A few months back, I registered for the Loveland Lake to Lake Olympic triathlon. I completed this tri back in June, 2010, but at the time, my goal had been to simply finish. This year, I was hoping to do much better than that.
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| Clearly, I suffered through this tri last time! Apparently it brought me to tears! |
However, as summer is creeping closer and I am thinking more and more about my race schedule and my life schedule, I came to a huge realization:
I just don’t want to do it.
I have a few different reasons for my decision, although part of me is still mentally torn. I’ve never full-on dropped a race like this (I emailed the race director and requested my refund, so it is officially a done deal.) Why did I do it?
1. Body Worries. Y’all have heard my moaning and groaning about my PF issues with my foot, and I’ve written multiple times about how I also have bunions. Well, these issues are coming to the forefront of my mind with the increase in actual running that I have been doing in order to train for my half marathons and the Denver RnR marathon in September. Now, in addition to the foot woes, I’m developing a wicked knot in my calf (I think) as a result of running funny to nurture my foot.
Are these issues serious? Not at all! However, I know myself and know that I will put additional pressure on myself to continue training when maybe I should focus on fixing these things. By dropping the tri, I have all of May (after the Colorado half) until the beginning of August (the Georgetown Half) to work on strengthening the ol’ feet out. Capeche?
2. Play Time. Back when I made the announcement that 2012 would be the year I became a runner, I also noted that this would be difficult for me because I like to do a lot of things. I love playing outside and mountain biking and climbing and hiking. While all of these things are great workouts in general, they don’t necessarily prepare my body for a triathlon. And this year, I’ve decided that I don’t want to give them up!
3. I Need My Vitamin D. If you’ve read my blog for longer than a week, you may have notice that I love to be outside. It’s who I am, it’s what keeps me happy, and it’s how I clear my head and keep myself sane. I specifically buy makeup products with SPF just because I know I’m outside an inordinate amount of time and need the extra protection! (Bare Minerals, if you’re curious!) However, in order to tri train, I have to get in the pool. Inside. At the gym.
And you know what? That sounds miserable to me right now! The weather has been insane in Colorado and I want to be outside– I don’t want to smell like chlorine and stare at the line on the bottom of the pool and turn into a shriveled prune instead of playing outside. I just don’t want to! 🙂
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| Who could resist taking the bike out to ride here after work?! |
4. Life is Busy! I may have mentioned it once or twice, but I know I never made an “official” blog notice: we are back up and running for the 2012 season! And by this, I mean that I am working again. If you don’t know, my family owns a landscaping company of which I am the manager. This is awesome because I have a reverse teacher’s schedule and get December- February completely off from work. Winning.
However, I am still a full-time grad student and I am looking at an August, 2012 graduation, assuming I can make some serious progress on my thesis between now and then. This was a perfect combo over the winter when I didn’t have staff issues and client complaints, but now I have it all coming at me on a daily basis… and we just opened up! It’s comes with the trade and I love my job, but I also need to make sure my thesis doesn’t suck. Basically, something had to give!
And yes, every. single. one. of these pics has been used on my blog before. But, I figured it was either repeat photos are me trying to act out the sentiments of my thoughts and honestly, would you really need to see that?!