Coming Together
Today I can officially say I'm doing an Ironman next month.
Uhhh...wtf?! I can't have that little time left? Can I?!?! ...I mean I just signed up for this silly little race last week...didn't I!?
And then this morning someone reminded me that the race is indeed next month and asked if I was feeling ready.
Hardly.
I mean, are we ever REALLY ready to do this from a mental, physical and emotional standpoint? 140.6 miles is an insane distance to travel in one day without the assistance of a car, train or airplane. We do everything we can to get our bodies and minds in the right place and simply hope for the best possible execution and outcome during the Big Dance. We're doing everything we can to get to the start line of that 140.6 mile day in one piece. Then we swallow our nerves, ignore that little voice in our heads that says "this is the stupidest thing you've ever done," say a prayer and stay in forward motion for up to 17 hours.
I'll admit. I'm not ready now...nowhere near ready. Mentally I've got my head wrapped around the rest of the training on tap (not the race though)...but emotionally and physically I've got a ways to go. But I'm confident that by the time November hits, I will be as ready as I'm going to be from a training perspective. I've put my trust in the Chief of Pain and paid him big bucks to do all the thinking around training for me. Which gives me my current mantra.
Don't think. Just do.
I've found that telling myself to just shut up, don't think about the work and just get it done, is the approach that I need at the moment. The emotional side of the trinity...I imagine I'll be sorting through that up until I'm treading water in Tempe Town Lake waiting for the cannon to fire.
On my long run over the weekend, I really got to thinking about how far I've come over the past 7 months of training. I went from absolutely loathing my bike, to actually enjoying being in the saddle for obscenely long periods of time. I went from keeping a 10:00 pace during speedwork to cranking out 8:30 miles...at the end of a long, evil session on the track--homegirl doesn't run that fast. Ever. And the swim...well...it is what it is. I'm relatively comfortable in open water when I find my groove...sighting has improved dramatically over the past month, although I still find myself inadvertantly pulling to the left. At least the Arizona swim is counter clockwise, so that'll help.
To date, I've done two century rides. The first, the wheels fell off around mile 61. The second, I was great until mile 81 hit. I'm hoping that this weekend's 100 miles don't start sucking until after I'm done. I never imagined that I'd be off riding hundreds of miles in any given weekend.
The next few weeks (okay...weekends, really) are going to be a wee bit on the intense side. The final build weekend is absolutely beyond anything I could have imagined myself doing. I kid you not...I saw the schedule and nearly fell out of my chair. ...I get to swim 2+ mile in Lake Michigan (shall we start wagering how freezing it'll be at that juncture?!?) and run 21 miles...and then the following day I get to bike 120 with a 90 minute transition run. I don't call Coach Mo the Chief of Pain for nothing!
It's strange that I find myself really excited of this final build. The feeling of dread with the big crazy long workouts has subsided. I'm more or less thankful that I've gotten myself to this point in training with the support of Mike, a few good friends and the Chief. Taper time will inevitably be bittersweet.
In the meantime I find myself counting down the days, and somehow wishing I could add another another month or two between now and the moment that cannon goes off on November 22nd...
Uhhh...wtf?! I can't have that little time left? Can I?!?! ...I mean I just signed up for this silly little race last week...didn't I!?
And then this morning someone reminded me that the race is indeed next month and asked if I was feeling ready.
Hardly.
I mean, are we ever REALLY ready to do this from a mental, physical and emotional standpoint? 140.6 miles is an insane distance to travel in one day without the assistance of a car, train or airplane. We do everything we can to get our bodies and minds in the right place and simply hope for the best possible execution and outcome during the Big Dance. We're doing everything we can to get to the start line of that 140.6 mile day in one piece. Then we swallow our nerves, ignore that little voice in our heads that says "this is the stupidest thing you've ever done," say a prayer and stay in forward motion for up to 17 hours.
I'll admit. I'm not ready now...nowhere near ready. Mentally I've got my head wrapped around the rest of the training on tap (not the race though)...but emotionally and physically I've got a ways to go. But I'm confident that by the time November hits, I will be as ready as I'm going to be from a training perspective. I've put my trust in the Chief of Pain and paid him big bucks to do all the thinking around training for me. Which gives me my current mantra.
Don't think. Just do.
I've found that telling myself to just shut up, don't think about the work and just get it done, is the approach that I need at the moment. The emotional side of the trinity...I imagine I'll be sorting through that up until I'm treading water in Tempe Town Lake waiting for the cannon to fire.
On my long run over the weekend, I really got to thinking about how far I've come over the past 7 months of training. I went from absolutely loathing my bike, to actually enjoying being in the saddle for obscenely long periods of time. I went from keeping a 10:00 pace during speedwork to cranking out 8:30 miles...at the end of a long, evil session on the track--homegirl doesn't run that fast. Ever. And the swim...well...it is what it is. I'm relatively comfortable in open water when I find my groove...sighting has improved dramatically over the past month, although I still find myself inadvertantly pulling to the left. At least the Arizona swim is counter clockwise, so that'll help.
To date, I've done two century rides. The first, the wheels fell off around mile 61. The second, I was great until mile 81 hit. I'm hoping that this weekend's 100 miles don't start sucking until after I'm done. I never imagined that I'd be off riding hundreds of miles in any given weekend.
The next few weeks (okay...weekends, really) are going to be a wee bit on the intense side. The final build weekend is absolutely beyond anything I could have imagined myself doing. I kid you not...I saw the schedule and nearly fell out of my chair. ...I get to swim 2+ mile in Lake Michigan (shall we start wagering how freezing it'll be at that juncture?!?) and run 21 miles...and then the following day I get to bike 120 with a 90 minute transition run. I don't call Coach Mo the Chief of Pain for nothing!
It's strange that I find myself really excited of this final build. The feeling of dread with the big crazy long workouts has subsided. I'm more or less thankful that I've gotten myself to this point in training with the support of Mike, a few good friends and the Chief. Taper time will inevitably be bittersweet.
In the meantime I find myself counting down the days, and somehow wishing I could add another another month or two between now and the moment that cannon goes off on November 22nd...
Labels: Ironman Arizona, Training
posted by Iron Jayhawk at 9:56 AM
7 Camper Comments:
You will be ready. You are probably more ready now than you realize! You will do awesome and I can't wait to read about it!
Here, look at this if you want to alternate freaking out and giggling: http://www.ironmancenter.com/index.php?dir=PreRaceVids&vidname=PreRace-2008-ARZ-high&playtype=mov&w=480&h=400 (it's last year's prerace video so the date is wrong but it shows the course!)
You'll be ready. Can't wait to read about the last weeks of training and the big day!
You will do this!
You will be ready, and you will do awesome ;)
wowow! You are doing over-mileage? amazing...hellyea you will be ready! I can't believe it's really only about a month out...I have some heavy duty mileage to cover until then also! have fun...it will be a long adventure come race day!
You are awesome! I can't wait to see your awesomeness in action in Tempe. :)
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