Starting To Wrap It Up

3 weeks to go.

I just finished a very hard week. I think. Hard is so relative these days. I just do the work and don't really think about it. It is sometimes only after the week has ended that I look back and think...I did what??? If anything is an indicator, though, it would be my waking up at 12:30am last night, starving and eating a bowl of cereal before climbing back in bed with ritz crackers in hand.

Huge milestone- on top of a big cycling week including a 70something miler on Wed and a 100miler yesterday, I still managed a running week of 54 miles.

My longest run week ever. Ever.

No abnormal pain.

Which goes to show what a jerk I was all of those years trying to train through injuries. I have been training through injuries since I was 15 years old and tore my MCL for the first time. I wish I knew then what I know now. If any of this resonates with you, then stop what you are doing. It is not working. Rethink the plan and find something that works. Stop doing the same thing.

Yesterday I thought about what is different for me this summer. Why has my training seemed to be more successful? Having less pain is an obvious answer, but what else is different? Here are just a few things out of many that I have changed.

1. My focus has increased. It is hard to quantify this for you.

2. I have made it a habit to get up early. Every single day including weekends. Most of us have to contend with some overwhelming heat this summer. It takes a lot of work to find ways to be successful in the heat. In 2008, I would start my long runs at 9am, and wondered why I ran so poorly. Now I am up at dark. While I can't ultimately control the weather, I can give myself a better chance of success by starting without the sun. (and it goes without mentioning I have to go to work. Better to just git-r-done.)

3. I do what it takes. Coolers full of water, ice, and towels on my running routes. Boxes full of gels. I now practice like I race. If you saw me run my brick yesterday, you would have seen me dumping water on my head every 5 minutes and putting ice down my top at every pit stop. I never did this in the years before. I just didn't put in the effort to make my workouts as successful as possible.

I have thought of many, many more things I am doing differently, but this post is getting long so I might have to save it for another day.

To end my ramblings, I did make it a priority to go to church today. This was not only for myself, but for my husband who probably would like to live a normal life from time to time. As I prayed to be a better wife and person, I was reminded, again, that triathlon is just not that important. Period. Sport is great and I want to be the very best that I can be in my chosen lifestyle. But, sport comes and goes as do our abilities. Training and racing has been wonderful, and I hope to continue for a long time. I do try to keep it in perspective, though, and I am thankful for my family, friends, job, and overall great life. I am enjoying the process and journey towards this ironman, but never forgetting that the greatest treasures in my life are the people whom I love.