I am glad to say that I successfully recovered from a rough two weeks of training earlier in the month. This is kind of common for me though because it also seems that for one reason or another, I always seem to lose motivation or I get sick, or something comes up during my training cycle that puts me off course, it never fails.

I had to travel the first week of the month, and although I had a step-back week scheduled while I was away, it seriously knocked me out of my regular routine. Some things that helped to throw me off was the fact that I wasn’t getting up at 4:45am while away and I was also a time-zone off. I struggled to get a good swim in over the 4 days being away since I found out that you can only do so many laps in a traditional hotel pool without getting totally frustrated. It was quite tiring to keep turning around and turning around in the pool after only a few stroked… so I abandoned it after about 20 minutes, although I have to admin that it was funny to see people stopping to watch me do laps in a pool that was “not made for lap swimming” through the window to the lobby, I think some people thought I was crazy.

One of the real big things that didn’t help me out was that I missed my circuit workouts while away, although I tried in the hotel gym to do some of it, but it was too small and didn’t have the equipment I needed. This mixed in with me eating many more calories than normal and consuming heavier foods than I normally eat made me feel terribly bloated. The only positives from the week was that I got some good running time and still got my cycle workout in .. once I returned on Friday, I struggled with my long swims since I was so tired and bloated, although I still got it in.

Then on Saturday after I returned, I got lost on my long bike ride and had to cut it short .. I take a lot of time prior to heading out on a long ride to do my turn by turn directions that I tape on my bike for a reference.. but I didn’t follow it. I decided to turn left instead of turning right about 8 miles in and didn’t know where I was. I’m glad I had GPS with me though so I could find where I was and plot my course home .. Later on in the day on Saturday, I started coming down with a head cold, and my sinuses were blocked beyond blocked (if you know that feeling). I struggled to get out on Sunday morning for a run, but got through it and then didn’t go to boot camp at the gym since I felt so terrible .. but the struggles didn’t end there for the week.

I ended up having my sleep broken Sunday night because I had to stay up late to work .. so Monday mornings workout didn’t happen since I slept in although I managed to get about 25 minutes in the pool after work, which felt kind of strange since i’m normally a morning swimmer. Then last Tuesday, I missed my circuit workout yet again because I felt so terrible from the head cold… I somehow got myself out for a short run anyway on Tuesday so I didn’t feel totally guilty for missing circuit.

Do you think the madness ended there? Nope .. Wednesday morning I managed to get myself up and out for my first bike ride in the morning before work.. I still felt pretty crappy and I thought about the effects of going out into the cool morning air with rain on the horizon, but did it anyway … this funny story I had previously posted explains that .. and that was not a good thing.

I was really at that point that I think everyone eventually hits during training when your motivation is just gone .. I felt this happening and worked to stop it as best as I could. I figured it had to start by getting over the head cold, so I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday night to get an antibiotic and some Flonase .. by doing this, and taking the day off from training on Thursday, allowed me to heal up and continue to work on getting my motivation back. Finally on Friday I was feeling a little bit better and knocked out my long swim with no effort. I had to alter my schedule for last Saturday since I didn’t get my bike back until the afternoon, but got a nice run and some swimming in and then did my bike ride on Sunday .. I even managed to get back to the pool again on Sunday to swim again..

Other things I did to help get my motivation back was to change my music around on my Ipod shuffle. I had the same music on there for awhile, so I switched that around a little bit along with building in some new running and cycling courses because the old ones were getting boring.

Everything I did seemed to have helped get me back to where I was with training, its funny how that works out .. the only part that really sucked this past week was getting back to the 90 minute circuit workout. I really lost a lot of endurance over that 2 week period, so I am glad to be back.

So this weekend is working out about the same way as last weekend as far as my schedule is concerned .. lots of rain is scheduled in my area today which means that I’ll cycle tomorrow instead. I figured that i’m used of running in the rain, so I did that instead today. I’ve got 32 miles scheduled on the bike for tomorrow, which will be my longest distance on the bike this season and the weather is supposed to be more favorable, so it should be a good ride. I’ll probably follow-up with a run or swim since the gym is opened for a short period tomorrow (thankfully).

So I guess I can say that I’ve got my motivation back after a couple of tough weeks as I wind into the last 4 weeks of training before the triathlon .. I guess you just have to hang in there and keep pushing it even when you don’t want to. It is true that motivation is everything … when you lose it, it really is tough to get back, but its worth it when you get it back.