Olympic summer
I can’t get enough of watching the Olympics these days. Following Wimbledon and Tour de France, what a summer of sport we’re being treated to. I feel that once this is over I will certainly be dealing with withdrawal symptoms!
With athletes being more open than ever, one theme emerges again and again: perseverance through hard times. There seems to be no athlete that has had it ‘easy’, despite what the moments of glory may deceptively have us believe; what lies underneath can only be imagined by getting a snippet of the stories. And I can’t help but think of all those who aren’t there, on that podium, in that final, in this competition. Which is all but three of them! How many tried and failed for each one up there? My heart goes out to them every time.
An insignificant amateur myself, with my own dreams and struggles, and the intensity of emotions that come with pursuing a goal with intention, I can’t even imagine how they feel, having dedicated their whole lives and sacrificed so much. Admirable, inspirational, awesome -words are not enough.
What I love the most is that, for better or for worse, the world of social media has recently granted us unprecedented access to the lives of the greats (only adding more pressure to them I imagine, but hopefully some value too). And what emerges for me, for the majority that I follow, is what wonderful kind of people they are and the ethos they project. We see amazing women empowering women, rivals demonstrating compassion and respect to each other; support, encouragement, celebration. All that the Olympic ideals stand for. There are no athletes that I like more than those that come across as being ‘great people’, and that’s so many of them!
All contrary to the latest Nike ad that was released right before the Olympics started. ‘Winning is not for everyone - am I a bad person?’
A shocking, anachronistic projection of what it takes to win. Yes, every athlete is competitive by nature and gives it all on the court, in their race or competition. They may look fierce and aggressive in those moments. But is this who they are every day? Have they no respect for their opponents? Do they chose to win at all costs? I don’t think so, dear Nike, how out of touch is your marketing team? And what a way to instill the wrong ideals to a young generation most likely watching this in the build to the Olympics?
It made me furious and made a point of watching more closely and satisfy myself every single day of watching these games that this is not true. In fact, I wonder if certain athletes pictured in the video are actually happy to be portrayed this way…
Back to my own little world of tri-pursuit:
After achieving my biggest goal of the last 2 years (completing my first Ironman strong and delivering my best), I took the time to savour the satisfaction it offered me and the realisation that it was everything I had wanted and expected from myself. It’s a game-changer in many ways. Racing long-distance gave me all I hoped for, and I am officially in love with it. So my questions about what would happen after conquering this, would I still want to do it or do it as much, have been answered: I am more fired up than ever because now I know what I love the most.
Apart from big amounts of internal motivation, unfortunately the amount of time demanded to prepare for these races is not to be taken lightly... It literally crosses the line where your whole life is dedicated to it. And it affects those around you so much, as you literally are ‘not there’ a bit too much. You have to sleep early, you have to eat well. There is no time to do much else. And hence, contemplating all this while sat at the awards ceremony the day after the race, I decided to not raise my hand when I heard my name qualifying for this year’s World Championship in Nice. It would have been a great way to ‘finish the business’ in Nice, for which I prepared so much two years ago and have it slip off my hands due to Covid. But I knew it was simply too much to ask for, it would tip the ‘balance’ unreasonably so. I also did not know what to expect from my body. Could I be so greedy and ask for another so soon? And strangely enough, I had such a good experience in Austria but this remains a single data point. A day that had gone so well. I know very well this is not guaranteed. If anything, I was almost certain to ‘do worse’ so funnily, I didn’t want the good experience to fade that quickly. Silly - I know, but why not hold on to it a little longer? It took so long to get there…
Although I have felt the impact of 70.3 races much more on my body the days after the race, in fact it took me about 4 weeks to feel I could go back to full training. There was nothing major, and thankfully I was not injured, but especially with cycling (which is typically easier than running to get back to), I had at least three weeks where either random parts of my body would suddenly ache or a strange ‘pressure’ on my knees would make me feel I can’t go on for more than 50 minutes, unless I dropped to 80Watts or simply ‘spin’.
Running-wise, I took 2 weeks completely off to be proactive, also because I wasn’t sure about the stress response I had right before the race so, although I didn’t feel anything during or after the race, I wanted to give it every chance to fully heal.
Lastly, I wanted a mental break and give myself some time to regather my thoughts about what I wanted to do next. I literally hadn’t thought much of my life beyond the 16th of June!
I wobbled from moving away from triathlon ‘for a bit’ and just do ‘fun stuff’, a swim-run, or an ultra on the trails… all the things I say no to while trying to be competitive in this exact thing. For now! I started looking at events but could not come to a decision, and that in itself was telling me something… In fact I found it easier to set some targets for next year, when I‘d be definitely be wanting to test myself on the Ironman again, so I started from there. At the same time, I was so excited with how Libs’s training came together so well that I started getting excited by the thought of experiencing it on the 70.3 distance where I’m a little more experienced at. What could we do together?
And so I came full circle and back to swim-bike-run again. To have some fun without pressure, having achieved the main goal for the year and ultimately do something that scares me - because it does… I have previously had to dig in so much in this distance that I did say ‘never again’ as some point. But I don’t think I’m willing to retire to lower intensities exclusively just yet! Because I do think there is an element of that avoidance which attracts people to longer distances (especially as we grow older), but that’s not my reason. At least not yet!
Sticking to triathlon for the rest of the season also makes sense as a building block for next year. And while I initially thought that a race in October would be too long to wait, it took so long to make a decision that it doesn’t feel that far anymore. I also could not find races that fired me up in September… and hence we’re all in for Greece 70.3 on 20th of October!
With a few teammates also coming over, if it goes well it can be a great way to end the season. We just have to see how it goes. In the meantime, preparation begins, with plenty of Olympic inspiration to carry me along! Pàme (let’s go)!