I’ll just add that you have to find that balance between your professional/work life and personal life. I’ve had a couple long breaks from tri (1 year or more) due to injuries and it’s always been at a time when I’m burnt out and mentally frustrated. It’s allowed me to forget about tri, spend less time on here, and focus on my career and relationship with my wife. Those breaks have been a blessing in disguise.

I will also say that your career isn’t always everything and be intentional of what you are focusing on at work. I’ve seen too many people give up things in their personal life to climb the corporate ladder. Most of the time, it doesn’t pan out and it’s not worth the sacrifice. Focus on the things that are truly important that will market yourself, develop important professional relationships, and challenge you to be better at your job. Being able to understand corporate politics/structure, reading between the lines, and what truly moves the needle will really help you understand what’s actually important versus what others think is important.

I work in an industry where the majority “live to work” instead of “work to live”. It’s slowly been changing as the younger generation comes in but I work in a 24/7 business so there’s always going to be times where there are emergencies or work is top priority. The folks that have balance handle the peaks and valleys of work load and personal life quite well but it definitely requires constant fine tuning.

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blog

Several years ago - nevermind how long precisely - when I was actively blogging, I wrote a post that was about quitting running for good

"If you were to decide to quit running, was that run good enough, or BAD enough, to be your last run EVER?" - it came from a surf blogger I'd read who posted the same thing, although he used the words "surf" and "wave"

As for racing --- I haven't done an actual race (something I paid for and with other people around me) since COVID started, but I still create my own events (with custom bibs, even) and "race" once a month or so

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

I decided during the race (cycling) it would be my last for the season, 4 months earlier than anticipated and ready for an extended break.
"Sprinted" one last time just for fun (nowhere near the front)... still my best 30-5s power ever. It was helpful to frame the finish line as the start of other possibilities and nice to not have to train for the "next one" for a while.
Fast forward an extended break, pregnancy, baby, covid... and it has now been 6.5 years. While I haven't pinned a cycling bib in a long time, I did start a few races... (trail) running first as it was supposed to be less time consuming with the kid and somehow ended up in tri... not exactly the most time efficient!

My lessons learnt in case it might apply:

• Give your future self the option to come back. Stay active and keep a base i) otherwise it will be long and painful and ii) with a kid, it's easy to lose fitness and your mind. You're happier and a better parent when you're healthy.
• Running with a baby/toddler is awesome. Just need a good stroller (and ideally a treadmill too). Don't expect high performance training (slow and lot of stop and go). Lot of good memories. Many races will accept strollers if you want to. My kid became an angry coach ("fasteeeeeer, you're too sloooow") and he loves it.
• Would lie saying there aren't many (brief) moments of "FOMO" and "regrets" (especially when looking at my power meter and FTP estimates!)
• If you're a type A, it's really hard to stick to the goal of "just" being the best you can be with max [10]h of training and keeping your priorities straight. But it also helps focusing on quality and efficiency.
• As a relatively new transplant in my current city, most of my friendships and social life were built around the bike. Very few have survived (baby and covid didn't help either). It can be a little isolating.
• More cycling related and not sure if this applies to dads to the same degree but my risk tolerance is next to 0 post kid... not sure I can actually go back to pack racing even if I'm sometimes itching to do it again.

I remember the last time I read a story to my daughter: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve when she was 13 years old (yes I forced her to listen). Now I read it to my grandson.

And still racing tris but 99% sure I am done with Iron distance. I still remember the struggle at mile 20 of IMMT in 2015 hobbling the final 6 miles home on a broken big toe from 5 weeks before the race. All I could think was 6 more miles and I never have to do this again...5 more miles and I never have to do this again...4 more miles etc

@Kid

I quit several different sports in my life. Nordic skiing, soccer, cross country due to life stuff/country disintegrating around me/moving to a different continent. Always came back to something else. Triathlon now... possibly at the crossroads again today. But I never knew that whatever event I was doing would be my last one. The foreknowledge would have likely demoralized me too much to be able give it my all.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

No, I didn't think my last race would be my last race. It was a Time Trial and (much to my surprise) I ended up winning it. A couple of days later, I crashed on my bike and couldn't ride for a couple of months. As I was coming back, I found that I really just enjoyed being out on my bike, riding at whatever pace I wanted with no devices and no desire to push myself very hard to get back into racing shape. That was back in 2016 and I haven't raced since although I still ride my bike almost every day.

Reading these replies has been a little cathartic for me. So thanks to everyone that replied. I finish Indian Wells as my "last" race and really couldn't be happier with the whole weekend. I'm not really convinced it'll be my last race, but if it is I'm happy to hang my hat on it. The race day honestly didn't go great, but in turn that was perfect for me. I wanted a challenge and I got it. I fought all day, PR'd basically everything and finished in 5:16, which is 12 minutes faster than I did it last year. So, for now I'll walk away content and happy. Time to go hang out with the little man, enjoy life and training when I can or want to. Thanks all.

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