Various Updates

Wow...all I can say is this Ultraman thing is a daily obsession...at least until I think I have things under control.

I am busy making myself a training plan and am not yet sure I will retain a coach--I may just want until January for that. I think I'm good with what I'm doing through December, as long as it doesn't kill me! I am going to try and get my long swim up to 7,000 yards by the end of the year. That allows me to maintain some sort of sanity through the beginning of winter and keep myself focused on running. Will try and get up to a 9,000 yard long swim by April.

On a related note, today I swam 3,000 yards and it went by quickly! I am doing a little experiment on myself and will just be swimming short intervals (50's and 100's) for a few weeks on my shorter swims. It seems that I forgot how much fun that can be, even though I also enjoy the longer intervals, which I'll use for the long swim (500's). It's nice that I changed my perspective of "long swim" this summer, but we'll see how much I like starting to swim at 5:30AM for awhile!

I now have 2 crew members for Ultraman--Shelley (Crew Captain) and Deirdre. Deirdre lives up in BC, so that will help with shipping crap to her and also starting our travel to Penticton in Vancouver. I will keep saying I am SO grateful that these wonderful people are going to do this for me! I am still looking for a third crew member, as I need firm commitments as soon as possible.

On another note, I am getting a new triathlon bike! Well, I won't have it probably until December--it is going to be custom built for me by Elite! Since everyone is already asking about it, it's going to be a Razor Carbon with Ultegra components, and will be black with pirates (Jolly Roger) on the frame/fork and flames on the Zipp wheels. I'm getting a PowerTap SL built into the rear wheel, since I love power and Elite does the wheel building themselves. I go for my measuring on 10/3, so that will be pretty exciting.

I am also really excited that Ironman Wisconsin is coming up next week, and I will be going up there with Shelley to ride around during the race and continue cheering on during the run! I know so many people doing the race--it will be good to offer them whatever I can in terms of encouragement and just that "knowing"--that I know just how they feel.

I have already biked twice this week, very easy on the MTB, and am going out on LGL today for a short spin, and hopefully will get in maybe 3 hours on LGL tomorrow, just so I am able to ride a decent pace and some hills with Shelley at IMWI!

I haven't run yet, and wont' until Monday, which will just be trying out the old legs. However, I am going to try and walk/hike up and down this really big hill at Green Valley on Sunday--if it feels OK, I will go up and down 5 times which would be 10 miles, but who knows? I need to listen to my legs, especially my knees.

I can't believe I am going to run 50 miles in just 5 weeks--that hasn't sunk in yet--and I have to go buy a headlamp and maybe some other stuff for it. Didn't I just run about 50 miles? Oh yeah, that is so last week.

I feel like I'm on this fast-moving conveyor belt and that I really have to pay attention to everything that is flying past me in case it has something to do with Ultraman. Things to buy, things to do, things to consider for training. It is all so very heady and a little overwhelming. But I know that once I have things laid out on paper at least through the end of the year (should be done with that this weekend), and I can look at it and see what I need to do, I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief for awhile, and then I can begin sketching out January-July, which is the really meaty part.

I am having regular, fleeting thoughts of, "why am I doing this?" And so far, the only answer I can come up with is, "because I was ready for it." And I am a firm believer in that when you know you are ready for something that you should march ahead and just do it. The doing of things is what gets things done and makes us able to do more and be more, and that is what this is all about to me.

One more thing--I'm very happy to have a 3-day weekend! Hope yours is outstanding, and good luck to my friends who are racing this weekend!