16 days to go

It’s amazing how time creeps up on you.  Do me a favor, take a minute to set a goal for yourself.  It could be a year out, two years out…whatever, just do it.  No really, do it now.  Time will pass you by, so write it down and make the commitment!

I’ve completed all of the hard work and now I’m into my “taper” (designed to decrease my volume over the 2-3 weeks before my race in order to regain some of my energy, form and fitness).   Tapering is wonderful for the body but a real struggle for the mind.  My body suddenly has enormous amounts of energy…but my mind is wondering why I’m not training really really hard before my race.  The key?  Sit back and believe in the science.  The work is done.  Nothing I do now is going to help me race better or faster…but it could make me slower.  That doesn’t mean I’m doing nothing!  Basically I’m taking my last build week of 15 hours and cutting 25% off the volume and distance for each of the next three weeks.  I’m finding some leg speed again during shorter workouts (versus my normally slower but longer runs and bikes).

I’ve never trained so hard for a race in my life and feel great about the quality and quantity of training I’ve put in over the past year.  I think it would be easy after the fact to look back and see ways that I could have done things differently in my preparation (I’m sure there are many!), but for my first Ironman, my progress has been tremendous and my fitness level has improved dramatically.  Whatever I say later on and whatever result I come away with, I know that I’ve given it my all.  That feels good.

I completed my last “build” week on Sunday and I can honestly say that my body and my mind were close to the “overtraining” stage (not training smart, not getting enough rest, etc, etc), BUT that’s exactly where I wanted to be last week.  Right on the edge – that’s where the most benefit comes – when you’re stretched to the edge but you don’t fall.  Finding that balance point is a huge struggle and different for every athlete.  A little bit of experience in the whole Ironman thing would have come in handy, but truth be told, I’m very happy with my disciplined focus and most of all, my ability to build in rest before I needed some (although, there were a couple of days of forced rest).

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been pushing it really hard and reached the point where I:

• ate 6-8 meals a day
• slept 10 hours a night…and was still tired
• trained a minimum of 2 hours and maximum of 7 hours a day
• logged over 350 km of swimming, biking and running…in a week
• took a nap, and woke up 11 hours later
• ran out of gas on a run that turned into more of a walk than a run

Did I push too hard?  I don’t think so.  I think you have to find your limit and dial it back a notch…but man was it exhausting. I don’t think I was the person that everyone wanted to be around over the past two weeks.  Sorry!  I’m just a little focused and self absorbed right now!

Reflecting…again.

I’m reflecting again, clearly early, but I can’t help myself.  I’m thinking about all of the people that have helped me to get here.  In no particular order, a HUGE thank you to:

• Stephen: If it wasn’t for you, I would not have signed up for this race.  Your passion and enjoyment for the sport inspires me.
• Richele: You offer insight and advice exactly when I need it.  Your competitiveness and drive to improve are spectacular.  Training with you has made me stronger, faster and smarter.
• Ian: You have possibly the most positive attitude of anyone I know.  You are always excited to get to work and always willing to have a lot of fun…and often late!  You also taught me about the most efficient way to climb on a bike during our first Cypress ride.
• Rich: Man you’re a strong cyclist.  Trying to keep up with you on our rides has been exhausting.  You push it to the max and there’s no way I’d have made the improvements on the bike that I have without having to chase you up the hills.
• Shane:  You’ve been my most consistent training partner since we started down this road last year.  I have so much respect for how you’re able to train with everything else you have going on.  You’ve made it impossible for me to have any excuse not to train.
• Every other training partner: You know who you are.  You inspire me with your attitudes, your passion and your ability to live a healthy and fun filled life.  You rock!
• Allison: Wow, you’ve put up with a lot.  I’ve basically been absent for 52 weekends in a row.  You’ve been supportive, encouraging and you’ve made some damn good meals that have kept me energized!  I could go on…but I’ll keep it out of the blog!

Thank you!