Tick tock… Tick tock…

33 days my friends. 33 days until I toe the line at my first full Ironman.

“Half of your Ironman journey is showing up on race day knowing you belong there.”

The thought of this task is still beyond me. I don’t know if I will ever understand it to be honest. I have been officially chasing this dream for over a year now (but chasing it in my heart for over 4 years). I just started week 26 of training. Weeks 26 and 27 will be my two biggest training weeks of the entire training plan. Then I start my taper in weeks 28, 29 and 30…

But let’s back up first.

Week 24
Total Mileage: 203
Total Time: 17:35

This was my first week reaching the 200+ mile club. Maybe I should have hit it sooner? I don’t know, but it was a great week and I felt good. I raced an Olympic on Saturday and a Half Ironman on Sunday — and PR’d them both!

Previous Olympic PR: 3:18
New 2017 Olympic PR: 2:52

I was stoked to be sub-three hours! My open water swim went well and I was calm and breathed easy in my wet suit. The bike and run went fine too. Nothing really to report, so I guess that’s good! I felt great and my nutrition was on point.

Sunday was my second Half Ironman and I thought it was pretty amusing how I wasn’t nervous the day and night before. It was just a catered and supported training day!

Old 2016 Half Ironman PR: 6:35
New 2017 Half Ironman PR: 6:16

I was really happy about knocking over 15 minutes off my time from last year. My HIM swim was fine and I remained cool, calm and collected (and kind of even had fun)! I tend to hang out at the back of the pack until I settle in and people stop combat swimming. There were a few waves that kind of flustered me on the straight away back to the finish, but I remained calm and moving. It’s weird because I tend to close my eyes when I do an OWS. I find if I open my eyes and stare into the murky water I start imagining I see things! I have read that the swim at Ironman Lake Placid is super clear and you can see rescue scuba divers swimming below you. This seems both cool and terrifying at the same time. I can’t imagine looking down and seeing people below me!

I will just a tad faster on the bike for my HIM this year and the same with the run. I thought I was a little dehydrated on the bike, but thankfully I was able to restore it in the beginning of the run. Overall I felt great after the HIM and again felt good about my nutrition. (Minus the not drinking enough — but in my defense I ran out of water and there was only one aid station on the bike course!) The next day I woke up expecting to be pretty sore and I really wasn’t. My body was well prepared.

Looking back I really, really enjoyed the weekend of racing and met a lot of awesome people. I will remember it as one of my favorite weeks of training on this journey.

Week 25
Total Mileage: 146 Miles
Total Time: 14:26

Week 25 kind of had me depressed for a little bit because my time and mileage went back down. I was trying to give my body enough time and space to recover from my races, while still trying to train, while still being involved in a very busy and hectic week.

It was the week of my best friend’s wedding and I even took PTO on Friday to fit in my training since I knew the weekend was jam-packed.

Friday I swam 1.8 miles, biked 70 miles and ran 6 miles. I felt good, but dang was it HOT outside. Then on Saturday we had to be at the salon for the wedding at 9AM so I started my 15-mile run at 4:30AM. (Run went great — felt good!) I kept telling myself that yes weekday training still counts, but it’s the heavy weekend training that really constitutes as “true” Ironman training. So despite my shorter training week, I got in the two workouts that truly count — PLUS I am a little more rested to start my two peak weeks of training (weeks 26 and 27).

I know there is a lot of work ahead of me still during the next two weeks and things are pretty crazy with everything else happening. We are moving July 7 and had family move into our tiny two bedroom apartment last week, so we are pretty cramped right now. Also my normal pool at the YMCA is closed from now until July 1 for its annual cleaning — the worse and most ironic time for all of this, right?! So now I have to drive all over creation and pay extra money to get in my 3 weekly swims. (Don’t worry I’ve already had my mental break down about all of this and at this point I’ve flipped over to problem solving mode.)

Our apartment is pretty much a disaster zone, but there’s not much we can do with 4 people now living there. There are boxes, totes and laundry EVERYWHERE. I used to use our spare bedroom as my Ironman changing room, so you could imagine the confusion at this point in training. I hope I look back on this time and laugh! The good news is I start taper the week of our move, so there’s the tiny silver lining. PLUS our family that moved in is really, really understanding of my training, which I appreciate.

It’s just a lot for an already stressful time, but come midnight on July 23 I will be an Ironman, we will be in our first house and life will be normal again. It will all be worth it!