Go figure!
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
So I finally am taking the next step.
Seven years ago I burnt out on Ironman training. After 13 years of three weekly bike workouts of up to seven hours - with spin classes often added or substituted in the winter - on top of a five-to-six-days-a-week running schedule and twice-a-week masters swim sessions plus some open water workouts in Lake Michigan in the summer and strength workouts in the winter, I'd had enough. This workout load finally took its mental toll. I loved the journey and especially the racing and the camaraderie with spectacular athletes who almost to a person are wonderful people, but after finishing 10 Ironman races, I backed off this extreme level of training and, at least temporarily, decided to "retire" from Ironman training and racing.
Then, after finishing my second "triple" at the Chicago Triathon (Super Sprint, Sprint and Olympic distance over two days) in 2010 (what a hoot!), I likewise felt I had nothing left to prove, at least to myself, in shorter distance triathlons. I loved the sport, but my mental "back down" included putting training for and racing any triathlons on the shelf for a while. I knew I would get back to tri some day, however.
My focus then resolved to training for and running marathons and other shorter distance road races. I qualified again for the Boston Marathon and had a lot of fun racing with friends for age group podium spots in local races. Also, I continued to swim masters workouts, and for several years wrote the workouts for our masters swim group in Chicago. However, my bike riding ebbed, as my friend Kevin who always encouraged me to keep riding with him will attest.
A year ago my blood clots and heart issue temporarily halted any swim-bike-run. But, after a hiatus, now I am back at running big time (training for the Baltimore Marathon in mid-October and running the Annapolis 10 mile race this Sunday).
Probably no surprise given my history: The pull of triathlon has been nagging at me this year as I have recovered fitness and immersed myself in a new community of runners and multisport athletes in Annapolis. So I decided I needed to get back in the pool and swim a masters workout, however slowly.
I was all ready to give the lap lanes at Arundel Olympic Swim Center a spin early this morning. So I looked up the hours (and was reminded that this first-class public pool has 50 meter lanes, a lane length double what I am used to and which I have not swum since I worked out at the spectacular University of Georgia pool a decade ago).
Surprise! Closed for annual maintenance until September 10.
Just figures, right?
