From Burnout to Two Ironmans

I was hopping on the trainer at 5:15 AM and thought to myself, two years ago I was on the verge of burnout. I was only doing olympic distance races, my training was riddled with missed workouts due to lack of motivation, and forget about getting up for a 6 AM swim workout (been there, done that...ever since I was a kid). I didn't even race the first half of the year and only came back to racing after some teammates urged me to in order to get some points for a team race. After 17 years in the sport, and doing my first triathlon at 19 years-old, I wasn't sure how much longer I wanted to race. After several failed attempts at the ironman distance, I gave up and decided I would come back when I was 60 and most of my competitors were either playing golf or having reconstructive knee surgeries. Then I stumbled onto the blogosphere.

I can't remember how but I came across Bree Wee's blog and well, it was like a breath of fresh air. Her energy and enthusiasm for the sport was inspiring and contagious. As I followed, I started reading comments on her blog and from there, I was guided to other blogs, like Ian and Charisa. Over a rather short period of time, I was feeling inspired and motivated. As I kept following these blogs, and adding several more, I was stoking the fire within to race, and specifically to race the ironman distance. I had unfinished business. The whole process back was pretty organic and organic is good. Since then, I've armed myself with a gaggle of blogs for motivation and inspiration. Thus, when I'm up at 5 AM, I feel like I have company knowing that Libby was 30 minutes ahead of me (actually 3 hours and 30 minutes since she is in Florida), and several others whose day of training begins well before sunrise. It's funny how I went from burnout to two ironmans in one year, and if I'm lucky, I'll get a bonus ironman in October.