Racing for fun

By Billy
October 24, 2008 on 10:11 pm | In Random Musings | No Comments

Race for fun. Sounds obvious right? Well if you’re anything like me racing isn’t always fun. Racing is hard from the first week of training until you break the tape. This season I lost sight of why I became a triathlete in the first place and focussed solely on my progress (not as a person, but in terms of 40k bike splits. gross). Anyway, last weekend we were expoing in Las Vegas, NV. Seton ahhh, completed the half (I know he would never say that he raced it) while Zachary, Matty B. and myself did the olympic. Back to the beauty of the sport. No pressure, no expectations, no worries. Just did the swim and hopped on my bike for a leisurely ride through the Nevada desert. Everyone I saw on the bike received both a big smile and a “good work” or a “nice ride” or something of that nature. Having fun. Of course once I hit the run I was ready to suffer a bit, which was fine because I was topped off with mental “juju” as we call it. Ran like an animal and what do you know, came through with a great finish.  Race for fun and go fast, huh.

Take it easy

By Billy
September 29, 2008 on 9:17 pm | In Random Musings | No Comments

What do you do with yourself when weekly training goes from a focused 25hrs to 15hrs of ticking over? This season I have decided to go back to my roots by dusting off my skates and not worrying about getting injured. By skates I mean rollerblades and by rollerblades I mean the kind you would use to slide down or jump over various obstacles. What would push an admittedly obsessed triathlete to risk a 6-8 week recovery for a broken bone, various ligament damage or worse? Pressure, too much self applied pressure. This season my goals were lofty and I felt ready to make a jump. By late June I was in my fifth month of racing hard and training hard, too hard as it turns out. From the end of June to a key race mid-August I trained hard and kept the pressure on. The result, bad race, loss of motivation, mentally gone, physically beat up and really questioning what in God’s name am I doing this for? Now to the point or the moral of the story. Don’t take yourself too serious and make sure you strike a balance between triathlon and life. Believe me, you’ll have a lot more fun save for a broken bone or two.

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