Just an Average SKIRT

This is my 4th season training with Craig - I followed the natural progression of distances starting with a sprint in September 2005 shortly after professing to the world that I would ‘never, ever, ever do a triathlon…ever’. Followed this with my 2006 season of Olympics and my first half marathon. 2007 took me to Half Ironman and full marathon distance. 2008 - well we all know by now I’m training for the motha’ load. With two weeks of training left I’m feeling stronger than I’ve ever been but also more exhausted that I’ve ever felt. Trusting the plans that Craig gives me has never been a problem, I do exactly what he tells me and always perform better then expected (sans my first half ironman when I wore shoes that were too small - ouch!). In talking with his Ironman athletes, especially those who have recently completed their first I repetitively hear the same comment. ‘It was like he knew exactly when to pull me back, I was on the brink and then I tapered’. This is what I’m trusting will happen shortly as I see the brink, I feel the brink, I’m on the brink baby!

Rode 90 miles yesterday, 50 minutes of climbing up the canyon - no music, no friends, no heartrate monitor (crapped out). I remember my route but not anything about my thoughts….a good thing, I just shut it off and forged ahead. There was nothing dramatic about yesterday, no excitement, no negative emotions just pedal stroke after pedal stroke. Just another training day….I do remember one thought I had, ‘4 Sundays from today I’ll be finishing my first ironman’. That was a cool thought.

I’m finding that recovery is paramount at this stage in the game. Today I”m resting up for I have my big swim this week 5400 yds on Wednesday and my monster brick 75 to 17 on Saturday. I’ll have two more mental breakthrough workouts done and one to go 125 mile ride on the following Saturday. That will definitely break me….in a good way of course.

Psyched about my swim Wednesday my main set is 3,000 yds Z3 straight, my favorite kind of workout. The biggest challenge - not losing count.

So today I will come back from the brink only to face it a few more times this week but I’ll come back from it again and finish what needs to be done. Trusting the plan is key!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.