Week #22 Ironman Training

As I sit on my front porch in a summer dress feeling the sun on my cheek, I am beyond grateful that the warmth has arrived.  It was a long winter here in New England, just in case you missed every other post where I mentioned this fact.  I know there were other areas in the country that had it worse but I don’t remember the last time I forgot what it felt like to be warm.  In the moment I embrace, but in hindsight I’m floored at my recollection of conditions that I trained in this season.  Thankfully there seems to be another guarantee in this life besides death and taxes, it’s the guarantee that time will pass and the seasons will change.  Having our first beach day yesterday brought much bliss along with my first sunburn, clearly I lost my skill of application over the last 10 months.  But there are no complaints coming from this yogi because my gratitude is full on and plus I need my base!  Race season is upon us and I’ve suffered the infamous triathlon wings burn before with no plans of a repeat performance.

Less than two weeks away from the Patriot brought wave starts and packet pick up info to my inbox today.  Nothing new except a time trial start.  Certainly we are seeing more of this in the sport and I am confident that more is coming.  From a race organizer perspective I would think its a dream come true, I can only imagine that as the sport has grown so has the rescue missions and retrievals of competitors panicking and unfortunately for some, meeting their maker.  When Ironman announced their “swim safe” program for the 2013 year I was one of the biggest resistance makers.  Touted from my high horse, I made claims about how they were “wussifying” the Ironman and other non-loving comments like “if you can’t hack a mass start then find another sport”.  Not very yogi I know, but that is where I was at in my spiritual evolution so I own those comments because I made them.  These days, I’m indifferent to the changes but forever grateful for my mass start experiences and non-time trial starts.  I was never one to shy away from the washing machine or the full contact sport aspect of the swim. I’m not sure why but it probably had something to do with my Marine Corps dad throwing us off the boat in the middle of the ocean in the middle of nowhere.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved it and never thought about what may be under or around me when swimming in the deep, deeps.  Until of course, that day when the sharks were circling our boat.

As I head into my last full week of training before the race week (my favorite week, second to recovery week) I’m feeling really good.  I mean really, really good.  I’m not sure I remember ever feeling this good going into an Ironman season.  There’s been a few factors that are new this year and although I can’t attribute the way I feel to one particular thing I rest easy knowing that its the addition of all of them.  I’m seeing less massage clients (about 5 on average per week), I have a steady 3 day a week heated vinyasa practice, my meditation practice is at least double it was for my last Ironman prep and….wait for it….I’m 100% plant powered baby!  If last season was any indication, I’m in for some PRs this year pending the stars align and race day conditions cooperate.  But as race day always will remain the great unknown, the most important thing I can do at this point…and always….is let go of my attachment to the outcome.

8 weeks to Placid….namaste!
Week #22 Recap