It's been really freakin' cold here this week. I think it's been freakin' cold EVERYWHERE! It's October people! But it feels like January - not even November or December because we're still in the 50s in November and December.
There are only two places I know of that were not in the 30s yesterday - New York City and Kona, Hawaii. Separated by thousands of miles, I was told that NYC was in the low 60s and Kona, of course, was in the 90s.
Yesterday I went for a ride with a teammate. My really super fast teammate. the teammate that has only been riding for a year and will likely cat up to a 2 next summer. I only needed to ride for an hour - and it was supposed to be easy. I was supposed to "enjoy the ride". While I did thoroughly enjoy the ride, we rode for 2.5 hours on a somewhat hilly course. And it was COLD!!! Colder than a witches tit cold. My fingers froze and poor Aubs's toes fell off half-way through the ride. The wind was blowing from the north at 15 mph and we were going SLOOOOWWW.
I tried to think of all the athletes baking in the sun in Kona. But when I did, I got a little nauseous. Reading Liz's blog this morning confirmed it. Ironman, the world championships, is HELL set in paradise.
This week as I read the Facebook statuses, twitter posts, and mobile uploads from Hawaii, I got excited about triathlon again. On Friday, a different teammate e-mailed me with a question about wetsuits and I got excited thinking about tri gear. BUT IT'S OCTOBER!!
That's when I realized, it's too soon to be excited. I suffered some burnout this summer. While I am encouraged by these positive thoughts about racing, I also reminded myself that I am still having trouble filling out my 2010 race schedule. Every time I open up the document, I sit there staring at it - stumped.
I'm not there yet. But that is totally okay because it's October. I have months to decide what I want to do next year. Right now I need to be taking full advantage of the down time and so far, I am. I'm putting on weight, I'm enjoying the extra carbs (apple cinnamon french toast, anyone?) and most of all, I'm enjoying all the extra free time that a training schedule of 5-6 hours a week provides. All that extra free time has been spent laying on the couch watching movies on HBO in the middle of the day.
The IM World Championships inspire me every year. I DVR them and then play them back while I'm on the trainer. Not necessarily because I think I can make it to Kona, but more so because I long to be in the sun! Ha! No, but really, how can you not watch these world-class athletes go through HELL and not be inspired? They grit it out against the TOUGHEST conditions - I can grit it out for a few more minutes at threshold.
It's October and my season is over. I am embracing it for all that it is. I'm looking forward to next season, but I'm allowing myself to not think about it too much. It will come back to me when I'm ready. Even if I'm not ready until April. For once, I have time - or feel like I have time.
The only thing we don't have is seasonal temperatures. Come on, Mother Nature!!! It's October!!!
