I am not superwoman.

Although I totally play her in my dreams.

I came to this realization this weekend while on my 5o mile bike ride. I am just over 1 month out from my half ironman. I have so much more work on the bike to do since I was without one for nearly 3 months due to manufacturer issues. Yes issues. Three separate issues in fact.

I figured, well I will just double my efforts on the bike in the next month. And then I realized that my time for training was coming to an end due to vacation and school and I was not going to enjoy the race experience this year with a major graduate paper hanging over my head. My half iron race, as it turned out, was in the middle of finals week and this term I have a really crazy busy class.

I realized that between work, school, marathon training, half ironman training, and home I only have so much time. Notice how I did not put sleep in there. I wrote an email to Revolution3 Triathlon requesting a credit on my entry so I can register for 2012, and withdraw from 2011.

I am upset only in that I was really excited for this race, but I have too much going on and the race will always be there. My schooling ends in December only if I work my butt off until then. So - the triathlon had to go. Overall I am happy with my decision as it really was the correct one.

So I have a 5k race this week Thursday, a sprint triathlon next week Wednesday, a half marathon in October, and the marathon in October to pull me through the rest of the year. I still have a lot on my plate, but now it is more manageable. :-)

Mid-week Check-in

This past week was actually pretty good. I got in 3 solid 1 hour - 2 hour bikes, 4 runs varying from 1 to 9 miles, two of which were 8 and 9 milers, and a nearly 1 mile swim in open water. This week I have done not too much so far, but it is a mid-week race week so I am focusing more on rest and school.

Tomorrow's race is a sprint tri. I am not racing it, more so just using it for transition practice. I am going to take the swim as it is, bike easy keeping HR low, and then run smart no walking. This will be hard given the 100* weather (index, not actual), but it is doable.

I have officially resigned from run/walking in training. My goal for Detroit is to run it all the way through, but we shall see. I do not like the run walk motion that much. I am struggling with this as my running partner is a run walker and I don't want her to feel like I am leaving her.

At this point, I am feeling really good for Rev3 HalfRev, and am feeling good about Detroit. I have never been this consistent in training, and the rewards are showing mentally.

Consistency is King! Now I just need to get back into the water more consistent. I need to do 3 swims a week, 3 bikes a week and 3-4 runs a week. So far I am hitting the bike, almost the run and no where near the swim. This week I have a 2 to 2.4 mile swim on tap for Thursday as active recovery from tomorrow's workout. :-) That would be the longest that I have ever swam continually in open water, or even in pool workout doing sets.

My Thursday swims will all be at the least 1.6 miles now.

Looking ahead to Rev3, I need to really get comfy on the tri bike for 3 hours time, and then run solidly off of it. If I can run the half marathon all the way through, even at a 13 minute mile (for sake of goal setting) I can still finish in under 7 hours. That would be over a 30 minute PR over last year. I really wanted to hit 6:30 this year, but to do that I need to kick my running and my biking into high gear and get some speed work done. Wind will be a factor on the bike for sure, so my goal of 18 MPH may be a reality of 16 or 17. Time to focus on run strength off of the bike for sure!

You're Doing It Wrong. Something About The Biggest Journey Being The One Inside.

Ha ha ha! This made my day. Sometimes it is neat to see how little things which seem completely inane, are really just the thing you need to flip a switch. While the above picture was not one of those things... the one below was.




I am stuck. In a rut. And I cannot. Get. Out. Or so I thought.

I have been having flashbacks to 2000 and looking forward in those memories to where I thought that I would be at 31. Never did I think that I would be here. I thought by now I would be so FAR from here!

But really... how does one measure the distance one has traveled in life? Seriously? In miles moved? In marriages accumulated? In children born? In jobs secured? In jobs lost? In battles won? How?

Yeah. I have not that answer either. And do you know what? That is not a bad thing. Who says that the mark of success is measurable at all? And who set the metrics by which it should be measured?

Exactly.

The most successful people I know question their own progress daily.

Besides, what did my 21 year old mind know anyhow? Nothing.... well everything if you were to have asked her!


For a while this year I have felt as if I had stopped making progress in my life back in 2000, because here I am 10 years later in a very similar place... right down to doing the exact same job albeit at a different company.

The big difference, which I did not realize until that switch went off in my little head, is that I am not in the same place. While it is familiar and the surroundings seem the same, I am the thing that has changed.

And that is actually an awesome thing. To look at my life through 21 year old eyes I had assumed that the world would change around me and I would just be me in new places.

Centristic? No.. not at all. I was 21 afterall, of course the world was going to revolve around me!

Little did I know back then that the world is pretty neat where it is... sometimes the biggest journeys occur within ourselves. While the world is constantly evolving around us, we are constantly evolving within ourselves.

At 21 I had no idea what lay ahead of me. At 31 I have even less of an idea what is ahead. This time around, I am not assuming anything. Evolution takes time and I have got all the time which the good Lord is granting me.

I signed up for Half Ironman #2 for 2010 today to kick myself out of the funk I was in. I even reserved my room at the Breakers. I am getting ready to kick some ass. Sorry mom.


The gloves are off. There is no more fear here. Life is good and in focus, and I am moving forward inside at a rate I never thought possible.