I Dream of Kona…

I survived the TDS Ultra Marathon, Just. It ended up being 120km around the alps. It took me 31 hours and 4 minutes.

It was, by a long way, the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Now that it’s done I’ve noticed what a huge part of my life the TDS and IronMan UK had been over the last few months. I’m not complaining, I enjoyed the training (mostly).

Now they’re done I don’t know what to do with myself. I can’t properly train at the moment, recovering from the TDS is taking its time.

In short, I have the post-race blues; and I’ve got them hard. According to Wikipedia:

Melancholia… is a mood disorder of non-specific depression, characterized by low levels of both enthusiasm and eagerness for activity

According to Hippocrates I’ve got an excess of Black Bile, since I wasn’t aware of the colour of my bile before my month of silliness I don’t feel qualified to comment! I do have a low level of enthusiasm for activity. Almost any kind of activity, with the exceptions of sitting down, drinking beer, and eating junk – but I’m not sure they count as activities.

I’ve been here before, but never to quite this extent. After most races I can train again (at least a little) after a day or two’s rest, and often there’s another event to be training towards but the TDS has been different; it’s completely knocked me about. 11 days after and I’ve finally given in to the fact that I now have to go and see someone about the numbness in two toes on each foot!

I summoned the energy to go for a bike ride on Saturday with a friend; it was a relaxed affair involving coffee and cake and enjoying the sunshine, and while I felt pretty good on the bike (apart from my bum – it’s been a while since I last spent 3 hours in the saddle!) when I got home I was exhausted and had to have a nap. The same thing happened after a 30 minute swim.

The other things I’ve lost motivation for include writing race reports. I’ve pretty much finished my IMUK one, I should proof read it and put it up I guess, but the TDS one is something else; at last count I was 2,400 words in and only about 50km through the race. It needs cutting down, but when a race takes 31 hours it feels like there’s a lot to say!

Next event is the Beacons Ultra – 45 miles around the Brecon beacons; a few people have said “after that last race, this should seem simple” and I guess they’re right to some extent, but 45 hilly miles is never actually going to seem simple. It’s in November too, so should be nice and warm .

Planning next season always helps, though I don’t quite know what it is I want to do; another bash around the alps? Another IronMan? Both (but further apart this time!)?