Something Different

It's been 2 weeks of my new program and it has been interesting. It is different not having a loaded weekend of workouts and having the freedom to try new things. During the week I have workouts I need to do but on the weekend, its my choice. After 7 years of structure, it is hard to turn that off and go with the flow. Even harder is logging my nutrition, its hard to keep on top of it but I am trying. 

Last Sunday I did something fun, I went kayaking. I had been kayaking once about 15 years ago but that was it. My friend Anita has 2 kayaks and invited me to go and since I had nothing else, I said yes.  It was so much fun and such a good arm and core workout! We spent 4 hours on the water and covered 11 km. We will not have many more summer days to enjoy and this was the perfect way to spend one of them. 

We did not have much of a summer in the traditional months of July and August but September is making up for it. Tomorrow is the Army Run and it is scheduled to be 28C and feel like 32C, we have not had weather like this in a while. While I am not racing tomorrow, it will still be a challenge due to the heat.  I have run that race in rain, in cold temps and in the heat, the heat is the worst. We will see what tomorrow brings. 

Hitting the Rest Button

Happy September!  Where has the summer gone?  Her in Ottawa it was a cold 3C this morning and it certainly felt like summer was over but I hope that we will get a few more months of decent weather. For me September is my New Year, I seem to spend August sorting through my life and getting rid of what is not working and double down on what is. This year has been particularly challenging and I have felt like life was running over me like a train with no conductor.  Slowly, ever so slowly things are beginning to be sorted out and I know what I need to do going forward. I have spent this year sorting out things that have been holding me back, figuring out what is important and learning to really listen to my instincts. It seems like this year  I learned how strong I really was and how to put into practice what I had learned.

In February, I took a chance and asked Ray if he would help me prepare for my triathlons this summer and lucky for me he said yes! I was intimidated to ask since he is such a great athlete but I was starting to feel like I needed something different but not sure what it was.  I was dealing with several injuries in Feb and Mar and then we started training for the races I had on my plan this summer, a half marathon and two 70.3 triathlons, five weeks apart.  I like to race, having a goal gives me something to work towards but I have a problem scheduling too many, I usually do 10 or more in a year.  I was very happy with the progress we made but I felt we were playing catch up, sort of like bailing a boat with a hole in it, you hope you bail faster than the water comes in and you don't sink.

After Ironman Canada 70.3 I knew I needed to stop bailing and fix the hole in the boat, to keep with the metaphor, and I emailed Ray and said I felt like I needed to hit the reset button so that I could achieve some goals I have set for the next few years.  I had trained one way for the last 7 years and I wanted to work with him because he offered something different to that and I needed to trust in his process and see what happens.  I knew I needed to do this but I think with all the other stuff happening in my life, I was not ready to do this until now.  So, on Sept 1 I hit the reset button and I will not be doing my fall marathons, I will be spending the next 4 months working on my nutrition and strength training  with a little bit of cardio.  I need to de-stress my body and allow it to rest and recover from 7 years of over use.

So, this will be interesting and I look forward to sharing this with anyone who reads my blog. As for those big goals, one of them is to write a book about my Ironman and all I have learned along the way.  I am doing it for myself, as a way of looking back so that I can move forward to new challenges.  What new challenges, you will have to wait and see.