Becoming Competitive Again

Brennan has changed many things about me in the last few years that we have been together.  Most of them good changes :) Though he will never take away my ice cream eating habit. Sorry babe!

One of the biggest changes is- he has made me want to be competitive again. I mean I worked out kinda. But nothing serious and with no true goals. I guess my feeling was just with college being over- so was my athletic career. Brennan showed me that is not true at all you just find a new passion and set new goals.  Goals that work with the real world (that I sadly now live in.. couldn’t stay a college athlete forever! Sadly).  Granted we live a life style that many of our friends think is weird. You do what on the weekends.? You spend your free time together swimming. Are you serious?  I am dead serious Friday night we go to bed early to rise early Saturday to get that long ride in!

Getting competitve again meant setting my sights on something new- Triathlon! I have competed in a few triathlons and running races.  Granted I don’t race nearly as much as Brennan or as seriously. (Brennan is training for his first Ironman –Arizona in November 2012). But I have a training plan and do my best to stick to it! So at least when race day comes I am not completely screwed just not totally confident in my abilities.  The one thing that makes triathlon easy is I know that I can swim.  Even if I don’t put in as many yards as I should I will be fine.  As Brennan says my bad day is still light years ahead of 95% of the competitor’s ultimate best.  The bike I have gotten better and better at. I have put a lot of work in.  Most of my training is done on the trainer. With the exception of long rides here and there with Brennan.  I mean I spent most of my life watching a black line so I am totally fine with the trainer. Plus I can watch all my TV shows.  I will admit I watch way too many shows.  Good news is a few are in their final seasons! Running is my complete fear.  I just don’t really like the training for it- it hurts.  Luckily I have done better since starting to work for PEAR Sports and using the device we sell. (I recommend you check it out!).  As well as the fact it is the last discipline on the race.

For as much as the training can be hard.  I still get that amazing feeling when I complete a good workout.  I am sure I annoy Brennan to death because I just have to tell him about it! Though Brennan is like my personal coach.  He has helped me through all the road bumps and I learn more daily.  There are many things I wish I did better when I was a younger athlete the main one would be NUTRITION!!  Brennan can’t believe that I used to go through 3 hour practices with little water and taking in no nutrition.  This has been a big change for me.  Learning what and when to eat and to drink.  Learning that if you keep the stores up in your body during a workout- makes the workout easier (you won’t bonk).  Then you feel even better when it is over and your body recovers faster. I must have bonked a ton when I was younger and spent most of my career with my body depleted of what it needed to train and compete.

The other thing about training I am attempting to learn is heart rate.  This is not used much in the swim world.  Introduced in small amount yes but I knew very little about it. My job has helped since our device works around heart rate based training and I use it with my training now.  Thankfully with my PEAR and Brennan I am learning how to train correctly.  Though I have a tendency to workout with my heart rate considerably high.  At first this scared me but Brennan claims it is just because I have a huge engine. Brennan routinely tells me I have such a big engine- making me perfect for triathlon.  That I can just race at max effort for long periods of time.  I would like to thank Chuck Riggs for my engine!! You’re the mastermind behind my engine.   Those two a day of swimming over 10,000 yards from the time I was like 11 to leaving for college.  Then I would also practice multiple hours for water polo and at times even run (I ran varsity cross country my freshman and sophomore year of high school).  

I am sure your all thinking this is a random blog.  It partly is yes, but also leading up to my next blog that will be a race report of my 3^rd Olympic Distance Triathlon. Due to the changes (positive changes) Brennan has made in my life I am starting to become kinda competitive(I am sure that shocks many of you. When was I ever competitive before?). I am looking to continue racing in the years to come.  Because I can stay an athlete forever if I want to! Especially when you have the support of your family, fiancé, and those you work with!