Ironman Cairns 2013

A bit of background about this - this is my third ironman, so I know a bit more what to expect than previous races. Mentally I have been really focused on my training and am seriously trying to improve my times. I've spent a lot of time in the pool trying to improve my swim. My last two races I've done 1:25ish for the swim, so thought it was fair to aim for 1:15. This is also the first race where I really cared about my time compared to other girls in my age group. So I had put some pretty high expectations on myself and was hoping I could pull it off. I had been super nervous for about a week before the race, but race morning I was pretty calm. 
The swim was an in water start, so I made sure I got on the pier and into the water in plenty of time to have a gentle, relaxed swim to the start and line myself up in a good position. Was aiming for a bit more forward than the middle of the pack and I got there. All was good. I tried to find someone to chat to because that normally puts me in a good mental place, but everyone around me seemed to know each other and be in conversations. Before I knew it, the gun went off and we were on our way. The start was a mess. 1400 people all swimming madly! I thought about trying to sprint to get up further, but there was just no way. Too many people were clawing, kicking and swimming over me. It was just survival mode. I got a bit unfocused and pissed off with the crowd. I wanted to swim harder and faster damn it! Not have to be dodging people and getting clawed! 
The course was two laps of a rectangle. It took till about half way round the first rectangle to thin out enough so I wasn't getting beaten up. By then I just wanted to get away from other people and swim out on my own. I knew I should be drafting, but I just didn't want to! The water was murky so it was hard to see legs and hips anyway. I remembered to breathe left and right and be constantly aware of what was around me. I was sighting well too. I just wasn't mentally in the racing mindset! I just wanted to have a nice, relaxing swim and have the other people f**k off! Somewhere near the beginning of the second lap I started finding people to draft off and felt like I was doing a better job of my swim racing technique. Good. I wasn't tired, but just wasn't mentally pushing. The tide seemed to be making the return to shore slow too. But eventually we were climbing up the stairs to the pier. Quick glance at the garmin and I was a bit bummed to have missed the 1:15 time, but happy that it was less than 1:25! Long run along the pier to grab the gear in T1. No changing, just out of the wetsuit, apply sunscreen, grab bike shoes, put on helmet and off I ran to my bike!

I was happy with my T1. It seemed organized and quick. I jogged with my bike to the mount line, avoided the crowds and rode away. But immediately I felt sharp pain in my right hamstring/butt cheek. Ouch! This was bad. Why was this happening to me?! The bike is my strongest leg and I was feeling good! I wasn't even past the crowds and I was already cramping? I kept thinking maybe I had pulled a muscle. How was I going to ride 180km when each pedal stroke hurt like hell?! And then run a friggin marathon?! I had trained so hard for this, I couldn't believe what was happening. Somehow I managed to tell myself to calm the f**k down. Now what is the sensible thing to do here I thought. Ride easy so you're barely working, keep cadence high and get some electrolyte in you. So that's exactly what I did. The cramp stayed painful for the first 40km or so, but eventually subsided to the point where I could ride pretty comfortably. I just wondered how it would be to run on. Oh well, not gunna find that out till T2, so execute the race as planned for now. 
The first 80km were awesome (apart from the cramp). I saw Sam Warriner leading the 70.3, and there was quite a tail wind. Heaps of people were passing me, but I was mentally prepared for that. According to coach, 80% of people overbike the ironman ride. I wasn't going to be one of those. I stuck to the HR zones and nutrition plan coach and I had agreed and enjoyed the pretty scenery. 
At the 80km mark we went through the turn around at Port Douglas. Crowds were cheering loudly and it was a huge mental pick me up. Maybe it's cuz I went past them trailing Luke McKenzie, the race winner! Heaps of fun anyway. Still feeling great on the bike and the 80km hadn't made me feel tired at all. I wasn't looking forward to riding back into the headwind though! 
We had to do about 40km out of Port Douglas to the turn around, all into the wind. It was starting to really warm up now too, so I had started pouring water over myself to keep cool. The wind significantly slowed me down and lots of people were drafting to save energy. Now after being done for drafting at Tauranga, I am super careful with this and keep an eagle eye out for draft busters. But it pissed me off that so many people were getting away with it! It's cheating in ironman! We hit a particularly windy section and I had just overtaken a bunch of people. Silly move - I was leading the pack! While I was race legal for drafting, the 12 people behind me were saving heaps of energy. Of course as soon as we got off that section they all passed me. Grrr. At this point my mental state improved heaps. If they want to cheat, so be it. I'm going to be out here, race by the rules, race hard and have fun. Stuff everyone else. 
After this my day picked up heaps. I was having a blast, making supportive comments to people when I passed or they passed me. What a great day! The second lap back to Port Douglas went pretty easily and I only really started to feel tired about the 150km mark. I just made sure I was well hydrated to get off the bike and spun my legs out to prepare for the run. Yay, I was looking forward to the run! Coming into T2 was a welcome sight. I passed my bike to the catchers and ran off the grab my gear bag. Quick change of the shorts and shoes and into the toilet. I had been way too stubborn to stop to pee and I still can't bring myself to pee on the bike! (probably TMI, sorry!) Sunscreen applied, cookies in my mouth and a HUGE thank you to the awesome volunteers. I was on my way with a shout-out from the announcer that I was all the way from New Zealand!

Dang it was HOT running out of T2! Suddenly the heat from the bike became way more intense. But the good news was that I didn't feel my cramp from earlier on the bike and my legs felt great! I was a bit tired, but running at my targeted 5:40-5:45/km was no issue. Good, cuz I was supposed to keep it up for 4 hours! I was really surprised by the number of people walking. I didn't think my bike had been that slow, so I still expected most of the field to be running at this point. I guess the heat really was affecting people. 

I just kept a steady pace with a routine of 1 gel every 30 mins, plus water and ice at every aid station (ice to tip down my shirt and water to sip and pout over my head). I wanted to save electrolytes till at least 20km so I didn't have stomach issues. I had taken a few salt pills on the bike so figured that would help with the loss from sweat. This worked really well and my running felt easy and relaxed right through till about 20km. Lots of people commented on how strong I looked and cheered me on. I remember one guy saying "Geez girl, have you only just started? Everyone else looks like they have been racing for days!". These were all huge mental pick me ups. Lots of women seemed to be cheering on every girl and there would be lots of "it's a girl, GO GIRL!". Awesome. 
Running through kms 10-26 was mentally tough. It was on a main road through the sugar fields and on a highway with no shade at all. Hardly any supporters were there either. Never mind, I had my target. 5:45/km or less. I just stuck to it and ticked them off km by km as my watch beeped. Good work legs. 
I found there was quite a headwind from 15-25km which was tough. Lots of people walking, but I just kept my pace and overtook them with a smile. I was feeling competitive. At an aid station around 18km a guy handed me a water and said "hey gorgeous!" What a friggin distraction! He was hot! I giggled and kept running. I'm sure I didn't look gorgeous at this point! But another big mental pick me up. The volunteers were AWESOME. 
Finally about km 25 we turned onto the esplande. YES, people again! I knew my Dad, his GF and Mark would be out here somewhere. I was starting to tire. Not hurt, but tire. Never mind, less than a half marathon to go and I've finished an Ironman! Come on legs, you got this. I saw them cheering madly as I ran close to the pier. What a huge pick me up! There were hundreds if not thousands of people cheering there. I felt like a friggin celebrity running through there! I couldn't help but grin madly and high five people. Damn it, I still had two more laps of the esplanade to go. Hurumph. Running away from the people was a come down. It was starting to get dark (at about 5:30) and the skies were opening up with rain. We'd had showers throughout the day, but nothing like this. It was torrential downpour! I was LOVING it!! Well, until my shoes got heavy and it was so dark I couldn't see where I was going anymore. The course wasn't well lit. Oh well, keep on going legs. 
I kept up my routine with nutrition, but couldn't stomach anymore gels so tried cookies at about 32km. It was about then that I saw the first guy unconscious on the pavement. Holy crap! There were paramedics around him, but he wasn't responding. They were telling people to keep moving so I did. I guess that's just a harsh reminder of what ironman in 30+ temps with humidity can do to your body. I saw another guy unconscious a bit further up. 
I fell apart at about 34km. I was tired, grumpy and I wanted the friggin race to be done! I knew I wasn't going to make my 4hr marathon first goal. I was really justifying failure to myself. It's ok, there really is no difference between 11:30 and 12. Who cares, just walk. You're going to PB, who cares by how much? So I walked. For about 200m and then I said to myself, WTF are you doing woman!? You didn't come here to let yourself do that! Run! You can rest in 45 mins! So I ran. I picked off runners in front of me and passed them. I counted down the minutes. I was SO tired! And my knee hurt. (I need new bike shoes) That last lap running out into the darkness was one tough mental challenge. I would not let myself walk. Run slow, yes. Walk, no. I averaged about 6:30/km and felt like I was running sub 5:00/km. Finally I saw that much anticipated 40km mark. YES! There was also a girl who looked about my age running in front of me and faster than me. She had two lap bands on so was running to the finish line just like me. Crap. I wanted to catch her, but I didn't think I could run that fast! I just tried to stay behind her and not fall too far back. Then it was my lucky day! She stopped at an aid station at about 40.5km! YES! I took off. Such a mental high running past her and towards the loudly cheering crowds. I could not wipe that grin off my face running that last km. I high fived and fist pumped with no shame! The crowd really picked up on it and knew I was running to finish. Running into the chute I caught a glimpse of my Dad and Mark and heard them yelling for me. Grinning wildly and high fiving! The announcer called out my name as I came in. "Louise Shrimpton, you are an Ironman!" Love those words. When Pete Jacobs put that medal around my neck and told me I'd done well, I just about exploded with pleasure. Wow. 
Only two regrets about the finish. One - I ran too fast and didn't high five my Dad and Mark. Two - I chicked a guy. (Well, I don't know if I should regret this or not. What do you think??) 
Awesome day. Finish time: 11:41:08. (1hr 11min faster than last year's IM) 
13/43 in my age group. 87th female and 398th overall.

5 weeks to go!

Hello again! It's been so long since I've written, I figure it's time to update things. It's 5 weeks till Ironman day! With the time conversion, I figure I'll be about half way through with the marathon in exactly 5 weeks. I am starting to get really excited. It's not just the Ironman, but I have a 3 week holiday to look forward to, and it's going to be summer! I get to see all my old friends too. So excited about that!

I have to admit that I'm struggling a bit with training at the moment. I haven't swum in 12 days - partly because I burnt my hand really badly and partly cuz I have been lazy. I'm getting to the pool tonight. I was supposed to do a 5 hr ride and 1 hr run on Sat, but it ended up being a 4:12 bike ride on Sunday. I redeemed myself a bit with a 2:40/18.15mi good pace run this morning so I'm starting to feel happier.

My biggest problem right now is mental motivation. As with my last Ironman, the training has taken an emotional toll on me. Recently I have been tired and grumpy.. Well actually.. maybe my new nickname should just be megab$tch. It's so tough to balance 20hrs a week of training with full time employment, cleaning the house, eating right, getting sleep and still trying to have a life. The long and short of it is that this is the last full IM I do for a while. The training just gets to me. It would be so easy if I was a machine and had no emotions.

On a positive note, I've figured out that I have some incredibly supportive people in my life and I'm very happy about it. My absolutely incredible Dailymile friends, my super supportive friend Kim, my family and Rick have all been really great to me.

More positivity.. I have 2 build weeks left and then I am in taper! I can do anything for two weeks. And who knows, I may even enjoy it! :-) More positivity.. I am running consistently faster than I have ever run in my life. I feel stronger on hills than I ever have. I'm riding faster than I ever have in my life. And it feels great! Actually, screw that last statement.. I'm OVER the FREEKING MOON with my training abilities right now!! I still wonder who's legs I have attached to my body. They are just so muscley! I should really take a picture and post it here.

Starting to make a list of all the things I need to do before IM.. here we go!

1. Get bike serviced
2. Get race wheels
3. Get aero hemet
4. Get speedfil hydration system
5... the list goes on and I already feel poor!

I am an ultra runner! (Tarawera Ultra Marathon)

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this. I'm super proud of finishing this race, but am disappointed with my time. It was my first ultra and the attrition rate on this one was quite high even amongst the experienced ultra runners. I was so excited for this race and my running felt really strong. But I was pretty nervous starting this race. I only started running trails in Jan and have had some really big training weeks recently. I haven't been training for the 60km and felt quite intimidated. I was doing the full 60km solo and my friends were doing the 85km as a relay team. I started with Rick and we ran together at the beginning. It was super crowded and not really a run. We talked because I was quite nervous and we found ourselves right near the back of the pack. I was comfortable with this, but Rick's a great runner so it was probably a bit tough for him. I was really grateful for his company. After a few kms, I told him to take off and I was running comfortably and really starting to enjoy it!

Then, I hit a steep downhill section at about 5km and my quad started cramping. What?!? 5km into a 60km I get cramp?!? I haven't felt this bad at the beginning of a run for years! I started panicking. I stopped to stretch it, but it was too tight and I couldn't even stretch it properly. When I tried to walk down the hill I would get sharp cramp pains. How was I ever going to run 55km when I could barely even walk? And why was this happening? I was mentally destroyed. I managed to keep walking and thought about when I was going to pull out. I knew there were 2 aid stations on this leg, but I also knew the guys were waiting for me at the change over point. I thought that I'd try to make it to the change over point (about 12 km from there) and pull out then. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make the cut-off anyway. I passed one aid station and the supporter could see I was in pain. I told him I was cramping but that I was hoping it would go away. I hurried through before he could try to convince me to stop.

As I progressed, the cramps started feeling a bit better. I was able to walk by not bending my left leg much and make progress. Rick had given me some cramp-stop which I tried but it didn't make any difference at all. I tried taking a salt pill and a gu and neither made any difference. There was a flattish bit of trail ahead and I tried running there. I was able to maintain a very slow pace without too much pain in my left leg. But once there hills and bush started again I was back in excruiciating pain. Everytime I would hit even small downhills my quad would feel like it was being stabbed. I was completely alone in the bush by this stage and quite sure I was dead last. I don't know how to describe my mental state at this point except for saying I was destroyed. I felt so weak and useless. How could I have been so silly to sign up for something like this? I was completely in over my head.

As I was slowly jogging along a flat section and making "oh, uh" sounds (not in a good way!) when I felt pain, I heard someone behind me. I got such a fright and he could tell. He asked if I was ok and I told him what was going on, but tried to keep it semi-positive. He told me to stop and he'd massage my legs to see if that would help. I figured it couldn't hurt. I did think it was a bit weird to be out in the middle of the bush with some strange guy massaging my legs, but maybe that's just the LA girl in me. He could tell I was really upset and he told me it happened to the best of them. He was a very experienced ultra runner and said this was his third 100km this year! Suddenly I didn't feel so useless. The massage help, and I remembered I had some biofreeze in my bag. I rubbed that on my quads too and it seemed to help. He told me he'd be running just in head of me and to call out if I needed help. So we jogged slowly on, walking all the up and down hills. We were chatting a bit and it was SO helpful.  

We came to the second aid station and they said "oh, you must be the lady with the cramp". Yep. So I ate some potato chips, had a salt pill and several cups of electolytes. The aid station people were awesome! They all clapped as we ran in and offered tons of encouragement and helped us with anything. They had a huge array of food too. Leaving that aid station there were steps to walk down. Ugh - worst thing ever! I had to hold onto the hand railing and the pain was almost unbearable. At the bottom of the steps, the trail was flooded! Clifford (the guy who massaged my legs) came up behind me and we looked for a way round cuz neither of us wanted ot get our feet wet! So we scrambled around the bush and managed to climb up and down some hills to avoid it. He helped me up some steep sections that I would never have made it up myself cuz my legs were so crampy.

Finally we came out on a gravel road and I was able to run at a semi-decent pace! I actually felt ok! Wow! Clifford told me to run on, so I just kept it consistent. We passed some people giving runners directions and they were very positive and happy. My spirits were improving! Woohoo! We went back into the bush and I ran for a while, but soon the downhill caused sharp pains in my quads again. Ugh. Spirits sunk again. I managed to limp on and Clifford caught up and overtook me. I tried as hard as I could to keep up with him despite the intense pain. I knew I would be getting close to the cut-off and by this point I'd allowed myself to dream that I might be able to continue the race after the first change-over. I pushed with everything I had against the pain and finally we came out on a road again. We looped through some residential streets and I was able to jog. Clifford stopped to clean rocks out of his shoes and after checking that he was ok, I jogged on. Finally I reached the change-over point!! I asked the first person I saw if I had made the cut-off and they said yes!! Then I saw Rick waiting for me and I actually smiled! He walked with me through the aid station and I told him was was going on. I said I'd probably have to pull out at the next change-over, but that I wanted to continue for now. He gave me all the encouragement he could, told me that I was doing well, gave me a big hug and kiss and I was off. I walked off eating a banana and drinking electolytes.

The next section was a lot of gravel road with some steep hills. I jogged the flat and walked the hills with Clifford. It's amazing the conversations you get into with complete stragers in those kind of situations. I'll never forget how encouraging he was! What an amazing guy! At the end of the gravel road, we reached another aid station and was both stopped an munched on a lot of stuff. We both filled our camelpacks and jogged off. They told us we had 3 hours to reach the next point. 3 hours! I thought that would be heaps of time!

I was feeling much better by this point and my legs were able to handle jogging. I still couldn't jog any downhills though. There was quite a lot of steady uphill on fairly easy track so I jogged on as much as I could. Clifford stopped and told me to run on because he was stuffed. I did, but expected to see him soon. I jogged on and felt really good! It was beautiful scenery and I was really starting to enjoy the race! I couldn't do any good paces, but just kept progressing. There were several sharp downhills to cross streams which were agony for me, but I just kept going. After quite I while I realized that I was actually getting close to the time goal. The downhill had started now and I was barely able to walk it. I had to stop and take small steps sideways down any of it. Sometimes I would get so frustrated that I tried to jog it but would yell out in pain as the stabs of pain hit my quads. I knew I would be really close to hitting the cut-off and had allowed myself to dream that I could finish the race.

Eventually the steep downhill turned into gradual ups and downs that I was able to jog. I progressed as quickly as I could, but still really enjoying the trails. It was absolutely stunning scenery no matter how much pain I was in. I passed a group of people who were hiking and they looked at me like I was crazy. I'd been on my own for several hours by now, so it was just nice to see people!
Finally I saw a sign that said 2km to the lake. YES! I was almost there! I just had to do that 2km in 20 mins. Now that might not seem like a challenge normally, but it was at the rate I was going. I ran as best as I could, ignoring the pain on the downhills. I tried to breath depply and steadily in case that helped the cramps. Finally I made it to the flat section, crossed a road and saw the change over point! I'd made it with 6 minutes to spare!!! Woohoo!

There was Rick and Cyril clapping and giving me huge grins. They walked me over to the aid station and I could see the relief on Rick's face that I had made the cut-off. He knew I would be absolutely gutted if I couldn't make it. I told them I wanted to continue and they said I had no cut-off on this leg and just had to make it. I finally relaxed. I munched away on the picnic at the aid station, drank several cups of coke (best tasting drink EVER!) and decided to head off. I dumped some of the stuff I'd been carrying in my pack - I had WAY too much food - and walked off with my cup of coke, banana and bag of jelly beans. Cyril yelled after me, "well run then!". A big grin spread across my face. This was fun! I gave him the finger (in a nice way) and walked off. This was the pretty leg!

I was in such an awesome place mentally on the last leg. I jogged along, singing and enjoying the beautiful views across the lake. This leg was a lot more technical so I was climbing over stuff and it was more like the trails I'd run out in the Waitaks. I munched away on the jelly beans, but still didn't run any of the downhills. I didn't want to push and make the cramps worse. I passed several people! Woah, I passed people!! I chatted with each of them and was having an absolutely amazing time. I ran into the first aid station and they were all clapping for me. I was so happy and had my little picnic and ran off. Coke was tasting absolutely amazing so I had several cups. I walked quite a bit of the next section as it was pretty technical up and down hills and I didn't want to make the cramps worse. At one point I was clmibing over a fallen tree and groaning loudly in pain as a guy came up behind me and asked if I was ok. His face looked so concerned! I laughed and told him I was cramping but that I was fine. He ran on in front, but when we came to the flat I was much faster than him so I overtook again and sped off! I sped! Yep, about 50km into the 60km race I was starting to feel good!

I just cruised and really enjoyed the final 10km. I was very pleased to be able to run everything except the steep downhills and passed a lot of people who were walking. Who knew that I could actually run 55km with cramps!?! I stopped at the falls about 1km from the finish line and took pictures. (yes I carried my phone the whole way!) Some guys stopped and took a picture of me which I was really grateful for! Then I took off and sped into the finish line. Crossing this line was the most amazing feeling! It was such an accomplishment to have dug myself out from such a deep mental hole and complete this race. I know I'll be back for revenge with fresh, uncrampy legs. But for now, I'm just enjoying the feeling of having completed my very first ultramarathon! I am an ultra runner!

Stealing from Sleep

Time to be honest with myself... I'm tired, grumpy and emotionally drained. My legs and arms feel fine. I'm stretched, fed and my muscles have been rested. But when I'm training at the moment I can't seem to push my heartrate out of zone 1-2. I'm burning the candle at too many ends.

In the next 10 days I'm doing my first ultra-marathon (60km of trails) and a half ironman. And I'm trying to keep training going for IM CDA in June. And keep my job. And enjoy the excitement of being in a new releationship. And keep in touch with my family. And keep in touch with my friends. And bake muffins and cookies for workmates. And keep the house clean. And eat healthy. And get enough sleep. So while I may be doing a mediocre job of some of those things, I'm doing a downright terrible job of that last one. In the last month I think I've gotten 8 hours of sleep once. And I felt unstoppable that morning! So how do I do everything? It's time to realize that I'm not super woman and I need to start prioritizing. How do people achieve balance while training for endurance events? Here are my next steps:

1. Take some time out for me. I'm emotionally drained and I know myself well enough to know that nothing will change until I fix this. Even if it's just an hour, I need to do something that is entirely for my happiness and doesn't include training or checking stuff off on the to-do list. I WILL make this happen today.

2. Listen to myself better and hopefully before I get grumpy. I need to pay more attention to when I'm getting emotional and grumpy. I know this isn't me and it's not how I want to live life. I need to realize that when this happens I need to take time out. Even a little bit of time will make a huge difference.

3. Be less self-centered. While I have a lot of my own goals and dreams that I want to achieve, I have an even stronger desire to make the world a better place. It doesn't need to be a huge impact, but even a smile or something to brighten someone else's day will make the world a little happier. No matter how I'm feeling on those long, hard rides and runs or how tired I'm feeling, I want to give. That means thinking of others and not myself. I believe when I focus on doing this, my happiness and success flows naturally.

4. Accept that nothing I do will ever be perfect and that's just fine. This one is pretty self explanatory. I just need to remember it every single day.

5. Take the time to remember my long term goals and set achievable short term goals to help achieve these. This will probably mean another blog post! :-)

6. Worry less about what people think! I need to do what I think is best, and that includes going to bed before 10pm every night!

I feel such a huge relief just after typing this. I'll see how I do following these over the next 10 days and hopefully will be in a better mental place soon. :-)

Crash, boom!

It's been a while since I posted and I think I've settled into a nice training routine. My main problem at the moment seem to be getting the motivation to hit the pool. But I'll work on that! :-)

This morning I was out riding on Tamaki Dr, keeping my cadence high, my HR zone 1 and focusing on making perfect circles with my feet. My training book says to focus on one foot, then the other, then both and make sure you're pulling as much as pushing. I do these rides once a week and I think the technique is helping. In addiiton, the spinning is kind of a recovery workout. I really like it, although I find it hard not to push myself!

Anyway, so I was happily riding along this morning heading into the last 2mi of my ride.. The traffic was getting a bit bad and just as I was passing by the Orakei Basin, a car made a right hand turn and didn't see me. I hit the brakes hard and skidded, but couldn't stop in time. I was right in her way and she hit me. She wasn't going too fast, but I still got knocked a bit and ended up laying on the road still clipped into my pedals. I feel pretty lucky that this all happened at low speed and that I'm fine. I have a couple scratches and bruises on my legs but nothing too bad. It's definitely a reminder not to get over confident on the bike. A crash happens way to quickly and it's way more important to finish the ride safely than to finish it fast. Safety first!

Family vs Training

And without a doubt, family wins. And they will every time. I just hope that they don't play off against each other too often! Tonight I had a gym session on the schedule, but got a call at work about a family issue and had to go deal with it. Since Mom is in a rehab place since she just came out of hospital there are a lot of logistical issues to deal with. I had to skip the gym and deal with those. It's just a gym session so it doesn't matter much. And to be honest I am pretty tired so could use the night off anyway. Heading to bed now in the hope to get up in the morning fresh and have a great morning ride!

My main worry with this is that I know I'll be trying to fit in an extra gym session for the rest of the week. Let it go Louise!

First Day Nerves

Training officially started today. I'm excited to follow my new plan and begin the journey again. I'm so excited to have that absolutely amazing day again! I'm nervous though and I have some thoughts and fears I didn't have last time. Last time I trained with my boyfriend at the time, Tom. We both signed up for Ironman St George together and did all of our training together. Even logistics of getting to the race and finding a place to stay we handled together. But this time I don't have that.

I've decided not to use a coach, but to follow the plan from a new book that I've been reading. I think I've learned a lot about training and how to get faster and I know I have the strength to get through the training on my own.

But how do people do this on their own? Although they're proud of me, my family pretty much thinks I'm nuts. So on today's ride I started to think. This is a lonely journey I'm going on alone. It would be easy just to say, "you're right, this is nuts", and sit on the couch playing video games with my family. But realistically that's not me. I love running and I love biking. And some days I even like swimming! I love everything about Ironman and I want to do it. So screw it, I am doing it!

So here I am sharing my experiences and hoping that I can relate to other people training using sites like Dailymile and Facebook. I need to find some tri-groups and take every opportunity to train with people who share my passion.