Ironman Hangover

After savoring the flavor of finishing an Ironman and the aches and pains subside, you feel some emptiness inside, loss of motivation, and just feel blah or letdown - hence the name, Ironman hangover.  You've spent months training, devoting all your free time to this one coveted event, and sacrificing family time, hobbies, and other interest in the name of Ironman.  Months of excitement, anxiety, and anticipation comes to a screeching halt after the race.  While training you think it will be nice to finish Ironman and then  go back to your "normal" lifestyle, but in reality you miss that nervous excitement.

After my 1st Ironman I had a pretty big Ironman hangover, but this 2nd one hasn't been too bad.  My guess is after a week in relishing in finishing the event I went back to the drawing board and made new goals and signed up for more races.  I also went right to work on some home improvement projects that needed to be done.  That void or emptiness of not having anything left on plate for the season has been resolved and I can go back to training.  The volume won't be near as much as Ironman, but it will be enough to fulfill my need to continue training.

How to Overcome the Race or Big Event

- enjoy completing the event, but not for too long
- set some new goals - these don't have to be in sports, but rather in other areas of your life
- hit the reset button and figure out what you want to do next
- try something new and different
- go back to doing some things that you have had to sacrifice not doing during training

For instance, I've set up some shorter races for the upcoming months and a marathon for the end of the season, started putting more focus into spending time with my family and my business, and re-acquainting myself for my love of cooking.

Any other tips for getting over that hump after finishing a major event?