On Motivation in Training

While my training and tri season didn't get completely derailed due to my bike crash, we have decided to rethink some things regarding racing. Namely, racing is expensive and bike crashes come with multiple and expensive bills.

So, that, coupled with the fact that we don't really like racing at Aurora Reservoir, made us come to the decision to forgo the crazy back-to-back this year.

(The crazy back-to-back, in case I haven't mentioned it earlier, is doing both days of the Rattlesnake Triathlon, both Saturday and Sunday - the sprint and the Oly. Most people just do one of the days; you do both, and you do the "crazy back-to-back.")

However, Rattlesnake was where I was hoping to get my race goal of a 3:30 Oly. With that race off the schedule, it meant that I only had Boulder Peak, the race I'm doing tomorrow, to hit my goal. But, with the way training's been going, that was going to be monumental and really started to grate on me (keep in mind, this decision was made about two weeks ago).

With the possible added pressure of trying to do 3:30 at a longer race (Boulder Peak has an atypical 42K bike) and a harder race (damn you Olde Stage) with a perceived lack of training essentially freaked me out to the point that I gave up mentally. I know that, given my training lately, even PRing in this race is going to be tricky.

Of course, when one gives up mentally, one essentially has no will to keep training, despite the fact that one still has races on the horizon.

Combine that with the gross heat we've had lately, and, well, disaster for T.

The good news is, we found a late season Oly on the Western slope of Colorado that's fairly cheap, as far as tris go, that we think we'll be able to swing. It's a brand new race this year and, because it's in early October, we should be able to get in the proper training to be able to do well in it.

That being said, I'm ready for Boulder Peak to be over with. I'm ready for this stupid heat wave to be done. I'm ready for my transfer at work to go through so I can quit dealing with the stupid drama at my store and get a change of pace. I'm ready to figure out something else to do with my life so I can be happier with life in general. I'm ready to get my motivation back to run.