It’s Race Week!

It’s Ironman week, and I made it to Arizona. It’s Wednesday night, and I’m tired from hauling multiple bags and bikes through airports with a bunch of crabby triathletes suffering from taper temper.

Racing sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Despite the stress of travel and the stress of preparation, I’m excited. I’ve put in the work, and I’m ready to have the participation medal to show it. The road has been bumpy at times, and the fact that I was going down this road at all was definitely not in the plans 11 months ago, when I decided to train for a half Ironman that I may or may not be able to do.

The lift and the orthotic wasn’t a silver bullet to my running issues, but they have gotten me through my 15 and 16 mile runs without being too beat up. Just a few months ago that a run like would have caused a huge amount of pain and sidelined me for a week or two, so I would consider that a success.

I feel confident on the bike; I do not think I am riding at full potential, but given my issues with running and this being my first year, we didn’t want to push things too much. Swimming has definitely completely fallen by the wayside as I’ve picked up my running over the last few months, but there is only so much time in a week.

Training volume by minutes, huge uptick in running in October

While I’ve been completely distracted over the past week or two with the election, now I get to insulate myself a bit from the world and focus.