Body Snatchers

Oooh, I forgot about this part.
The taper.

Every twinge creates a panic:
"Is it an injury? Am I going to feel this next week?"

Difference is, I'm mature enough now to think rationally.
I used to stress out big time.
My body feels great overall.
I'm getting more sleep than I have been for the last 6 months.
I just need to stretch. I've been telling myself all along- if I'm going to DNF, it'll be because of a flexibility issue. With that in mind, the next week is going to be crazy full of looong stretch sessions morning, noon, and night.

The other part to this taper thing is the continuation of an addiction.
It's a well-known fact that people who spend a significant amount of time training for a race can fall into a depression after the event.
The way you build your life around it and sacrifice so many things for it...when it's gone, you feel empty.
I've never really felt that before, mostly because I am always looking ahead anyways.
So to talk of continuing the addiction...I'm already looking at next year.

I'm not going to make declarative statements, because whenever I do that, things don't happen.

There are certain events I am eyeing.
I want to go longer. I want to go faster. I want to move without thinking...and my body to repair itself on less sleep than ever before. I want doctors to be baffled and insurance companies to be weary of covering me. I don't want to be human.

Bring it.

14 days. A Brief.

I've been going about the last couple of weeks all wrong.

The thought process has been...."I HAVE TO do this, HAVE to do that."
As a result, training during september has been stressful and unenjoyable.

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to have fun. I was so wrapped up in the consequences of not training that I lost sight of why I do these things.

I'm glad I got my head in the right place in time. If I had carried that attitude into Lake Anna, I would have forgot to have fun during the race, and that would have surely ended in a DNF.

Got to remember that I love the scenery, the relaxed feeling I get after working out, and the time alone to sort out my thoughts.
It'll be here before I know it.

In 14 days to this moment, I will be doing my second Ironman swim.
In 15 days to this moment, I will be glad to see sunlight after riding my bike all night.
In 16 days to this moment, I will hopefully still be upright, plowing through miles of running with only one thing in mind...a finish line.

I think I'm going to play this one song by Nonpoint the entire time in VA...
Still Alive and Kickin'....

kp

t minus 14

Mixed emotions today.

Today I feel:
Very Nervous.
Stoked.
Stressed.
Excited.
Paranoid.

2 weeks.
My sleep deprivation is pretty much done.
I felt so awful yesterday that I canned it and was in bed by 10:30 last night.
With the hours of work I need to put in the next 2 weeks at Mojo, the chances of actually getting my required rest from now until race day are slim. It's times like these that I wish I was a professional athlete.

On tuesday night I did a 4 hour ride until 2 am, and I had such a strange range of thoughts...
"How do you possibly think you can do this race?"
I'm 26. There's a reason no dude under 31 has finished this.
Then minutes later...
"48 hours is doable!"

No expectations is what I need, but it's in my nature to think I am going to go there and kill it...even if in the back of my head, I know the fitness isn't there.
Well, the fitness is there. The mental might be there.
But I can NOT get caught up in the idea of going fast during the race...especially on the bike.
I'd like to actually be able to RUN a little bit on the run.

I would expect my blog rate to go up during these next 2 weeks. My brain will be racing, and my training volume will be less. I will need some type of outlet.

The hay is in the barn.
And I am preparing my mind to go into some really, really bad places.
14 days.


kp

super cheesy rhymezzzz

I'm focusing up
And numbing down
I bike all night
Through every town

I inhale food
And exhale pain
New aches start
As old ones wane

I'm building my resume
As an enduro geek
My brain is dead
But my body's sleek!

So what do I do
When I reach my triple mecca?
I go right past the finish
And aim for the deca!

Captain Crunch -19 days

19 days till race day.
5 days of "no effing around" training is about to start.

It's the last chance to callous my brain (and body...but more importantly, brain) before the 2 week rest period from September 25-October 9th. Starting tomorrow and ending friday, my only concern is burying myself in training and sleep deprivation.
I'm going to wake up in the morning and wish I hadn't gone to bed because the sleep was just a tease.
I'm going to pop caffeine pills and ibuprofen like M and Ms.
I want to make myself cry like an overtired little girl when the alarm goes off on friday morning.

For further motivation, I'd like to hear sometime before this race through the grapevine that someone doubts me. Or thinks I'm stupid for doing this.
That will help quite a bit.

On the fun side of things...
-Starting to buy food and other items for the race. Kind of adds some excitement. This is really going to happen.
-Troy and the Crew at Northern Physical Therapy has made a cycling jersey and triathlon jersey with their logo on it so I can represent their awesome facility. I really wouldn't have been able to get this far without their help. They know what they are doing!
-Getting the crew on the same page so they know what to expect. Luckily, I have Justin, an athlete, and Sarah, a massage therapist on the crew. My college friend Sterlynn will also be there. She'll be doing twitter updates and making food and stuff.

Race weekend visualizing has begun.
Swim. Stay relaxed.
Bike. Eat and stay focused on not going too hard.
Run. Just grit the teeth and get it done.

Troy and I have been discussing sleep during the race. To sleep or not to sleep?
How foggy will I be and how stiff will I be when I wake up?

I guess time will tell.

25 days.
There's a frustrating point in training for a big event where you know you're fit enough to do it, so you wanna do it before an injury or something happens.truth is, I feel fit enough, but there's no way to know really.
While I MIGHT be fit enough, there's certainly some fine tuning over the next 11 days.
I can swim hard for the next 18 days for sure.
I got a long run walk to do tonight after good day of training today, and that'll be the last major weight-bearing long workout.
Then next monday it's another long ride- 15 hours hopefully. And then the long hours are done.
It's almost time. The days are really flying by now.

4 Weeks Of Crabby Hermit Syndrome

Exactly 4 weeks to this very moment, I will be 3 hours into a 7.2 mile swim...hopefully daydreaming along and patient. Triathlon swims are the worst when all you can think about is getting done. I hope that I can find that peaceful rhythm and just settle in, so that I am not starting the race off on the wrong foot.

I think my plan will be to swim 3 laps, or 1.2 miles, at a time, then stop for fuel for a minute, and get right back to it. That'll be 6 segments....much easier in my head than thinking 18 laps.

There are other factors in my life right now that are adding some unnecessary stress.
My car. Moving. The "divorce". Money.
They try to take my focus off what I've been training for all year. I cannot let this happen.
Usually the day before or day of a race, I kind of go into myself.
I don't enjoy talking to people. I get agitated really quickly.
I guess it's my way of focusing up.

Strangely, I am already starting to feel this way, 4 weeks out.
I'm not thinking about socializing.
I'm thinking of the core work, the stretching, the workouts, and the details I need to be focusing on over the next month.
The race is consuming my existence, and all I want do right now is go into hiding and just prepare for the next month.
Is this healthy? I don't know, and I guess I don't really care.

I think it's good that I'm hungry.
I am still pretty fatigued from the overnight bike ride to Bangor and the lack of sleep earlier this week. The goal is to be really well rested come Monday and Tuesday, where I'll do back to back long training days.
After those two days are done, there's one major bike ride left and then the hard work is done.

Here's to not trapping yourself in a limited world.
Limits are only for the closed minded.

kp

crank

When I laid down to go to sleep last night, I had been up for 45 hours straight... a new high for me and an even larger accomplishment given the bike ride the night before.
I struggled to keep my eyes open for a few hours prior to that, but that might have had something to do with the Octoberfest.

Ever seen that movie Crank with Jason Statham?
I felt like him yesterday.
As long as I stay amped in a sleep deprived state, I'm good to go.
It's when I'm just chilling that sleep tries to yank my eyelids down.
For the first time in my training, I feel like I know what to expect in a month.
The aches feel like injuries in the wee hours of the morning, but ibuprofen and sunshine seems to cure everything.
Another sleepless night on tap for tonight. No training though- just driving.

I sometimes wonder if I am taking the right path, living this lifestyle..but then I get smart.
If anything, training for this event has enriched my life.
You haven't lived until you've seen Katahdin in the moonlight on a clear night after 80 miles of riding.
I'm thankful for the experiences I've had and the people I've met, and I look forward to all the new things in the future.
It's in my blood, and I could never go back now.
32 days!

KP