Turtle Survives Another Week of Initiation into the Club

The exclusive club is an understatement.  When you embark on this journey, you for some reason have a desire for membership in the IRONMAN club.  You have to pay your dues just to join this exclusive club including volunteering at the event the prior year to purchasing all the necessary equipment to finding a group to train with, etc.  Some sign up on a whim and then pay their dues after the fact while others have been working up to this slowly for years.  Regardless, you have to commit with your gut, your heart, and don't forget your wallet.  A temporary loss of insanity is helpful too as one of my team mates turned to me during our swim workout and asked me to remind him why we were paying to do this to ourselves.  There is a price to pay to hear the words, "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN" and the costs start right at the beginning.

So the first few weeks of training with a group are like initiation into the PRE-CLUB.  You are torn apart before you can be built back up.  Your coach dissects your form and technique and breaks each sport into smaller parts called DRILLS which is an appropriate name as you feel like ideas are being drilled into your head and body over and over again.  You question what was wrong with the way you did things before and then you have to remind yourself to just have a little faith in the process.  You pray that after you are taken a part piece by piece, you can be rebuilt better, faster and stronger than before (sounds like the bionic man).

Despite trying to teach an old turtle some new tricks, this week went a little smoother.  My calf tightness seems to be resolving and I was able to participate fully in the track workout and able to complete an hour long run and a 2 1/2 hour bike ride and 3 swim workouts which continue to focus on the latest and greatest swimming techniques and lot of strength and flexibility training.  I am feeling STRONG and TIRED if that is possible.  The long bike ride took place at a park called South Mountain in Phoenix and there are 2 popular routes among local cyclist and runners.  First is a rolling down hill course which is fast until the turn around where you have to go more up than down and then there is the 5 mile trek to the radio towers which had several steep sections and switch backs.  My coach gave me the green light to head up the pass and so I took one of my new training buddies Amy with me who is new to road cycling and was encouraging her to just go as far as she could and before I know it she took off and was climbing fast and strong, while the turtle was working so hard and had to use the granny gear to get up the steep sections.  (BTW, Amy is the rookie to watch!).  Half way up, I felt I could make it not knowing there was yet a steeper and more challenging half waiting around the next turn.  Another team mate, Brian leisurely road by and waited for me on the top.  The last couple hundred yards were the hardest and eventhough another friend had told me to take it easy and not worry cause I might not make it to the top on my first try, I had gone that far, so I was not going to stop until I was on top.  I had to huff and puff to get there and I really thought I was going to experience what upchucking on the bike was like (as I had read about in "17 Hours of Glory", but my breakfast stayed down).  Next time you try to climb a mountain pass, my recommendation is to do some short hill training first, but after I was having negative thoughts about every thing, I was happy and satisfied on my drive home thinking about making 2 trips to the top next time!

I am looking forward to looking back each month and seeing how far I have come as even the shorter workouts seem challenging and the thought of 15 to 17 hours of swimming, biking and running is hard to even visualize in my mind.  Part of the fun of triathlon is the training period where you start at the base and get stronger and stronger.  It is amazing after you complete an event, how many times you start this process over, but if I did not enjoy the process, I would not be here.

Anyhow, I think this initiation period is just beginning and the turtle's shell is starting to shine.  The upcoming week, I am going to seriously shop for a new tri-bike.  Wish me luck to find wheels that will help this turtle fly! 

to be cont'