What was I thinking? After the painfest of the first Outlaw tri I said I was never doing another.
After the near death experience of baking my arse off at my second Outlaw tri I said I wasn’t doing another and meant it.
The swimming (2.4 miles) bores me, the riding is painful and boring (112 miles) and the marathon (26.2 miles) at the end, on dead legs, is just an ordeal.
Not doing it. No way.
Then I got a motorbike and that was that. Never swinging my leg over a pushbike again!
*sigh*
Here’s my new pushbike:
My life had just become work and sleep. I hadn’t done a run since the 2nd of August, no pushbiking for years, no swim for longer. The running was the last to go because I actually enjoyed that. But the bit I enjoy is when you are pretty fit and you start pushing it, and making gains. In this job, on my shifts, I couldn’t train regularly so I was always struggling to get going, never improving.
I didn’t know I was low of mood, it was just how it was.
On a whim I decided to get back into triathlon for a New Year’s Resolution.. On the 2nd of January, 5 months since my last run, I went out and did a 5 mile test run. The run was easy, getting my arse out of the door was the huge challenge.
As soon as I got back I was buzzing. Really up for it. I went out the next day for a 4 mile run, then yesterday for another, knocking 30 seconds a mile off the time of the day before. I just can’t help myself. That is so bad. I was trying to take it slow as 90% of injuries are “too much, too soon”
I was thinking “getting back into tri”, no specific deadlines. Tonight I enquired about “improver” swimming lessons, the last two times I was so crap I was too embarrassed to go a tri club for tuition. So I stayed crap. And thrashed about for 2.4 miles, then got out of the lake in the last dozen.
Looking at a 1½ miles long lake is a terrible sight when you’re a crap swimmer.
I’ve bought a decent bike, I’m looking into swimming, (training and pool times), and I’ve done three runs.
Half an hour ago I Googled the Outlaw 2018. It’s not sold out yet. Oh god! TEMPTATION!
29th of July. That’s 29 weeks.
It’s do-able, but massive.
I want to commit right now.
I’ll be gutted if it sells out and I think I can do it.
I’ll have a trial week. See what training I can do around work.
I could totally do this. If I can train.
Oh wow. This is more like it! The terror of a vast and seemingly impossible task with a fixed deadline. Now, I feel alive!
Later,
Buck.
Quick PS, as usual I was suffering with delusions of adequacy. I thought it would be easy to jump back on a pushbike (after about 4 years off) and nip 10 miles to work and then back again. I went today for a test run. Holy crap! It nearly killed me. Even small hills I was changing right down the gears. It was goddawful. This is going to be even more of an epic undertaking than I thought.
On the bright side, I worked back from the date of the Manchester Marathon (April 9th, I think) and to reasonably increase my distance each week and be ready I had to be able to run 6 miles today. I ran 7. But that was mixed training (a ’brick’). I did my killer ride, got off at work, drove the bike back in the car, then went out for a run. Brick’s are way harder because your legs are buggered from the bike before you start the run. That’s why you practice bricks. So I’m pleased with that. I only started training 4 days ago, and I’ve done a brick. For my long run! Also pleased because I showed restraint. I would have liked to do 10 miles, but my legs were feeling tired a 3.30 so I got to 3.5 and turned around. Keeping my disciplines apart I expect to be able to do a 10 mile run next week, putting me 4 weeks ahead of schedule.
By the way, I was rescuing my motorbike from work, (it got stranded there when the disc lock seized in place) so I had to drive the car to work, ride my motorbike home, pedal back to work, put the bike in the car, and drive home. ballache, but the taxi home at ungodly o’clock when it got stuck was £27! Bugger that for a game of soldiers. It’s not that the bike ride was so terrible I had to drive home. Although it was. That was the plan.