Sunday, May 14, 2006

Six Months to Ironman

The official countdown has started. With only six months to go, this is when I need to get serious about training, right? I have been working up to the Ironman for six years already since our last child's birth: a steady progression from sprint triathlons through Olympic distance, half marathons, half-Ironman, full marathon and now here we are. The terror is only starting to set in, just slightly. Mostly about getting in the water with more people than the entire population of my hometown. But also about being overtrained, undertrained, injured, showing up at the race and forgetting my bike, getting five flat tires, heat exhaustion, and all the other million things that newbie Ironpersons worry about. I have dreams, not very often, but occasionally. Dreams about things like showing up and having to put together my bike from scratch on the morning of the race because the shipping company disassembled it. Or going down to the beach for the swim and finding all the water drained away by a tsunami. That kind of thing.

A two-hour bike ride today over several large hills tells me I haven't been doing nearly enough biking lately. Swimming's my strong suit and I can always go the distance there. A 14 mile hill run last Sunday left me with hardly a fatigued muscle, so things are looking okay in the running department. It's just time to ramp up the mileage and get down to business. Stay tuned.

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