TRIATHLON TRAINING IN THE SUMMER. WHO NEEDS IT?

I ended up spending a few days in sunny southern California to celebrate my nieces wedding day. I hit the ground running when I got there, helping my sister prepare for the big day. I'm really glad I didn't bring my running sneakers, because I had zero minutes to even THINK about running...DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT RUNNING!!!



My niece Nicole the pretty bride





I've always thought (and still think) Californian's are strange.  Everything is so different on the East Coast...especially weddings.  For example, the NY/NJ metro area doesn't give gifts at wedding. We give gifts at bridal showers and cold hard cash at weddings.  Of course, there's a few other things that are very different here in New Jersey, but I'll just leave that for another day.  All in all, the wedding was absolutely beautiful and I was thrilled to be there for my niece and her new husband.

Since I wasn't going to be in California too long (5 days), I decided to give my body a much needed break.  No running, swimming or biking!

And then I came home.  My body appreciated the vacation, but my brain? My brain decided to stay on vacation. Like forever. I could see it was going to be a battle royale!

I arrived back in New Jersey early Sunday morning after flying the red eye home.  Monday I forced myself into a 6.5 mile run. My brain protested and argued every step of the way. Tuesday I forced myself into a 16 mile easy bike ride. My brain protested and argued for the first several miles. Curse you vacation!

After dropping my daughter off at camp, I went to the Y and got a 1/2 mile swim in. Again, my brain protested and said it would rather hang out and enjoy the rest of the summer. Who needs all this triathlon training anyway? You've done SO much training lately! Surely you don't need anymore.  Luckily, I never listen to my brain anyway.

On my way to and from California, I had plenty of time to look back and reflect on my recent triathlon.  A wonderful woman sat next to me on my flight to California.  We ended up becoming FB friends.  We struck up a conversation and she too was a runner. She confided in m that a triathlon was on her bucket list but she was afraid to bike. This struck me as strange because the swim is usually the X Factor for most triathletes.

So I wondered what made me so nervous at the start of the swim. I realized that after getting halfway through the swim, my nerves calmed down and I was able to swim freestyle well.  So what was it about at the start of the swim that scared me, but didn't scare me towards the end of the swim.  I mean, swimming is swimming right??? The beginning of the swim is absolutely no different than the end when you think about it!

I decided to try and be a bit more gentle on myself when it comes to my open water swim abilities. I will try to not let my brain go to that dark place that scares the hell out of me.  I'm going to remind myself that I KNOW HOW TO SWIM and I'm getting pretty damn good at it too!!!

Just keep swimming and think happy thoughts.  Happy thoughts...happy thoughts...happy thoughts...