…You got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em, know when to walk away and know when to run.

That is such good advice. Too bad Kenny didn’t heed that advice for himself when it came to his plastic surgery decisions. But, I digress…

One and done?

Today I made a decision about my 2012 racing schedule, and I feel like a thousand pound weight has been lifted from my tired, over training shoulders. I decided that I will not do a half-ironman this summer, and I sent in my formal refund request to TriColumbia for the Skipjack race in September.

Why no half-iron race this summer? There are many reasons, so let me rattle them off to you.  In no particular order:

I can’t seem to shake these overuse injuries – especially the injury to my right glute and hip. If I lay off of the running for a week, my hip feels better but if I try to maintain my half-iron training program I live in pain nearly every day. There’s just no way I can maintain the mileage right now.

I am dog-ass tired. While there are days when I feel rested and ready to conquer the world, most of the time I feel worn down and ragged. You can see it all over my face. Something just isn’t clicking with this training program or maybe it’s my diet, but whatever it is I need to fix the fatigue.

I am not excited about the race. I usually get butterflies in my stomach when I think about racing, but when it comes to Skipjack I only feel a sense of dread. Maybe it’s the thought of a 65 mile bike ride instead of the normal 56 or maybe it’s the thought of having to deal with a strong wind? At this point, I really don’t care because the bottom line is I’m not excited about the race.

I want to be rested and ready to rock my IM training next year. Is it silly to be thinking that far ahead? Perhaps, but I want to go into my IM training next spring well rested and full of positive energy. My ultimate goal with triathlon is to finish an Ironman, and I really don’t care how many half-irons I do. Whether I do the Skipjack or not will have little to no impact on my Ironman situation, so why bother with it if I really don’t need it.

I am still a triathlete with or without the half.  It is such a great feeling to finish a sprint or an Olympic and not be completely trashed. I love waking up the day after a race without a single twinge of soreness (other than my cranky glute and hip). My consistent training over the past three years has brought me to this place, and I’m really enjoying it. I am not any less of an athlete if I don’t do this race. Period.

I can’t devote every single waking minute to triathlon. I sacrificed a lot of weekends and time with friends and families last summer to train for Providence, and I need to put some focus back on other parts of my life. I don’t want to spend my weekends doing three or four hour rides and brick workouts that leave me wiped out and interested in only sitting on my couch watching reruns of Saved By The Bell. It’s time to find a little balance. 

Just because my choice is not to do another half-Ironman this year doesn’t mean my love of the sport stops or that I won’t be blogging. In fact, I’m hoping just the opposite happens. My hope is that I find a renewed energy for my training and more interesting things to ramble about on this blog. I want to continue developing speed and strength at the shorter distances because in the long run it will make me a better athlete.  And, I want to spend a little more time with these lovely folks because at the end of the day they’re what really matter…

George & Juno

When do you know it’s time to walk away or readjust your training schedule? Does it make you feel guilty or more at peace? Drop me a comment and let me know!