The Lonely Sport

It occurred to me just the other day... I was talking to a friend about my training schedule, when she asked me, "don't you get lonely?" 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, and 95% of it by myself. I had honestly never thought of it before this, but yes, triathlon is a lonely sport.

My immediate answer was "NO WAY!! I live a very fulfilling life!!" (cue the montage from 40 Year Old Virgin but instead of Steve Correll doing nerdy things, insert me being swimming, biking, and running)

Now I am not posting this to pout, nor do I feel like a lonely person. In fact, after a 6 hour shift working in a coffee shop (where I am every bit the smiling extrovert my mother raised) I relish the time spent alone. I chose this sport and this lifestyle, and I love it. I truly feel like this is where I am meant to be. The gratitude, even exaltation  I feel after a hard day of training is unlike anything I can get from a social interaction. But, there it still is, only recently brought to my attention... like the stain on your favorite t-shirt that someone finally mentions to you... loneliness.

I don't know why this bothered me hearing it from my friend. It was something I had known about obviously and didn't care about before. Putting it into words made me realize that I had chosen this lonely sport instead of a team sport, or even some other (possibly more sane) pursuit, and that made me wonder what it is about myself that made me this way.

I probably only really feel this coming from my swimming background. Every day I would come to practice knowing I would have my boys there to pick me up if I felt crappy, to hang on for the ride if I was feeling strong. We pushed each other, and along with that comes a deeper camaraderie than simply working together.

I would love a training partner who could really push me, like Eli or Robbie or Brett back in college. I realized this today when doing intervals around Washington Park on my bike (I know, I do this workout a lot.... but it is convenient and relatively standardized) when some guy passed me with one of those bikes with a motor. Essentially, he was cheating, but my competitive instincts took over, and I had to catch him. In doing so, I found that I could go much faster if I had something to chase... a Pace Rabbit of my own, if you will...

I apologize if this got sappy, but I kinda had to get it off my chest so it would stop bothering me. Besides, I feel like I can't tailor this to all of your interests, so I'll write about mine and hope you like them. Again, I am not trying to have a pity party for myself, but rather trying to share some insight into what my life is like as a triathlete. Anyway, thanks for listening to my little rant! Until next time, follow the PaceRabbit!