Tri-ing Again – After All these Years

My last blog post was almost a year ago after my climb on Denali. I won’t tire you with irrelevant excuses as to why I took such a long hiatus from blogging, but I will say that I’m back – in more ways than one.

After 13 years of adventure racing/running/climbing around the world I’ve decided to do a triathlon again! If you asked me even 6 months ago if I were going to do another triathlon in this lifetime I would have dispassionately brushed off the question. I raced triathlon hard core for 15 years and felt as though I had wrung the sport out. I tend to continually seek new physical experiences and my life post triathlon has been an exercise in that trend. Now here I sit, 6 days before my next triathlon as giddy as a veteran soldier going into a firefight (what?). A few things fell into place to bring me to be sharing this info with you today.

(me, many years and lots of Ironmans ago...)

Today I FedEx’ed to The Mountaineers Books (publisher) the final edit on my next book that will be coming out in November – Triathlon Revolution: Training, Technique and Inspiration. I’ve been working on this project for the past eight months or so, inclusive of a gut wrenching writing ultra-marathon of approximately 3 months leading into my initial manuscript deadline (I think I’d rather crawl through the jungles of Borneo again than repeat the effort of the last aforementioned time period – ouch).

By dissecting in detail the sport of triathlon, I reconnected with a remarkably rich time in my life—10 years of traveling and racing as a professional triathlete. Since I have been privileged to engage in so many rewarding adventures since that time, my life as a triathlete was inadvertently sent to the archives of my conscious. In many ways I grew up as an adult doing triathlon. I revisited this time of youth and world-class endurance through my book and in doing so it ignited a small spark in my gut. One might call this feeling situational-happiness.

I also decided a few months ago it was time to dust off the road bike and overhaul its frozen drive train. After a couple times out on my “new” ride in the pristine mountains of Santa Cruz—my old Ironman training battle grounds—I was reminded of how much I love the zen of road riding. Each Saturday I found myself reaching for the road bike instead of mtnbike. After some hours climbing in the consummate beauty of our ‘country roads’ I noticed a bit of resiliency arriving back in my quads and that happiness-thing taking front stage.

At this same time I had made the decision to start swimming masters workouts again to offer my beat up running legs a reprieve and to mix things up a bit with some speed. This immediately stitched that competitive toggle in my brain and after a few weeks I was sort-of-kind-of close to reasonable swimming speed again (I have never and doubt I will ever equate pool swimming to ‘happiness’).

The deal clincher was a Sunday morning run and drive through Auburn, CA on my way back from a speaking engagement in Lake Tahoe. After a lovely run inclusive of a bear sighting on some trails close to my heart— the Western States 100—I drove around for a bit checking out sections of the bike course for the “World’s Toughest Half Ironman”. This race has always intrigued me since I tend to look for events that lie on the fringe in a sport and I had to see first hand if the “World’s Toughest” moniker held water. A half hour of roaming and I declared with a smile, “Damn this is a tough course!” With race seed planted and a belly full of a central-California-cult-status-In-and-Out-Burger, I wandered home and got on the race website.

Set in one of the most picturesque areas in California the self-professed ‘Endurance Capital of the World’ and put on by ex-pro triathlete Brad Kearns, this still relatively grass roots triathlon caught my eye. Since I tend to seek out challenging events The World’s Toughest signature drew me in to what has potential to be a truly exquisite ass kicking. As I read more I noticed that giddy/happiness-thing in my gut again.

I wondered if, like the veteran soldier, hard core endurance athletes are just plain compelled to engage again in memorable battles, especially if the fight is proven to be a mega-challenge. Or, perhaps too much time without an adventure caused me to grab at the nearest body-flogging fix that presented itself. In any case, I’m back (for at least this one tri anyway).

I’ll be on my blog later this week with some interesting info on the ups and downs of revisiting my tri training process for this race. Whew!
Terri