What Happens Now?

Last week, a co-worker asked me, "What do you do the first weekend after you finish an Ironman?"


Well, the first weekend was Thankgiving, a 12 hour drive back home, and then hopping on a plane back to LA, so I don't feel I really had much of a weekend.  I ate more than my share of taffy.  I do know that.  Not sure how or why the temporary taffy obsession started, but it's all I wanted those first 7 days after Ironman -- Tangy Taffy, Laffy Taffy, salt water taffy, it didn't matter.  I wanted to chew on sugar.  And am glad I got that out of my system....


I feel like I just had my first weekend. I stayed at home.  I got to drink wine with no guilt or consequences about how it would affect the next day's training.  I got my Christmas tree and decorated it.  I took my Grandma to lunch and worked on a jigsaw puzzle with her.  I had no schedule.  And, it was glorious.  I owned my weekend.


A few weeks ago, the 2012 Ironteam kicked off and when I saw all the FB posts of what they were doing, I realized I didn't miss it.  I loved my experience on that team and the staff, coaches, and teammates helped get me to the finish line.  But I guess it really wasn't until March timeframe that I actually started to enjoy being with the team.  It made me a little sad to think about and I've been trying to analyze why that is.  I think the answer came to me this weekend as I was "owning my weekend" again.  When I joined that team, even though I made the choice to do it, I was probably slightly resentful that I didn't own my weekends anymore.  It is a really backwards thought, since I wanted to be on the team.  It was a sacrifice I made.  In addition, the weather sucked November through February.  I learned how to ride a bike with no feeling in my feet for those first four months.  I think that attributed to my negative feelings as well.  And, while I did enjoy the actual time training those first 4 months because it was a team environment and I laughed and played and met a great group of people, I'm glad that I am not doing it again.  However, I will be volunteering at their big workouts in 2012 and providing the same support to them that I got last year from other volunteers.


A few people have asked me if I am still going to blog.  I have two events the first half of 2012 that I will be training for with some friends.  It won't really be an online journal anymore.  But I'll probably still be posting here and there.  Plus, I'm finally getting to do some activities I kept saying I would do "after IM is over" that I can write about.