What’s the freakin’ point?

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• What's the point of triathlons. I actually typed that into google and this page was one of the results. I don't understand it. I get the whole sense of trying to accomplish something like climbing a mountain or swimming across the ocean but running around like a nut case doing a bunch of different sports.

• Hi Bob, I agree about everything you said. I did run yesterday without the watch...haven't written about it yet.

  Man, I've been working soooo hard to lose weight: I have only lost 4 pounds in 4 months. I weigh 144 now. I think I have gained alot of muscle, tho, because of my new biking/hill strategy. I want to get down to 137....
  Doubtful that will happen before the Duke monster.

  I'm very curious about the comment someone left about the 'grey zone'. Have you ever heard of that?

  Hope we can swim today! carol

• I agree Carol, when you feel like you do, back off a little to regain motivation and allow your body to absorb the training and build muscle.

  One other thing you could do to improve your time is lose weight. Even 2-3 pounds would help greatly. Since Duke is two months away, you could push yourself to lose the weight temporarily until after the race. Yes I know how hard it is--especially when your training hard, but that is one thing you can do that would guarantee a faster time. This assumes you lose the weight slowly and you are getting the carbs needed to recover from your workouts.

  When I was marathon training, I found myself gaining weight due to the great hunger that comes from hard training. I was able to cut back a little on some of the junk I ate over several weeks that I was eating, and I lost five pounds before the race--at my lower weight I had PR's in the 5k, 10k, 1/2 and full. I have since gained back more than the five pounds and have not gotton close to my PR times from two years ago.

  Bob

• Hey, not to worry. This happens. You may need a little rest perhaps or maybe adjust your training a little. Be carefull not to train the gray zone. It's hard to say what is really holding you back, but if you care you can drop me an email at gb@gabrielabaranova.com and I would be more than happy to review your past training and give you some advice which will hopefully help.
  Gabriela Baranova, personal trainer, triathlon coach

• I wish I had an answer. I feel the same way these days. It doesn't help that the northern California air quality is Unhealthy--talk about lack of motivation. I've been burned out for weeks--Not sure how to snap out of it. I've been sitting in front of my TV watching House re-runs. Let me know when you feel better. But I feel ya. I really do.

• Thanks every body for your words of encouragement and advice. I do get into these mental slumps sometimes...maybe I ought to see a shrink! Tho, it's kind of like blogging is my therapy :-). I'm feeling much better now.

  I agree - I definitely need a break from the stopwatch and also a rest from rigid training.

  Also, you should really celebrate that you are placing in your age group and not slowing down! ...

  Hmmmm...maybe my hard efforts at running ARE working in that they are keeping me at the same level; whereas, I'd be slowing down due to age otherwise.

• I agree with Collin and Jon's comments. Maybe you should go on a 'numbers holiday' for at least a week? Leave the watch behind, leave the heart rate monitor behind (and any other various monitoring technology you own) and just go out and run for fun. Also, if you are following a rigid training schedule, maybe you need to ignore it for a while and just do what you feel like? I have previously hit points where I lacked motivation, was getting slower in training, and basically was asking myself what is the point of all of this. I would then just take a break by training only when I felt like it (my weekly training time was 1-2 hours) and then feel really rejuvenated and ready to rock.
  Also, you should really celebrate that you are placing in your age group and not slowing down! That is really impressive.

• I'm not even sure what to say except that I wish I could help. For me, I ONLY run because it's fun. Time is almost never a concern for me. Try it sometime. Just go out and run. No watch. No pushing. Just running. Look around at all the beautiful things in nature. Smell everything. Wave and smile at everyone you see, even the people out smoking on their front steps. Stop and walk once in a while. Just do ANYTHING to make it more fun and less like a job.

  I'm no shrink, so that probably does nothing to help you, but I felt obligated to try, because you've been a great motivator for me.

• Hey I have hit this blog a few times and although I am no "coach" maybe you just need to take a step back and get some rest... have some fun... eat a cheeseburger!

  I say this becuz I not only plateaued in my training over the years I have flat out gone the other way! Why? Simply swam, biked, and ran myself into the ground.

  Get some rest and don't worry about Duke - you'll be fine!

• I've been in this place with cycling, after getting dropped 2 weeks in a row by some women who don't even try to be good at cycling. Is it possible that you need a break from training? It can be all consuming for me at least, and sometimes taking a break reminds me that I do actually enjoy this. I've been a runner for almost 15 years but I definately have cycles of loving and hating it. Trail running seems to refresh my spirit when I dread the slogging runs. Anyhow, don't be so hard on yourself, you have been a true inspiration to me and I'm so grateful. I hope you can just ride this wave out, I know it will pass.