Race Coverage

Self-Defunking...

Tuesday, 30 August 2016 08:10

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." -Albus Dumbledore.

By Erin Sontowski (bikesandcatsrightmeow.blogspot.com)

That quote has always been one of my favorites, and it has truly carried me through some dark times in my life. There are a million Harry Potter quotes that I believe to be extremely profound, but this one really resonated with me in the last few weeks....

I had finally completed my 2016 goal of completing a half Ironman distance race at Toughman Half only a few short weeks ago. I was on an intense high leading up to the race, during and the day after. I had spent thousands of hours preparing for one task, and once it was completed I felt a bit lost. They say the "post Ironman race" blues are a real thing. My coach said it, his coach said it, heck, most of the triathlete community said it. Although I had thought I would be impervious to it, I was very very wrong.

The week after Chisago Toughman I had a full week of recovery which meant very little training. I had expected it to be a welcome break, but immediately I felt restless and lethargic. How do you go from 2 hours a day of high intensity training to laying around and eating and drinking things you had spent the last year abstaining from? It is not an easy transition. Once the initial joy of sleeping in wore off, I found myself in a very concerning state of mind. I was unmotivated and teetering the line of depression. I wasn't sure how to pull myself out of this funk, so I enlisted the help of my always knowledgeable coach/brother. He told me to take the days off he had scheduled for me, then to try my best to grind through the next week of workouts.  READ MORE