Why am I doing the Ironman...

During camp last month Paula Newby Fraser talked to us about mental training and one of her key points was understanding at your very core why you are doing the Ironman. There are a million reasons and everyone has a different one so she encouraged us to think about what our reason was.

I could think of many reasons why I wanted to do the Ironman:

Because I'd lost 171.4 lbs
Because I used to get winded walking up a flight of stairs
To prove to all the couch potatoes that anything is possible
To tackle a new challenge and see it through to the end
Because a ton of people thought it'd be impossible for me

The list could go on and on....

Over the weekend I learned that Jon Blais (aka Blazeman) lost his battle with ALS. For those of you who don't know Jon Blais was a hero among men but a lengend in the triathlon community. He finished the Hawaii Ironman in 2005 in spite of having virtually no use of one of his hands due to the effects of the disease. His trademark roll across the finish line became synonomous with courage and a fighting spirit. He returned to Kona in 2006 wheelchair bound but maintaining his positive outlook on life and spreading the message of hope to others.

He did the Ironman to spread a message of hope and to channel his spirit into an amazing challenge.

So why am I doing the Ironman....

While running a 1/2 marathon this weekend a friend and I were chatting about how we got into triathlon and I recalled my very first race. The Danskin Women's Triathlon in 2003. I entered the water on that morning unsure of whether I had what it took to finish the race. Unsure about whether I deserved to be there or call myself a triathlete. I swam, I biked and I walk/jogged my way through that first sprint with a sense of apprehension and a tremendous respect for what I was undertaking.

As I rounded the final corner on my way to the finish chute I saw my husband who'd been my #1 supporter as I prepared to do this event. He'd pumped my tires, encouraged me when I was questioning myself, gone on bike rides with me since I was afraid of being in traffic and a myriad of other things to cheer me on. So here I was jogging towards the finish line having not known whether I'd make it when I started the day and I see him and he's totally choked up which of course chokes me up because of the amazing sense of joy and appreciation I felt that he loved me so much that it would affect him like that to see me finish this thing.

So here I am running a 1/2 marathon after biking 117 miles and running 2.5 the day before in my final weekend of Ironman training and I'm telling this story to my friend and I start to tear up. I actually have to stop talking because I'm getting so emotional talking about seeing my husband as I finished my first ever triathlon.

I started that journey overweight and out of shape and totally lacking self confidence. I didn't know I could finish let alone that I would finish.

Ever since I crossed that finish line of the Danskin back in August of 2003 I knew one day I would do the Ironman. It was a foregone conclusion, something I just had to do. I knew deep down that I would be able to do the training and one day cross the finish line.

So why am I doing the Ironman?

Because 4 years ago an overweight, out of shape girl decided to do some swimming, biking and walking surrounded by others who didn't know what they were capable of doing when they started the journey.

Because people watch from the sidelines and think to themselves "I wish I could do that or be in that good of shape".

Because I have a husband who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself.

So again why am I doing the Ironman?

Because I can!

According to my training plan....

I am becoming an endurance beast :)

With Ironman CDA just 5 weeks from today I have finished one of my hardest 2 weeks of training and what a week.

I was in Denver Monday through Wednesday on business which meant lots of stationary biking and treadmill time. I ended up doing bricks all 3 days and then once I landed back in Portland Wednesday afternoon I headed up to the lake for an open water swim.

Thursday - I did my longest run ever - 15.8 miles!!!!! I did 3/1 intervals and my nutrition was spot on.

Friday - I did an easy swim to stretch out my muscles then took the rest of the day to rest.

Saturday - I biked 100.6 miles with nearly 6000 ft of climbing and then followed that with a 2.5 mile transition run. It was cool and windy and a definite mental challenge because I was on my own for a long time. It was a great opportunity to focus on pacing and nutrition. My mantra for this hilly century was "Nice circles, Nice cadence". I finished the ride in 6 hours 43 minutes for just under a 15 MPH average.

Today was a relaxing morning with my husband and best friend and then an easy 1500 yd swim since I'll be back on the road again tomorrow.

Totals for the week were:

S: 5200.00 Yd (2h 12m 46s)
B: 135.53 Mi (8h 48m 28s)
R: 22.93 Mi (4h 53m 08s)

I can hardly believe that I'm about to start the final week of hard training. WOO HOO!!!!

Hill Seeker

What a weekend! I'll go back and post a race report but I wanted to get a few of my thoughts down before I forgot them :)

Saturday was my 30th Birthday so to celebrate I did a local Sprint Triathlon. It was great fun and in spite of very little sleep the night before I finished strong and had a blast. One of my best friends had given me a tiara with 30 on it. I decided to put it on in T2 and run the 5k with it. WOO HOO! I got many compliments and really enjoyed the silliness it brought out.

After the race Saturday morning (again full race report to follow), my husband and I went out to lunch with my best friends, enjoyed delicious gourmet cupcakes from Saint Cupcake Bakery and then we went home and took a long nap. Later than night we went out with other friends and celebrated into the early hours of the morning. Whew! It was quite a day.

Sunday after only about 5.5 hours of sleep I relaxed around the house getting myself ready for a long day in the saddle. I was going to be a hill seeker. For those of you not in my head (ok that's pretty much everyone), I have a love - hate relationship with hills. For most of my cycling career I have avoided hills like the plague. Fast forward to winter of this year. I knew the IM course had hills (I had no idea at the time how many) so I printed the course elevation profile with the words I Love Climbing and posted it at my desk. I was going to love hills if it killed me.

So I had planned to do a 6 hour bike ride on Sunday with a 2.5 mile transition run. After riding the actual course in CDA last weekend I came home resolved to find every rolling hill I could and practice gearing, cornering and descending as much as possible. So I headed out....

Wow! Started with Murray Hill then headed up the Scholls Ferry Hill and over onto Roy Rogers which has a series of rollers, cut through some back roads which had some good rollers and then over onto a regular route I ride which is actually pretty flat for about 8 miles. It was this point in the ride that the fun started.

In order to find some new hills I decided to cut out the flat section towards Forest Grove and head for the hills. HOLY MACKERAL! I'm happily riding along reflecting on the awesomeness of just having 4 deer jump across the road in front of my bike when I come down this little roller and see the most ginormous long straight hill I've ever seen. OMG I thought, will I be able to make it up that beast without getting off and walking.

I shifted into my lowest gear and started counting pedal strokes. 1, 2, 3 etc all the way up to over 200 before making it to the top. Yes! I owned that hill :) Of course I was then greeted to ever more hills and then one of the fastest technical descents I've ever riden. WOOO HOOO!!!!

Be careful what you wish for right? From that lovely series of hills - Blooming Fern Hill Rd for any sadists reading in the PDX area, I rode out to Hagg Lake where I rode the loop once clockwise and once counter clockwise before heading for home.

Along the way I saw vineyard, fields of wildflowers, deer, cows, a lot of roadkill :( and a ton of other cyclists. It was a glorious day to be on the bike.

I think I may have been a little overhydrated given I had to stop 4 times for bathroom breaks. Yikes! At the 3.5 hour mark I did a pretend special needs stop so I got off my bike, stretched, refilled my bottles, ate my yummy 1/2 way mark treat (frozen peeps - delicious sugary goodness) and went to the bathroom. While there I decided I would reapply some BodyGlide cause I was feeling a bit of chafing. Note to self, do not apply BodyGlide from flimsy container in a portolet. The stick of BodyGlide popped out of it's holder right into the yuckiness. %*$&##. I was really needing that. Hmmm..... time to improvise. Chapstick works extremely well in emergency situations. Got all set, scraped the top layer of the chapstick off so it could be used again later and headed out.

Started really craving something salty at the 5 hour point and decided to stop off for a water refill and bathroom stop at my favorite Taco place - Taco del Mar. They have the yummiest crispiest saltiest tortilla chips. Ate a handful then put about 10 chips in my bento box and continued on.

Nutrition and Stop info below but total ride time was 6:31 which included:

Stop 1 - Water refill
Stop 2 - Water refill
Stop 3 - Bathroom
Stop 4 - Pretend SN (Water refill/bathroom/stretched/ate treat)
Stop 5 - Bathroom
Stop 6 - Water Refill/Bathroom/Tortilla Chips

Nutrition:

2 Uncrustables
4 GU
5 Peeps
2.5 Bottles w/CarboPro cocktail
20 Tortilla Chips

6 hours on the bike + 30 minutes of stops.

In the 6 hours I did 4475 ft of climbing and rode 90.8 miles with an average speed of 15.2

After my ride I hopped off the bike, did my transition and ran 2.5 miles. WOO HOO - it was a great weekend!