One of the biggest differences in terms of my lifestyle that I have had to face with the move from East to West is the abundance of free time that I have on weekends, with the absence of having a viable "race timing" career. I haven't had this much free time on weekends in years.
I also need a goal, something to motivate. To get up in the morning just for the sake of getting up to workout isn't motivating. I need a race. I remember back in the day, when I was training, I'd get up and get to the gym, and I'd be angry. I'd walk into the spinning class and I'd have this chip on my shoulder - I needed to walk out of there after 60 minutes knowing that I was the baddest mother fucker in the room. Sounds silly -it's only a spinning class- but it's what motivated me (Fun Frank fact: I have been known to have some latent "anger" issues). I am very competitive person. My former CEO used to ask this question - do you love to win, or hate to lose? It's one of those questions that doesn't have a "right" answer; rather, it's supposed to illustrate some level of thinking by the manner in which the questions is answered. I hate to lose. I do not necessarily need to be the "winner" every time, but when I look around the room, and take stock of the competition, I'll identify those who I KNOW I can beat, and losing those people stings more than losing the race. I'll go into this in another blog entry.
I used to bitch and complain when I was timing that I wish I had more free time to run, or ride, or train. Now that I have that free time available to me, I need to do something with it.
So I took stock of my situation this week past. I had alot of time to think while I was home in Philly. I asked myself a couple of questions:
1. What am I good at?
2. What do I enjoy?
It's probably easier for me to answer those questions in terms of what I DON'T enjoy versus what I do enjoy. The truth is, I really do not like running. I've blogged about my love-hate relationship with running in the past (which, truth be told, is more hate than love).
The fact of the matter is that I really do not like to run. Strike that. I really do not like to only run. I enjoy other things as well- mountain biking, etc.
So, the first conclusion we can draw is that I do not want to just run anymore.
So the next question - what am I good at - is easy. I am good at riding my bike. I am good at running. Not great, just good. But I am really good at doing both of those things back to back to back.
So, I've decided for 2016 to jump back into the world of multisport, specifically, duathlon. Years ago, and two age groups in the past, I was a pretty decent duathlete. I could hold my own in my age group.
I've ruled out triathlon for a variety of reasons. Most notably, I am not a good swimmer. Actually, I am an awful swimmer. I have no business being in the water. Period. Case closed, end of story. Secondly, I do not have access to a pool. Thirdly, training for two events is much easier than training for three events.
So I've started persusing some websites for local races out here in the Bay Area and I have my sites on an event in April. I need to drum up a training plan.
That's it for now. I'll tell you mom you said hi.
No comments:
Post a Comment