Distractions

Everything was going so well this year that I kept waiting for something to go wrong:  the inevitable injury, a cold, something.  Only it never came, and I kept doing better and better in my training.  With each successful training session my expectations rose.  I went from racing for fun this year and testing out the waters for longer distances, to wanting to be competitive.

Suddenly having fun wasn’t enough.  I wanted a new PR.  And not just a PR, but a huge one.  Twenty plus minutes for the first race, and then another fifteen for the second.  I’m still having fun, but now when I look around, instead of seeing other athletes and smiling, I size them up and think to myself that I can (or can’t) beat them.

I’d say that makes this off season very successful.  And then it came, and not from a source I would have expected.  Less than a month ago my wife and I wondered if maybe it was time to move, to downsize and find a house without a private pool.  In a span of 4 days last week we listed our house, sold it, and bought a new one.

As a home owner that is a good thing.  It’s always nice when someone loves your house and what you have done with it.  As a triathlete it hasn’t been so good.  The effort was tiring and time consuming.  The time normally spent with my feet up recovering has been spent looking at floors, appliances, houses and doing repairs around the house.

Fortunately most of that is done and over with.  My bigger concern is with all the details yet to be worked out.  I find them occupying my mind at the worst possible times, when I’m training and should be focused on what I’m doing at the moment.

I’ve decided that the solution is to push harder in my training.  If I’m in serious pain I won’t be thinking about where I’m going to store my furniture or what movers I’m going to hire.  Unfortunately I’m in taper week right now, and most of next week is recovery week, so I’m not going to know how well that works for a bit.

In the meantime I’m going to try and focus on my half marathon this weekend.  Oh yeah, and I’ve got to remember to smile!