Post Nationals Hangover

The post race hangover a phenomenon until the past week I had only heard about never experience. Now this isn't your typical hangover, I have had my fair share of those, this is a physical, mental, and emotional hangover.  Ok, so yes some of you may be saying that sounds like any other hangover I have had from consuming one, two, or three to many adult beverages but this post race hangover is one for the ages.  A hangover that is built up of months and months of intense physical training, early mornings, cold swims, and a nervous energy that is always right on the surface.

It is one that one that for myself has been building since September of 2013 when I actually qualified for Nationals.  It was a year of scrounging up the money for a new bike, bike shoes, race suit, oh wait water is really cold I probably need to get a wet suit, need to track your mileage: alright time for a Garmin, those shoes that no longer have tread on them: time to replace those, figuring out how to eat so that I had enough energy to continue putting in long training hours, cramped up on a bike ride ok time to buy some electrolytes, this list could go on and on as my fellow triathletes and/or athletes out there can relate. 

Then all of the sudden it is the day before the race and before you crawl into bed that night you briefly wonder where in the hell the year went.  And finally the gun goes off and you take off in a mass of arms and legs and for the next two hours time slows down as it is just you out there; for the next two hours you are 95% in control of what is going to happen (the other 5% is attributed to some random catastrophe that could potentially happen--knock on wood).

Immediately after the race I spent the next solid two hours running on a high.  I felt great!!  Despite being fantastically thirsty I felt great like I could back out and do it again.  Even after that high settled down I still felt like I had after any other race; tired, my feet, legs, and joints were sore, and my stomach was a little bit of a disaster but nothing out of the ordinary.  

It was two days later, in the middle of the night, my hangover hit.  And let me tell you it hit me like a ton of bricks--as most hangovers do.  With head pounding and stomach reeling I curled up in bed hoping that it would pass the next morning.  Sadly, I woke Monday morning feeling as though I had been run over by a semi truck.  Everything hurt and the energy it took to shower for work was astounding.  It was all I could do to wash my hair.  I believe I made it through four hours of work, most of which I spent staring blindly at my computer screen, before I decided this was ridiculous and went home.  

Within minutes of being home I was asleep and proceeded to stay that way for the next three hours, where I then woke up, ate some food, and was back sound asleep before 9 pm.  Yes, the sleep helped a lot however the next couple of days still didn't feel normal.  It took a lot more energy to do the things I normally do and I am finding that my body doesn't seem to be recovering the way it was even a week ago.  It is as though it is in slow motion, taking its time to go through daily activities. 

 I am constantly tired and unmotivated. Running, which normally comes easy to me, is a chore.  I feel as though I have put all I can into something and now that is over I am not 100% sure what happens next. Even with the knowledge that the season is not over, as am racing a 70.3 in September and my first ever marathon in October, I have been struggling to move past the fact that I currently do not have an end goal.   For the past year I have had this goal and this date that I have been aiming for and now I don't totally have a plan, so many questions have raced through my mind the last couple days; What do I do next year? Which races do I enter in? Do I fully switch over to the 70.3 distance or do I go for it again in the Olympic distance and try to make it to worlds?  When should I do an Ironman: maybe I should do it next year? What is next? The down and dirty of it is that this whole week has been a funk for me.  

As a goal oriented and driven purpose it is hard for me not to have an end goal; certain dates in which I have to have accomplished something; yet as I am sitting here writing to you the excitement starts to build again.  I may not have a hard goal line just yet but I still have a purpose and a direction it is just the little things I have to figure out along the way to get me to that end goal (whatever that may be). 

While this week has been a long one and I still feel pretty worn out each day has improved and I know that it will continue to improve; hangovers can't last forever! :)