While I always had respect for those athletes that complete an Ironman, my awe for their accomplishments continues to grow. Training for an Ironman isn’t easy, it’s damn hard. While my training is going well for the most part, adding miles to get to those Ironman numbers are very difficult. I went into this thinking it would be tough but not this tough. I had completed a half so figured, “o.k. a full will be twice as hard, I can do that.” Not so, seems (for me at least) adding those miles at the top end are exponentionally more difficult. Adding just 10 miles to a bike ride of 70, 80, 90 miles is painful. Not just moderately more difficult, but painfully more difficult. Adding 20 minutes to a 2, 2:30 run is very painful. The knees and back ache, the pain shoots up the left side of the leg, the doubt creeps in.

I went from grand dreams of finishing an Ironman in a respectable time, to now conceding to just surviving. Goal number one and pretty much my only goal going into Canada is going to be crossing that line and surviving this Epic battle with my body and mind. I’ve made many mental notes along the way and definitely have some things I’ll do differently for next year’s race (haven’t decided which one yet). Things such as training with a Powermeter, doing core work, being a little more consistent in training and especially diet. May even look into a nutritionist, as I think this is my biggest crutch. It’s amazing how a poor meal or bad nutrition can effect workouts and motivation, especially when you get up to these distances. You can’t fake it up here, a 6 hour ride is a 6 hour ride, 15 miles of running isn’t something you can just go out and do on a whim. Maybe soemday I’ll have that kind of endurance and fitness, but now it takes planning and eating well the day before these tasks.

At any rate, as difficult and painful as this can be at times, I won’t stop. I’ll never give up. I’ll continue to endure for the rest of my life. This has been a great experience and I haven’t even done the race yet. At this point it doesn’t really matter how my race goes, well maybe it does . But I feel I’ve accomplished som much in just my training that the race itself is just the footnote on this Ironman chapter of my Endurance book. I’m already excited to train for another next year and to do other endurance events, maybe push myself to do some mountain bike endurance rides, some Xterra’s, maybe a ultramarathon type race is in my future. Basically I want to keep pushing myself, keep training for new experiences.

So why, if it’s so painful at times, do you want to continue doing it? One may ask. Well, it’s hard to explain unless you’ve done it. Most of you readers will understand. Most of you readers have inspired me to continue. It’s about seeing your cyclometer tick past 90 miles and you know you can put it another 10. It’s about looking at your watching and seeing 3:01 and realizing, holy crap I just ran for 3 hours… and I don’t feel like death. The sense of accomplishment and inner pride that washes over me when I surpass these plateaus is amazing. These are things I never comprehended being able to do 1-2-3 years ago. Now I know I can, and I can continue to go further, and I will.