Triathletes Anonymous

Questions:

1. Do you sometimes feel like you have to force yourself to complete a workout because you have no motivation?
2. Do you occasionally add on to the already assigned workouts, making them harder or longer?
3. Have you reached a point where your body no longer feels energized to start a workout, but you do it anyway?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, your training is no longer healthy, it is an obsession.

...Awesome... I have an addiction. That's cool. So what do I do now? They don't have a TA (Triathletes Anonymous), do they?

Tri group on Saturday was great! Dani was the only one who showed up, so I was able to pay attention to her form. After she finished, I hopped in and swam 1700 meters. Amazingly, I really wanted to swim! It was probably because I didn't want to run due to my knee injury, but I had a desire to get in and swim after watching Dani.

"Knee injury," you ask. "What is this?"

Oh yeah, I have a terrible, horrible, no good, dirty-rotten knee injury. It happened in high school with a combination of snowboarding and volleyball. I have a valgus angle of the knee and when I run, I land with the knee slightly in and the toes pointed out (which I blame on ballet), so the knee takes a lot of pressure. During my Thursday evening run, I decided I would try to correct that angle for an hour. That set it off. Now it's been driving me crazy. Bum knee. But I train anyway. Why? ...because I have an addiction.

Speaking of my addiction... after swimming, I decided my knee hurt too much to run for the 2 hours I was supposed to. The elliptical machine would have to make due. But when I got to the gym, I just wasn't feeling it. Cosy had mentioned we should go hiking so I figured I would substitute the hike for the run. I hadn't heard from her, so I thought I would run home and close my eyes for a bit. Saucony Scofield and I got into bed together and I closed my eyes. Next thing I knew, I had been asleep for almost 2 hours. Cosy had texted asking me where I was, but I was sound asleep. So much for that hike. I was meeting Richard in less than an hour at the track (El Diablo?), so I decided to be lazy and watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Sunday called for a long bike ride and a long run. No problem, right? I pretty much taken Saturday off, so I should have some energy. So wrong! I trained Richard at the beach and we did some run force drills. I could feel my knee, but I pushed through it. After we finished, I hopped on my bike and rode down the beach. I was supposed to keep my heart rate between 142-154. I started with a heart rate of 89... 10-minutes into the ride I was at 131. "Okay," I thought. "I'm still warming up. I'll just add a little more time to my workout." At the hour mark, my heart rate was wavering between 139-142 and I was hurting. "This is an easy ride! What is up with me?!?!" Finally I turned around. I was disappointed in myself. On the way back to my car, I hit every single stop light and got stuck behind some slow cyclists who weren't willing to move to the side. When I reached my car, I was frustrated and upset. But I had told Sophia I would run with her and I wasn't going to back down.

A long run. That's what we had said we would do. I started running and got half a mile down the road when, "OW! Oh eff... Hello knee. You suck." As I walked along, Sophia pulled up behind me and parked. We both decided we were not motivated and would cut our run short. Forty-five minutes. We only have to run for 45-minutes. As we ran, we talked about our lack of motivation and energy this week. Illnesses, lost sleep... all the things that make one want to quit. Fifteen minutes into the run, I lift my right foot and BAMM! I was down on the hard dirt. I picked myself up and started to run again. "What was that," I thought to myself. "My foot didn't get caught on anything. Sure, I was a little distracted, but I still was keeping good form. My feet definitely weren't shuffling."

I was done. I was so done. But Sophia was there. I couldn't quit. She had driven all the way out and waited to run so we could do it together. So I kept going. I'm glad I did. Later that night, I sent her a quote: "You can feel sore tomorrow or you can feel sorry tomorrow. You choose."

So this weekend was not the best training weekend and I'm not entirely sure how to approach this week. Shomari taught my cycle class this morning so I could teach Jen's strength class; that means I'll only teach one cycle class today. I hope that helps.

Sophia and I decided to buy new running shoes from Nash today. Hopefully that will inspire us to keep training for our half marathon in less than a month. Ah! I'm so excited for the half! But more on that later...