Choices

After the high of the 70.3, I've decided that it's probably best if I not race before Ironman. The risk of injury is too high, and more importantly, I want to keep the long course triathlon memory fresh in my mind. So I think it's a good decision to not race until August 31st, although this will probably drive me crazy.
Training's going as planned, or I hope. Did a 16.5 mile run on Monday, and that went ok. I wore my heart monitor to make it easier to judge my effort, and am considering wearing that during the race, although it was sort of digging into my chest at times. Interestingly enough, my local pool will be closed for the next two months leaving me without a pool to train in. This is a blessing in disguise because I am going to join the gym in Hartford and hire a swim coach (who is also a member of Team Heat). I definitely think it's one of those situations where I'll be paying for pain, but worth every penny. Furthermore, I will finish my swim training on the weekend of August 10th with a super long open water swim in Maine. After I complete that swim, I'll start my taper and try and rest up. It's crazy to even think that I have about 2 weeks left of building on my fitness and then the work is pretty much over....I will have completed all my real training. That's the point where I look in the mirror and tell myself "you did everything you can for a year, now it's time to rest up." That scares me. On that note, I don't think my running is where it needs to be. I still need some long distance runs and that will be my focus for the final two weeks. In terms of the bike, I'll be doing another 100 mile ride this Friday with Rohan, and this route will be different than last time, supposedly with more hills. I'm looking forward to it. Literally, I'm looking forward to everything. The seconds are going by like hours now. I committed to this race almost a year ago, and it's been the first thing I've thought about when I've woken up, and the last before I fall asleep. It really has been life changing so far, but I feel like I need to cross that finish line before it's complete.

In the words of Chris McCormack: "Ironman is a test of what you've been blessed with, everyone's got two legs, two arms, but Ironman tests what you're really made of - your will. That's immeasurable until you do one of these. I went into my first Ironman as Chris McCormack and I came out a different person; only an Ironman knows the feeling...it's an incredible challenge, an incredible event.....and it changes ya. Being an Ironman is just cool."