Let’s face it… I think I’m starting a little depression and I need your help to overcome it. First, let’s put the facts:
I did IMFL06, as a first IM, it went pretty well (not as fast as expected, but a first IM is often like this)
After FL, I had a goal in mind: IMLP07. So I didn’t feel depressed after that IM. I took it easy until Xmas, and resume my training in January.
I trained constantly until IMLP.
Got sick (cough) 3 days before the IM, so the IM goal really switched from PR to “just finish it”.
I finished it, had fun, it was a long day, but didn’t do the performance I was trained for and I wished for.
I took 2 weeks EZ after the IM, and wanted to do at least another HIM before the end of the season, as a A- race, and other races just for fun.
My cough lasted a long week, maybe 10 days.
I have billed 220 hours in August (so you can say I have worked about 240hrs).
After my 2 weeks off training, I restart my trainin with joy and enthusiasm. However, my butt started to hurt.
I continued my training even if I felt a little pain in my butt, and did a short brick last Tuesday. My run was terrible, the pain was very bad. I should not have run, but I am training with HIM in mind on Sept 15.
Now, I can’t run. I visit my chiropractor yesterday, it helped, but I can’t run. I swam at lunch today, I’d rate the pain 4/10 (yesterday was 9/10).
I feel so sad that I can’t run. This w-e is a 3 days w-e, and I had planned to train a lot, but let’s face it, I CAN’T.
I feel like I would like to cry… I should not train this week-end (but I will - I can’t stop… I will keep it to swim and bike), I’m so sad to think about the fact that I probably won’t do the HIM I wished for.
The fact that I don’t have IM plan (or whatever sports plan) for next year make me sad too, but on another hand, I didn’t register b/c I’d like to get pregnant shortly…
Any thought? Did you go through something like this in the past? Thanks in advance.
Search one of my original posts on the Age Grouper Life Cycle…
I know what you feel… Can’t say that I’ve over come it, have signed up for IMLP '08 and hoping that when the time comes to really start training I won’t feel like I did this year.
What CAN you do? Swim?
Maybe focus on that or pick some other project at work, at home or in your community and just focus on kicking butt at that for a while.
Being a results driven person without any goals really sucks
IMV,
I don’t have much for solutions to how you will get through the HIM, however maybe some suggestions for '08. You’ve been having some tough luck with the IM’s and with your running lately. Maybe change your goals completely without feeling that you have failed anything. Try training for the spring cycling season, or do a bike tour across a state. Depending on your location, try some ultradistance swim competitions. If you take the necessary amount of time off from running (which it seems that your body might need) by focusing on your biking and your swimming, you can ease back into the running in due time. For myself, when I moved to a new location, I found I lost touch with my running a bit. My solution was doing a trail running series. The course are tough, but the running surface I find is so much better than always running on the road. Maybe more trail running (when you are ready for it) would be helpful for you.
sorry to hear about all of this!
here are my questions for you!
-what can you do (yoga, swim, walk, etc)?
-what about exploring the “missing piece” in your life that is trying to be filled with IM?
-also, what about getting pregnant; is that not alot to look forward to?
working towards starting a family is huge and much to be celebrated!
i don’t know how “soon to be pregnant” can be considered as having no goals…it’s awesome & thirlling actually!
in all honestly, this is a major theme around here lately. it seems alot of people are suffering with the question of “what next” after IM. many people here have talked about how they are having a hard time moving on. you are not alone! my girlfriend told me there was a psychologist at the end of IML to talk to people about moving on after IML! so, this is a very real thing; people feel like this frequently it seems.
with that said, the reality is that there is a whole entire world outside of ironman! so even though you’re focus is not IM; you truly have every opportunity before you. do you see/feel any positive in that at all?
to answer *your *questions:
yes, i have been through the “now what” with athletics. but, haven’t really experienced this since my mid 20’s when my life was pretty much about running marathons and being skinny.
since then i’ve grown up alot and have had to overcome things personally–like my father’s passing away and starting a business (actually have started/ran 3 businesses and am now age 32).
the point is: there is more to life than S/B/R…don’t let anyone here tell you otherwise.
i used to focus so much on running to avoid things i needed to address in my life. a running injury basically forced me to shelf running and “deal”. perhaps this is the best thing that ever happened to me–but i do remember that process being hard.
anyway, it’s not the end of the earth not to do an IM or even a HIM. you can choose something else, and focus on your life. figure out why you’re depressed, and find/develop other/additional passions in your life. if you can do this, then suddenly IM becomes a part of what you’re doing, rather than “all” of what you’re doing.
Maybe you needed a bit more recovery time after that last IM, just because you didn’t meet your time goals dosen’t mean that you didn’t put out a considerably hard effort. I had this problem after IMAZ 07, I did IMAZ 06 and didn’t really care about my finishing time because it was my first. For my second, I worked my ass off just to get sick about a week prior to the race. My swim went ok, but within 3 miles of the bike, my legs were on fire, I realized it was going to be a long hard day, I finished 3 minutes slower than my first year, even with all the hard training. In the weeks and even a month or so after words, I found myself doing way way way too much training and just dug myself into a hole that was hard to get out of, I’m out now and my training is going great but is was a month or so before my running came back, why? I don’t know, its just how the dice roll sometimes.
Thanks for your kind words. And yes, getting pregnant is a short term (very short term hopefully!) goal, but I don’t want to focus on this, bc if it takes too long before it works, then I’ll get crazy…
My big w-e of training has been changed for a day at a SPA, and maybe a little bite of cycling, but nothing compared to what I had planned. I think I need endorphins…and rest!
You are right, I should focus on other things in life, other passions, but triathlon training will remain in my life, hopefully, for the rest of my life. Maybe IM training is not a short term option, but sbr is a way of life.
Isn’t Kitty-kat nice to have around? I didn’t feel well for a couple of years after an Iron Distance. In fact, it was so hard to run or ride hard, I had a cardiologist send me for a stress echo. Everything was fine, I was just tired. Then, I had surgery on a knee. It’s been over 1.5 years since surgery, and 3 years since my Iron distance, and I’m just now busting out of my doldrums into better training…by “better” I mean, my body is responding, my times are dropping, and I’m improving overall. For some of us, those that aren’t “made for” ultra-distance events, and we force one into our lives anyway, it might take a bit more out of us than those that are genetically pre-disposed to do well in such an event. So be it. Realize the limitation, if you have one, and work with it, rather than against it. Also, make sure nothing else is going on…turns out I had a vitamin D deficiency. I’m amazed at how much better I felt immediately upon vitamin D supplementation (this doesn’t mean go out and take vitamin D, it was diagnosed by a Doctor, and treatment was prescribed). Actually, I immediately quit feeling like I had to take a nap every afternoon the day after treatment was begun. Weird, I know. So, it could be something that needs to be fixed, it could be an attitude that’s out of kilter with your recovery. Find out. Good luck!
I think the treatment here is pretty evident. It’s called GET A LIFE!
First we have had to deal with restless leg syndrome as a certified medical condition. Now post-Ironman Depression??!!
If there is one positive, I guess it will give all those triathletes who masquerade as psychologists/psychiatrists another way to steal you hard earned $$.
As a weekend warrior type competitor who has never raced an ironman but has raced plenty of 24, 36, 48 and 60 hour adventure races I experience post-race depression regularly following my A race (over the past 10 years, on average every second year after achieving a new PR on distance/time/placing). I think it’s simply related to losing that thing that I had been focusing on for the past year, having achieved, or sometimes not achieved, my goal. With the huge emotional high of the race itself, with all the physical stress, mental anxiety and emotional stress that your A race involves, your body and mind have been on a rollercoaster. You can see the same thing in some of the Survivor type reality TV shows. This can cause you to come crashing down to earth when you finish (or dnf), in all ways - emotional, mental, and physical. I find I’m very flat, sometimes even clinically depressed, for up to 3 weeks, until life (I have a demanding business, a wife, and 2 young kids) pulls me back in and I set new goals for a new race or some other life event. So if this is what you mean, I believe it’s relatively common and normal. Focus on life first, then set a new racing goal, and you should come right after a bit of time.
However, a post-event depression is different from clinical depression (that is, a depression caused by a chemical imbalance, or other medical/psychological cause), and I don’t have anything to say about the latter other than go see your physician first, talk about how you’re feeling, and let a professional advise you on whether you should consider seeing a specialist. If you even think you may be depressed generally, as opposed to just related to your ironman racing, go do something about it. It’s not worth prolonging your suffering, and it’s generally not possible to will yourself out of a clinical depression.
