How is it that already almost 6 weeks have gone by since ironman Los Cabos? Last year at this time, I was gearing up to head to Ironman Texas for my first time attempting two ironman's within 8 weeks. I love Ironman Texas and had done it for 3 years in a row, but had decided to skip Texas this year and instead head to race Frankfurt in July for a change of pace....more on Frankfurt later.
I think that last year having an immediate goal of racing another ironman soon was enough motivation to keep me going, focused on recovering properly
not going big at meal time and emptying my wine fridge and then ready to race again and THEN take a bit of a break. After I crossed the finish line at Cabo, maybe even before he congratulated me, the first words out of my husband's mouth were "YEAH, you won...we don't have to go to Frankfurt anymore, RIGHT?!!" Someone British in the family was not excited about Germany (what war?) and with Vineman being the week after Frankfurt, we will not be going to Europe this summer.
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| Coeur Commercial Shoot! |
My next race is next month at Escape From Alcatraz. Since this was so far after Cabo, I decided
think my subconscious decided against my will that I would take a solid break and then ramp up again for the later part of the season. But I was thinking, OHHH all of the extra time I will have since I won't have done Ironman Texas, I will just be BANKING the training. How does this girl not know that after how many years or racing that you need a break? Cut to almost 6 weeks later and that is where I am. I don't think that my body was necessarily so tired but mentally I was and I was just incredibly unmotivated to get back at it and there has been so much going on in life with travelling and family that there was always an excuse. This has been my first glimpse at what inconsistent training would look like, and that is a roller coaster I do not want to ride. We all place such high expectations on ourselves to do it all, and the past 6 weeks, I could not do it all and survive so thankfully a break was in order as training was definitely on the back burner. I took the first week after Cabo almost nearly off and then have been getting more and more back into training as the weeks progressed, but not nearly hitting it like I thought I would be. This week I think I'm finally back on to almost normal training and last nights massage said that normal training has resumed as well. Ever notice how lovely massage can be when you're taking a break from training...muscles just don't have as much opportunity to jam themselves up? Bessie, but when you get back to it, that massage will let you know just where you are!
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| NOT in spandex!!! |
I did one of my first speed session yesterday and had that thought of, woah NELLY, you have got a ways to go. I went to my go-to hill repeat where a great time up it will be xx and a slow time is yy...yesterday was a whole lot of yy's! And I spent some time telling myself I should just go back home, why bother, my legs just aren't there today. And then after 6 reps, I saw just the tiniest of tiny glimpses that indeed, all has not been lost and that it will come back with consistent work, and that Kona will not be a failure after all. That head can be a nasty place to be sometimes, and I consider myself to be pretty good at self talk! I'm not often put off by a bad workout- you can't let them get to you as your race is not one workout, but the sum of consistent work. I am almost always incredibly consistent in getting my workouts done, no skipping them (unless truly too tired), so I think that the inconsistency across the 6 weeks and so many external factors requiring me to be more crafty to still get it all done have taken their toll.
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| The Brooklyn Bridge looking into NYC |
Over the past 6 weeks though, I have gotten to be a "normal" person and have gotten to do a lot of cool stuff though, including a
photoshoot with my fave
photographer to get some rad photos for
Enve,
Argon and
Coeur...who knew that you could find a giant redwood in the hills of Berkeley and find graffiti with a view?!! I've been to NYC for a bachelorette party, attended a wedding, and done some good hanging out with family!
Now to not embarrass myself at Alcatraz and then begin the build to Kona in October!
