This week, someone called me crazy for the umpteenth time this season. And I must say, it's interesting to see how my perception of the term has shifted since the beginning of the season.
In the first month of my training, I sort of believed it ~ maintaining my argument of, "you kind of HAVE to be crazy to sign up for this". But now that I've gotten into the mindset of focusing, working hard, dividing & conquering... I've realized, it's not so crazy after all.
Yes, training for an Ironman (particularly with no previous swimming or cycling experience) is like trying to take on an 800-lb gorilla (the subject of one of my emails announcing this decision back in November). And to Sandy's analogy, it's like deciding to eat an elephant. But what I've learned about all of this, which has been an invaluable life lesson for me too, is that it IS doable. You just do it one stroke, spin and step at a time [and in the case of the elephant, one bite at a time!].
Now that I can actually see Race Day on the horizon for the first time all season, I can say I've been through a series of emotions throughout this journey. If you skim back to earlier posts, you can probably infer the fear, anxiety and worry... Now while I can't promise those feelings won't creep up again, I CAN say that I'm also starting to get excited.
I think it's all too often that we get wrapped up in the pressure to succeed, be perfect and not make any mistakes. We become afraid to fall (ahem, I think my bike and I can speak on this) and more importantly fail. But you know -- that's life. And we aren't perfect. You fall, or you make a mistake? You pick yourself back up and you go at it again. And I don't think I could have chosen a better life experience to teach me this.
Now's a great time to reassess what my goals were in the very beginning and how I can bring myself that much closer to making them a reality.
So what might seem to some as 'crazy, 5-8 hour days' like the ones I'll have coming up this weekend, are to me ~ opportunities to work on getting stronger, having fun with my teammates, spend some quality time outdoors (yes, I've even gotten criticism on 'how tan' I'm getting) and seeing what I can do. Again, it's about perception.
The work I've been doing on both training and fundraising is part of a commitment I made. To myself, to my Team, and to LLS. And with all the eye-opening experiences and life-changing moments I've had in a mere five months, I can't imagine if I had never signed up at all.
~ just some more self-reflection that came to me this week that I wanted to put on paper and share with you.
Here's my mid-week recap:
Easter Sunday: In lieu of a road ride, I set up my trainer in the living room (my parents were in town and hadn't seen me do this yet), and powered through an interval set using my shiney, brand new lactate threshold. I maintained a heart rate (HR) of 155 throughout, and threw in about 5-6 1-minute sets at a 160 HR. Helped to have a good playlist on the ol' iPod. My mother was amazed. She attempted to sit on my bike and was traumatized and baffled as to how I could sit on that saddle for more than five minutes, let alone hours at a time. I recognized this horror back when I bought my bike six months ago and still don't know how I do it.
Tuesday: Got my bike refitted (and renamed to lulu) at Sports Basement, compliments of Oscar. To my surprise, a lot needed to be adjusted. My seat was raised nearly 2 1/2 inches, my handlebars were completely replaced (they had been 2 inches too wide for me all along). The cleats on my clipless shoes were moved forward, and now I'm looking into a new saddle. And first tire replacement (there was a gouge in my rear tire). Another small fortune to pay, but for the sake of improved efficiency on the bike (woohoo tied with all the ironmanpower I'm working on putting in now!), I plan to be a FORCE out on the L'ville course.
Wednesday: Team Shadow Spin (with a large IronTeam contingent) at Sports Basement [seriously, the Walnut Creek store has become my home away from home, except they're always taking my money]. Tried out my new bike fit and felt semi-pro being so high up on the seat. We had a series of simulated hill climbs for our workout and boy was it a toughie. The weather was gorgeous, in the low to mid 70s -- which meant it was HOT on the bike. Let's put it this way, I was in good company, spinning next to Haakon. I'm not particularly a big sweat-er. But after 20' at an average HR of 160 at sundown, I was working up more than a mere glow. After the 20' set, we bumped it up to the big ring and did 3 sets of 6' hill climbs, where I went as high as a 190 HR (a big deal for me). Thank goodness for those 4' rest intervals. They gave me confidence when I thought I couldn't do another climb. I sipped on my hour's worth of Gatorade and felt amazing afterward. I had successfully put in 110% of my effort on the bike, left it all out there, and didn't hold back one bit. This is exactly what I want to get out of each bike ride from now until race day. Now, I just need to get used to working up such a sweat as it's sure to amp up even more in the Kentucky humidity.
Thursday (today): My reunion with the pool ~ and I had been looking forward to it all day! It's been so long since I've gotten a good swim in after work and I've really missed it. I arrived at the Olympic Pool at Cal High in San Ramon a little after 7 p.m. to discover all the lanes were full. I took it upon myself to ask another gentleman if I could split a lane with him. Just then, the head in the next lane over bobbed up, saying "You can share with me," and it was Phil! It was a nice surprise to share a lane together like old times (back when he was trying to coerce me to sign up for IT in the first place back in August). It was familiar territory now that we've reached daylight savings and the sun was still out for part of our swim. Only the remarkable part was seeing how far I've come along since the heavy panting after 25 yds ~ to now thinking of our 1/2 Half Ironman as a memory. After warming up and doing some drills, I saw a familiar shaved head a few lanes over. To make the world (and pool) that much smaller, it turned out to be my teammate Nate & my mentor, Michelle, on the pooldeck! It was a great showing of the East Bay following of IronTeam, all with the same plans to swim on a pleasant Thursday evening. Plus, we hadn't seen each other or all been together since Wildflower Training Weekend, nearly three weeks ago, consuming jello shots around the campfire. Made for a great group workout and an excellent surprise reunion. I had a rejuvinating swim and enjoyed getting back into the water to stretch out my 'bike muscles' as well. I am really starting to *love* swimming :)
Stay tuned for stories from this weekend's Boot Camp II!
I'll leave you with a quote from a multi-Ironman finisher who found me on LinkedIn and sent me some words back in December to remember... this one's for my teammates who may have also found themselves amidst some nay-sayers:
"So no tri ever before and you go for the big one your first year out? I really, really LIKE you! I've heard that crazy business a million times - WHATEVER I say! It's an amazing thing you're doing and raising money too is even harder. I found that IM training is a lot like the marathon training - well its more of course - a little bit each day and you'll get there. No question. Don't doubt it for a minute. It is the most amazing thing too - you'll see. This sport is fantastic and an IM race is done right. You're doing an awesome job!! You should be VERY proud of your accomplishments so far. You can do anything you set your mind to."
No comments:
Post a Comment