Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Pure Inspiration

This blog is not about the pure inspiration to train harder, compete, or even having anything to do with the triathlon. It's about trusting your gut and listening to your body.

As you can see, I haven't written on this blog in a couple months. But tonight I received an awesome comment from an anonymous reader. Because it's anonymous, I've copied it below:

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ANONYMOUS COMMENT:
"So I stumbled across your blog entry on obsessed triathletes. I totally agree on how it takes the balance away from life. I'm struggling now on training and family. I get that overwhelming guilt when missing a practice or sleeping in. I find that I have to defend myself when it comes to my training partners. I get the eye roll when I decide to do a sprint instead of an olympic distance. Who am I doing this for anyway, me or the other triathletes. Enough said, I'm glad I'm not the only one out there that feels as you do in your blog. Stay strong!"
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Life works in amazing ways. Tonight I chose to NOT do a triathlon that I'm registered in September, Sentinel in Santa Cruz. I also chose NOT to participate in the swim leg of a relay in a couple weeks. My heart is just not in it right now. I've competed, I did a couple triathlons, and I know - it takes a tremendous amount of heart, sweat, determination, focus, and commitment. The exercise is actually the easy part.

Anyway, to whoever wrote that comment.... you made my evening.

Back to "pure inspiration," it's about listening to your gut and your body. Right now, I don't want to compete. And when I told my coach (a different one than before), he was so supportive. While I know he'd love to train me to compete, there's no guilt trip, disappointment, anything like that. Plus he noted tonight that I look happier than he's ever seen me.

So, this doesn't mean no more exercise... I've actually enjoyed my long runs and swims more in the recent weeks than I ever did when I was training. For now, I think I'll just focus on getting in a good workout every day - a workout that I WANT to do...  and just be ok with not training for a triathlon.

Thank you to the anonymous comment and thank you to my coach, Jeff.