"Do it or don't."

You likely haven't noticed that I've been MIA in the blogosphere over the past few weeks, but in case you did and were curious as to what was going on, I'll tell you. I was in throes of a late season motivational slump. Every ounce of activation energy in my possession was mustered for workouts. The dishes piled up. The dirty laundry bag exploded. The bathroom mirror became spackled with toothpaste. Even with all of this, my workout completion began to fall. I think that a combination of several things precipitated this near fallout of athletic discipline. The weather here in Montana, has taken a decidedly winterly turn. My race in Coeur d'Alene left a sour taste in my mouth (pun intended). Generally, this season has been the longest and the most intense I've ever had, and I began showing signs of mental fatigue. Other athletes and training partners, from whom I gain so much discipline and motivation have begun to wrap their own seasons.

Sensing my season about to fall off the precipice of general laziness, and all the work I'd done this season circling the toilet bowl, I called in some big guns. Meetings with Coach Elliot and Linsey were immediately scheduled, and I came away with one lesson and several corollaries. "Do it or don't do it." Meaning give it everything, 100% for the next five weeks, or call it quits now and end my season early, no sense dawdling in some tepid, netherworld of motivation. Buoyed by their clear objectivity and reassurance that my fitness had not diminished as much as I perceived, I committed to the next five weeks with clear purpose and resolute goals.

Yesterday I raced in the Garden City Triathlon, a notoriously fast Olympic distance race here in Missoula (it's actually in Frenchtown). While I didn't race as well as I had hoped and achieve every goal I wanted, I had a solid race. I'm not where I want to be, by any means, but it was another marker that I'm headed in the right direction. I was able to pull out another five minute PR, my second in as many races, and break the two hour mark for the first time in my life. 1:57:30.

So while I am satisfied with this performance, I come away from the past week with something incredibly more powerful, the realization of how close I was to throwing this season away.

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas A. Edison