A Year of Experiences

Kathryn Taylor
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

I am a burned out (amateur) athlete. For the past seven years, I’ve had some sort of ‘big’ goal. First, it was to complete a triathlon and I jumped in with both feet. From my first triathlon, I went straight into Ironman training the next year.

Ironman Arizona in 2011. This was the second triathlon I ever signed up for.

After training for approximately 11-months and completing my Ironman, I took a whole month off and then jumped into a neighborhood boot camp. There I was constantly challenging myself to hit the next benchmark, whether it was to PR my mile time or to finish a workout faster than I had the last time.

I became an instructor and got certified in Kettlebells. This led me to have strength goals. I wanted to press a certain amount of weight over my head. When I met that goal, I wanted to deadlift a certain amount. Then I wanted to be able to do a pull-up, then 5 pull-ups.

At the Tactical Strength Challenge

I got back into triathlon and I wanted to be able to hit a certain power level on my bike (measured by a power meter). Then I wanted to get on the podium and then place overall in a race. I wanted to break a time goal in a 70.3 and then I qualified for the 70.3 World Championship so I wanted to go back and run at a certain pace for my next race.

I’m actually not that serious, I like to have fun at races!

Finish one goal and go right into the next……until….

A skateboarder veering into my path as I was coming down a hill on my bike. I went over the handlebars and ended up with 9 stitches in my knee, a badly swollen face, some chipped teeth, and a very sore neck.

This was about 4 days after the accident. I didn’t take pictures of my knee because it was just gross.

Everything stopped. At first I was still driven. I asked my doctor how soon I could train again. I tried some light jogging with the stitches in. I got back on the bike and into the pool as soon as possible.

But my heart wasn’t in it. It wasn’t fun. The goal was no longer compelling.

Two ‘long’ bike rides later, I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for a friend to pick me up because a key part of my bike had broken during my ride and there was no way to ride it. This ride was suppose to be my comeback ride, my ride to get me over the hump and back into my training for 70.3 Worlds. Instead, I was miserable, my knee still hurt, my neck was locked up and I decided it was time to quit.

The next few weeks were a very surprisingly emotional time for me. I’m not a quitter and I was struggling to deal with the decision to pull out of my race. My knee wasn’t healing in the manner I had hoped and I realized that pushing through was just delaying my healing. I would burst into tears at random times, feeling betrayed by my body and my lack of enthusiasm for any sort of goal.

At the same time, a friend and I had started a podcast and blog called Grit and Dirt. I was editing a podcast interview that we did with Pam LeBlanc, a writer for the Austin Statesman who has declared this her Year of Adventure. (Listen to the podcast here) She doesn’t have any big training goals and is not pursuing a big race. She is just experiencing whatever adventure comes her way. Instead of training on a Saturday, I spent the day working on blog posts and social media to along with Pam’s interview.

The next morning I woke up early and decided to take my dog, Bell, out to some local trails for a walk. When I got there the temperatures were cool and the trails were empty so I decided to make it an easy run. All of the sudden my soul felt alive. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t trying to beat a time goal. I was running for as long as it felt good, stopping for photos by the water, and enjoying the early morning solitude in the woods. It was all about the experience. What was going to be a 2-mile walk turned into a 4-mile trail ‘run’.

Bell not long after she fell into the river on our trail run. I also found out that my dog can’t swim….

It was during that run that I decided to follow Pam’s lead. For the next year, I will stop training. I will stop chasing the next goal. I will stop creating my identity out of how fast I am or how strong I am or how well I perform at some contest. I will instead focus on the experience. Hiking, mountain biking, Spartan Racing (with no goals), and much more.

I’m not exactly sure what that means or where it will take me. I plan to document my journey here and on my instagram account @coachkathryntaylor. Follow along and if you have ideas for my year of experiences, please share!

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Kathryn Taylor

Written by

Connector, Innovator, Startup Leader, Triathlon Coach. Mostly musing about startups and endurance sports.

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