Thursday 24 May 2007

Post-race Crash

Oh my goodness. For as high as I felt on Monday and Tuesday -- Wednesday and so far Thursday are as low. It is difficult to focus so intensely on one day and then have it be over! As much as I wanted it to be over, I am left with this empty feeling.

And mainly, I am left with all the reasons I wanted and indeed needed a distraction as intense as training for a half-marathon. I can barely keep from crying about some of the stuff that is going on with my job, in relationships, and suddenly I am even feeling like I MUST do some more serious retirement planning! But mainly I can barely keep my composure when I think about my son flying a helicopter in Iraq. He has been there since last August, and when he first left, I was terrified, but I came to a level of acceptance with it. That acceptance is now gone, and I am scared beyond belief - all over again.

I will register for the Tri for the Cure next week, and get in the pool and on my bike and hope that it will give me another intense distraction.

Any advice from those who have been through this? Thanks.

7 comments:

Debbi said...

No advice from me, but thank you and your son for his service, and it sounds like signing up for the Tri is going to be helpful.

J~Mom said...

For me I think it helped to dive into goal setting and planning. Maybe lay out your races for the next 6 months to a year. Do enough so that you get excited about all of it. Then pick your training programs and when you start all of them. Think about nutrition and other training components as well.

My BIL is deployed right now as well. Please let your son know we appreciate all of his sacrifice for our country. (((HUGS)))

Unknown said...

I think you need another goal to focus on. You spent a lot of time and energy focussed on that half marathon and now it is over.

For me, I always needs something 'big' out there on the horizon.

For what it is worth, I'm going through a similar thing...

Unknown said...

I can't help with the son in a combat zone...no experience there, but I feel for you.

What has always worked for me with the post-race letdown is that I never have less than two races that I am registered for at any time. That way, as soon as I finish one, I know that there is another one out there that I need to begin at least focusing on mentally, even if not with physical training yet. My worst funks have always been when I don't have a race on the calendar I'm mentally committed to.

Just my two cents, but it's worked for me.

Marcy said...

I absolutely agree with Lisa. We all greatly appreciate his sacrifice to our country (((HUGS)))

I was also thinking along the same lines as Chad, as long as you continually have something on your calender, you'll always have something else to focus on once one race is done. I'll probably be in your same situation though after my HM. It's in Sept and from there on out the weather goes downhill here in lovely NY, so there will be no more races. Yuck!

J~Mom said...

Any better today? Thinking of you!

Randy - Maniac #788 said...

Mary I've been out of touch of a good computer connection for a few days. I hate to hear that you've crashed so hard....I do agree that setting some short and long term goals will help you. Maybe in your reading you can identify how you can alter your training to help you improve your times, I'm trying to do the same thing. I'm not satisfied with my HM time either and I feel confident I can make some improvement.
I'll add your son to our prayer list, please keep us posted on how he is doing. When is he scheduled to return, do you know that yet? We so appreciate all that he is doing over there for the good of those people and the world.
Don't be too hard on yourself, you will have so many opportunities in the future to improve on this new (A-). Just think of all the baby boomers that won't even get up off the couch to walk around the block and how much further you are than they are.