Am I the only one who hears the running bass line that denoted the start of that 2000's-ish Black Eyed Peas' hit song when you hear that phrase? Yes? No? Maybe?
Perhaps I'm merely admitting to my potentially questionable taste in music.
Well, before you minimize this window, let me try again.
"Let's get this party started" is a phrase that seems to know no boundaries. It was relevant when I was a Twenty-Something university student and it's relevant still now; nearly twenty years later. A look into the phrase's historical past isn't the purpose of why I'm writing
this. I'll leave that for you to dive down a Google rabbit hole. But rather, it's significant because it was the title of the first Training Peaks post my new coach wrote on my first workout of my new adventure. It's an adventure I'm still trying to get comfortable with. It ultimately was my decision, but change is never easy; especially when that change comes twenty+ years later.
In September of this year, really only three months ago, I decided to step away from competitive Para Triathlon. It's a sport I've grown to love and it wasn't easy just one year out of the Paralympic Games - which would have been my fifth Paralympic Games- to bow out gracefully. After battling the symptoms of Post-Viral Syndrome for nearly two years, I thought it might be time to actually listen to what my body was trying to tell me: "Knock it off, Lady! I'm tired!".
But here's the thing about being a competitive athlete for over twenty years: you can't just turn it off like a light switch.
The things that made you a good elite athlete are still a part of you. In fact, I spent twenty years sharpening and honing those things. I knew that for me sitting on the couch and eating bonbons wasn't an option...well, at least not after the first month. So, there I sat in limbo. No longer an elite athlete. No longer able to train the way I needed to in order to be competitive. But with the same skills, drive and hard headedness that had always been there. Another word for hard headedness that I like to use is Sisu, which is a Finnish word that means determined. But more than that. Anyway, what was I going to do with all of that? Sign up for a 50 mile trail run, of course! Duh!
When I asked Alan Greening of Braveheart Colorado to coach me, his immediate question was: "Why would you want to do a stupid thing like that?". Gotta love that dry Scottish humour. My answer was: "because I hate running and I don't know how to run a 50 mile race. Will you coach me?". And that's how we arrive back at "Let's get this party started!".
It's been almost two weeks since that first workout popped up in my inbox and I have to say that I'm not hating running. I still don't know what I'm doing, but that's what I have Alan for. And even though there are days where retiring from elite sport seems like the dumbest
idea I've ever had, I remind myself that I've signed myself up to run a 50 mile running race in less than a year's time.
Change is hard, but...
Let's get this party started!
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