Progression

There's something really exciting about the first time you train for a marathon.  I would guess that for most people, the longest that they've ever run before completing a marathon training program is somewhere around 13 miles (in my case, the soldier field ten miler right before the beginning of the season was my longest run ever before my first marathon training program [I never said I was smart]). That means that almost every long run that you run, you've run a new distance, that you've conquered something that you've never done before. After a couple of marathons, the joy of being able to say "I can't believe that I just propelled my body 20 miles" wears off a bit (I am not as crazy as most and I've run 20 miles or over around 20 times). Running a 20 miler becomes commonplace. Unimpressive. Normal (I imagine that it is this that makes people do stupid s*** like Ironman).
I went up to Madison this weekend to ride the course. After a fairly heinous ride last time (during which I also figured out that I don't have enough gears on my bike [a problem that still has not been remedied]), it felt good to get back on the course and ride it like I knew what I was doing (at least a little bit). I had a fairly good ride and finished feeling strong (despite getting a little lost around the beginning of the loop) despite the hills and despite not having enough gears (still [I never said I was smart- take 2]).  After I finished, feeling pretty good about myself, I looked down at my watch and realized that this four hour ride was the furthest I'd ever ridden my bike before. And then I got a little excited. I remembered what it felt like to do that 14/17/20 mile run for the first time and I got excited about riding 100 miles for the first time ever, or about swimming 2 miles in open water for the first time, and after a frustrating couple of weeks got excited about progressing through training again.
So, I end this training week excited about conquering new distances again (and wondering what in the hell I will do with myself when I've conquered all those distances... ultra running? [scary]).

Non-Absorption

So, I ended up taking the bike test that I had missed during our Turkey trip this past Wednesday. It did not go well. My heart rate shot up almost right away, I only "improved" by a few watts, and I felt like I was going to die pretty much the entire time (you're really only supposed to feel like you are going to die most of the time, not ALL of the time- the concept behind the bike test being to go as hard as you can go for twenty minutes without actually dying [I'm pretty sure that if you die at the end, your results are invalid- but it is triathlon, so who knows?]).
I e-mailed coach about the whole situation and told her that I was really frustrated with my results (and the way that my runs have been going lately too).  I'm just not seeing the improvement that I expected to make, and it's driving me crazy (on a side note, the whole thing reminds me of AP Chemistry in high school...I studied and studied and studied...and still got a C. In the same way that my brain appears to be Chemistry resistant, my body is being ironman resistant right now...I work out and work out and work out and still get a C [or a six watt difference, the computrainer version of a C-]). Coach wrote back and told me that my "body isn't absorbing the workouts" (!!!! that's the last thing I want to hear. Does that mean that I could have been sitting on my butt this whole time and be in the same place?). Apparently, I am too stressed out (no kidding), not getting enough sleep (obviously), and not eating enough (seriously? wow. I mean, wow) and am therefore not recovering enough to get stronger. Bummer.
So, I have to take it easy for a couple days, eat more, and try to get more rest. If only that formula had worked for AP Chem.

Balance

Life, according to all the women's magazines that I read in the checkout line at the grocery store, is all about balance. Balancing work and social life, balancing friends with family, balancing your diet, balancing yourself upside down (yoga magazine- Whole Foods check out lane). Triathlon is about balance to a great degree as well: balancing the three sports, balancing nutrition, etc. The problem is: Ironman leaves little time for balance. There is something, I guess, that is not very balanced about spending most of your weekend working out. In some ways, I've come to grips with it. I understand that I've made a choice to do Ironman, which is going to take a lot of my social life away from me. I'm fine with that.
The problem lies with balancing Ironman with the rest of life. I've somehow been managing to work out AND do my job (anyone who thinks that teachers work a six hour day can try doubling that). It is the rest of life that is turning out to be tricky. It is not until one is extremely pressed for time that one realizes how much maintenance life requires: it is not until one wakes up one morning and realizes that one has nothing to wear that is clean, that there is no food in the house, that there is a stack of unread papers on the floor by the door (when was the last time that that floor was mopped? or the carpet vacuumed? or anything dusted?), and while running to the car (in an outfit from three years ago, gnawing on an apple that one found [?!] in the crisper) realizes that all the gas in the car was used up on that trip to Wisconsin but never replaced. The hardest thing about Ironman might not actually be the training (although I'm not going to lie, it hasn't been easy and doesn't appear to be getting any easier), but keeping a hold on continuing to be a functioning adult capable of feeding, cleaning, and maintaining oneself while training for Ironman.
Thank goodness for summer vacation.

Humble Pie

So, I rode the Madison course for the first time this past weekend. I didn't ride all of it (all of it would be 112 miles), but I certainly rode enough of it. I've been told in the past that the course is hilly. Let me tell you this: the course is HILLY. I spent much of the ride cursing the great state of Wisconsin, much of it trying to catch up with the others, and the whole of it questioning my sanity in signing up to do this thing.  Unlike the Boston Marathon course, the downhills do not make up for the uphills. 
Long story short, I made it. In one piece. On race day, I just have to do that again. Well, and then again right after that. 
I have a newfound respect (read: fear) of the course and what it is going to do to my legs (should make for an interesting marathon). Where at one point I felt like I was working out a lot (two hours! on the bike trainer!), I'm now fearing the opposite.
It was a brutal ride but on the bright side, I got a six pack of New Glarus out of the deal. On the downside, after coach made a comment about it "not being part of [my] fueling plan", I'm now afraid to drink it.

So it begins...(or ends)

I was looking over my schedule for this week earlier today. There was nothing really out of ordinary about it: regular work, running over to see a friend's new apartment, grabbing dinner with another friend, a third friend's birthday celebration, mother's day. A little busy, but surely nothing that I can't handle...you know, until you add thirteen hours of working out to that.
I was talking to someone this weekend who replied, when told by a friend that I was doing an ironman, "I thought all you people did was train and stuff." Well, I think that this week is the week that that statement becomes true. The week when I finally have to start saying "no" to behaving like a normal person who has friends, and start saying "yes" to driving somewhere that no one's ever heard of every weekend to ride my bike for six hours, and then spend all the rest of my waking hours talking about those six hour rides with people who were there anyway, and saying stupid words like "HR zones", "Gu", "Nutrition Plan", (and probably "Bonk") over and over again.
So, this is my farewell letter to the rest of humanity until September 12th. I hope that you all will come support me even though I missed (fill in the blank) _______________ (game night, girl's night out, that fundraiser you organized, your birthday, the birth of your first child, your wedding)!