The Good Old Days

While I was feebly limping through my long run today, I forced my mind off the pain and began thinking about life before triathlon. Remember when:

1. Runs and rides were just that - runs and rides - and came without all the fancy specifiers like interval, speed, endurance, race pace, and long distance?

2. Runs had only one speed, not four or five, depending on the "session?"

3. Swimming involved things like inner tubes and water wings, not kick boards, pull buoys and paddles?

4. Bikes rides involved a ten-speed, the family, a baby seat and a Sunday afternoon along the lakefront, not five hours of steady paced riding followed by a 60 minute "brick?"

5. Coaches were limited to the years of formal schooling, and taught you basic mechanics of football, basketball and baseball, not race strategy, nutrition for long distances and heart rate monitoring?

6. "Recovery" wasn't part of your vocabulary because the week's workout consisted of two three-mile runs and a weight session in the garage, and no one really needs to recover from that?

7. When life was calculated by days, weeks, months and years, and not training blocks of Base, Build and Taper?

8. When the primary use for ice was for Diet Coke at the movie theatre, not in bags or tubs for knees?

9. When days started at 7 or 8, not 5 or 6, just to get a swim/run/bike in?

10. When distances were realistic and short enough that you never had to worry about injury or broken IM dreams?

I do.
And sometimes,
I miss those days.