October 3rd...ONE MONTH TO GO!!

I prefer to say 4 weeks to go, it sounds shorter than one month! WAHOOO........seriously, I woke up this morning and i'm sure it was an average day for most people, but for me, it was the realization that i'm so close to Florida. Woop! Woop! (sorry, a little overly excited). I'm really also very excited to see my family: my parents, Dave's parents, my older sister (many thanks to my amazing brother-in-law, Jeff who has offered to take time off from work and watch all 3 of his children, all under the age of 4--while my sister comes to Florida to watch me!)---Jeff, I wish you guys could all be there--but you're sending an excellent representative of your family.

Actually, talking about Jeff reminds me of why I got into triathlon in the first place. I saw Jeff do the Boulder Peak Triathlon in 2004 and we made a "family pact" to do it the following year. So, off to Iraq Dave went, I did the Mission Bay Sprint Triathlon in San Diego as my first triathlon---and then when Dave came back from Iraq in March of '05, we trained..and in July, my 2 sisters, me, Dave and Jeff all did Boulder Peak. Strangely, we haven't all done it together again---hmmm, something about Dave and Trinette not liking swimming and a heinously hot run?? Anyway-so, I guess if there is anyone I can really blame for Ironman training besides myself it would be Jeff! =0.

Just joking, when I lived in Colorado for a few months this past Spring, it was Dawn that gave me the motivation to get up in the morning (she gets up at 4:30 a.m. 3 days a week to swim before the kids are up--yeah, how's *that* for dedication!).....and she and I rode together....and it was Jeff who I would drag along on my 75-90 minute runs. Mind you, he wasn't training for ANYTHING at that point---so, he really had no reason to go on these long runs---except I think secretly he likes torturous workouts---for example: He thinks it's fun to climb Longs Peak.......and he would always, always be just onnnnne step ahead of me, keeping me going. I groaned and complained, tried to get out of running, but he was always ready and excited to run with me. Of course he claims "I" kept "him" going---but the truth is, Jeff ran for Colorado State, so if there is a rabbit in this story: it's him. He's awesomely fast and i'm insanely jealous of his running skill---he's a talented athlete! A HUGE good luck to both him and Dawn this weekend, they're flying to Boise for the Boise Marathon.

Dave and I are secretly hoping he qualifies for Boston so we can make him come out to do Boston with Dave in April!

Well, I am way off track here, but the whole point of this post is this time period i'm talking about was from February until May (Colorado).....and I remember all of those long runs, itchy swims and absolutely freezing bike rides, including one that I turned around because it was something like 38 degrees out. I spent quite a few hours on the indoor trainer, and seriously thought the season of Fall would never come.

I also began my Ironman training at somewhat of a difficult time. Dave deployed in February of this year, hence the move to Colorado. It allowed me to be close to family and throw myself into hanging out with them and beginning my training. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to have this time with my family since they are normally so far away--it was truly a gift. They all had so much support to offer me in the early stages and I have a lot of people to be thinking of/thanking on race day. Whether they listened to my stories about training, or offered to run/bike or swim or just plain EAT with me---they helped mold my Ironman training memories. My sister Trinette took me out on the bike path in Denver and showed me a whole new side to Denver I had never seen---I had a blast with her cleaning off our bikes after a hugely muddy snow-run off on the bike path. Feels almost like yesterday.

On that note, I completed a decent 2 hour ride today..no run. I've adjusted my schedule, i'm easing way off the running. For example: Friday I have to run 75 minutes hilly and i'll probably do 45-60-minutes flat. We'll see how my knees are.

Tomorrow is my DAY OFF. =0. I may do a light swim just to loosen up but i'm infamous for shutting my alarm off and pushing my workouts to the afternoon!

Off to grab some ice cream with friends---