What I've missed by not working out for 3 months

After taking three months off from traithlon training, I've started up again. At least, I've gone running twice this week. I hope to increase that to three workouts next week and four workouts after that, and five after that. But who knows. It's really hard to start again, and I don't know why. It indicates I don't really love it, right? If I loved this triathlon thing, I'd look forward to training. I would have missed it.

It's true that there are some things I've missed: 

1. I'm not fat and haven't gained much weight (7 pounds in 3 months; but I'm no heavier than last winter), but my abdomen is definitely softer than before. I worry about how I look in photos.

2. I miss the weekly schedule and workout goals. I was using TriDot and it would suggest a workout for me each day, and of course sometimes I'd have to rearrange the days to fit all the workouts in. Training gave me a sense of purpose. These last three months I've forgotten how much I like to "worry" about my sports equipment and my diet in order to be the most efficient athlete I can be. Also, TriDot would give me an incentive to meet a numeric score for each workout, and I liked the "competition" with myself to earn those scores. I was often really, really good at getting high scores by having my pace and heart rate precisely match what was suggested by TriDot.

3. Obviously, I've missed the races. IM Lake Placid was canceled. Presque Isle triathlon was canceled. The spring olympic Mighty Moraine Man was canceled. Doing those virtually just didn't excite me at all.

4. When my family went to Lake Placid on the weekend when the race was supposed to occur, I saw at least one athlete all decked out in his trisuit, running along a highway. I expected to see more, but didn't. Anyway, this guy stared straight ahead, was clearing going at race pace, and was probably doing the whole race on his own. Since I had family with me on the trip, I didn't want to do anything like that, but ever since I returned home and realized that a couple of my closest people are still doing their races (wife Shannan and friend Geoff), I've put a lot of thought into the fact that I could do a whole Ironman on my own, and it would represent a considerable endurance feat in a unique way. To be honest, I'm actually more interested in this now than competing in the actual race planned for July 2021.

5. Time alone and independence. When I stopped training at the end of May, I was just starting to do the long bike rides and runs. These get me out of the house for hours at a time and take me to different places. Until just now, i had forgotten how much I like that. I get to make all my own decisions when I'm training. I still really love my independence, even after being married for 5 years.

So now, I have to keep it going. Three workouts next week! I'm also about to pull the trigger in signing up for TrainingPeaks. I won't go back to TriDot because it let me down during the pandemic by adjusting things to account for the loss of swimming pool access. Maybe I'm being unfair and giving it some blame for how life has changed. Regardless, it's time to give something else a try. I plan to sign up for the premium TrainingPeaks and then download a "maintenance" workout plan for the next 14 weeks (Phil Mosely's 20-week plan can be ended early). Then I'll start Phil Mosely's 32-week full length triathlon plan on December 1st.

And if the pandemic is still here in 11 months and I don't get to go to Lake Placid, I've got an idea for doing it all myself, using campus as a transition zone.

Middle finger to COVID-19

I have 11 months to train for my third Ironman race. I'm starting this week. Of course, the pandemic changed my plans to do it this year. If the worst happens again, and there are no races in 2021, then I'll figure out a way to do an Ironman virtually. I didn't consider a virtual race this summer because doing it on my own just didn't seem to push me forward in any way. I felt motivated to do my first Ironman in 2016 to see if I could do it (I did it!). I felt motivated to do my second Ironman in 2018 to see if I could do it faster (I didn't). I signed up for my third in 2020 to see if I could do a challenging course with lots of hills. Despite there being a lot of hills around my home, I didn't think a virtual race this summer would really accomplish anything. Perhaps I was wrong. I think doing a virtual race of 2.4 mile swim plus 112 miles on the bike plus a 26.2 run, done in sequence on the same day by myself, sounds like a different kind of challenge that I will do in 2021 if the real race at Lake Placid gets cancelled again. Doing it virtually won't give me the finish line experience of a real race, but it would give me a sense of accomplishing something which the pandemic can't take away. So here's my middle finger to COVID-19! You're not going to stop me anymore. 

By the way, here's a photo of Dan's cousin, me, Geoff, and Dan after the Presque Isle sprint triathlon in 2013. This is what showed up on my Facebook newsfeed and prompted me to write this post.