Becoming...

Made it through another tough weekend. Three more Build weeks before starting my taper. Weekends used to be a time to rest and recuperate from the long week. Now, the weekdays are my downtime that I use to recover from/prepare for my weekends! I actually get up earlier on Saturday and Sunday now than I do during the week. Sleeping in? What's that? I vaguely remember something like that, it seems so long ago...

This weekend ended up being tougher than I thought it would be. I knew Sunday's long brick was going to be a challenge and I'd been psyching myself up for that. I figured the long bike on Saturday would be OK since it was shorter than the previous week's long ride, which had gone well. So when I could tell within the first few miles that Saturday's ride was going to be a struggle, I wasn't quite prepared for that. Nutrition and hydration worked out fine, the wind was there but it wasn't terrible, I just wasn't feeling it. My legs were tired and I was sleepy-tired too. I remember when A told me how he crashed his bike on the levee a year or two ago. He was training for either Ironman or Ultraman, was on a 6+ hour ride, and fell asleep while riding and crashed. It was a funny story but I really didn't "get it" at the time. Well, I get it now! It didn't happen to me but it was close a few times.

I was bummed out that the ride hadn't gone very well, because it worried me that maybe I was doing something wrong. Was I eating right? Sleeping enough? Getting enough sleep has been a struggle for me for a long time but I'd actually done pretty well that week leading up to the ride. Then I thought, well, I *am* in the biggest month of training right now, doing the most volume I've ever done- maybe I'm supposed to feel a little bit like this? Maybe I just have to get myself through these next few weeks, and then I'll get a bunch of energy back during my taper. Or maybe it was just "one of those days".

An interesting thing occurred to me as I was biking/running this weekend though. I was thinking about the tough time I was having and I was mentally going over the next few weekends' workouts, trying to imagine what it would be like and how I'd get through them. I admit I was (and am) a little intimidated. Then I thought, wait a minute- if I can get through these next few weekends of training, I CAN do Ironman. I'm doing approximately an Ironman or more over the course of the weekend each of the next three weeks. So if I can do that three weekends in a row, with no taper and while still doing my regular weekday schedule of training and work, hey- I can handle CDA! Wow, what a thought. It was one of those light-bulb moments. My ratio of excited:terrified for June 21st just jumped up on the side of excited. It's going to be a LOT of work to get there, and it's going to be a ton of work once I do get there, but for the first time I think I actually feel like I might show up prepared. Yes, I know my coach has told me over and over that I would be, and yes Jen I do trust you! But you know me, if I'm not worrying about something, check my pulse.

The sleep thing is going to be my biggest challenge over these next few weeks. I know that if I can get my body enough rest, the workouts can only feel better. So far this week I've slept more, but still not enough. It's a start.

Last week's training totals (5/4 - 5/10):
Swim- 7960 yards
Bike- ~125 miles
Run- 28.9 miles
Total Time- 15:18