The Gift of Time

I am fortunate enough to have two weeks off for winter break.

As you can imagine, with a double Ironman in my near future, my break is spent training!

Granted, I am just now one month out of my last 140.6, but my body responded well, and I am back at it.

I have been swim-bike-running a LOT.

But I have also been back at my strength/core work, and hot yoga. These are things that are tough to fit in, but that I am making time for plenty of in my two weeks.

I am not yet able to commit to being stricter with my food. I just wanted to enjoy some Christmas treats and relax a little. I just had a week bigger than the build up to any other 140.6 this year, so I figure a few cookies won't hurt. I'll get better soon. It is really easy to be good in January when everyone wants to be good!

George and I went out to pick up our bikes from the shop they were delivered to, and they had this sign up!

This is a good thing for me to remember when I am really tired on my bicycle!!

Comitting to the Race

 

I stole this straight from my teammate Mike's blog.

I need to read and think about this a lot. 

I am not very far into my double training. I have taken a very strange view of this event. I keep on telling people, "maybe I'll like it and maybe I won't. We'll just see. I know I know, it's crazy. Maybe I won't want to do any more of these once I do one. I'm just giving it a try." 

I think I am saying that because people are VERY judgmental about this goal. Surprisingly far more judgmental than the other goals I have done. Clearly this is some kind of threshold for people Everyone I talk to has a variety of negagtive things to say about this race. I hear, "I would never do that." "You are crazy!" "That can't be healthy." and on and on and on and on. People around me (both in and out of the sport) have gotten used to my Ironmans. This is something new. This is just too much.

I think I have internalized that attitude.

It is crazy.

It is hard.

It will hurt.

But isn't that WHY I want to do it? 

I need to stop mentally pandering to people who are negative about my races and own it for me.

I have the love and support of the people who matter most, so I really don't need the approval of everyone else. "They" really don't need to understand why  I am doing 2 hours of swimming before I go to work. They don't need to understand why I am spending my weekends and my entire winter break training.

I am who needs to understand.

I am the one who is doing the work.

I am physically committed to the race. I am doing the work, I am organizing my life around the training. 

I need to dedicate my WHOLE self to it.

I need to give myself mental permission to commit to this race.