Friday, September 12, 2008

I'm In! Onnnne more race before Ironman....

The SOMA Half Ironman.....October 26rd, Tempe, Arizona. Exactly four weeks out from Ironman. My last chance to make sure that i'm all set for Arizona. I've got quite a bit of training to do before SOMA. And, it's the weekend after my 30th birthday, so i'll be officially racing as a 30-year-old!

I had been going back and forth with whether or not I wanted to do SOMA.

Pros:
*Great tuneup on the same course as Ironman Arizona (not exactly the same, but some of it is).
*Catch up/stay with Dave's parents, we haven't seen them since May at his brother's wedding
*I've done the quarterman once and the half was my first half ironman

Cons:
*I'm really sick of traveling and the thought of packing again is slightly annoying
*Questionable motivation level

So, I talked to Amanda yesterday and she called my bluff she goes "I KNOW why you don't want to do SOMA, you just got back, the thought of packing again and being on the go is less than pleasing."
ME: "exactly."
HER: "well, mer, let me tell you after the next 6 weeks of training, I promise you, you're going to be begging for a race rather than another 6 hour ride on your bike followed by a long run, so you have the option of training straight through to Ironman or getting excited for another race to break up your training and to have a last hurrah/tune up before your race. It's perfect timing, I won't taper you more than 3-4 days for SOMA, you'll train almost straight through, then you'll have an easy few days after, followed by another weekend of training and then a two week taper for Arizona."
ME: Ok, looks like i'm doing SOMA.

The thing is, I know i'll be excited to race as time goes on and i'm already wishing SOMA were tomorrow since my training schedule for the rest of september is quite ambitious. This weekend is relatively easy:
TODAY: 90 minute hill run, easy 45 minute ride
TOMORROW: 3.5 hour ride w/intervals, 75 minute swim and 30 or 45 minute run, I can't remember
SUNDAY: 2 hour run and something else (my email is down so I can't check my schedule).

I know, it doesn't sound easy, but when you compare it to this:
Next Saturday: 5.5 hour ride, 30 minute run
Sunday: 2 hour plus run with another short run in the evening (I think?)

The following weekend:
Saturday: SEVEN HOUR RIDE
And she lost me after that, and a whole bunch of crazy stuff during the week.

This is where it gets interesting folks, if you want to laugh or think i'm crazy this is the time to be reading my blog. I'll do my best to let you know what i'm eating/thinking/feeling/cursing at the moment! I've put in a lot of hours as a solid base, I have two good races under my belt this year and now it's about really just digging in and prioritizing. So,I apologize ahead of time if i'm bad on email and facebook =0, these days, I am just trying to get my hours in. I just have to go hard until early November and then I can TAPER!!

Oh, yesterday, for motivation, I re-read my reasons for why I signed up for Ironman Arizona and I laughed because I wrote "I'm keeping these so I can read them next August when i'm sick of training." I know myself pretty well....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow Mer! Sounds like Amanda is really kicking your butt! I would say i'm jealous.....but, not for that much bike riding! Yikes! I am ready to start training, however my body is still fighting me every step of the way. You are gonna do awesome in AZ!!!