With the end of my season, and training/racing life for now, comes a whole mix of emotions. Joy at being done. Sadness at no more snarky little comments in TrainingPeaks from my coach as well as virtual pats-on-the-head. Excitement about what lies ahead. Interest about how embracing a less structured active life will play out in body composition, energy levels, and beer consumption. Curiousity about how the changes to my life over the last year led me to become so apathetic about training and racing. Relief that I recognized the changes in myself early enough to know when to call my season done without fear of judgement.
But also...a large proportion of gratitude. I'm grateful for my husband for supporting this sometimes-outlandish journey into competitive sports as well as supporting my choice to drop it and take up whereever the summer's explorations take me. I'm grateful to so many friends who talked me through hard training days and disappointing races and celebrated the good ones and were happy for me when I had a big breakthrough. I hope you still bitch to me about your training and race dilemmas and that we can continue to make fun of triathlete egos together. I'm grateful more than anything else to my amazing coach who has been with me for most of this journey and taught me everything I know about how to push my limits and succeed. I'm happy to call her a friend as well and once she's delivered her baby I fully expect we had better find a way across the 1000 miles between us to have a beer! Seriously though, I could never have done anything in the last 7 seasons without her; it's not just about the PRs (of which there were many) but the journey from timid adult-onset athlete to confident racer. Thank you, Elizabeth, for everything.
So what's next?
*Rest. I'm taking this first week slow and just going with the flow. By slow, of course I mean that yesterday, the day after the race, I took the dogs to the lake, bathed and groomed them, vaccuumed all 3 floors of the house, organized and packed away all my racing gear, rebuilt my TT bike and put it up for sale, rearranged a few parts of the house, and ran 4 loads of laundry. But really, other than some yoga and an open water swim with Tea, it's going to be a mild week.
* Hiking. Jeff got us an annual pass for Rocky Mountain National Park and as it's only 20 minutes from home I expect we will be checking out a trail each weekend. He's doing some advance scouting for his yearly man trip into the wilderness and I'm happy to join in and explore with him.
* Still biking and running. Stanley loves to run with me and we shall do some trail running. It'll be nice to just go out and run and stop when I feel like it and not even care about pace. I've got a road bike on order and hopefully a mountain bike will follow. There are so many roads and trails to try out here and I'm truly chomping at the bit to explore things in our new home.
* Dog agility. I've had to put competition on the back burner while I trained and raced but we are entered in some trials coming up soon. Stan will be very happy to get back to it!
* And more. Music festivals, concerts, beer, tons of work on our property and house, and maybe a few other little things along the way! Life in Colorado is pretty full and I'm looking forward to embracing it all. Maybe without the pressure of race reports (after I get the last ones done) posting will even be a bit easier to do :)
4 comments:
Too many people try to do everything. When they do, they sacrfice the important things in life.
To the chagrin of others, triathlon isn't a way of life. It's a hobby, like everything else. Life is too short to allow one hobby to own your life when there are so many other fun things out there.
Yeah, I decided a long time ago that my 'training' had to be stuff I was going to do anyway so I gave up the road tri's and took up Xterra. The races are so much more fun and laid back and I get to be on trails all the time. You'll find the balance for yourself as well.
I love this post, Molly. You have summed up my attitude as well...ha ha ha...not that I work out or train myself for anything...but about competing with the dogs. I am enjoying life around the house, having weekends to go do stuff and everything else associated with that. If a competition comes to town and we are ready, great. Otherwise, nope. Congratulations for recognizing that in your own life.
It has been such a pleasure following you in your athletic journey. You have inspired so many people in your pursuits: myself, David, your Dad, aunt, brother, and countless others I am sure I am not aware. I know when I saw on FB you were competing in tris and swimming it was an impetus for me to reconnect with you as well, and I am glad that happened. The times we did train together, well I won't say they were all fun, per-se (a wet and rainy ride in Feb comes to mind!), but you were always so willing and open to including everyone, it was appreciated and infectious. I am happy you're happy in Colorado. I look forward to reading about your foray into all things beer, grad school, hiking and biking. That being said, we miss you guys and your dogs!
Post a Comment