Holy. Crap. 

I crushed my 2k this morning. I set a goal based on how my splits had been progressing during the training plan, and I intentionally tried not to compare or even think about my current splits in the same thought as those of my past. There’d be no point. I’m never going to be as fast as I was at age 21/22. I’m not sad about it. This body has been through some stuff in the intervening years. So my goal today was about 20 seconds slower than my lifetime PR. As my dad put it, who is ever the pragmatist but would never try to discourage me from going for lofty goals, AFTER I raced this morning, “I honestly thought your target was too aggressive: 15 years + 2 kids should be worth more than 20 seconds. But you overachieved!” Thanks, Dad!

I was more nervous than I’d care to admit, but I also felt ready, and I tried to keep perspective of the fact that I’m just a nerd erging in my basement when all is said and done. It was funny to be racing but also to be alone. My husband and kids were following along on the Concept2 Live race, which shows little boats moving across the screen with the rower’s splits on them. That’s also what I could see on my phone, and I could see the people closest to me on my monitor, which was connected to the live race via bluetooth. It was all really cool and high tech, and I hope the Fools Fest crew is really proud of the race they put on. My family was psyched to be able to watch it live. The guys all came down and shouted congratulations at me, and the little ones ran around being silly and excited, so that was also very gratifying.

Sadly, today also marks the end of the Intermediate Training Plan with Rower’s Dream. I can’t believe how quickly those 9 weeks went by. I also couldn’t imagine going back to not having a training plan now that I’ve been doing someone else’s thing for all of these weeks. Throughout this plan, I emailed Lisa at least once a week, sometimes MANY times a week (or day – god I hope I wasn’t annoying), and she was supportive through it all. I absolutely would never have guessed I could’ve pulled some of the splits I was able to pull without this plan and without her support throughout. I think it’s clear I’m going to do another training plan with Rower’s Dream. You probably should think about it too. 

I have some other takeaways, of course. What’s the point of doing something like this if you’re not going to uncover some life lessons out of it, right? I love a good life lesson, an event-extrapolated-into-a-pattern type of thought process. 

First, I’ve missed the idea of a team. I thought I was ok working out alone. I mean, I was just ok. It wasn’t hurting me to run along alone or to erg by myself listening to podcasts. But then I started talking with Lisa about workouts and felt a spark again. I got excited about TRAINING, not just completing a workout to burn some calories. For an hour each morning, I felt like an athlete again. I got fitter and stronger because my goals and steps to achieve those goals were clear and laid out in front of me. I love that feeling. I won’t be in a constant state of training plans for the rest of my life or anything, but this was a great experience, and I want to do it again. With as many people as possible. 

Next, I just have to embrace the fact that I’m a rower. Of all the athletic things I’ve done, it’s the one I’ve found the most success and satisfaction. Running is awesome and feels good, but I only feel like a runner while I’m running. I feel like a rower all the time. Just tying in some of that identity stuff from previous posts. There’s some weird baggage (in my opinion) that goes along with masters rowing, but I’m just going to be myself and keep rowing for as long as I can with people I love. 

Finally, becoming a mom made this easier because being a mom is harder than completing a training plan. When I was an athlete in college, the workouts were the hardest part of my day. I would be thrilled to think of it in those terms because it made me feel tough, and when we had early morning workouts, I could think to myself, “It’s 9am and the hardest part of my day is over!” Now, my perspective is that having a newborn is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I did it twice. I had 2 miscarriages. Those were orders of magnitude worse than any training plan I could sign on for. The general process of growing up probably would’ve yielded the same results, but as having children is my experience, it’s what I have to go on.

Life is happening, and it’s hard and gratifying and worth it to try hard things. You are not a spectator.