The Unkown

March 28, 2009 -

Venture into the unknown of first time full length Ironman racing.

Universal Sports has been replaying some classic Ironman World Championships recently and I try to catch them whenever they are on for the extra motivation they provide. I love to watch all the different backgrounds, stories and experiences.

It always gets me thinking though...what will my experience be? How will I tell my Ironman story? Will I get clobbered in the swim, deal with flats on the bike, suffer through cramps and muscles giving out on the run? Will it take me hours longer than I anticipate? Will I recover right after to celebrate, or be out of it? Or...will it go exactly as planned? Will I coast through each of the legs in my expected times finishing with a huge smile on my face and a great celebration?

For a first time Ironman participant these are the questions. It is all that unknown, which serves as the self conversation of many lonely runs, rides and swims. I have gone over every part of the race from start to finish in my mind and how I think it will go, and what can go wrong. I'm constantly envisioning that glorious finish in my mind, which has provided the motivation at many different times during training.

I am almost three months down now with a month of conditioning and two months of actual training and can't imiagine what the next two and a half months will bring as I wrestle this mental battle that is....the unkown.

Day 87 Training Log - Yesterday was actually supposed to be my day off, but I prefer to have one off on the weekend so I moved Saturday's workout to Friday. I had also planned on moving Sunday's workout to today and taking Sunday off, but again today is cold and very rainy. I am deffinitely not motivated by that. I will get my run in tomorrow as planned and today.....I'm off.