yes.

Sometimes your perception is A and reality is B. Sometimes it's better to cut your losses and move on. The sunk cost may be tiny to the future cost should you keep going on a path that you dislike

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Most people call it their "New Years Resolution".
It wasn't what they signed up for & the work isn't for them. Some even continue to pay the gym membership for months/years afterward, without ever going again.

I had a bike crash last year and broke my collarbone. I got covid in the ER so they didn’t perform the surgery for 3 weeks. After that I had to wait 1 month before my physical therapy started. So all in all it was almost 2 months without moving my arm, and it turns out that muscles, tendons and ligaments don’t like it when they don’t move for long periods of time.


This year I was signed up for Oregon 70.3 and started training for it back in January. Immediately realized that my ROM wasn’t good and I would end up getting myself injured if I pushed, so decided to bail out of triathloning until I can swim like I need to swim, and I am currently focused on cycling and hitting the gym, and I love not being pressured about some event in a few months.

I don’t ser myself racing anytime soon.

Yep,more than once.........Sometimes life gets in the way.

Yes. Lots of people will say you are being soft and its better to tough it out:

Have done this twice, first time after having two bouts of pnuemonia and I was just not feeling it in the month leading up

Second time found during the training I wasn't enjoying what I was doing and made the choice to DNS and go on holiday some place far away from the race

Nope.

Many times it's having that event in X weeks that gets me out the door for that cold, rainy ride.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I've had a couple of events where, about halfway or 2/3s through training, I've said "this is a really dumb idea" or "I don't think we're gonna be ready in time" and taken a break, with the thought of making other plans and DNSing

But, after a couple days, I've gone back and said "Nah ... we're gonna be fine" and picked back up again

Yeah, we were fine

Endorphin Withdrawal is a terrible thing to experience, and horrible to watch

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

it turns out that muscles, tendons and ligaments don’t like it when they don’t move for long periods of time.
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I think it's just the opposite. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments love it when they don't move for a long period of time. They hate it when you force them to start doing work again. They'd prefer to stay lazy and they will shout loudly at you to go back to your old lifestyle.

To the OP:
Now that I'm older, my desire to chase goals has waned a lot. I like training now on my terms. If I want to run, I go run. If I want to do something else, I do that. It's a liberating freedom to not stress about missing a workout. I'll sign up for a race, go no where near my potential (due to a lack of commitment to the training), and still have a good time. Or, I'll check the weather and decide that I'm just not into this particular race under these conditions and turn off the alarm. I'm a happier person.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Yes. A full marathon. I enjoy 1/2s so I signed up for a full. At the peak of training for it on a long run it dawned on me that I was just not enjoying it. So I bailed on the full and had no regrets.

Feel the same way about IM. Did one but can’t say I enjoyed it really. I like 70.3s. Easier to fit into my life and achieve a happy balance.

I think this is sort of what I'm wrestling with the last couple of years: am I doing something for the sake of the activity, or to meet some event goal? When do I care about one or the other?

For me though the issue I struggle with the most is when there's some difference between the event and the training in environmental conditions or whatever. For example, I love swimming open water in certain settings, but although I have good OWS opportunities near me, it's not quite like those areas. So if I ramp up my swimming to train for an event in a different area, will I like it or will I just get turned off by it? I know if I could train in the same area as the event, I'd love it, but I can't usually. It's sort of like, if you knew you loved trail running in the Pacific Northwest, but could only train in the desert in the summer, would you still want to sign up for a 50k in the PNW? Would you sign up and then take a DNS if you find out it's not for you?

Maybe it's all the same issue, though: is the event in the event or the training or both?

In the grand scheme of things it's not like the endurance police are going to come get you if you take a DNS so it doesn't matter at some level but I was mostly wondering about others' thought processes. This is Slowtwitch too after all.

More than I can even count. From a marathon where I realized I wasn't going to recover from injury soon enough, to work commitments that conflicted at the last minute.

My latest, though, wasn't in tri (or any of the three disciplines).

In 2022, I signed up for both forms and sparring at a local (but still large by local standards) taekwondo tournament. I bailed on the sparring because... well, I just didn't want to get hit on that day.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
A time to crush souls, a time to DNS.


Absolutely. In a ~35 year endurance career my DNS rate may only be ~5% or so, but the strategic DNS is a valid part of seeking larger goals of athletic longevity and consistency, and overall life balance.

Like Marlen Reusser deciding recently to sit down on the side of the road during her World Championship TT. Technically a DNF, but same deal. Sometimes it's better to just call it rather than slog through it miserably. Sometimes it's good to slog through things miserably. But not every time.

Thinking back, I've never had DNS or DNF(Two DNF due to severe weather. Not because of me). I train, know my limit so I sign up for the races that I can handle. If things go wrong and I can't do it, I will DNS with no problem. It's your life and you have full control of it, so why not take advantage of it. It's not like life or death situation and shit happens. You do what you can and move on. Simple as that.

I had one 2 weeks ago and another one a few years back when the swim got canceled and the race became a duathlon.
I have no interest in racing duathlon and the race time/experience would not mean anything to me, so I just DNS.

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Tiago
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