Accountability

Six weeks.

It's been six weeks since I won dominated finished conquered Ironman Texas. I took two weeks completely off from exercise, and waited another week before running. Since then, I've been floundering.

I haven't had the post-Ironman blues and I haven't felt tired or worn down. As a matter of fact, for most of the past six weeks, I've felt better than I ever have in my life: full of energy, mentally alert, and hardly cranky at all.

I've just had a hard time getting back into a groove. I've been swimming only once per week. (Strangely enough, my swimming is getting slower. Who knew?!?)

I don't have another "big" goal for this season. I would have loved to race Augusta 70.3 again, but a work obligation will put me in Chicago that weekend. I'm incredibly jealous of everyone who is racing it this year. And it seems like EVERYONE is racing it. Except me. <insert pity party here>

I have a handful of sprints on the schedule and one Olympic race (Pinehurst International in early October - come join in the fun!). I had wanted to use my huge base to springboard into strength, power and speed training, so I could get much faster for these short races. Three weeks ago I laid out my training plan for two weeks and tried to get going again. I only completed about two-thirds of the workouts (only one-third of the swims). This past week, I didn't even plan anything. I just winged it.

Part of it is that life is getting in the way. Life and work. And I'm not motivated enough right now to make it happen despite the challenges. For example, I had planned to swim at the Y pool yesterday between work & our tri club meeting. I arrived at the pool with all my swim toys - cap, goggles, paddles, tennis balls, pull buoy - to find approximately four hundred thousand kids in it for a swim meet. Pool closed! So I went to the store to stock up on bananas and figured I'd just swim after the meeting. Not ideal, but not terrible.

Fast forward to 8pm, when the meeting was over. The pool was still swarming with pint-size swimmers having their meet, which, I finally saw on the poster in the lobby, wouldn't be over until 8:30pm. Let's see - sit around for 30 minutes, get in the pool at 8:35, out at 9:20, showered & dressed by 9:40, home at 10:10.

Nope. Not gonna happen.

You know what? I'm not training for an Ironman anymore, so if I don't want to exercise after 8pm, I don't have to. That seems reasonable, yes. Except, the problem is, I've had what I consider a "fairly good reason" to miss a workout most days this week. Since Tri the Midlands last Saturday (I'll write more about that race in a later post), I have done one workout. One. It's now 10pm on Friday evening.

So, looking ahead, my next race - the Tom Hoskins Memorial Sprint Triathlon - is four weeks away. This was the first tri I ever did, and every year I go back to see how far I've come. Last year was the first time I placed, and dammit, I want to again. I had wanted to be working on speed right now so I could have a strong race. But instead, I've been slacking. Unless a miracle occurs, I don't see myself bringing home the coveted coffee cup this year.

I do have a purpose for writing this. Last December, I noted in this blog how hard it was for me to get up and do workouts before work. I posted my results each day to hold myself accountable for getting those early workouts done. Looking forward to posting about my success (or fearing having to post about my failure) helped get my ass out of bed and into whatever type of spandex that morning's workout required.

I've decided to use the blog as a motivator again - but I need your help. Over the next few days, I'm going to outline my goals - both short-term and for the rest of the season - then lay out my plan. As the days and weeks tick by, I'll post my progress and my shortcomings. When I fail to step up, I want you to call me out. If I slack, if I take the easy way out, if I can't get my ass out of bed: Let me have it. Shame me. Lay on the guilt. Trust me - there's nothing you can say that will be worse than what I'm telling myself. Together, we can get this train back on track.

And if this works, maybe I'll let you borrow my awesome new coffee cup.

This Week's Challenge

It was a pretty good week of pre-training (training to get ready for the real training to begin). I ran four times, including a long run which I was able to keep properly slow. I had two good trainer rides and am starting to feel comfortable on the bike again. I hit my goal for total hours of exercise. The best part is that almost all of the week was pain-free.

The bad news is, I neither swam nor did any strength workouts. It's easy to blame the weird holiday schedule and a short business trip, but I know if I had managed my time better, I could've gotten it all in. It's not detrimental to let some workouts slide while I'm not truly in training, but I still feel guilty.

My fear is that I will continue to be lax when the real training starts. I don't really think that'll happen, though. I plan to get as many workouts done before work as possible. This is THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD for me. But... If I want to be an Ironman, I have to get these things done, and to get them done, I have to fit them in around the rest of life: family, work, and music. I will find a way.

I plan to exercise before work 4 out of 5 days this week: two swims, one run and a trainer ride. It's going to be tough, but I have a plan: I'm going to go to bed earlier every night, and I asked my kid to please stay in her own bed all night so Mom and Dad can get good, quality sleep. I also told her of my plan to get up early. My hope is that the added pressure of setting an example for her will be enough to get my ass up.