Today is Not That Day

Training for 80

I've been writing for the past several months that I had zero intention to do a 70.3 this year. 2012 was going to be all about run focus and body alignment. But a little over a week ago I received a note in my inbox from my friend who did Honu with me last year: "Hey, I signed up again for Honu. You in?"

Ummm... yes. I waited a few days so I could think about it... and then remembered that this race is on Lance's schedule, which means an early sell-out. So I registered and not even hours later I heard that it was, in fact, sold out! So I barely made it in.

I also registered for Wildflower oly, renewed my USAT card... and hired a new coach!! I wanted to mix things up and get some new perspectives, so I decided to sign on with Elizabeth Waterstraat. After listening to Molly rave about her coach -- plus seeing Molly's training improvements, seeing how ELF came back from new mommyhood to totally ROCK Eagleman and Kona, and I've always loved her training blog posts -- it was a pretty easy choice.

I am a bit nervous though -- last year was a sufferfest thanks to muscle imbalances (which have mostly been corrected except for my hip flexors) and this year I have less time to train before the race. But the words of the day, kiddos, are consistency and durability. I don't care about going fast, I care about finishing strong (which will enable me to finish faster than last year.) I have less biz travel on my plate this year, which will help a lot.

So I just finished week one of training. It's funny, I didn't know I missed training until I started up again. This is what I've needed: a big goal and a coach. Someday perhaps I'll be one of "you people"... those who are compulsively addicted to getting in the training hours every day no matter what's happening in their lives. This former bookworm isn't there yet, but I'm working on it! 

I get asked "why?", of course, by my more sedentary loved ones. Why another 70.3? Wasn't one enough? My response: the older I get (I'm about to hit 43 in a couple weeks!) the bigger the sense of urgency about fitness. I'd printed out the image from the aging prevention study and taped it above my computer; it's the most compelling reason I've ever found for lifelong fitness efforts.

As my new boss said to me on Friday, "I'm training for 80." It puts IM training in a different perspective, yeah? You train for 9 months for Ironman, but we will train the next several decades for a quality of life in retirement only enjoyed by a rare few. It just occurred to me: I'm only 22 years from retirement age. Holy crap. This aging thing sure does sneak up on you.

At the gym yesterday while I was trying to do single-leg squats with a crunchy knee, I became aware of some self-sabatoging thoughts: "Well, I'm in my 40s, I can't really be expected to knock these out like a 20 year old." There's a tiny kernel of truth in that, BUT... there are also plenty of 60+ master's athletes who could kick my ass.

It's time to raise my own bar on what's possible. Time to stop assuming where my limits lie. Time to HTFU and start training like my life depended on it. Which, of course, it does. It just depends on how I want to define life and living, both now and when I'm 80.

Gearing up for Wildflower

My first triathlon of the season is on Sunday... whoo hoo! I'm not feeling ready for it, but somehow I'm ok with that. This past month has been a bit pathetic from a training standpoint -- out for 2 weeks with business travel, another week trying to ramp back up mentally, and the past couple weeks a bit hampered by recurring glute/piriformis pain... which is now much better thanks to a couple expensive trips to the best sports massage place in SF plus the addition of a tennis ball in my stretch/roll routine. 

This past week of work has been insanely busy... pretty much 'round the clock computer time. I prioritize sleep in a big way, so if I'm only getting 7 hours of sleep and the rest of the time is work, guess what drops? First, reading blogs and writing. Then training. Argh.

Fortunately I've been able to get in some key workouts... hill repeats have been great and much needed for the super-hilly Wildflower run course. The areas that have taken a hit are strength and swim. Strength I've started back up again for injury prevention, but the swim is still lagging... I'm feeling comfortable and steady in the water. Not to say I don't have a lot of improvement to make on the swim, but I'm not stressed about it like I am the run and bike.

Preparing for Wildflower is unlike any other triathlon. 8000 athletes are camping this weekend at Lake San Antonio, and I need to remember all my camping gear PLUS all my training gear. It's a blast, but it's hard to get good sleep the night before the race. Keys for me are a big blow-up mattress covered with a foam mattress pad (yes, I make up a full bed in my tent!), earplugs, and a hat (because it's really cold at night.) The good news: latest reports say the water temp is 68! That is total heaven compared to my last Aquatic Park swim at 53 (yet another reason I'm not stressed about the swim.)

So I've been pondering why I'm not stressed about being underprepared. I think it has something to do with a previous post I wrote about excuses.

There's a part of me that's scared of this process. I may pour a ton of time, energy, and my heart into this and then not succeed at the level I'd expect from the time investment. I won't have the excuse of "well, I didn't really try." That was my easy excuse last year, and it's probably why I wasn't nervous for any of my races. I didn't put a lot in, so I didn't expect a lot out. This year is different.

I think I lost my nervousness about my race because I now have excuses. "I had to travel. I had to deal with another injury. I got crushed under a mountain of work." Mind you, I'm not ok with this realization, but it helps to have some self-awareness and see old habit patterns. It was helpful to go back and re-read that post. I want to be nervous for Honu. I want to feel like I really did prepare and do the work. I somehow lost the fire in my belly, and I'm hoping that the immersive Wildflower experience will help to bring it back. That, and nailing some key workouts in the coming weeks.... that seems to do the trick as well.

I think the single biggest benefit that triathlon has given me (and continues to give) is a mirror to see what's going on in my head and the barriers I put up to block my own success. This is a very interesting journey.

Hill repeats as therapy

I sat down at my computer in a total funk; this week has been enormously stressful. Not that I'm asking for sympathy -- I know you guys have plenty of stress in your life too -- but it's funny how perspective can change in a split second by something as random as photos from your hill-repeat session.

To back up, some of my stress is actually fantastic -- I just landed J&J as a client (whoo hoo!) and we kick off the project tomorrow. But that comes on top of a client deliverable due today, and preparing for departure Saturday morning for Oxford UK for a week of 7 am to 10 pm work. Then one day at home followed by 4.5 days in Illinois.

On top of feeling overwhelmed while preparing to head out of town for two weeks, I'm totally PMSy (sorry guys)... ladies, you know that feeling when if you don't hear from someone you think they hate you? And tons of small things get blown out of proportion? Your head knows you're being irrational but your emotions say otherwise. Argh... the curse of womanhood. Today I was thinking about triathlon and my perfectionist curse has kicked in over the past couple days -- I was feeling like I'd bitten off more than I could chew, that I wasn't cut out for this, that I should stick with what I'm good at, blah blah blah. 

And then I just uploaded these pics tonight of my hill repeat session yesterday. It was ridiculously hard -- my HR was red-lining -- but I did it... and then headed home for another 45 minutes on the trainer with some extra sprints. My legs actually felt ok. Not great, but good enough to power through. These are the workouts that will get me where I want to be, and I felt good about it. We'll call this a "confidence-building ride."

So here, check these out. See that curvy road at the bottom of the photo? That's where I'm headed... that's halfway up. Ride with me:

Continuing down that road...  (and ooh, I tiny glimpse of sun before it starts pouring again!)

See those houses straight ahead in the photo above, and the green point off in the distance? That's where we're headed... to this hill below, which is about 10% grade with a few reprieves:

Ready, set... go! Stand up and hammer. Holy crap. Has it been a minute yet? No, only 40 seconds... I gotta sit down, my HR is red-lining... 2 seconds sitting... back up... hammer... slower hammer... has it been 2 minutes yet? Nope, barely 1... keep going... I hate my coach (not really :-))... done! Phew. Hard stop. Glance to my right... ahh (pant pant)... lovely:

Ok, let's do that again... one more time. But for the rest of them I'm headed closer to home. Let's backtrack to that road we were just on earlier...

4 times up this puppy. Each time I felt stronger, surprisingly. Went a tad slower but I stopped needing to sit down at the halfway mark. I actually felt... kinda good. Huh. Oh, here's the elevation... I don't understand when I ride up stuff like this and my Garmin averages it out to 1% grade, but if I do a point-to-point measurement in mapmyride.com it seems to be more accurate (although there is actually no flat/yellow on this road):

Yeah, that's a lot of dark purple and black... parts of this are 20% grade. Maybe you hard-core athletes think this is a piece of cake, but this was HARD for me and I was so excited to rock up this 4x even if I wasn't exactly a speed demon. 

Last pic at the rest stop before heading home and beating the rain:

As I looked at these pics I was about to say, "I love riding here." And paused... and then I said it. Huh?? Where did that come from? It's been 50 degrees and raining for days. It's lovely, yes, but the hills are freaking hard, and it's cold, and I miss riding on hot flat ground in Texas (sorta). But from somewhere inside this grumpy, crabby, PMSy, overwhelmed, athleticly frustrated girl, out popped: "I love riding here." Ok then. The confidence-building ride worked its magic. 

Maybe I can do this. Maybe I can suck it up and deal with being mediocre on my way to being good. This is hard for someone with perfectionist tendencies; I've avoided putting myself in the position for years. I have no idea why I've become so hell-bent on transforming myself into an athlete -- I've certainly never been one in my entire life -- and I'm just hitting some bumps. Today was a real low point... mentally I almost chucked it today.

But that would be pretty dumb. I'm not going to give up. I'm learning a lot about myself, and I strongly suspect I'll end up transforming much more than my body when I've finished this season. I think I've just hit that low point right before things start getting good, and it's time to just put my head down and power through.This stuff is better than therapy. :-)

So I'll be packing the TRX and fitting in some training where I can. And I'm looking forward to 3 weeks of freakin' hard work before Wildflower on May 1. Bring it.

You are here.

Before I get to my deep thought of the day, I'll share a recent discovery: Compression works! I wore compression socks in my duathlon and kept them on for the rest of the day. I had zero fatigue; legs felt fresh as a daisy. Yesterday I had a kinda hard training run and didn't wear compression socks; today my calves hurt. So... now I'm a convert. Tri geek girl right here. 

Ok, back to something I've been noodling on all week. Building on my last post on head games and control, this is how I've been feeling about my triathlon training: 

And this is how I want to feel in my training (and in all parts of my life): 

(source) 

I had a good email chat with coach about my craving to know the entire training plan until Honu. She reassured me that there's no diabolical plot to keep me in the dark... one of the benefits of working with a coach is that I get a tailored plan that fits where I'm at from week to week. If I wanted to have a real map with all the details for the next few months, I could buy a plan out of a book... but of course that defeats the purpose of hiring a coach and that's not what I want. 

So I think we've hit a happy medium; I now know a couple targets for my long rides and runs, plus hill training, and roughly when they'll happen assuming I make good progress. So the map is blurry but I have a bit of context and that helps a lot. 

And yet... there's a lot of context work that I need to do. I say I want a map... but where the heck am I going, anyway? I've put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well in these next two races, but then what? I suspect I'd go a lot easier on myself if I viewed these next two races as stepping stones to a greater goal rather then ends unto themselves. It's not like I'm going to race Honu and then quit triathlon. 

So do I want to build up to an Ironman distance? I may think that's a good idea at some point, but right now I don't have a burning desire. Which probably nixes it as a motivating goal. I'm finding that I like training for the 70.3 distance; it's long enough to necessitate training and working hard, and yet I don't have to sacrifice my life for it. So perhaps I should shoot for a time goal that's a stretch but realistic within a year or so. 

I'm finding that this process of thinking a year or two out is helping to diffuse my discomfort of not knowing all the ins and outs of the plan, or not having weekly benchmarks to measure progress. The sense of urgency is diminished and I'm able to relax a bit more this week. More thinking needed but I feel like I'm on the right track here. 

What motivates you? Is it short term or long term?  

Head games: Comparison and control

Coach asked me about my mental state during the duathlon yesterday, which I think was pretty good. I've created the conditions for accountability, and that's mainly what I thought about as I was doing lap after endless lap on the bike. Accountable not only to myself, but to my coach and also to all of you. Having a blog is fantastic accountability; I knew I'd need to write a race report, and I didn't want to write one unless I could say I did my best. I pushed as hard as I could while still saving something for the last run. And repeating "I can do anything for 3 miles" on that last run worked like a charm. 

This question got me thinking about my mental state during training. That's where my real challenge is. Doing the workouts is not the issue; it's a very rare day that I look at the schedule and not want to do what's written. No, it's more about the tendency to compare. 

• Comparing myself against others. I would have been less dissatisfied with my performance if I hadn't compared myself to my friend Maddie. Don't get me wrong; I'm soooo thrilled for her that she did well in her first race... and now that she's officially drunk the racing cool-aid, I have a much-needed training/racing buddy. But knowing she hadn't been putting in the hours and yet still came in 10 minutes ahead of me... ouch. My rational mind knows that she was a runner for years and that muscle memory doesn't go away, but my comparison mind still churns. 

• Comparing against where I've been. It's hard not to compare my run and bike speeds against where I was in September. But that was at the end of the season, and fails to account for the fact that I was down with an injury from October through late January. As Molly commented on my last post, we can't be in our best shape in March! Of course that's true, and yet it's something I have to continually remind myself. 

• Comparing against how I think I should train. Ooh, this one's the biggie. (Coach, this one's for you :-)) Yep, I'm typically the one in charge. I make decisions, I plan, and I lead if no one else steps up. I've been this way since I was a kid. This is where the control head-game comes in. 

Exhibit A (yes, I'm the one in ponytails reading to the group. I think I'm 4 in this picture.) 

My personality type straddles INTJ (Mastermind) and ENTJ (Fieldmarshal) according to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter:  

•  
  • Masterminds never set off on their current project without a Plan A firmly in mind, but they are always prepared to switch to Plan B or C or D if need be.
  • Decisions come easily to them; in fact, they can hardly rest until they have things settled and decided.
  • Fieldmarshals are bound to lead others, and from an early age they can be observed taking command of groups.
  • For the Fieldmarshal, there must always be a goal-directed reason for doing anything.

At first glance, this probably isn't the best personality profile of someone who wants to be coached. And yet, surprisingly, it is. Masterminds "prefer to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead." For the most part, that's me. I love it when a capable person steps up and takes charge, whether at work or with my training. It frees up some of my brain for other things. And while I typically like to the be the one in control, I'm also the first person to raise my hand and ask for help. I have no problem saying "I don't know, but let me find someone who does." Since I like to have a plan, but I have no idea how to train without injuring myself, it was a total no-brainer to hire someone who does know.

All that said, I still struggle with my tendencies to take charge. For the first two months it was fine; I knew we were going to do heart-rate training and I just succumbed to the schedule. But now that we're at the halfway point, I'm starting to stress out a bit. This process is like reading a suspense novel and you don't know how it ends: "Will she make it up those hills at Wildflower? Will she succumb to the heat and wind at Honu? Will she finish with a time she's proud of? Find out in the next installments of..." ACK. I don't want to find out then. I want to know I can tackle this NOW. 

Here's my version of training: go ride 56 miles, run 13 miles, do hill training, etc etc. just to see if I can do it. Then I'd just focus on doing all of it faster and faster until race day. I realize reading this that it's laughable... I actually laughed out loud when I was finally honest with myself about what self-training would look like. This is why I got injured several times last year. But in my head, this is the way I conquer the unknown. I find out if I can do it... early enough in the process to make contingency plans if needed. 

Right now, it's all an unknown. I've been doing mostly base training.... I've never been on my bike for more than 43 miles. I've run 8 miles max and that was 2 weeks ago. I have yet to spend much time on speed or hills (which are starting this week, thankfully!). Bottom line, unknowns scare me. I try to eliminate unknowns as much as possible... and here I've willingly put myself into a process that I just have to trust. And it's a process that doesn't yield linear results, which makes it even tougher. 

To top it all off, there's the "but what if I'm different?" voice that mutters in the background. What if my body doesn't respond to this? What if I should be doing something different? And yet as my massage therapist pointed out, "thankfully your biomechanical problems are extremely common." In other words, I'm not so special. But those voices are persistent. 

So I throw out some not-so-subtle hints about training from time to time. What's great about Michelle is that she pushes back when I ask about doing something that's not in my best interest. Good. I don't want a 'yes (wo)man'; I want someone who's got confidence in the plan (which she does, and she's happy to explain it all to me when I ask. That helps a ton.) I did get one tiny little victory: I got to add stairs into my strength training. Yippee. Now that I've been thrown my bone, I'll settle down into the plan again. Stairs have always been my metric for strength; if I can do stairs and not be sore the next day, then I have more confidence that I'm doing ok. Without some kind of familiar benchmark, I feel lost. And lost, in my world, is very bad. 

So this week starts the second half of HIM training. I know we'll start ramping up speed, distance and hills... all the stuff I've been craving. And then I'll cry uncle :-) but I'll love it. I was the little kid who asked the teacher for homework in first grade, and now I find that I'm the big kid who's asking for extra workouts. More. Better. Stronger. Faster. Yet all balanced with staying injury-free and staying on this side of the overtraining line. I've overdone it a couple times, and I'm seeing the price I pay for my zeal when the schedule gets whacked down for some unplanned recovery.

My biggest mental struggle the next couple months will be trusting the process, going easy when the plan says easy, and not playing along with the head games of comparison and control. If I can make it through this first time of being coached... this time when it's all unknown... then future races and seasons will be infinitely easier as I'll know what to expect. Or perhaps that's when the mental struggles will take place more during the races than out of them.

What are the head games you play? 

No excuses

Jason recently wrote a great post on discipline that reminded me of an interesting exchange over the weekend.

A couple gals from the tri club came to my little shindig on Friday night. For some reason the subject of Ironman came up, and I mentioned that I was unlikely to ever do a full distance. Immediately both girls shook their heads:

Girl #1: "You are definitely the most likely person I know to do an Ironman."

Girl #2: (nods emphatically)

Me: (incredulous) "Really? Me? What makes you say that?"

Girl #1: "Because you're disciplined with your training. You are very committed."

Huh. I've been chewing on this short but meaty exchange for a couple days now. It's always interesting to hear other people's perceptions of you. I've never been disciplined in my life... no, I take that back. I was when I was a kid. I wanted to learn, grow, become. I proactively asked my teachers for homework in grade school. Had all my badges in girl scouts. Organized a street fair in 4th grade. 

Yet somewhere along the line I picked up some tragic lessons. I gained the curse of the perfectionist: if I don't try hard, then I have an excuse if/when I fail. Upon moving to a new school, I learned that the kids who tried hard weren't popular (which was tough for an only-child military brat always trying to fit in). And as I got older I learned that the hardest and most effective workers get loaded down with the tasks that other people can't or won't do. 

So I slowed down and started coasting. And I did just fine coasting: I fit in. I didn't ruffle any feathers. I didn't fail at anything, but I didn't really succeed either. I got home from work at the same time as everyone else. And I think something inside me, that spark, started shriveling and dimming. 

Now I've gotten the spark back, apparently. Maybe that's why I love triathlon; it's helping me to rediscover a part of me that has been buried for a while. It's funny, I don't even think of training as "discipline." I look at my schedule and I do what's on it. It never occurs to me to not do it (even on crappy days like today when I was so fatigued that my run was more of a shuffle.)

Yes, it helps to have a coach; I'm not sure I'd be so disciplined otherwise. But I suppose that's where commitment comes in; I know what I need in order to become a triathlete. I need to learn how to train right so I hire a coach; I need to surround myself with the right people who are supportive, so I join a tri club; I know I have a lot to learn, so I read whatever I can.

Commitment is about excuse elimination. Discipline, then, is just doing the work because you no longer have a choice; you've just architected an environment in which excuses no longer live. 

There's a part of me that's scared of this process. I may pour a ton of time, energy, and my heart into this and then not succeed at the level I'd expect from the time investment. I won't have the excuse of "well, I didn't really try." That was my easy excuse last year, and it's probably why I wasn't nervous for any of my races. I didn't put a lot in, so I didn't expect a lot out. This year is different. I'm putting a lot in, and I'm nervous. My first race of the season is this weekend, and I do have an excuse for this one: I haven't done much speedwork... mostly a lot of slow HR training. So I can sorta set this one aside as a practice race. But come Wildflower and Honu... now that's a different story. I'm gonna be nervous. I will want to do well. So I train. I suppose that makes me "disciplined." 

Of course maybe this is an inherent trait of type A personalities. For some reason there is no middle ground with me; once I decide to do something, I dive right in. I've done this in other areas of my life that are "safer"... more experiential, nothing as tangible as a time/pace/place outcome. But I'm finding that this competitive context suits me well. It pushes me. 

So thanks, girls, for voting me most likely to do an Ironman. You gave me a lot to think about.  Maybe I'll take up that challenge in a year or two (or three). But first let me get through Honu :-)

 

Priorities and "should's"

I recently received a thought-provoking comment on my Loneliness/Guilty Secret post on priorities:

The people in the shallow end of tri have their priorities straight and the deep enders-well they really have nothing else going on in their lives except training and racing. The question is...where do you want to end up? Just putting it out there.

While I think this is phrased in a way that is likely to ruffle some feathers (it did mine at first) I think she raises an interesting topic for discussion. But let's first get the obvious reactions out of the way: priorities are different for everyone; there is no arbitrary, immutable fact about what priorities are "straight" and which ones are not. Priorities are relative. And whether they're straight or not is a judgment that can only be made by each individual based on self-awareness and reflection, not passed by others.

That means that many people who live to train and race have their priorities straight. Their priority (and often identity) is triathlon. Others -- like a friend of mine who loves triathlon but she's a medical resident with little time to train -- also has her priorities straight. She's in the shallow end of triathlon because her work and medical training (and sleep) comes first for her. Others manage to balance competing priorities of triathlon with work and parenting. I truly don't know how they do it... I honestly don't think I could.

My belief is that the way you live your life reflects your priorities... whether consciously or unconsciously chosen. If your priorities are your kids, you will fit triathlon in around your parenting time. If you fit your parenting time around your training schedule, then triathlon is your priority whether you admit it or not. Same with work, same with friends, same with other hobbies.

Therefore, when we reframe that comment and remove the loaded judgment, it becomes an interesting thought experiment. What are my top priorities in life, and am I allocating my time in accordance with them? I think it's also helpful to ask that question in reverse: where am I spending the majority of my time and attention, and is that allocation reflective of my self-image and what I want to become in the future?

From my perspective -- and I should have clarified this in my last post -- the "deep end of triathlon" simply refers to those for whom it's important to continue learning and improving your skills and performance in the sport. It does not mean that everyone in the deep end of triathlon is incapable of balancing multiple priorities, nor that they are one-dimensional people. I know some that are, but I believe that generalization is both inaccurate and unfair.

I think what's important here is integrity -- defined here as the alignment of words, actions and beliefs. If you say you want to improve, say, your swim technique, but you don't do anything about it, then it's not a priority. If you say your career is a top priority but you spend your day reading triathlon blogs and articles, then your career is not a priority. You are trying to live a contradiction, and that is never sustainable. Our actions always reveal our secret selves... who we really are, not who we like to tell ourselves or others that we are.

And where we find those areas of contradiction or disconnect, we find a great opportunity for discovery.

Personally, these disconnect areas of my life have revealed a lot of "should's". I "should" start my own company; I "should" want to work out more than I do; I "should" be more motivated in x area of my life. Where do we get these "should's?" From our parents, from society, from friends. I think the big task in life is to sort through the should's to find our true desires. And once we're acting on our true desires, we won't have to talk ourselves into doing anything, or require external motivators... we'll just be acting with integrity. Acting in accordance with our internal beliefs. And when we're acting in alignment, then those priorities are "straight" for us, as individuals.

Personally, I am very fortunate that I don't have many competing priorities. I don't have kids and I ended a relationship a few months ago. Right now I have the time to devote to being in the deep end of triathlon. But that's a rather simplistic view; just because I have time doesn't make it a priority. I would do this if I had less time. Why?

Digging in a bit deeper: Yesterday I had a fantastic conversation with a good friend of mine about what I really want to accomplish career-wise. At first I answered, "well, I'd like to grow my company and hire some employees." But that's not really what I want. A) If I wanted that, my actions would have been more in alignment and I'd be farther ahead than I am now. And B) that's really tactical. What is that company designed to do? What's the outcome I'm seeking?

When I think big-picture, I want to be a catalyst for positive, large-scale change in the world. WOW. Now that's something I can get passionate about. That's why I got into the sustainability business in the first place. And, coincidentally, this is a north star goal that not only applies to my work, but also to triathlon. I want to redefine what it means to be 40+. I want to prove wrong the people who say that you "should" start lowering expectations of fitness after a certain age. I'd like to help fuel a healthy, sustainable world in which people look for win-win solutions for themselves, others, and the planet. I don't want to settle for the status quo.

So in answer to the original question of where I want to end up... I feel that for me, moving from the shallow to the deeper end of triathlon serves my larger objective of catalyzing positive change... both in my life personally, as well as serving as a proof point for others in redefining what we humans are actually capable of. And this particular tactic -- triathlon -- fits my personality better than a single sport. If this tactic ceases to serve my bigger goal, or if other opportunities come along that bump triathlon down in my priorities, then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And if I ever lose sight of my bigger goal because I get tangled in the weeds of training and racing, then it will be time for me to revisit my priorities.

Everyone's answer to this question will be different... and that's great, as long as it's authentic. It might be that you grew up an athlete and triathlon is like breathing for you. Awesome. It might be that triathlon is something fun to do with friends, but it's not a priority. That's awesome too. There is no wrong answer here; only the refusal to "know thyself" and align your life with who you really are and who you want to be. Sometimes easier said than done. Speaking for myself, I'm not there yet.

Ok, this was quite a ramble... but an interesting topic. I'd love to hear from you. How does triathlon fit into your priorities? How do you juggle? What is the bigger purpose that triathlon serves in your life, if any?