Thursday, September 18, 2008

It's got to be fun

Well, after a gave myself permission to be done training for tri's for the year...officially throwing out the training plan...forgetting about the irritating heart rate zones, I discovered (once again) that I really do like to exercise :-).

To be honest I have not done a whole lot of exercising but what I have done I have enjoyed more in the last two weeks than I have in a long time. What does this mean??

  • I hate feeling like I have to do something. And unfortunately, following that blasted training plan felt like work. It became a chore instead of doing something because I want to. I realize that I am a long way from being able to train myself, but it was time for a break. Time to go by feel rather than what was scheduled. (On that note, I really need a new training plan to follow if anyone has one they love)
  • I realized that it stresses me out and takes the fun away when I constantly have to watch my heart rate and stay in zones. I know there is a need for this and it really helps training long term but it pisses me off. Maybe it's because of the summer heat but it still makes me angry to have to slow down to get my HR down. I just want to GO! I also always have a higher HR than anyone else I know even when I'm walking ;-) so I really am only guesstimating what my zones are anyway.
  • I need to come to terms with the fact I don't really want to do long distance tri's right now and maybe never. It gets a little hard sometimes when everyone around you is training for halfs or more, kind of like you're the looser that can only do a sprint. But guess what?! That's all I want to do and I like to do them. I have no desire to spend 5+ hours every weekend training at this point in my life. Now that I acknowledge that, I can forget about trying to keep up with the Joneses and just do my thing.

Many lessons learned over the last couple of weeks, the biggest one is to have fun!

Since my last post (sept 8th) I have managed to swim twice for 2419 yards, run twice for a whopping 4.3 miles and bike twice for 16.92 miles. Nothing to write down in the history books but my average paces are getting quicker and for the most part I enjoyed doing all of it. Izaac and I even tried to outride the sun one evening and get to Buffalo Wild Wings via our bike before the sunset. Sadly, we had to turn back and drive in the car but I haven't pedaled that hard in a long time!! I guess I just need to find the right motivation (beer and chiken wings ;-)

Congrats to all of you and your recent races. I love to read all about them and you give me inspiration daily.

And...Good luck to my honey on is upcoming race this weekend and next!!

6 comments:

SWTrigal said...

You need to do what feels good for you. The only reason I like the longer distances is I don't have to go "fast"
:)

Anonymous said...

Girl..you are not a loser for not wanting to do the long distances. Contrairre!!! (sp?) God, I think the short ones hurt more and you are a brave soul for wanting to do them. I'm like swtrigal...I like the longer ones right now so I can go slower :-)

You gotta do what you like. It is supposed to be fun and not a chore. I'm not a "numbers" person either. Sometimes I want to throw my Garmin in a ditch!!

Good luck and have fun out there :D

Stef0115 said...

Good for you! I'm still learning what I like and it has been two years since I've done a sprint!

The beauty of our sport is that there is so much to do.

You made me laugh with the biking for wings and beer thing. So funny!

Anonymous said...

I'm having trouble being motivated to get back out and do anything after my first olympic distance. It's weird 'cause I can't wait to do another tri, run race or bike race but that hasn't translated into me getting out and doing anything except one short run which I enjoyed.

I agree though that ya gotta do what you like. Bike on with your bad self especially for those wings - yum.

ShirleyPerly said...

Hey, Kelly, it's all about fun for me, even though I may sound like a maniac with my training. I just happen to enjoy training :-)

But good for you not feeling the pressure to have to do longer races. Personally, I find the longer races easier than shorter ones so that's why I do them. Different strokes for different folks ...

And, I too have a much higher than usual HR than others when working out it seems. Get tested if you can to figure out your HR training zones. When my HR is 160-170, I'm still in Z2 while others are in Z3.

Enjoy your off-season!

Calyx Meredith said...

Late to the party but wanted to say that I'm guesstimating on my HR zones too until I can save up and have them tested - and my HR is always higher than anyone around. I think there is a balance between the numbers and your own knowledge of yourself. It sounds like you're walking the right line - with the HR stuff, with the training vs. exercising stuff, and with running your own race length. Yay you!