Tuesday, February 3, 2015

My Journey...My Way

As a result of social media, I have an idea of what others have on their schedule for specific training. Although I have a plan for the season, I take a ride on the roller coaster of emotions..."should I be completing that distance?" "why don't I have that many activities on my plan?" "what intervals are they completing?" I recently realized that I have been allowing other athletes to influence my training decisions.


I consider myself a highly competitive person with type A tendencies. I also realize that I only have so much time to dedicate to training while keeping my work and family priorities near the top of the list.

I spent much of last evening reviewing my training plan, self coached! The key workouts are there. The work commitments are there. The vacations and family obligations are there. So now...I do my best to get my workouts completed. I understand that I can't compare myself to other athletes...I don't know their priorities, work/family balance, goals for the race, weakness/strengths in each sport.

I write this in hopes that I can calm the anxiety. That I can share that it is normal to compare yourself to others but only so long as it is healthy. You are only accountable to yourself. As long as you are complacent with your choices, you have already won the race.

In the end, this is MY JOURNEY, MY WAY!
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2 comments:

  1. DonnaFebruary 3, 2015 at 11:58 AM

    Trish, you are an experienced Ironman finisher! You know what it takes to simply finish, finish well or finish awesome, right? Going into IMFL, I was okay with just simply finishing... as long as I finished in under 17 hours. Originally, I wanted to obtain my goal with a GREAT finish, but had to play the hand I was dealt and train with the hours I realistically had available, keeping balance between family and work (admittedly there was more work, but that was the demand at the time). So decide on the kind of finish that is acceptable to you, then train for it. If you realistically don't have enough hours for that competitive, AWESOME finish you want, then some realignment might be necessary. That said though, I don't always believe that the number of hours someone puts in is representative of 100% quality work. I believe you can have a GREAT finish, especially with your experience, withe fewer hours of training compared to others, but don't compare hours. One persons hours can be apples and your training hours can be oranges! Go and be great! :)

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  2. IronTrishaFebruary 3, 2015 at 12:05 PM

    Thanks Donna. It's hard to quiet the little voices but I'll do my best. I do have a high goal for the race that will take determination to achieve.

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