Motivation

Now I'm not quite sure where to start... as I really don't know what to ask...

But how do people find the motivation to keep going ?

Not in a race, but to keep getting up to train, to keep getting out there ?

This is only my first 'season' of Triathlon, to the extent that I raced 1 Sprint in March and have been training since then, yet because the season isn't really until November, I haven't yet raced.

I was a competitive swimmer for years, so the concept of training but not racing is quite foreign to me, as a swimmer you'd have some kind of competition every few weeks or months, definitely more often than the 7 or 8 months between races I've had here!

I'm the sort of person that I suppose finds it hard to do anything 'badly' as I suppose most are, but being a 22 Year Old Male, my concept of badly is not being a front of pack athlete. I 'expect' myself to be able to pull out a sub 2 hour Olympic race, that's my goal, I don't know exactly how the goal went from just competing in a season of Triathlon, to what would be considered a very solid time.

I know that i'm capable of a sub 20 minute 1500m swim, certainly in a pool effort I know I would do it, and I have heard that a wetsuit should make this very doable in a race situation. I also believe myself capable of a 40km+ avg for the bike leg, I'm not sure where I have any evidence that I can do this, but it's what I expect of myself when I make it to race day. I also believe that I can run a sub 40minute 10km, my best (only) time to date is a 44 minute but I could have gone faster and that was coming off relatively small running training.

I just feel in my head that my goals might be too far beyond what my body is capable of at this point, the last few weeks i've been lethargic, I am only just beginning to get back in to running after a partial achilles tear 6 weeks or so ago, I have tendonitis in my knee from cycling that flares up every so often, and I have a suspected torn Labrum in my Shoulder that I have had for 5 years but never got an MRI on.

I swim a few days a week with a triathlon specific squad, and the coaches are fantastic, most of the guys that swim there are training for Ironman. I also ride with those guys once a week on a Saturday (when I can get myself up for it) and although I don't expect to hang with the 3 of the strongest guys through the session, I expect myself to stick towards the front of the rest of the front, and certainly not as a straggler.

Am I expecting too much of myself ? Too much of my body ?

I 'see' 12 - 16 hours / week of training as being the optimal amount for my current level, but haven't strung together that much volume for over a month.

What kind of training volume do people here put in ?

I guess this post kind of meanders a bit and is a touch incoherent, but I figure people on this forum are the ideal audience that can associate with the first year or two of experience?

Thanks for anyone making it through this far and having read any or all of this, any advice or information would be greatly appreciated