Thursday, October 27, 2011

Have You Seen My Motivation..it was here somewhere..probably with my keys.

As the end of October approaches I am already firmly in the grips of the winter doldrums.  I really thought a short rest from training would do me good and I would be in the mood to hit it like never before. Unfortunately the only thing I have been hitting like never before is the all you can eat buffets.  Really..actually ate at the Chinese Super Buffet.  I had no idea the Chinese ate so many fried foods.  Fried and breaded sweet potatoes, donuts, chicken mcnuggets.  I am surprised that China does not have more of an obesity problem.  I have also gone out the last few weekends to enjoy the Brewers, Badgers and Packers with my rowdy friends that I have not hung out with for six months. (A shout out to my boys Jeff and Scott and badger girls Kelley (and whatever your boyfriend's name was) and Jenn..and of course my designated driver, wingman and caretaker Kristine). Needless to say this involved partaking in alcohol and fried foods. (mmm. cheese curds)   In the last six months before my Ironman race I ate pretty good and did not drink at all.  The night of the Badger/Nebraska game I drank six months of fruity drinks.  I decided to do the rainbow by doing one drink of every color.. long island iced tea (brown) Blue Hawaiin (blue) Some sort of red fruity drink(red), screw driver(orange), grasshopper(green) girl scout cookie (green again), purple people eater (purple), axe murderer (red again)  all topped of with an Irish Car Bomb. Needless to say I felt less than stellar..but the Badgers did win.  I also apparently came down with a case of food poisoning that night and next day since I just really did not feel well.. of course sleeping on a tile floor curled up in a ball did not help either. So the fruity drinks are out of the system now..both figuratively and literally and I will not need to have one of those again for a year.  Some how I have also put on weight.  As of today I am up 11 lbs from 9-11-11. A magnificent 215 on the scale.

Worse yet the motivation to work out has just not been there.  I think partly because the triathlon season is over and I have no goal staring me in the face.  Another is that the group rides and workouts are also pretty much over for the season.  I think I am much more of a team sport guy then an individual sport enthusiast.  This may be part of my midwestern upbringing where team sports are popular and hanging out after the game is even more popular.  I started playing volleyball again which is fun..and much less of a strain on my knees since losing my weight.  I am also contemplating joining a soccer league ( a sport I have never played before) just because of the camaraderie.  Triathlon is an individual sport for the most part but I always try to have a training partner or partners. For me being part of a team is huge.  When I mountain biked in the midwest it was always a group activity..in Colorado you see a lot of solo mountain bikers. I have half-joked with my coach that we need to get team kits so we can be identified as a unit. ( Honey Badgers  ..Because Honey Badgers don't care...Honey Badgers are Bad Ass.)  For some reason it is much more fun and satisfying to me to accomplish something as a team rather than an individual.

I have also soured on the sport of triathlon a bit.  I have met a lot of great people while doing triathlons..but I have also met a lot of complete d-bags.  I think for some reason the individual sports seem to attract a larger number of anti-social, self centered, arrogant individuals that do not mesh well with my personality.  And in my opinion, the proportion of these d-bags increases as their eliteness increases (or more likely their perceived eliteness).  Yes I know that this is a gross generalization and some of the elite athletes I have met are some of the most wonderful people I know..but I am just going off my experience.


Unfortunately I meet the guy in the video above on a lot of my rides and it really ticks me off and adds to my "experience" database.

So I am done whining now.  I need to get back on the horse. My run fitness has nose-dived, I think I remember how to swim and unbelievably my bike fitness still seems to be ok.  My plan of attack for the next month is to set my race goals, get back on track nutritionally and schedule my workouts as I would meetings so I don't miss any more.

I was able to have a great ride last weekend with my coach Sonja (one of the truly wonderful elite athletes that I have met) and a few of the ponies in her stable.  The ride made me remember how much I actually do like the sport and the majority of the people in it that I have met.  I will also be reading the blogs of my online buddies to help me keep motivated. (You can too..they are listed on the side bar).  Hope everyone is well and keeps moving forward.

1 comment:

  1. There is nothing wrong with a break... as long as it isn't TOO long. (i.e. don't follow my example) I think it makes the rest of the year more bearable.

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