Last year at this time, I had logged over 84,000 meters in the pool, ridden almost 800 miles on my bike and run about 200 miles (which was really low – I spent the first three months of the year injured). This year? I haven’t been in the pool even once yet. I finally got on my bike a few weeks ago after months of it just hanging out in the garage and I’m not even keeping track of my running mileage.
By late June of 2011, I had won my age group in two races and podiumed in a third. I had four shiny new PRs, including a swimming-only event (yes, okay, three of them were new distances and automatic PRs, but still). Before the summer was over, I had swept my age in a series of duathlons and PRed at all but one of my seven races.
Last year I was en fuego, but this year… not so much. I’ve only run a crappy marathon and a crappy 25K. My current average running pace feels like it’s hovering somewhere between “walking slowly” and “standing still.” And even that is faster than this year’s bike pace.
To my credit, I’ve spent the time not biking and not swimming doing a crapton of strength training. Last year, I definitely could not do this:
I can only do about five of these suckers at a time, but I still feel completely badass.
Or this:
What? Your husband didn’t build you a pull-up bar for your living room??
But lately, like the last few weeks, I’ve started to feel hungry again. I want to work harder and get faster. I want to check off all those little boxes on my training schedule and go to bed exhausted. I want to have a goal and give it everything I’ve got to accomplish it. I want to RACE.
I’ve been trolling the internet the last few days, looking for something I can get excited about, but I haven’t decided yet if I’m going for a tri, a du or a trail race. I’ve got a couple of options bookmarked and this week I’m going to pick one and dig in.
What’s on your plate right now?
Char says
It’ll be interesting to see how your extra strength affects your racing. Actually, when you said you were hungry I immediately thought it was for food. After all that extra muscle needs extra fuel.
Lisa says
I think letting yourself get naturally hungry is the best way to get back into “it”.
ratherthecouch says
I like how you described your pace – somewhere between walking slowly and standing still. That’s definitely where I’m at these days. And I can certainly relate to wanting to speed up and race again. I’m so bad at being patient!