I am in the odd position of never having been a single sport athlete. I got into triathlon 6 years ago at age 25 essentially on a dare from a coworker. I started off with a sprint and bit the bug pretty hard. Within a year I was doing a 5-hour HIM and I eventually qualified for and did well at Vegas, got USAT All-American, and can get on the overall podium in local-ish HIMs like Beach-to-Battleship and MusselMan. I did a 10:06 at IM MT in 2012 and missed a Kona slot by 12 minutes. I couldn't do an Ironman in 2013, but this year I doubled-down and hired a "high end" coach, cleared my calendar, and went all-in on trying to KQ at Placid. And it blew up in my face - my coach (now ex coach) had me training waaaaayyyyy too hard and I was stupid enough to go along with it. He admitted his mistake but by the time we both realized it it was too late.
By June I was a mess, physically and psychologically, and my power and pace numbers all started to go in the wrong direction. I showed up at Placid a wet noodle and, well, I finished, but that's about all I can say. Thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in the crapper. This season was all-in-all a rather disillusioning experience.
Strangely enough, throughout it all, I loved running. Running has always been my favorite part of triathlon - I always feel bad for people who say they hate running or describe it as painful. That must suck - like being allergic to chocolate or something. This leads me to believe I should consider saving my money, and sanity, and walk away from triathlon, at least for awhile, to just run, and maybe do ultrarunning. A 50-mile trail run sounds WAY more fun to me than an Ironman right now. In fact, it sounds more fun than just about anything!
I am obviously asking in the wrong place, but did you walk away from triathlon at any point? Did you come back? Did you miss it? A part of me says I will never be happy that I didn't get another shot at a KQ, but another part of me says no one gives a shit about UrsusMaximus KQ'ing besides UrsusMaximus.
Not looking for any particular advice - just wondering what others have done and how they felt about it. If you're still on here I am guessing you ended up coming back to triathlon, so there's clearly some selection bias here, but just curious what others have experienced.
By June I was a mess, physically and psychologically, and my power and pace numbers all started to go in the wrong direction. I showed up at Placid a wet noodle and, well, I finished, but that's about all I can say. Thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in the crapper. This season was all-in-all a rather disillusioning experience.
Strangely enough, throughout it all, I loved running. Running has always been my favorite part of triathlon - I always feel bad for people who say they hate running or describe it as painful. That must suck - like being allergic to chocolate or something. This leads me to believe I should consider saving my money, and sanity, and walk away from triathlon, at least for awhile, to just run, and maybe do ultrarunning. A 50-mile trail run sounds WAY more fun to me than an Ironman right now. In fact, it sounds more fun than just about anything!
I am obviously asking in the wrong place, but did you walk away from triathlon at any point? Did you come back? Did you miss it? A part of me says I will never be happy that I didn't get another shot at a KQ, but another part of me says no one gives a shit about UrsusMaximus KQ'ing besides UrsusMaximus.
Not looking for any particular advice - just wondering what others have done and how they felt about it. If you're still on here I am guessing you ended up coming back to triathlon, so there's clearly some selection bias here, but just curious what others have experienced.