Getting tired of triathlon... (Page 2)

MMMmmm P4

There have been about three seasons since 1984 when I couldn't race or simply wanted to spend most of the year doing something else. So I did.

When I was refreshed I came back to the sport- and it was better than ever. If you subtract out those years, I've raced for 23 years. If you add in the years that all I did was bicycle races and adventure/ultra distance racing, it is 25 years of racing- a quarter century.

You do get tired, and that means it is time to push back from the table. Learn SCUBA diving, go on a climbing trip, learn to play the drums or the piano, take a dance class or write a book. It is variety that lends depth to life.

I hate to admit it but entering peak training phase for my 1st IM I'm already thinking about throttling down next year. I'm feeling less motivated for scheduled workouts, although I am getting in the hours.  My entire schedule for next couple months is work/train/sleep.  Training is my second job.  I've had to skip a number of my fav cycling events this year 'cause they didn't fit my training schedule.  I'm still looking forward to the IM, but I think I will be taking tri less seriously next year.  Like doing shorter tri's as I feel like, and doing bike or run events without guilt for how they might impact my IM journey. 

Heaven forbid, I might swim/bike/run next year just for fun & general fitness

I try to fit some fun stuff into my race season, not just sprints and 5k's but other stuff as well. This year I skipped a 5/10k to run a mile race with my 6 yrs old daugter Mattie. I passed on a 5k last weekend to run a 3 mi obstacle course. Last year I got in a couple adventure tri's, one was a kayak/mt bike/trail run and the other was a team canoe/mt bike/run where both racer canoed one biked and one ran.

Check out difference ideas like these to add some fun back to your season.

Huge proponent of following what your body, your life, your wants give you.  BTW, there's pro-precedent here, too. Gordo Byrn, one of the more promising pros, did what he wanted, which included building a career, exploring other things, being in a relationship in real terms, being a dad, and dropped his former aspirations / expectations. It just didn't matter to him.

I was always a casual triathlete, but hit it HARD in 2005-8 because I'd just gotten my freedom pass and dumped all my energy into it. And it didn't last...by 2008, workouts were chores, the next 3000m of pull workouts weren't necessary, so I bagged it.

Left the plans, left the structure, and had fun. Ran several marathons, a few events, some tough, some I DNF'ed, some brutal, some slow, but enjoyed the company, and enjoyed the event.

Fast forward to today. I've got the itch. Not sure whether it's for CX, Tri, or Road, or running, but something's gonna get slayed shortly.

It comes, it goes. Go with it.

I hear you.  Through a number of events including the burnout of attempting to train for an IM (called off after a few months) I ended up faking a race or two (can't remember if I actually faked both or just the first one).  It took me a trip to the mountains to remember that I actually just loved riding my bike.  And I love riding my bike to ride my bike, not a 3 hour ride with 2 hours in zone 3 with a cadence above 83.75 followed by 4 sets of single-leg drills and a 27 minute cool-down.  Now I have the urge to race again.  It's strong.  It's also horrible timing, but oh well.  I can still get some good training in and hit one last race hard.  Then it's the work of remember that I need to do other stuff to keep in shape over the winter, because if I start training in December (usually take a little bit of time "off" after the season is over) I hit it too hard and burn out again by May.

So no advice other than have fun with it.  If that doesn't work, try cyclocross as was suggested before and learn how to suffer properly.  If that doesn't work, you could run...but running sucks.

I hated working with a coach for the short time I did it.  Did I see gains?  Yes, but it totally wasn't worth it.

For me it is and always has been, about fun. When it's stops being fun for me I move on to something else. Now I know that's not always easy when you've invested time and money in a sport but hell lifes too short to continue doing something your hearts not in! 

Know what you mean by getting tired of the status quo but not wanting to go all couch potato again. I started to get into tris, got SIPE and haven't been much interested in OWS since. It's simply not worth gambling my life for. It just ain't that much fun. That leaves Duathlon. Which I did for a while. Until I got tired of the whole routine of "plan for 3 rides/wk, and 3 runs and my trainer session and work late and never ever do any of the really fun stuff I used to do pre-tris". I am very creative and have a non-creative job, so if I can't use my free time because I'm so tired and braindead from tri/du workouts, I eventually get very cranky. Then I start hating workouts. Not good. Even Dus aren't that interesting at the moment. We changed it up. We took a kayak lesson, really liked it and have also been hiking. We'll probably do other stuff for a while and then get back into running events and I'll like Du's again. It has really been fun to do something else for a while.

You can "plan" for other stuff, you know. We decided we'd hike a local mountain. Since we haven't hiked much it's all new and fun to go find new trails to get some miles in and some climbing. It's still training, it just doesn't feel like training. For right now, new=fun.

I have to admit to gaining a bit of weight - gotta watch that eating when you aren't putting in the training hours, but it'll come off.

There was a time when trainign was all abotu numbers for me - how fast, how long, how much climbing, etc.

I got into this from a cycling background.  Then my bike got stolen.  It was right then that I realized I had lost the passion of cycling.

Every off season I now put away the bike computer and just ride for fun.  I even do that during the season sometimes.

No kidding!  What would I do at work all day?

So stop. Who cares. Maybe you come back to it later. Maybe you don't. Nothing says you have to do it.

Honestly, in some ways, my surgery in 2010 was a great thing--I COULDN'T do anything. And when I started back, I realized, yeah. I dislike swimming intensely. So I'm not going to do it anymore. The season before, I was MAYBE swimming 1 or 2 times a week. My "big swim weeks" were 3000 m. total. It was a time suck, and I dreaded it.

So in the last year I have spent in "rehab" all I've done is base riding. Ride on the trainer, ride longer outside, tool around on my MTB...no real training--just ride for rehab and to get some strength back and for fun. I've done a little running. Zero swimming since I was cleared to get back on the bike again last summer.

I haven't done a tri since Lake Marion in 2009, and I have to say, I loved doing them...but I don't miss them. I LOVE not swimming. I did two dus this year--very low-key and just for fun. And walked away saying "that was nice, I want more." And that's where I'll leave it. Enjoyable, but not all-consuming.

Nothing says you HAVE to do tris, or dus, or any of that. Take time off. Go ride yoru bike. Or go run. Or just do sh1t for fun. Walk for an hour every day while reading a book. Take up kayaking or yoga or boot camp aerobics or whatever.

The sport is not going anywhere. If you want to pick it up again later, it will still be there. If you're skipping workouts, and it's not any fun...why do it?

My quitting tris was sort of involuntary--but it was a good excuse, and I am glad I took it. I shouldn't have needed one. I realize that now. And I am totally okay with saying: "Dad, I don't think I'm gonna do hamster style anymore" when it comes to tris.

[QUOTE Totally.  How about just riding for fun???  Crazy.    Don't tell my coach, but for the most part I just rode my bike.


Glad I am not alone! 

Like mmrocker, I went through a season off due to injury, tore my shoulder up in the 1st 100 of the swim at the Hawk I Tri last spring. I had to spend a summer watching all my friends race, not fun, but when I was cleared for racing last fall I found out I didn't care how good I did anymore, yeah I am competitive and I set goals, but racing is a lot more fun now than it used to be.

At the same time I am taking on different races, fewer tris so there is less chance of reinjury. I went back to Hawk Is where I hurt my shoulder this spring and missed my goal by 5 min, but I finished and had fun, good enough.

Traning is also funner, my wife is running 5k's with me now so she joins me on training runs every now and then, and Mattie is into running mile races so I spend alot of time with her, makes it all worth it. They got into it when I was forced to walk instead of run last summer so I wouldn't jar my shoulder around too much.