Hi, I felt the same way after my IM this fall. It took a while, but I finally gave myself permission to just be "lazy" for a while (two months). Now, I've signed up for some spring races, and although I still am not excited about training, at least it gets my butt out the door. That and the 100/100 run challenge!

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

It's totally normal. A long season will do that to you - you need to go do a bunch of non-tri things - xc skiing, hiking, mountain biking, heck surfing, scuba... - lots of different activities out there in the world... Once you are mentally ready to get back into it, you will find yourself far more motivated to make goals and train for them. If you sign up for anything now, you might actually learn to hate training... resent it...

Coming from someone who finished a way too long season... (~16mo ending with IMNZ this past March)

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Start with something non-tri. Rock climbing gym, dance class, hooping (this is the latest one I tried at the gym. Good ab workout.)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

It took me almost a year, all told, to even fathom putting in the effort & time to get back at triathlon. I had a whopper of a bike wreck, ran a marathon, did an adventure race or two, went on some epic rides, but didn't pressure myself to get back to racing. It took so much out of me & my life for a good, long while. But I did get back to it when I wanted to. It was that typical post-race blue let-down of "what's next?" You'll come back around but don't rush it. If you push yourself back into before you really "want" to, something will feel off and/or you'll resent it.

That said, when life got stupid busy & essentially took away my athletics for almost the past two years....I resented life itself! Just signed up for an April marathon, looking to get back to IM distance at the end of this season with some good lead-ins. I couldn't be more excited. Give yourself time.

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AW

The best to you in your 2012 racing goals! Let us know how you do.

I think 1 month after is fine. part of the problem might be that you were looking for motivation before the 1 month point. you had a long season, 1 month off isn't bad. But you sound like you were putting pressure on yourself w/in the last month (because you used the word still) instead of just relaxing.

don't worry about SBR for a couple weeks, then revisit. there's a good chance that as other people start to train again you'll find yourself wanting to train, but don't for the next 2 weeks, then you'll really have motivation. 2 more weeks of rest won't hurt you, but if you force it then you might suffer from burnout or worse later in the season.

Focus on eating healthy, lots of sleep, relaxing things (the holiday's aren't always relaxing), read some books. Really give yourself time to relax and recover. You'll come around to your old self soon. The big thing is to take the pressure off of yourself completely for a bit.

To the OP, listen to GGs advice. She knows what she's talking about.

Good luck.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Considering i just saw you run 6 miles the other day, i would say part of it is getting used to "normal" training volume versus IM training volume. Cut yourself some slack. Enjoy your kids. Wing the workouts for a little bit longer.

Good point. Advice well taken. Will work on the relaxing part. Have not been able to rest guilt free but have been knee deep in kids and ready to have something for myself again. Yup Amy obviously I was bored running as I talked your head off the entire time! Getting close to pulling trigger on Cozumel in November.

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COtrimom