Thursday, February 28, 2008

Scaring Myself

It has been a LONG time since I have piled on mileage like this. In fact I really DIDN'T do mileage like this for my first Ironman. I was working full-time, my daughter was seven years old, and her dad (and I use the term loosely) tried to sabotage my long runs/rides on the weekends by staying out late and crawling in at dawn. Yes, the whole point was to keep me awake all night wondering where he was and who he was with.

I did the Ironman anyway...last in my age group, but still under 15 hours.
I gutted it out and used my endurance-memory from BC (before child) days to pull me through.

Now my daughter is grown, virtually on her own (not financially), I have a husband who supports me wholly and fully for this upcoming race, and I am working part time.

I have a nice bike (finally), and enough money for other gear and race-type nutrition.

Funny how when everything is in place like that wonderful things begin to happen.

For one, I am fooling my mind and body into thinking I am 28 years old again, when I was running high mileage and doing centuries on the weekend (just for fun).

In the pool I am keeping up with my husband and am even getting faster on the bike. Where I once climbed behind him up the hills, I am now along-side.

Running I am still leery of because I can injure easily. Upping the mileage SLOWLY, SLOWLY, SLOWLY! A few years ago I would have laughed if you told me I would run Catalina again. (Even though it was "only" the half marathon-it's a butt kicker!)

I am eating and sleeping well for the most part. Haven't caught any illness this year (yet...knock on wood), and things are clicking....

It's scary when things are finally falling into place and going "right".
Fun, but scary!

5 comments:

Supalinds said...

It sounds like you are in a much better place all around!!! This is your year :) centuries for fun...I guess I am starting to get that.

21stCenturyMom said...

Scary good!

ps - I was married to that guy, too. ugh!

Duane said...

Cool! Looking forward to meeting you in CDA!

SWTrigal said...

Awesome! You know the new 50 is 28.
:)

Bigun said...

Here's to hoping it stays scary for you for at least another 16 weeks!