I miss that feeling

Something that I have come to miss in training for XTERRA (compared to Ultimate) is the ability to “play”. What I mean by that is that in Ultimate while you do your conditioning, drills, and strategy sessions you almost always get to the play the sport during some of your weekly practice time. I never understood how much I enjoyed the ability to line up against someone and play at 100% - sprinting, playing D, or making the big throw. Playing is different from practice like racing is different from training. The problem is that during training I never get to race. Most of my sessions I have to do solo, because no one is ever doing the exact training I am, and it is counterproductive to go all out 100% during training sessions. There are intervals to keep, HR requirements, and just some long haul endurance swims/rides/and runs which are nothing like racing. The thought of only competing in a couple of races a year feels like far too few right now. I have an intense desire to put my training to the test and measure where I am in my training, but I have two weeks until that happens down in Georgia. In Ultimate, you can always push yourself in a scrimmage and measure your progress. I find that I really miss that opportunity in my training now. Perhaps I’m just missing how to do that in endurance training and it takes time and a different set of measuring sticks; I hope that is the case. Until I figure it out I’m just going to have to deal with all the competitive energy flowing through my veins.