I'm digging a little into my own thread, but since we left this off at figuring out what the next thing is, I thought I'd add to my post-Ironman recovery.

I have pretty much done spotty "workouts" (once or twice a week running and once or twice a week non-commute riding) and daily commutes (12 miles/day) for the last month. I did a 40-50 mile bike ride a few weeks ago on a whim, occasional longer runs (no more than 6-8 miles). After about 5 weeks, I started to feel full again when consuming normal human amounts of food, which is when I knew my body was finally relatively recovered.

Anyway, I raced a sprint this weekend (with my MIL ) and had a pretty good time. I know I need to brush up on my swimming and running because I am not gaining any ground there (identical times to previous years). I managed 34/1544 overall on the bike split and finished 27/135 AG - 117/1544 OA (holding on to my top 10% finish from last year). If I actually did spend more time swimming and running, I could crack top 15-20 AG but not sure about top 10. I guess I can get a few minutes back on the swim and a few minutes back on the run, but neither of those add up to the 10-15 minutes that I'd need without significant effort (possibly past the "fun" zone).

All of that boring stuff aside, after I finished the race I backtracked to find my mother-in-law and walk to the finish with her (plantar fasciitis acting up meant a hobble/walk). I figured she'd be somewhere between mile 1 and 2, so I chose to go backward rather than repeat the run - turns out she was basically at exactly halfway when I would have caught her so it didn't matter. When I got to a section where I wouldn't be running upstream, I started running with people still racing, and I had an O M G moment where running felt good and I WANTED to do it. I was ENJOYING running. It FELT good (and this was after running 5k at a reasonably hard-but-sustainable pace). This seems really trivial, but this is the first time I have felt that way since Ironman.

At the end of the race, I really felt like I WANTED to do it again, like I had recaptured what I enjoyed. The swim felt low stress, the bike felt fast, the run felt doable. What a difference 6 weeks makes!

I am going to begin a short training cycle for Ironman 70.3 Austin (last weekend of October) to rebuild some of my endurance fitness and finish the triathlon year. After that, I think I actually do want to spend some time with running through about February, when I'll pick back up for next year on all 3 disciplines. I still bike commute 12 miles daily, so it's not like I'll be giving much up (sorry, swimming, you are my first love but we understand each other so well, and unfortunately I cannot swim to work).

I love you again, swimming, biking, and running. I missed you, but I am so glad we took a break from being all business all the time to have some fun and get some rest.