Eyes On The Prize

    Today is the Clackamette Cove Triathlon. I feel I should be there, it is my "local" event, and The Cove is my watery home away from home where I do all my open water training. Thinking about the event this morning, as well as the triathlon at Blue Lake two weeks ago, and the events that are coming up in the next month or two I realized that I am not into this sport for the competition with others, I am in it to compete against myself. It isn't so much a sport as it has become a lifestyle. For me, at least this year, it is not about getting to do a number of small events throughout the summer, it is about continually striving to be better tomorrow than I am today, all the while looking ahead to the ultimate challenge. I have made the decision that am indeed doing the Epic 250K, I'm not even considering doing the 70.3 that I did last year. Maybe that is the problem with pushing boundaries, once they have been pushed I look around for new boundaries to push even harder. It is hard for me to want to repeat a major event, kind of a "been there, done that" attitude. I do miss the fun of the adventure runs, and next year they are definitely going back into the roster, but as for the mundane road races, I don't know that I will do many of them. As I see events come and go, especially races I have done in the past, there is a certain wistfulness, but I look ahead, Eyes on the Prize, and know that right here, right now, my training is too focused to be distracted by taking time out of my schedule to race them properly. And, in a statement that makes me feel as if I am sounding frail and paranoid, I don't want to risk an overuse injury from pushing myself too hard at the wrong moment and possibly derailing my training. I did that last year, several times, and suffered the dire consequences during my A Race. This year, with a bigger, tougher challenge awaiting me, I am feeling the need to coddle my body, not take any unnecessary risks, and get to the starting line well trained, well rested, and ready to beat the holy hell out of my body for 12+ hours. So as the small events come and go, I squelch the little voice that wants to go compete, and instead sit back, plan out my uninterrupted training schedule, and keep my eyes on the prize.