By Heather McNamara
One word triathletes know all too well is discipline. To be a competitor in tris requires hours of dedication, training and focus. It means getting out of bed when you want to sleep in, it means going for a ride or run when you’d rather be lazy, and it means being smart about nutrition when you’d rather not have to think about it and just eat chips and salsa instead! So for many of us that can mean the hardest time of year to be a disciplined triathlete is not during peak race season, when schedule’s are tight and everything runs like a well-oiled machine. No, the hardest time to maintain the discipline of triathlon is the down time of year, after most of the big races have come and gone. The time of year that comes as warm weather begins to cool, when summer gives way to fall, and days full of swimming, biking, running and obsessively recording all sorts of mind-numbing data in training journals start to get replaced by days full of comments like “Hey, what time is The Family Guy on?” It’s a time generically known in popular American culture as “the holidays”. Or as I may start referring to them, “the horror-days”.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the extremely commercial yet poignant and religious time of year between October 31 and December 26th as much as the next guy. But is it me, or is it becoming increasingly harder to not blow 9 months of solid nutrition and training in the last 3 months of the year? Why is it that the focus of the holiday season seems to be consumption, whether it be fiscal or food? From the end of October right through December we are bombarded by temptation from media, friends, family, and co-workers to eat drink and be merry. Initially, with the latest competitive accomplishments still fresh in mind, succumbing to this constant barrage can easily be averted. But no normal person can expect to fend off these attacks forever. Sooner or later, especially when the past season becomes a fading memory, even the most disciplined can fall prey. We find ourselves suddenly less lean, less fit, and moving at a pace that feels very close to that of a sloth.
So what is one to do when the realization of January hits? When it is cold and dark outside, when our bike shorts or swimsuit fit a little less comfortably? When the disconcerting jiggle of our own body parts as we run is enough to bring us to tears?! Get right back into it! Grab a tissue, dry your eyes and suck it in…er I mean up, and look back on the past couple of months with fondness and appreciation. Be thankful for the opportunity to take life a little slower and to have extra time. Make a vow to do better in the future, then forge ahead. Put on those bike shorts (ignore any unsightly bulges, most of us are training in our basements this time of year anyway), and ride away (or in place as the case may be) with the same determination and discipline that was there before. Focus on what can be done in the future, not what can’t be changed in the past.
See, even if the discipline waned a bit in the final months of the year, that is ok. It is still there, waiting to be resurrected along with the smelly running shoes in the closet, waiting to be called upon once again. And when that happens discipline will get you back to where you want to be. Fit and ready. Ready to start the whole crazy process all over again. Ready to focus, with discipline, on the road ahead. The road that leads to the life we love and wouldn’t trade for anything, even if it does get put on hold for a few months out of the year.
