I have to admit, I’m somewhat in a “depressional-state”. Riding or running seems kind of senseless right now. And that’s weird, cause I know, that Endurance Sports enrichens my life. It makes me happier, smarter, healthier … usually.
I still do my weekly sessions and get in a volume of almost 10 hours a week. Mostly none Bike commuting and hard run sessions. But I do it, because I’m used to, not because I want to. I have this feelings since almost four weeks. And the funny-weird thing is, that I don’t want it to be it that way. I want to have fun and I want to “want” to do endurance sports.
I recently did a triathlon, just to test, if the “feeling” is coming back. Maybe I miss some competition, I thought. So I showed up, I swam (didn’t have fun), I’ve ridden my bike (this was fun) and I ran … mostly walked, cause I mentally broke instantly after the bike: “Why should I run? Why? This doesn’t make any sense. I’m not first, I’m not last, my wife doesn’t care, my mum doesn’t care, sh*t even I don’t care about my finishing-time. ”
Since this triathlon, I’m constantly thinking about what’s different right now in contrast to the past two years – where I had enormous fun in sports and even startetd this blog, cause I thought, I will always … ALWAYS be an endurance athlete.
This is what I found out:
Last year, my targets were: Bike commute as often as I can, upgrading from 2 to 5 days a week. Get in long adventure rides of more than 200 Kilometers length. Visit a family member every once in a while by bike, which usually meant riding more than 100 Kilometers a day. And prepare for the brevet-series 2017.
This year, I changed my targets to time based ones. I wanted to run a half marathon under 1:45, a full marathon under 3:30 and an olympic triathlon under 2:30. I’ve chosen running goals mainly because my brother wanted to participate in a marathon and I said, I will help him. The triathlon was there as somewhat of a compromise between running and my love for cyling.
You see the dilemma? My targets weren’t really targets for me.
Targets which usually suit me, are falling more into the category adventure, efficiency, money saving and mental breakthrough.
What’s better? This:
“”Hey girl, I ran a 1:38:52 half marathon. Wanna bang?”
Or: “Hey girl. I rode my bike more than 10.000 Kilometers this year, saved 3.000 Euro for gas, helped the environment and had time with my family.”
Really, I don’t win ANYTHING with time based goals
So, which goals then are better than time based goals for me?
- Doing epic adventure stuff like century rides or climbing grueling hills just for the view from the top of the world.
- Money saving by integrating my endurance sports into my daily life, like bike- or runcommuting.
- Getting in social or family time with the help of my bike or feet.
- Or doing something that I’ve never done before.
So, do you have personal – non time based – goals?
