Choose Your Focus

Entering this season, I thought I had things figured out. For the first time in my triathlon career, I had a clear, focused, plan set in place. I scheduled training around projected A races, B races and events I would like to train through. I began implementing this plan and things were going great. I was gaining my fitness back more quickly than I ever anticipated and my running was starting to reach a level it had never been before. The winter months flew by and I found myself starting to test my fitness in February with hard workouts. Unfortunately, February was also the month that my body decided it needed a break. The hours of long miles were catching up to me and I found it very difficult to focus on my workouts. I was starting to dread the cycle I had been following since November. My body was recovering slowly and I was much sorer than I should have been. It didn’t help that my mental state was an absolute mess. I was missing hanging out with friends and hated waiting all week for the weekend to come around.

I decided to turn the block into a get back to basics block. I trained when I wanted to and didn’t stress about volume or getting certain workouts in.  After all, it was only February, training had been going well, and I knew I didn’t have any serious races until July. I made it through the block without the normal stresses that accompany hard training blocks. I kept a few key workouts in my schedule and spent a lot of time seeing friends and getting my head straight. It really helped me to take some of the weight off of my shoulders and prepare myself for another long push to May. This block also helped me refocus my goals for training as well as life. My major realization from the break was the following: You can train endlessly and earn great results but it means nothing if you don’t have anybody to share the experiences with. Keeping this in mind, I will try my best to keep my friends closer and work on developing stronger relationships with the people that are close to me as well as new people I meet along my journey. I know what I want in life and I know that as long as I can control it, I will pursue it with everything I have to offer.