Timberman 70.3 - August 19th - Yikes!!

I signed up for the Timberman 70.3 (Half Ironman) all the way back in November 2006. My life hasn't been the same since. And now it's really going to happen...THIS WEEKEND!

Doing events are fun, but only if you've put in the saddle time. That's biker talk for getting your training in so the event is not a torture situation.

I've done my saddle time.

I started swim training in January. I hated this. Getting up at dawn o'clock to drag myself to some indoor pool and subject myself to an hour of frustrating laps, never enjoying even one minute of this torture. I started early on swimming because this is the first event of the race and my weakest.

Then came the swim lessons. I'm not sure how many different people "helped" me with my stroke, but it was an all summer quest. It seems like everyone but me can swim and everyone has a different tip. At some point, I switched to Total Immersion Swimming but without a coach, this wasn't as successful as I'd hoped. I also hired a college student I saw teaching a 6 year old last week. He'd never taught an adult so it's not surprising he helped me "wipe the peanut butter" out of my ears for the back stroke and free style, to make my stroke more compact.

Just yesterday, I finally admitted I would probably end up doing the breast stroke instead of freestyle in the actual lake swim (I hate being in the lake with people splashing all around me. What if I drown??) and my new coach (I can't believe I'm still getting swim lessons 4 days from my event) suggested I draw a heart with my hands to improve my breast stroke.

As for running, I do that year around, usually 10 miles every Sunday and shorter runs in between. Still, to speed up my running I focused on weight loss. I lost about 15 lbs using Weight Watchers online. I also pushed through some pretty miserable cold and rainy March days to keep my running mileage up. And in the heat of summer, I ran 14 miles on trails the day after a long bike ride to train my body to run even when tired.

Biking? I started in April and built up from then. Those first horrible days I could barely manage to get over an average of 14 miles an hour. I recorded my first 100+ mile bike rides (in July) and just this weekend, I breezed through a 60 mile ride. No sweat.

I'm ready. My only serious worry - aside from drowning in the lake swim or being the last person out of the water is my heel. I have plantar faccitus and it hurts when I bike but especially when I run. I've got it taped and hope that caries me through.

Now I've just got to focus on getting my stuff together, get to New Hampshire, and do it. Zen.