One day last Fall I was pondering 2011… “Mmmm Julia, now what are you going to do for your 2011 challenge?” In the last few years I’ve come accustomed to doing an athletic event a year that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Last year it was swimming the Messina Strait, and for 2011 I wanted something just as interesting.
I had pretty much pinned it down to be a 70.3 triathlon. For those that aren’t accustomed with the triathlon distances, the first is a sprint (750m swim/20km bike/5km run), the second an Olympic (1.5km/40km/10km). The next step is the half ironman, popularly known as a 70.3. It’s a 1.9 swim, 90km bike and a half marathon. I know, gulp!
But in my dream of dreams I also want to do a full Ironman, so I might as well start out with half the distance. I was just about to sign up for one in Switzerland when they came out with the very first 70.3 Ironman brand in Pescara, Italy. When I saw it I nearly jumped out of my seat. I signed up before I could change my mind and told nobody about it. Well, nobody except Shauna and my husband.
Fast forward to Spring 2011… three huge projects (including Up & Running) that needed 24 hours of my attention and no time for triathlon training, much less HALF IRONMAN triathlon training. All of the sudden I found myself in mid April with only eight weeks until the race and very little training under my proverbial belt. SO! In true Up & Running fashion, I decided that I absolutely would not worry yet about the race. I would just plug away at the workouts and see how my fitness developed along the way. Yes, some workouts suck and I think to myself, “why are you even bothering?”.
Other workouts give me glimmers of hope. One of them was my bike ride yesterday. I took this picture at my 30km turnaround. The sun was shining and the clouds were hanging out in the sky and everything was beautiful. It’s times like these when I think it’s great to have a goal, but being able to get on my bike and check out clouds and sunshine on a 60km bike ride is somehow even better. I don’t know yet if I’ll be toeing the starting line in Pescara, but I’m going to really give it my best in the six remaining training weeks. Wish me luck!
