If you haven't noticed already, I've been MIA the last little while over on this blog. There are a few factors contributing to my absence-mostly a fundraiser I'm organising on my other blog-but also because my motivation seems to have gone out the door. My motivation to write and more importantly my motivation to train. This last part is a bit troubling. I know the main reason for my lack of motivation in the training department is due to the lack of potential guides.
Quite honestly, training day in and day out on a treadmill or stationary bike, not knowing if your efforts will even lead you to racing, gets a bit tiresome. Finding guides in the triathlon world has proven incredibly difficult in the area that I'm living in. People just aren't interested. I don't know if it is because I am approaching the wrong people or perhaps I am using the incorrect approach, but for whatever reason, I've been guideless for two months now and it is time something was done about it.
After a long chat with my husband, Mr. K, I decided that perhaps triathlon is not the way to go; at least not for this year. We both agreed that it may be more realistic to find guides for one sport as opposed to trying to find someone who is good at three. I am clearly through with competitive swimming and was just enjoying my time in the water since it was a part of the triathlon. The logistics of finding/purchasing/renting/maintaining/housing a tandem bike is way above and beyond me right now and so that left running.
I know. I actually picked running over the other two sports. Someone should take my temperature.
In order to get the process of finding long distance running guides moving, I've been in touch with a representative at Scottish Disability Sport in the hopes he will be able to reach out to his contacts and find me a few guides. An article was published on the SDS website in the hopes of attracting a few potential guides. Other emails have gone out to Scottish Athletics in the hopes that the representatives there may have more contacts who may be interested in guiding a long distance running event. There were a lot of "hopes" in those sentences.
My plan is to get involved in the sporting community via long distance running and slowly make the transition back to triathlon. Long distance runners and triathletes seem to chat and I figure somewhere along the way, I'll find someone who thinks guiding in triathlon is a good idea. Or, perhaps, one of my long distance guides will become interested in the prospect of competing in triathlon and I can convert him or her. Regardless of the outcome, I know I have to attack this lack of guide problem from another angle and long distance running is my grand idea.
Getting myself motivated again is another important aspect of my master plan. If, or should I say when, guides come along, I can't be completely out of shape because I've been sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself. To combat my lack of motivation, I've signed up for an online training log that tracks everything from times, calories burned, heart rates, distances, various sports/activities Etc. The program allows you to commit to group goals that other members have also committed to. This element of accountability will, in theory, get me back on track; or should I say, treadmill?
Tomorrow's workout has been logged as "pending"-a 3 mile run-and I intend to change its status to "completed."
