Hills

I was able to get all 12 hours of training in last week (which was great) with this week both adding time and length of workouts. If you think of it, there are many ways to get to 12+ of training. More - shorter duration workouts and less - longer duration. I am working on figuring out which I prefer. As my training shifts from speed development (more-shorter) to endurance (fewer-longer) it is becoming more of a scheduling challenge.

For example, yesterday I had a 1.5 hour hill climb workout. That workout is too long to do on lunch (which I do with most of my swims) and I had a meeting last night at 6:00 pm. So, yesterday was my early day at work (leaving at 3:00). I got home at 3:50 and by the time I got my water bottles ready, changed, spare clothes (for my meeting) and bike loaded it was 4:20. Since it was hill climbs, I had to drive to the hills. I had a meeting at 6 so luckily, ninth street hill was close to my meeting. I parked my car at the meeting, jumped on the bike and rode for 1:20 returning to my meeting site. Loaded my bike, threw on some deoderant, grabbed my laptop and attended my meeting. Fortunately, everyone knows what I am doing and I frequently show up in workout gear. They are super cool and understand, I just sit away from them in case I smell. Other than an occasional strategic fan placement so that I am down wind, they don't seem to care. Missy K asked me last night how I am able to get it all in. My response was "I'm sitting here in my tri suit under my clothes aren't I?" I have used the time between work and evening events as training. In the past I would do things around the house and drive to these events, now, I find myself leaving an hour or more sooner and instead of driving, running to them. I get almost all of my swims in over lunch hour and sometimes have to juggle the schedule accomodating workouts that were meant to be over a few days to be crammed into 1 day.

Tonight is more of a challenge. I have a 45 minute swim that I can't do over lunch. I also have a 1:15 run. The good news is that I don't have any commitments tonight except for 1, seeing my family... This is really starting to take a toll on them and me. So tonight, I will wait until they go to bed, then get my run and swim in. I have a golf scramble tomorrow morning to if I am not fresh because I am up late, I am not too concerned.

So, tonight it looks like another late night run and swim.

It is really only just beginning......Ironman training is truly a love/hate relationship where not only I sacrafice, everyone important to me has to sacrafice also and it is really not fair to them. I didn't fully understand that when I started and although people talk about this sacrafice and it is always in the first few sentences of everyone I have ever heard talk about it, I underestimated how true this is. IRONMAN training is selfish when you try to maintain your normal life and ADD this to it. Crossing the line will be a victory for the entire family because what my wife and kids have to cover because I am just not around much is truly tough on me to watch. Add to that all of the things my wife has going including training for Sprints and Olympic distances she is often using treadmill/trainer while I am on my runs/rides outside. This is truly brutal on all of us and I am so fortunate to have Rene, KGB, NBB in my life.

A perfect case in point was after Rene picking me up following my super hot run on Saturday that was too hot to finish. I walk in the back door and there is KGB with a glass of ice cold water or NBB rushing to give me a hug when I am dripping with sweat and nasty from being outside for no more of a reason than he hasn't seen for more than a few minutes at a time all week. It is times like these where it hits me and I can't help but think of all of the things that are slipping and I have this aching question "is it worth it?" I guess I will not know that until November 21st.

Tracy