99 Days + 4.5 Races To Go Until My First Ironman

I don’t think you can fully appreciate a full 48 hours of rest until you go through Ironman training. My weekly training is stacked like a part-time job: 14 hours here, 15 hours here, 17 hours there, eventually it’ll increase to almost 18-20 hours a week. Can you imagine what type of progress you can make when you devote that much time to a past time, a new career, or to a hobby?! When I look at the big picture, it all looks and feel incredulously impossible, but when I break it down into phases — base, build, peak, taper — or even on a weekly or granular daily level it seems manageable, almost feasible and, dare I say it, attainable.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” -Muhammad Ali

So what is a large looming Ironman goal without a ton of other sub-goals? Here we go:

1) Finish my first Olympic distance tri on May 26th (Memorial Day Weekend)
2) Pace myself well enough at my first olympic tri for my 3.5 hour training ride the next day
3) Run 2 half marathons in the next 2 months (Rock n Roll Portland and Rock n Roll Seattle) and grab myself a Twin Peaks medal, Triple Crown medal, and Grand Slam medal
4) Stretch goal: Rock n Roll San Diego half marathon in June (I’ll have to convince my boyfriend of that one…)
5) Race 2 Olympic tris this summer: Onion Man Tri (on May 26th) and Lake Wilderness Tri (on June 15th)
6) Complete my first Olympic distance tri relay in July with the tri team (I’ll be doing the bike leg)
7) Make it out of training without race-threatening injuries
8) Get my running mileage in, without fail, concentrating on optimizing my performance for mile 13-20.
9) Get my 80 mile, 100 mile, and 120 mile bike rides in without injury
10) Learn how to disassemble my bike into a bike box and re-assemble it
11) Meticulously plan my race for Ironman Louisville. No more looking at the maps and logistics info the night before the race.
12) Nail my race nutrition plan
13) Get in a handful of open water swim clinics in
14) Get comfortable swimming in open water without a wetsuit (This will be a very very tricky one…)
15) Stick to my training plan

I get the next 99 days to knock these items off my list! Let’s see if I can do it. 🙂