Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"Some people dream of success while others wake up and achieve it"





So it is the start of another new week and I thought it was about time to blog again. Last week was a rough one for me. On Sunday the 4th I woke up with the flu and I was LAID OUT for the next 4 days. I missed 4 days of training in a row for the first time this entire season. YIKES! On Thursday I joined the team for our swim practice at The Plunge in Culver City, still with a nagging cold. Turns out I swam great and my confidence was back up. I was getting a little worried there for a minute of falling behind after missing so many days.

Saturday we had our longest bike ride of the season. We did a 3 hour bike ride followed by a 20 minute run. Our team met for practice at 8am on Saturday in Westlake Village with a beautiful course mapped out by our coaches. I wish I had taken some pix of some of the sights. It was BEAUTIFUL. However, this Saturday was super windy in the early AM and we were greeted by 35mph gusts of wind at many points along the course. I only weigh about a buck sixty and there were literally times when I felt the wind nearly knock me over. CRAZY! There were 3 main hills that I would call challenging on this course and then lots of other gradual small hills. I completed the bike ride and then as soon as I stood up to start my run, I felt a huge pain in my lower back. OUCH! IT HURTS...IT HURTS! I knew it was from being in that awkward seated position on that bike for so long and my body not being use to it. Usually 20 minutes of running is CAKE for me, but on this day, the heavy legs from biking and that lower back pain made it hell. Now I understand that running this marathon after about 10 hours of swimming and biking is going to be NO JOKE.

Overall, I was very proud of myself after this ride and run. Let's think about this for a minute....how many people are crazy enough to get up at 6am on a Saturday morning, bike 3 hours, and still want to run 20 minutes after that???? Yup...Ironman people are a different breed I've learned. WE ARE CRAZY!

I am starting to feel really confident about this whole thing now. It's all about staying disciplined and not giving up. Some days training feels great and other days it feels like crap. For me, the fun is having that date of your event circled on your calendar and just working towards it. It is that feeling of accomplishment on race day that is addicting and then when you can look back on all your blood, sweat and tears from the months prior, it is all worth it. We still have so long to go but let me tell ya...I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

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