A triathlete friend of mine recently pulled me aside and asked me, point blank: “so, are you even a triathlete anymore? Or have you become a complete wuss and given up on the sport?”
Well, it’s true… I’m certainly not the triathlete I used to be. In the past two years? I think I did a total of one triathlon. And that was an all-women’s sprint triathlon where I could wear my wetsuit (and it was basically a pool swim, even!).
So, yes. I believe that officially makes me a triathlon wuss.
And I’m not entirely sure that’s something I want to change, either. It’s well-known in these parts that I’ve got little love for the water. If I never went swimming again, I don’t think it would bother me one bit. I’m glad that I overcame my fear of it, and I’m proud of myself for taking on the 1.2 mile half ironman swim in Lake Michigan (twice already!), but don’t know that I feel the need to go back and do it again.
My reasoning goes like this: I don’t like to swim. I’m an adult. I get to make my own decisions, especially about things that are considered “hobbies” in my life. Therefore, the math looks like this: don’t like to swim + an adult + make my own decisions = NO SWIMMING!! YAY!!
I suspect I’ll stay active in the sport to some extent, though mostly racing triathlons where I can hack the swim without training (meaning – easy, short, wetsuit-legal swim). I do like the idea of duathlons, though. I think the bike cross-training will be good for me, and what’s not to love about a race that allows you to run twice? Right?!
This is the year that a bunch of my friends are headed to IMWI to race. There’s a part of me that wanted to be out there with them… but, unfortunately (or fortunately!) there wasn’t another part of me willing to commit to the rather insane hours of training — especially all the time in the pool (I mean, 4500y swims??! Just kill me now….). I’m not totally discounting the idea of an Ironman. But certainly not today. Or this year. But – someday. Perhaps.
This is what I figure: I spent the last 2 years doing not much racing, not much training. In the past 4 months or so, my running mojo has definitely returned with a very fun vengeance. And my interest is certainly piqued at thinking about how much I can improve my bike time in the Metlife Duathlon in June. And that’s about where my racing desires end. To be social, I might hop in and do the Subaru sprint triathlon, but that’s as wet as I’ll get this year.
You know, except for all the sweating I’ll be doing.