I'm reading this book, "Girl, Wash Your Face" by Rachel Hollis. It's amazing. I see so much of my friends and me in this book. But last night, in the bathtub, I came across this passage that really resonated with me:
"Goals and dreams are hard. I get it. Actually accomplishing them is so much harder than you think it will be...Some days you feel so discouraged you want to cry.
Go ahead and cry.
Rend your garments and wail to the heavens like some biblical mourner. Get it all out. Then dry your eyes and wash your face and keep on going. You think this is hard? That's because it is. So what? Nobody said it would be easy.
You have to reach down inside yourself and remember the reason you started this. You'd better find the will to keep going, because if you don't, I promise you someone else will. If that happens, girl, you will watch someone else achieve your dreams and enjoy the spoils of their hard-fought battle. And if that happens, you will understand one of the greatest lessons in this life: the only thing worse than giving up is wishing that you hadn't."
I can still remember the first time I heard about an Ironman. I was at church, probably 10 years old, and someone was playing an inspirational video about a dad/son team who had just completed an Ironman. The son, Rick, had been born with cerebral palsy and his dad would pull him in a boat in the water, bike with him sitting in front in a special seat, and push him in a wheelchair on the run. Looking back, I think the audience of this inspirational video was the wrong age. We were too young to really appreciate the message. But I was enthralled. What was this competition that pushed people to their limits?
I grew up in the 80's in West Valley City. I didn't know a single person that did triathlons. This initial spark did not become a full raging fire because I didn't even know where to begin. So almost as soon as it hatched, the idea was tossed aside for more exciting ventures that seemed more attainable.
Fast forward about 15 years. I got a mailer announcing a local triathlon. It triggered my memory of this dad/son team and I signed up. And I had the most fun ever! It was more fun than any race I had ever done (though, to be fair, I had not really done that many races.) I loved it! I couldn't wait to do more. And thus began the slow, burning flame of my dream to do an Ironman.
Do a Sprint Triathlon (400 yd swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), aspire to do a Full Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). Sounds perfectly reasonable!
To make a long story short, I have been working on this dream for almost 15 years! To think that it is NEXT YEAR is unbelievable. In just a few months I can buy a day planner and it will have that month in it!! I can put it in ink come July!
Have I wanted to quit?? So many times. Am I tired?? So, so very tired. Am I freaking out?? So much, yes! But then I envision myself crossing that finish line and I know--no, I KNOW--I am going to get there and it's going to be every bit as exciting and rewarding (and hard) as I have imagined it was going to be the last 15 years. I know, with every fiber of my being, that I am meant to have this dream and to accomplish it and so when the weeks of training go by and I am discouraged, I don't allow myself to dwell on the what ifs: What if I just stopped talking about it and September 2020 went by and no one asked me about it? What if I just said that I didn't want to do it any more? What if I took up knitting and changed my phone number and cut all ties to anything and anyone that would expose me as a quitter?
I will be there, at that starting line, September 13, 2020, with a smile on my face and a grateful heart for the desire and the ability to accomplish this monumental dream.
Weekly Totals
Swimming: 3,865 yds
Biking: 3:49 (30 miles long)
Run: 13.5 miles
Workout of the Week
A friend, Charlie, contacted me earlier this week to see if I would like to fill in for his wife, Janna, at a Indoor Tri Series race that everyone signed up for but me. It was a good way to practice some new swimming techniques I learned at my swim analysis I had done on Wednesday. Plus a good chance to catch up with friends.
It was about a 40 minute drive and my bike ride on Friday totally wiped me out for the day, so I had to get up extra early to get everything ready. I do much better race morning if I have everything ready to go the night before. I started off for the venue and thought about my racing strategy. The race is set up so that everyone is doing the exact same times in each of the disciplines: 15 minute swim, 10 minute transition, 25 minute bike, 10 minute transition, 20 minute run.
The swim went pretty good. The swim analysis gave me a good idea of things to work on and I tried to implement some of the suggestions, though I could feel my form starting to deteriorate as I got tired. I was able to swim 650 yds in 15 minutes and felt good about that.
The bike was interesting. There were spin bikes set up by the pool and, unbeknownst to me, the idea is to spin your legs as fast as humanly possible. I thought that more distance would be covered if you had more resistance (like on my bike set up at home) but I was wrong. That took me about 1.5 miles to figure out, but it did give me a chance to let Hillary know before she got on so she could get a better distance than the first race she did. There is nothing about this particular methodology of riding a bike that would help us at all in our Half Ironman. It's like putting your bike in the easiest gear on a flat surface and pedaling as fast as you can. You just wouldn't go anywhere very fast but it would sure wear you out. Yet...you have to play by the rules, regardless of how stupid the rules are.
The good thing about that style of bike riding though is that my legs weren't nearly as tired when I went to run. I felt really good--could have used a gel pack after the bike for some energy though--and I got about 2.20 miles done in 20 minutes. It's the best I've been running for a really long time. And it came on the heels of two other events plus a long ride the day before.
As always, the best moments are those spent with the people I love, and today was no different. It was fun to race with the crew again. It was awesome to really push myself and to see some huge improvements in my sports. 2019 is going to be epic!
"Goals and dreams are hard. I get it. Actually accomplishing them is so much harder than you think it will be...Some days you feel so discouraged you want to cry.
Go ahead and cry.
Rend your garments and wail to the heavens like some biblical mourner. Get it all out. Then dry your eyes and wash your face and keep on going. You think this is hard? That's because it is. So what? Nobody said it would be easy.
You have to reach down inside yourself and remember the reason you started this. You'd better find the will to keep going, because if you don't, I promise you someone else will. If that happens, girl, you will watch someone else achieve your dreams and enjoy the spoils of their hard-fought battle. And if that happens, you will understand one of the greatest lessons in this life: the only thing worse than giving up is wishing that you hadn't."
I can still remember the first time I heard about an Ironman. I was at church, probably 10 years old, and someone was playing an inspirational video about a dad/son team who had just completed an Ironman. The son, Rick, had been born with cerebral palsy and his dad would pull him in a boat in the water, bike with him sitting in front in a special seat, and push him in a wheelchair on the run. Looking back, I think the audience of this inspirational video was the wrong age. We were too young to really appreciate the message. But I was enthralled. What was this competition that pushed people to their limits?
I grew up in the 80's in West Valley City. I didn't know a single person that did triathlons. This initial spark did not become a full raging fire because I didn't even know where to begin. So almost as soon as it hatched, the idea was tossed aside for more exciting ventures that seemed more attainable.
Fast forward about 15 years. I got a mailer announcing a local triathlon. It triggered my memory of this dad/son team and I signed up. And I had the most fun ever! It was more fun than any race I had ever done (though, to be fair, I had not really done that many races.) I loved it! I couldn't wait to do more. And thus began the slow, burning flame of my dream to do an Ironman.
Do a Sprint Triathlon (400 yd swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), aspire to do a Full Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). Sounds perfectly reasonable!
To make a long story short, I have been working on this dream for almost 15 years! To think that it is NEXT YEAR is unbelievable. In just a few months I can buy a day planner and it will have that month in it!! I can put it in ink come July!
Have I wanted to quit?? So many times. Am I tired?? So, so very tired. Am I freaking out?? So much, yes! But then I envision myself crossing that finish line and I know--no, I KNOW--I am going to get there and it's going to be every bit as exciting and rewarding (and hard) as I have imagined it was going to be the last 15 years. I know, with every fiber of my being, that I am meant to have this dream and to accomplish it and so when the weeks of training go by and I am discouraged, I don't allow myself to dwell on the what ifs: What if I just stopped talking about it and September 2020 went by and no one asked me about it? What if I just said that I didn't want to do it any more? What if I took up knitting and changed my phone number and cut all ties to anything and anyone that would expose me as a quitter?
I will be there, at that starting line, September 13, 2020, with a smile on my face and a grateful heart for the desire and the ability to accomplish this monumental dream.
Weekly Totals
Swimming: 3,865 yds
Biking: 3:49 (30 miles long)
Run: 13.5 miles
Workout of the Week
A friend, Charlie, contacted me earlier this week to see if I would like to fill in for his wife, Janna, at a Indoor Tri Series race that everyone signed up for but me. It was a good way to practice some new swimming techniques I learned at my swim analysis I had done on Wednesday. Plus a good chance to catch up with friends.
It was about a 40 minute drive and my bike ride on Friday totally wiped me out for the day, so I had to get up extra early to get everything ready. I do much better race morning if I have everything ready to go the night before. I started off for the venue and thought about my racing strategy. The race is set up so that everyone is doing the exact same times in each of the disciplines: 15 minute swim, 10 minute transition, 25 minute bike, 10 minute transition, 20 minute run.
The swim went pretty good. The swim analysis gave me a good idea of things to work on and I tried to implement some of the suggestions, though I could feel my form starting to deteriorate as I got tired. I was able to swim 650 yds in 15 minutes and felt good about that.
The bike was interesting. There were spin bikes set up by the pool and, unbeknownst to me, the idea is to spin your legs as fast as humanly possible. I thought that more distance would be covered if you had more resistance (like on my bike set up at home) but I was wrong. That took me about 1.5 miles to figure out, but it did give me a chance to let Hillary know before she got on so she could get a better distance than the first race she did. There is nothing about this particular methodology of riding a bike that would help us at all in our Half Ironman. It's like putting your bike in the easiest gear on a flat surface and pedaling as fast as you can. You just wouldn't go anywhere very fast but it would sure wear you out. Yet...you have to play by the rules, regardless of how stupid the rules are.
The good thing about that style of bike riding though is that my legs weren't nearly as tired when I went to run. I felt really good--could have used a gel pack after the bike for some energy though--and I got about 2.20 miles done in 20 minutes. It's the best I've been running for a really long time. And it came on the heels of two other events plus a long ride the day before.
As always, the best moments are those spent with the people I love, and today was no different. It was fun to race with the crew again. It was awesome to really push myself and to see some huge improvements in my sports. 2019 is going to be epic!
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