I’ve
been strength training on and off over the last 10 years or so, but never this
serious since high school. Over the
last 10 years I’ve been racing triathlons, which I’ve had a lot of fun with it.
Before I got into triathlons though, I was really into basketball, and still am
to a certain degree now, but triathlons took the forefront of my athletic
training and basketball fell to the wayside. Like any kid playing basketball, I
was obsessed with improving my vertical jump. With rough measurements, my
standing vertical was about 22-23 in; if I had a running start, it was about 30
or so inches. Standing a shade under 5’6” I was somewhat satisfied with that,
but I still wanted to jump higher.
Around the same time, I got bit
by the triathlon bug and my goals to jump higher went to the backburner. All my
time was spent trying to run, bike, and swim faster. But over the last couple
years, I feel like I’ve been plateauing with triathlons, and even my interest
has dropped a little. Life in general was also changing quite a bit and
dedicating time to triathlons was becoming harder to do. I usually average at
least 5 tri races a year, plus another 3 run races, but this last season I only
did 3 races.
At the end of this past season, I was re-evaluating what I needed to do to improve. I’ve felt that I’ve always lacked bike power, so I wanted to dedicate time to the weight room; hence, Show and Go. I wanted to maintain my running and swimming as well, so the plan was to run and/or swim about 2-3 times a week, but work was picking up a little and it was easier to dedicate time to strength training instead of running or swimming. It also helped I had a plan to follow with strength training; I didn’t quite have the same with running or swimming.
Now, at the end of four months
of strength training, things have changed. I don’t want to dedicate as much of
my time to triathlons anymore. I’ve been having a lot of fun discovering how
much stronger I can get and it awakened something in me that has been dormant
for a long time; the need to have fun, jump around, become more athletic.
Before triathlons I always wanted to see how high I could jump, how many
push-ups can I do, how many pull-ups I can perform, etc. I’ve wanted to explore
my other athletic potential aside from triathlons. Ever since I became a
trainer, there’s been that underlying desire to try something new and dropped
the dream of racing at the elite level of triathlons.
Now I want to have fun training.
I want to dedicate my training time to other pursuits that I gave up because I
always had my focus on triathlons. I want to dunk a basketball; I want to do at
least 100 push-ups; I want to bench press two plates, squat twice my
bodyweight, and deadlift 300+ lbs; I want to learn how to do the clean; I want
to race obstacle races; I'd love to do some kind of martial art again. The list goes on and on.
I’ll still race triathlons, but
for a different reason. I’ll still run because I love to run. I’ll still bike
because I love to bike. I’ll still swim because I love to swim. But I’m not
going to focus on getting to the next level, to that elite level that I’ve
wanted. I’m not going to do that because I want to explore my other fitness
abilities and perform them the best that I can.
This is a new journey for me,
which I’m excited about. With all the other exciting changes happening in my
life, I’m looking forward to what’s to come.
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