Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Comparisons

We are all guilty of making comparisons, it is human nature. As a hobby athlete I have had to stop comparing my times and performances to those from my Olympic career. It was becoming unhealthy as realistically they are not attainable with the sporadic and occasional training I now manage to fit in around work. It has taken me a while to reset goals and focus on different events - triathlon has filled the gap perfectly. The variety of training keeps me interested, with cycling being incredibly social, running so easily accessible and thankfully swimming taking the back seat as my ability is not too affected by lack of hours in the pool.

I am driven by targets, even as a retired athlete. This year I had in the back of my mind a full distance iron man, sadly due to work commitments and extensive travel that had to be halved making it a 1.9k swim, 90k cycle and a 21k run. The journey to last weekends triathlon was almost as much of an endurance test as the event itself, thankfully though the six hour drive to North East Norfolk was worth it as they have no hills.


I was delighted with my performance and overall time. This was only my second triathlon and I shaved off twelve minutes from last years result, leaving me agonisingly close to breaking the five hour barrier. The frustrating part about this type of sport is how to measure personal improvement? Every course is different, times are affected by the weather conditions, length of the transition and obviously the hills. That leaves the finishing places as the only marker, so you can imagine my disappointment when this year I finished fifth woman overall compared to last years forth. Instead I have decided to focus my comparison on the fun factor; with my family there to support me, the sun shining and a beautifully scenic course it comes out on top.