Burnout, Life, and Recovering from It

Posted By The Triathlon Man

When I returned from Afghanistan in the late spring of 2008, I’d already planned my summer race season, and I was ready to tear it up.

How quickly I learned that the mental preparation is not the same as physical preparation!

My first ever 70.3, the REV3 Triathlon, was quite a difficult experience. I’d done a lot of talking (much of it to myself) about how I’d nail it, and I did much, much less than that.

Sure, it was my first 70.3, and it was a really tough course, but 7+ hours just isn’t a good finish time, so I was not only devastated, but exhausted.

On the plus side, I used that disappointment to fuel the next 4 months of training, but on the negative side, I was focusing too heavily on the pain and not on the pleasure.

I ended up competing in around a dozen races that year, most of which were sprints or olympics. Each race was a new day to PR, and when I didn’t, I’d sign up for another race to try again.

As you can imagine, this led to a bit of burnout, but worse, I wasn’t as rested for Augusta, my final race of the season, as I should’ve been.

I finished Augusta in 5+, which was a huge improvement over the REV3, but by the time I finished, I was so burned out with triathlons, and with disappointment, that I lost the will to race.

Looking back, I realized that had I focused on the reason I started in the first place, which was mastery over my body, not to become the next Kona winner, that I probably would’ve trained and raced smarter.

Did I achieve my expectations last year? Well, yes and no.

I reached top 12 in my NCTS age group, and I set several PR’s, but in the end, it cost me my passion to race.

I took this season off to get some things in perspective and to make sure my transition from soldier to entrepreneur would be a clean one, and so far, it has been…which means it’s time to get back into the groove.

But I’ve been out so long that I’m back to square one, which is a tough place to be.

So what’s the lesson here?

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast…it’s the creed of a combat soldier, and it applies to triathlon in the same way as it does a gunfight.

I got burned out because I took my eyes off the “why,” and started focusing on the glory, and it cost me a full season. Sure, I was going to take it easy this year, but not as easy as I did, and even though I’m getting back into the groove, I’m still further behind that I wanted to be.

So whether you are a new or experienced triathlete, don’t be afraid to take it slow, and more than anything, try to remember why you started in the first place.

Triathlon is not just a sport, but a way of life, so if keeping it in your life means you need to slow down, then so be it.