Time...that's been the biggest thing about recovering from an Ironman... and loads of it. Recovering means very little training, lots of rest and just these huge holes in the day which were once filled with long rides, runs and swims. Time to write the blog on a Sunday afternoon for a start, thats never been known! Time to de-clutter the whole house ready for (no not children, I'm not nesting for everyone of you who keeps wondering) but for life. A whole year of hard training has meant the house has been a tad neglected. Cleaning it out room by room, cupboard by cupboard, drawer by drawer etc has been incredibly cleansing and now I feel ready to go into the next part of life with a clearer mind. All year we agreed that I would concentrate on training. If the phone rang booking me for work then I would never turn it down but I didn't go searching for it. Now my priorities are different. Out goes Ironman and in comes the challenge of creating a successful business that I love. I don't think that's going to be too difficult. I'm already half way there, because I truly love taking pictures and success goes way beyond pennies and pounds in my eyes. Just as I truly love training, putting the time in to get the best out of yourself is incredibly rewarding and so I can't fail to enjoy the new journey that I'm about to embark on.
My life within triathlon hasn't gone anywhere. I certainly haven't given it up I've just changed my priorities. For some strange reason I'm REALLY looking forward to the challenges of shorter distance racing. To the hard short swims where I don't feel like I can turn my arms over anymore, turbo sessions I fear my legs might burst and run sessions that have my heart in my mouth. It's one of the mechanisms that I'm using to help deal with the fact that Ironman for me is over (not counting going back to it when I'm 50yrs old!!!) If I train harder but shorter I don't compromise putting the time and effort into my business but I do get a completely new challenge to get my teeth into. Mostly I still get to consistently train with real goals. I guess the test comes when I'm training with Tom and he's concentrating on Lanza. My swim, bikes and runs are all going to be considerably shorter than his and for once our training is going to look very different. Here is where I'll see just how well I'm dealing with giving IM up ;)
Since Switzerland (which seems like forever ago) I feel like we've moved mountains in terms of setting out our life goals and plans. Real direction is becoming apparent and it feels great. Triathlon has so much to answer for in my personal development. That's why I could never give it up. My triathlon plan therefore is to get back into a (new) training routine as of tomorrow and with 5-6 weeks to go before The Vitruvian Middle Distance the goal is to try and get some speed (do you hear that legs?) into these slow twitch muscles of mine. I'm looking forward to it.
Our great mate Tony (or Big Dog as we know him) has been here since Friday (see above pic with Tom) and being able to spend quality time with him without ridiculous training hours getting in the way is refreshing. But there's only a certain amount of Chai Tea (the Big Dog loves his leaves) and chocolate we can take. Bring on tomorrow morning where will-power exceeds greed and temptation (I have a feeling Tom's blogging about the difficulties of that right now.)
So all that's left as usual is pic of the day, I think there's a good few days for you to catch up on after we blogged mid-week last week. A few changes here. I have a new Facebook Fan page for my daily pic and things I'm doing with my photography, it's working REALLY well and I'm loving the feedback and instant interaction with everyone out there. You don't have to be Facebook member to have a look but if you're new to facebook and can't navigate through the site the daily pic album is here, just scroll down to the ones you haven't yet seen. Failing that here's the usual Flickr site, although I'll probably faze that out eventually.
'Change always comes bearing gifts.' Price Pritchett
H. x
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Recover, clean, tidy, rest & onwards...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hey Helen, I am so excited for you about this new approach. It is really inspiring to see that great attitide. As always, loving the photos.
Great new goals H, you can't help but succeed with this attitude and I'm sure it wont be long at all before you find your speedy legs, they're just hiding, waiting under your new VERY strong ones.
Clear house, clear mind, I've definitely taken inspiration from you, although it's all happened quite naturally which is weird, but I feel I need to get ultra organised for next year, which clearly starts now. All very odd, but it's been good for settling the 'I'm ready to give this a go' thought in my mind. So thanks for the help as always, even when you don't know you're giving it.
Parts of both your posts this week are so bizarrely like they've come from inside my own head, I thought I was just jet lagged reading some of it! I guess it's all part of an IM life and you've certainly set an amazing example of how to tackle it :-)
Khara x
Thanks ADC, it's not easy trying to change normal habits but fingers crossed I'll be just as happy on my new path as I was on the old one :) Glad you like the pix.
Khara, Ironman infiltrates your life, thoughts & feelings in good and bad ways but it's an amazing journey and one I know you're just going to love being on. Preparing mentally is just as much a part of it as preparing physically. Enjoy the ride, it's long but very fruitful :) x
Post a Comment