Do Overs...

Some days I miss those days on the playground in grade school playing kickball and a bad "pitch" came in and it was ok to say "Do over!".  Everybody reset...and then came the next "pitch"...Or in golf, you hit a bad tee shot and it's Mulligan time!

This past week was a vacation from work.  And on many fronts it was a great week - got to spend a couple of days at the Jersey shore with the family, beating my sister in Zim-Zam on the beach, and boogie boarding with the lil' guys and Susie Q.  But training wise, the weather was....extremely frustrating.  The Sunday long run ended with downpour, hail, and a fried iPhone.  The other runs during the week just seemed to wake up the rain gods, but luckily we were able to enjoy some nice weather together inbetween the storms.

The end of the week was back in Chicago and got a good bike ride and run in.  I had a problem getting into the lake in Evanston with some algea stuff going on...and it seems like all of the local pools I can get into are doing some kind of maintenance.  Getting in the remaining swims the next couple of weeks is going to be some fun scheduling.

Friday came around way too quick and once again it was a trip up to Madison - the last training trip before race weekend.  I was signed up for the Madison Open Water Swim Saturday am which is a chance to swim the 2.4 mile IMWI course.  I got up at 5am and started the nutrition plan and was too damn anxious.  I have a bad habit of reading too many forums and have read one too many about the algea eating snakes in Lake Monona that were suppose to have died off, but the relatively warm winters the past couple of years allowed them to survive and get BIGGER.  Aside from the snakes, 2.4 miles is a long way...there's no black line at the bottom of the pool to follow to make it straight and short, there's no wall to push off and coast, and there's no wall to stop for a breather.  Anxiety was running high and I had "lost" my breakfast, so I just tried to keep moving forward and prepared my stuff for the post-swim bike ride and headed over to the swim.

Driving over, the sky was getting DARK.  I picked up my packet and the lightening started and it was clear there was going to be a delayed start.  I had over 2 hours of hanging around with me and my anxious thoughts looking out of the parking garage to the swim course.  I switched the iPod to some "settle-down-positive" music to get my mind set changed. 

Here's the course picture from the MOWS web site - the loop is 1.2 miles, so the IMWI course is 2 loops:

The storm FINALLY passed and prepping up with the wet suit bumped into some training buddies which settled the nerves a little and got a couple of last minute tips and popped some Endurolytes!  (Thank you Mark & Mark & Krista & Angela!)

And to describe the swim in short....I made it!  I know it doesn't exactly replicate the IMWI swim because there will be ~2500 more people starting the swim in the water, but I do have these take aways:

• I finished the distance with plenty of time to spare under the IMWI cut off time.
• i saw a snake, and I survived.
• Spelling people's names and counting keeps me moving forward.
• If the water temp is that hot, I need to do sleeveless, or get my head wet before putting on that stupid swim cap.
• I need to have more than a 1 song play list in my head "Tonight Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae may not have been the most positive songs to be going through my head! :-)

With the delayed swim start, it messed up "my" plan for the bike ride and the remainder of the day.  I refueled while driving out to Fireman's Park and headed out on the first 40 mile loop with an alternate nutrition plan.  Like the last time I rode the course, I had another bee sting and towards the end of the first loop was starving.  I did a refueling break at the end of the first loop, tried to get calories in...had a little "clip-in" fall (yep, embarrassing!) and headed out for loop two.  After 8 miles in, decided to call it a day and head back.  The schedule of the day was off track, nutrition was off, and I was riding solo.  Just too many factors were coming into play that I didn't feel safe riding out the second loop, so called it a day. 

I drove the 2:45 hours home and put the bike on the trainer.  Nothing like being up since 5, having a non-stop day, driving for almost 3 hours, and trying to put a bike on a trainer.  But I just wanted to try to finish the day out.  It wasn't as I planned, but as several of the training days of this "first Ironman" journey have been....I'm learning more and more that it is A LOT more than just swim, bike, and running.

So that wrapped up my "Bad-urday".  Sunday was a bit better and was able to get an 18 mile run in...mostly trailing Susie Q as she is training for her first marathon in Chicago in October!  Whoo hoo!

Between all of the moments - especially the past week that brought out the frustration, fear, anxiety, and self-doubt of getting to the starting line at Ironman...I am able to go to that moment 8 years ago that I heard that I could "DO ANYTHING."  Being able to feel the challenges and face them has been such an incredible gift that I am incredibly grateful to face one day at a time.  19 days to go where I will be on that startline and I absolutely WILL get to that finish line...no matter what challenges that day presents.  I can't wait!