2 - 2 hour bike ride because we always seem to have things on the weekends.  Ideally I would like to bike with others.  Most of my tri friends don't have kids and have a more flexibility in their weekend schedules.  3)  I don't feel motivated right now and struggling with procrastination.  I skipped my run yesterday and this morning...granted I can run in the afternoon today because there's no school.  I have to get the drive back I had a few weeks ago.

So I need to talk to my tri friends, Rob of course, and figure this out.  Ideally early June would be the perfect time to do it.  I will exercise during the summer, but we are doing quite a bit of traveling.  Training for something big might be taking on too much.  Hailey wants to do a kids tri in August and I could help her train if I am not training for something.  If I am going to do a marathon, January or February of 2017 would be the perfect time.  I train better during the school year versus the summer.  I hate running in the heat.

I don't need to make a decision right now, but I am going to act as if I am training for Blue Lake.  So this would be Week #1 if I am following the training plan.

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