31 Days

Monday night I had a minor emotional melt down after swimming when I didn’t get enough food in me. I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to my last blog post, haha.

Anyway, Kirsten and I are in a final (fingers crossed) big push right now on the training front before our taper begins. I’m still enjoying training, but have been in a slightly strange headspace as I feel like I've been struggling more the normal lately. Of course, this struggle has started to frustrate me a bit - and admittedly, freak me out too. I found myself wondering “is this mental or physical, am I normal or totally abnormal.” Thankfully, when I air all these worries to my psychiatrist (I mean coach) he seems to know the right things to say and is able to offer the reassurance I need. It’s funny too, because he can say all the same things as say, my folks, and yet, it’s somehow received differently (sorry parental units).

All that said, driving home last night after a bike workout, I just had this moment – it hit me – I can do this. I have no doubt I can do this. I will finish and I will have a great time doing it. When I picture myself finishing Ironman, I have never imagined a bad scenario. It’s always a pretty happy, feel good vision, and so I think it’s time to focus solely on the food (haha typo, but I’m keeping it – should say focus solely on the good) and think only positive thoughts for the next 31 days.

So yes, the positive thinking starts now!



Very random picture, but I figure how can you not feel positive when you look at this loveable little man?


Other than that, I suppose a training recap is in order….

We had a fairly big training day on Saturday which consisted of a two loop big island swim at Thetis. From there we hit the bikes and rode up and over the Malahat to Mill Bay, into Shawnigan and around the lake, then back out to Mill Bay and back over the ‘hat. This was followed by a fairly hilly 90 minute run around Thetis and surrounding areas. While I struggled at times on this workout (and unfortunately rolled my ankle about 45 minutes into the run) I was fairly pleased with it, as I think we took on somewhat challenging routes on both the ride and the run.

Sunday was a much needed and much enjoyed rest day! Perfectly timed with the conclusion of le Tour de France. (Yay Ryder!) Oh, how I love le Tour. My Tour withdrawals commenced promptly on Monday morning when I flipped on the TV and realized that OLN was airing yet another episode of Operation Repo or something equally as un-outdoor-life-y.

Since then, the week has been fairly typical for training, (if not a teeny bit heavier than usual) with a solid open water session on Monday night, a fartlek run workout on Tuesday morning and a fartlek bike session in the evening. This morning I hit the pool and also plan on getting in a good ride tonight after work. I was supposed to be running off the bike, but have been given the go ahead to skip this in order to try and heal up my ankle a little as it’s still pretty tender and did not like me running on it yesterday morning.

Looking ahead to the weekend, we’re heading to Penticton for some training on the IMC course and hopefully some relaxing around the pool as well.

Bring on the heat!