Struggles of the Off Season, Switching Gears, and Being a Betty
The off season! Similar to the taper for some it is much welcome respite and others a much dreaded necessity. I personally have my ups and downs with the off season.
My biggest struggle comes in the form of balancing still pushing the training but not pushing so hard that I burn out. I tend to go from one extreme to the other where I either take a bunch of days off (or mornings off) and get totally off my routine or I continue pushing my training hard even when I know I should be taking a break. I will go one week were I am up every morning to make it a double day and then turn around the next and barely be able to get out of bed on time to go to work; its finding that balance that I am struggling with.
A large part of this struggle stems from the fact that I am still having a lot of issues with my hip and it is preventing me from starting back up with my running, so I feel as though I have to make up for not being able to run by fitting everything else in. On top of that I have fully switched gears from competition training, which I spent a lot of time on this past year because I had to drop all my triathlons due to the above hip issues, and have fully switched back over to marathon and triathlon training. Not to say I will not continue with lifting, I very much will because I strongly believe that lifting is essential to increasing power, preventing injury, and providing a muscular endurance you don't just get from running, biking and swimming.
Thankfully I have an amazing husband who is very good at bringing me back down to earth and making me realize its ok to go for a long walk with the dog instead of hit the gym for two hours, or if you sleep in a couple times it won't prevent you from succeeding. He brings me that balance of working hard but also taking care of my body. So lately we've been doing just that; if we don't feel like going to the gym that day we take the dog for a long walk in the rain even. :)
We have been focusing on enjoying the off season and going back to the things we love to do; date nights, movie nights, coffee in the mornings together, and walking the dog. This past Saturday we went down to Pullman to watch the football game, which Brandon won tickets to. I had never been to a big college football game and it was a lot of fun.
Now we both did wake up extra early in order to get a morning workout in, because while we are focusing on balance we both still have goals.
So now that the off season is officially upon myself I am also switching gears (and I am very excited about it) from competition training back to triathlon and marathon training. While it is likely that I will compete again, though probably not in bikini as I just don't have the sass for it, it is not what I LOVE to do and I am excited to be back training for something that I have dreamed of doing for a long time; the Ironman. I have officially set up what many triathletes love to call their "pain cave" or what my husband call "the takeover of my man cave aka fan cave" :)
Thankfully he is immune to my crazy and just lets me go with it :). Getting this set up has been a godsend especially since I can't run just yet as it allows me to feel as though I am making some progress on my base building for this upcoming Ironman training season.
On the topic of Ironman training and triathlons I am beyond PLEASED and EXCITED to announce that I am going to be a part of Team Betty with Betty Designs!!!!
I have been wanting to be a Betty for a whole year now, since I discovered the amazing line that she offers via the beautiful Ginny (@ginnylovetri24). I am very excited to be a part of such an amazing group of dedicated and hardworking women and look forward to the making of many new friends through the team!
Feel free to follow my journey as a part of Team Betty and on my way to being an Ironman, you can do so here on this blog and/or on my instagram @ktl_bowker. If you have a journey that you are undertaking let me know I would love to follow along!
"Success is journey, not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome" -- Arthur Ashe
How do you deal with the off season blues? What is your favorite part of the off season? What goals do you set for yourself during the off season?