Is there life after Ironman?

One of the interesting conversations that I had over the weekend with my friends Taneen, Lara and Stacey was about what happens after Ironman.

As I said to a colleague the other day, my entire focus is on July 26. Nothing can touch me. This single minded focus gets me through a lot of crap at work and gives me a sense of purpose that is extraordinary. I know what I'm doing every morning and evening and every weekend. Everything else just sloughs away. What spare time I have I'm extremely stingy with. I do what I want with whom I want and no moment is wasted, even it's just taking a tour of our exploding garden (I really must take some photos - Kae and Ron wouldn't recognize it and the hosta and fern garden they helped design and plant is drop dead gorgeous - exactly what we envisioned) or sitting on the back porch with a cider in my hand, feet up and a dog at my side and Raglan meowing to go outside.

According to Lara and Taneen and Stacey, after Ironman, you go into a sort of depression. Not only do you feel as though you no longer have an all consuming purpose in your life, but your body has been used to receiving boosts of endorphins for up to 20 hours a week. As exercise is a natural anti-depressant, it's natural to come down off that high and feel pretty crummy for a while. Oh, and you put on weight. You forget that you're not burning so many calories and keep eating at the level you were at before and your body just piles on the pounds.

A friend asked me a few months ago - So, what are you going to do after Ironman? I told him to shut up. Mark asked me a few days later - So, what are you going to do after Ironman? Shut up, I said. But with the end so close I can almost taste it, I'm starting to realise that I need to plan for after Ironman and do what I can to avoid the post-IM depression. I really don't want to go through that.

So, I've come up with a few criteria for what I'm going to do.

1. I need to keep exercising in some format.
2. I need to find something with a purpose - something that's challenging, time consuming and meaningful.
3. I need a commitment.

The plan so far is starting to come into focus:

1. At first I'll swim to get the joints moving and workout the muscles gently without bearing any weight on very sore muscles. I have a friend who's expressed interest in learning to swim. We'll see how it goes, but if I have to be at the pool to help him, then that will help get me there. I also have another friend who wants to run the Virginia Beach half marathon. I'd love to run that with her and it's a few weeks after the IM. Then I need to find something else to do that will give me the kind aerobic workout that I'm used to. But it doesn't have to be swimming, biking or running. I've heard that there are a few other sports out there ...
   
2. I'm considering a few purposeful things - volunteering for the local Girls on the Run or committing a few hours a week to Team Z. It has to be challenging though.
   
3. I'm considering signing up for the Death Valley Marathon in February if my friend Laura is planning to do it again. It'll give me a few weeks off and then starting to ramp up in October. And it's sounds like such an amazingly different kind of marathon that I'll be challenged to train and plan for it and to complete it. And I get to go back to my PRR track family which has been such an important part of my life for the past five years. Or perhaps I'll take up singing again and find a choir to join. Or maybe go back to school.

At least I'm thinking of it, eh?.