Journey to IRONMAN: The IRONMAN Blues

So it is exactly a month to the day that I started and completed my first IRONMAN 70.3 distance.  I can't believe it is already that long ago.  June was an INSANELY busy month for us.  I am grateful because it helped me stay occupied on our life instead of feeling the post race blues.

I have been so unmotivated on the exercise/training front.  It happens, its normal, but I am going to go on record and say the weeks following a big event like an IRONMAN distance are depressing.  The 2 weeks that I was in CO I spent 5 of them sicker than sick and the other days taking pictures.  I ran 2 times in the 2 weeks for less than 4 miles each time.  I rode my bike for the first time today after  3 weeks of it hanging in my garage.  I haven't actually swam for exercise since that morning in the Boulder Reservoir.  I just..........don't want to.  It's normal.

My fellow IRONMAN girlfriend Cassie texted me a week ago and asked me point blank if I was experiencing the IRONMAN blues.  I am pretty sure when she texted me I was sitting on the couch eating fresh homemade rice krispy treats, drinking a latte and reminiscing over the sleeping in I had just done.  Yep.....I am definitely experiencing them. I am just unmotivated.  My shoes have remained relatively unworn, my swim cap is buried in my bag and my bike has mushy tires from hanging in the heat.  Ugh....5 miles?  In the heat?  Nah.......  You want me to get up before 5 to ride my bike?  Why?  Sleeping in is so lovely!

But alas.....I miss it.  I am an endurance athlete.  So inevitably I am blue.

When you train and complete a big event the first week after a successful completion is euphoric.  Every day you wake up with this sense of accomplishment and excitement.  "I did it" you say to yourself.  Your sunburn is still hot and toasty, your muscles still feel the load and the time of rest is perfectly wonderful.  Then the next weeks come, your sunburn fades and is now just questionably there, you no longer feel the muscle burn and you are left wondering, "whats next?"  It's hard to not be training for something.  It's even harder to feel like you have to start again for the next event.

But start again I must.  The next 18 months of my life are going to be big, culminating in the BIG Kahuna.....the IRONMAN.  So to re motivate myself I signed up for an 80 mile bike ride next month and a 1/2 marathon in October.  February will host a marathon and then it will be an Olympic TRI, another 70.3 TRI and then IRONMAN in November 2016

Buh Bye Blues....I got things to do.