Last year I was involved in an accident while on a bike ride. Since then I've been having difficulty cycling. When cars pass me my heart rate jumps up 20 beats a minute and I cant descend without freaking out and riding my brakes. I end up skipping most of the bike rides on any triathlon training programs I start, then get frustrated about all the missed training sessions and stop training altogether. Consequently I haven't been able to train consistently and have gained 65 pounds in the last year.
Last week I was on a run and having a blast! While on that run I realized I still love running. There's no reason for me to give up on endurance athletics just because I have anxiety cycling. I need to change sports at least temporarily. I believe I'll try being a pure runner until my subconscious starts to forget that cycling is so dang dangerous.
My next step is to find a running race that gets me excited and motivated. I have a few ideas. I'll let you know as soon I decide on one.
4 comments:
Why can't you do your training rides on a trainer (indoors?) I know some very successful triathletes who do this because they don't want to deal with traffic.
Are you going to do any more tris this season to accumulate points for your series or are you calling it quits immediately?
The trainer is a great idea, but that many miles on a trainer isn't much fun.
I'm not sure about the remainder of the series. At my last race I didn't have any fun riding on the road next to cars and I was SO SLOW! I only earned 1 point, I came in 10th in my division, even if I raced I wouldn't be competitive, so I'm still undecided. I'll post on my blog when I decide.
Thank you for your comment!
Thanks for responding, you make good points. If you're not having fun training and racing, what's the point? If running is what suits you better for the time being, that's a great way to stay active and race.
Just a suggestion, you might want to consider still swimming a few times a week as cross training for your running. It will help prevent injury plus you will keep your feel for the water and some swimming fitness so if you do choose to go back to triathlon at some point you won't be starting over from zero. Just an idea.
Whatever you do, don't lose the momentum you've started building the last couple of weeks. I've been following your blog for a few months and it's good to see you back at it!
I have a huge amount of anxiety about cycling too - and even aside from the high-HR type anxiety issue, I rationally feel it's quite dangerous, people have bad accidents all the time! I go to three spin classes a week and build up to a longer indoor ride before specific events; most of my favorite bike rides have been during longer-distance triathlons where the course was partially or fully closed to traffic! Is there a state park that you could drive to where you can ride largely car-free? Doing short interval workouts on the trainer indoors (or in a spin class) works very well, though.
Post a Comment