Germany - ITU Worlds - A no-go

i have been m.i.a. for nearly two weeks.
triathlon is all about planning. you plan your races out for the year, perfectly timed to benefit your "a" race. you plan your workouts, in order to get the appropriate volume and intensity for each work week. you plan feeding times, stretching, massage, rest, and everything inbetween. triathlon is such, because whatever we, as triathletes, do today, will affect our race months away. if we could just get up and do a triathlon in six months, and have the same outcome, we wouldn't care about the six months inbetween. but, we must. a wise person once said, "right now, somewhere in the world someone is training, and you are not. when you race him, he will win!" i'm not sure who the wise one is, but this is why we plan. i guess who ever plans the best, and can consistently adhere to said plan, they might achieve higher levels in the sport. enough with the rant... my plan went down the tubes august 17th, and there is nothing i can do about it.

scheduled to fly out of new england for hamburg, germany to compete in the itu world championships early this coming week as a member of TEAM USA, i will not be able to make it. if you ask me what i do or anything about me, i usually tell people, i am a triathlete. which, i am. but, i am also in the uscg, and this sometimes messes with the plan. unfortunately this time, it really messed with the plan. last friday, i was the lead officer on a criminal investigation, and it is now in full swing with all parties (prosecution/defense) going at eachother's necks. the rare investigation has taken precedence in my life, and i am needed at work this week. the only way i could plausibly make it to germany is to fly out on thursday or friday from houston directly to hamburg, and return on tuesday. it is just not possible.

if you dedicate yourself to the sport/life of triathlon, these plans i speak of will chisel your entire life. when you wake up, look at the lunch menu, get asked to grab a beer on a friday night, when your tired, lazy, unmotivated, and before you go to bed. good triathletes, are good, because they sacrifice. they sacrifice the onion rings at lunch, sleeping in on saturdays, partying on friday nights, and all sorts of things all year long. these plans become us. earthlings(non-triathletes) do not understand. they don't get the fact, that on thanksgiving you need to run ten miles, and when shit got in the way, and its raining and dark already, we lace up our training shoes. roadies(no offense) do not like to ride in the rain, triathletes have no choice. we need to follow the plan.



so what do we do when the plan is taken from us?

we make another plan.

"he conquers, who endurs"-persius