Know When to Say When

I always feel really excited this time of year, the beautiful days seem to last forever and all the potential rides and runs make me want to burst out of my office and get outside as soon as possible. The same thing can be said when I make my race schedule in the winter, the thought of racing keeps me training hard all winter long and when spring and summer roll around, I want to race as much as possible. However, I'm starting to learn that my body is not as excited about my racing as my mind is. The thought of racing and pushing myself hard is addictive when I started to do really well in competition. I'm no elite racer but I seem to do alright in my age group and the feeling of doing well keeps me working hard for the next race.

The past couple years my body has decided that racing and training hard day after day is not sustainable so I've been very prone to sickness. It's frustrating when you feel like you are doing everything possible to be the picture of health by fueling right, training hard, avoiding indulgences and you are more sick, than a lot of other people who do none of the above. It seemed to start before Great White North last year, I'm not sure if it's an age thing or just the fact that I'm training harder in the spring/summer but I seem to get these nasty flu's right around this time of year. I got another one last weekend and I missed one of the nicest training weekends of the year sitting on the couch, that was frustrating. Amber was away training for the Death Race and I was flat on my back, doing nothing... Time to be smarter.

I started to feel a little better last week and got into training easy but nothing hard or fast. I talked to Amber about the upcoming race this weekend (the 20th) and she said I should definitely pull the plug. I think she was anticipating an argument from me because she knows how much I love competing and having a race in GP is rare so she immediately listed off 4 or 5 reasons why I shouldn't do it. I just said, okay. I could see the look on her face was of disbelief so she continued to tell me reasons why I shouldn't do it and I just replied, "okay if you think it's a bad idea, I'm not doing it." I finally get the message, my body is telling me to be a little more selective when it comes to racing, no more races every two weeks throughout the summer.

I did volunteer at the kid's tri on Saturday and the adult tri on Sunday and had a blast, it's very interesting to be on the other side of the race. You know exactly what the athletes are thinking and feeling and you want to try to make things better for them but you know they are all going through their own personal turmoil and there is not much you can do or say. I had an opportunity to greet all of them at the finish and collect their timing chips and everyone was so happy at the end, it was an awesome reminder why I love this sport. It doesn't matter if someone finished in an hour or two and a half hours, everyone was happy do make it to the end. A big thanks to Lorna and Robert for bringing back this race and taking on the challenge of organizing everything, it sometimes feels like there is not a lot of reward in being a race director but all of the triathletes in GP really appreciate everything they've done.