When I was a kid...

My mom would always tell me not to be in such a hurry for things (I think I've said before...no patience...LOL).  I always "couldn't wait" for something or another, always wishing time would go by faster than it was.  She would also tell me to "wait until I grew up" or "wait until you're an adult"...that "time would go by very fast".  Of course, I didn't believe her.  Really, what kid DOES believe anything their parents tell them?  And quite frankly, as an adult, there are many times that time seems like it's sitting still (my thoughts go back to that last job that I hated...man 6.5 hours seemed like an eternity!!).  But in fairness to my mom, every year since I moved out on my own, at some point I stop and think "where did the year go?"...time seems to be flying by!

Fast forward to January 2012 when I started my Ironman WI training with Coach Jen.  I had 8 months until my big race...8 MONTHS!!  That seemed like an eternity!  It was months before my workouts seemed to be anything longer than what I was already doing (yes, I've always been a "longer weekend workout" kind of person).  I still remember thinking, man I still have 6 months before Ironman...PLENTY of time.  I haven't raced much because of my employment status (or lack of I should say) but I've been putting in the time training.  My 1/2 Ironman came and went, an actually went much faster than I thought due to the shortened race :( 

Concerned about doing a full Ironman without ever doing a 1/2, I talked to Jen and we decided I should do Steelhead 70.3 on Aug 19th.  OK, so that's a week from this Sunday.  Here I go again...my 3rd attempt at doing a 1/2 Ironman...THIS IS IT!  If they cancel the swim again, I am done with long distance racing (after Ironman WI, of course)!!  Mark my words!  But that's not really my point, I digress...my point is, 4 weeks from this Sunday is Ironman Wisconsin!!!!  Where the heck did those 8 months go?  This can't be!!  I need more time!!  Or do I??

Last weekend was my big, big & big Ironman training weekend.  I was supposed to swim in the Crystal Lake open water 2 mile race and then bike 115 miles on Saturday then on Sunday run 3 hours.  Well, as luck would have it, the bacteria level in the lake was too high and the beach was closed.  So Saturday I biked my 115 miles (thank you Coach Jen for the extra 3 miles...LOL).  115 hilly miles I might add, well, mostly hilly.  And oh yeah, I stopped only to swap out bottles.  None of this stopping for snacks & to chat & take a break stuff for me...LOL  Then Sunday I went down to Ohio Street Beach and swam my 2 miles.  Again, what's with the choppy water?  It wasn't as bad as the week before but it was still relatively choppy in parts and it still made me nauseous.  So swim done, on to my 3 hour run.  It was nice running at the lakefront, especially with all the water fountains!  But 3 hours...oh my, that was a 1st for me.  My goal - just get it done without further aggravating my shin (yep, been dealing w/ a little shin issue that comes & goes).  I really wasn't focusing on my pace, except that I wanted to negative split the 2nd half.  Run done and I saw some friendly faces at the beach before I left.

I'm still in shock that Ironman is literally right around the corner.  Am I ready?  I don't know.  Is my longest workout now behind me?  Good god, I don't know that either!  Jen if you're reading this, I am assuming yes because of Steelhead :)  Seriously, I keep thinking that OK, I've swam 2 miles so what's another .4, right?  (Right........insert sarcasm here).  I've now biked 115 miles so 112 will seem easy, right?  And I've run 3 hours...hmmm.  Well, I've never run a stand-alone marathon and my longest run ever was that 3 hours.  I know for a fact my Ironman run will last much longer than 3 hours...especially when inserting any walking I will be doing.  So putting this all together in ONE day?  Can I do that?  This race needs to get here so I can see!  It certainly doesn't seem so bad when I break the race into smaller parts...but then again, I've done that over 2 days.  So I'm going with...yes, I can do it.  I WILL do it.  And it will be fun!  Now get here, will ya?