Attack of the Post Race Blues

You start training, a specific race in your sights.  You work hard every practice.  You eat, sleep and sweat your goal.  On race day, no matter what happens, you know you have put in all you could.  The race ends, there are hugs, congratulations, and tons of pictures posted on Facebook, not to mention some really cool medals. You have this amazing sense of accomplishment.You did it!

By the way, I love looking at everyone's race photos, whether I was in the race or not. Even if you are racing with these people, often you don't see them during the race.

I was warned that after CapTex, I would be hit with something called the Post Race Blues. The high that we get from attaining a goal gets replaced with the idea of "I have to do that all again?" for your next race. If you don't have one in mind, it becomes "now what?".  I was even warned that I may be tempted to take the dreaded "time off", which, if you are not careful, can become permanent.

After Recovery Week, I waited for the attack. The workouts were reduced since I had this nagging pain in my shoulder, but I still looked forward to each one.  Waiting for my new training plan was akin to a kid waiting to see if he could catch a glimpse of Santa Claus (Is it here yet? Is it here yet?).  Heck, Austin Half Ironman is only five months away, and I want to do that baby in style.

Mentally prepared for battle, I waited.  And waited. Sneaky little suckers, I thought.  Just waiting for me to let my guard down.

These past couple of weeks, I found myself waking up at 4 or 4:30 each morning with this insane urge to go running.  This I found to be very funny since during the school year I easily hit the snooze once or twice to delay the inevitable as long as possible - I have a very comfortable bed, and as much as I enjoy teaching sometimes I just want to lay there a l-i-t-t-l-e longer.  Now that school is out and I don't have to get up early, my body is getting me up even earlier and it's happy to do so. Weird.

Saturday I'm up and ready to go for my 4 am run, or should I say swim through the humidity and constant  battling of gnat swarms. It has become clear I am going to have to learn to breathe through my nose, because gnat is not one of my favorite meals. I start my run, and come to my Aha moment - cue the background music please...

When you place all the value on the race, you could miss the point. It's like the difference between a job and a career. A job you do to see your specific end result - pay bills usually. A career is something you love to do, and don't feel like it's an obligation to do.  Sure, you get tired and want a break, but it's simply part of who you are, you do it naturally, and a bad day (race) is still better than a good day at a job. Like the Blues, when you have a job and pay your bills, you look at what's left and think, "man, I have to do this all again to pay next month's bills?". With a career, you look forward to what the next day (training session) will bring.

Allowing yourself to enjoy each workout as something unto itself instead of race day won't even allow the Blues to get any footing.  On my run, I looked over the last four to four and a half months (while attempting to dodge gnats), saw how much I have developed physically, mentally, and emotionally, and thought to myself, "that's pretty cool, can't wait to see where I will be after these next five months of training!". After that, my focus became to make each training session as good as possible.  Live in the moment - race day comes whether you think about it or not. Before you know it, the next race will come, and there will be hugs, congratulations, tons of pictures posted to Facebook, and some really cool medals.

I leave you with my favorite quote of the week:


"Until you face your fears, you don't move to the other side, where you find the power." Mark Allen (one of my inspirational people).  Thanks Farrah! (another person who inspires me)



On a sad note - I regret to inform you that it has come time to retire my first true pair of running shoes, Brooks Pureflow 2's. They saw me through learning how to run (properly) and this first phase of training.  They have become a symbol of how far I have come since I made the decision to change my life. In them I went from dreading running to it becoming one of my greatest passions. I never thought I could get sentimentally attached to a pair of shoes (especially hot pink ones).

On a happier note - I found out that VRC has the exact same shoe in my favorite color - purple!! :)