Reality Check: 13 Weeks Until Ironman

I can't believe all this is becoming real. It's really happening. I don't know if it's the Coaches' Emails that the Team is getting with mention of "Race Phase" being thrown in, or that I just recently requested my time off from work in August. Maybe it's the fact that I just got an email in my inbox that starts with "Dear Ford Ironman Louisville Athlete". But it hit me. I'm doing this and it's going to happen. I'm headed to Ironman.

It's funny. I still have people coming up to me asking things like, "When's your marathon?", or "How's your little triathlon training going?" Some people have even congratulated me, thinking I've already done my event.

Shout-out to YOU -- the person reading this and have likely read at least one or two of my posts this season, and have some inkling of what is going on. To those of you who aren't on my Team or haven't been on the trails, in the pools and lakes, and along the bike courses with me, who STILL read up on my journey from time to time... a special hug and thank you to YOU. I know I've alienated a number of friends outside the Team (and TNT) with all my "I'm busy's", "I can't tonight's", and "You'll never believe how far I went today's". By now I probably sound like a broken record. But your support, listening ear, and just helping me keep my sanity through this roller coaster of a ride has been invaluable. And I have not forgotten any ONE of you who has been there for me through it all.

So no one told me that along with Sexy Phase of the training season, would come Emotional Phase. Word to the wise for any and all of you who run into me during the next thirteen weeks: I am a wreck! Giddy/excited one minute, inspired and dewy-eyed the next, belligerent at work because I'd rather be doing an interval set on my bike trainer, or on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. Absolute roller coaster, thinking about everything I've done and endured in the last six months and what's in store for the following three.



I bought myself my new set of aero bars yesterday. In the beginning of the season when I bought my road bike, I told myself that would be my reward for having kept going and getting back up off the ground after countless falls. I equate the aero bars to the big girl's bike - the ride of an Ironwoman. The real deal and what triathletes and time-trial racers use. Of course ~ that puts me in a whole new [OUT OF] Comfort Zone, but that's all part of it. At this point, I've reconciled the fact that I have plunged into countless uncomfortable, foreign, core-shaking experiences. But the more I fight it out and work through the adversity, the more my comfort zone expands. And that's one of the things I've grown to love (and even crave) about triathlon. So aerodynamics, here I come! I bought a pair of jammer bars, or shorties, as they're also called. They're specifically designed for road bike geometry, and are a good compromise of adding some aerodynamic benefits and an alternate riding position, without completely changing your fit or hunching you over too far into an aggressive position. I'm scared of them because they're so carbon-lite, and I'm freaked out that the tiniest anything will crack them. But alas... this is the new monkey wrench I've thrown into my soon-to-be repertoire of bike-handling skills, and I just gotta go for it. I just have to give it time, practice, patience, repetition & muscle memory.

As I said to myself in the very beginning: I want to be an Ironman. And to become an Ironman, you need to have a bike.

Do you believe that? And here I am.

Sometimes, I feel like superhero. I get up in the morning, get ready for work, commute, walk to the office and go home like every other person. But the slight twinges in my upper back or tight calf muscles are quick to remind me I've been working my TAIL off, outside what some would believe are "normal hours" of the day. Before and after work I'm usually jetting out one door and into another to quickly change into my uniform of some kind of wicking spandex, ranging from the wee hours of the morning, to times of the day that others would argue are precious sleep hours or when I "should be out at the bars" or at Happy Hour like most 20-somethings my age.

The truth is, there's an extra bounce in my step during my walk to work -- because I know I just put my mind & body through hours of hard work the night before. When I go to eat lunch with a colleague, I'm already planning out my meal for what will be the most efficient stores of energy I'll need to burn for my swim, bike or run later that night. I have a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities that I would have never even recognized without going through what I have. I've seen my potential. And I CAN go farther than I ever thought possible.

And to those of you who still call me crazy or wonder why I do any of this (first of all, congrats on making it to my blog and getting to this part of the post), I'd like to share with you an excerpt from the book I've been reading...

Triathlon should be about love: love of yourself, love of the sport, and love for others. Love the process. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your swimming, biking, and running, reveling in the heat of competition, and getting to know like-minded people. Triathlon remains a joy when it acts as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. Triathlon should contribute to your growth as a person, promoting admirable qualities, such as humility, passion and patience. [It] has a strong spiritual component; it challenges you to push your limits and expand your horizons. The sport can be a source of profound meaning, satisfaction and enjoyment. Triathlon is like life, filled with challenges, struggles, excitement, setbacks, failures, and ultimately, success -- and to triumph in the mental race is to seize victory in life itself.