......And the word for the week is TIRED............

Everyone say it with me. T-I-R-E-D. Let's say it together: Tirrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeedddddd. Wow. I think Ironman training is starting to take its toll on me. Combining two-a-days with early morning wake-up calls, craziness at work, and a change in my diet routine have really made me a whiney butt. (Just ask Matt ;) The saying, "Train. Eat. Sleep. Repeat." is no joke when you train for an IM. Throw work in the mix and any part of something that resembles a social life and you are one tired cookie.

Tiredness is about to break me this week. BUT, I am hanging on!!!! I know this is part of the word called IRONMAN. I have gotten through it before. I will get through it again. The day-to-day training is the tough part. This is what makes you an Ironman. Not race day. The non-motivated, "train when I would much rather be lazy" kind of days that you push your body through are the days that prepare you for this one big day called an Ironman. If can make it to the day of the race, you have already succeeded in my opinion. Race day makes it all worth it. All those months of training, sacrificing, exhaustion. It all fades away when you accomplish your big goal ahead and cross that finish line. With that being said:

MOTIVATION WILL COME.

Sometimes you don't know when it will come. BUT, it always comes. Sometimes all it takes is that first race of the year!!! The tiredness will pass. I just have to hang along for the ride. And no better to person to hang on with me besides the man I have ;) He pushes me to do my best, understands me at my worst, knows when I am exhausted and truly understands that, because he trains right beside me most of the time. It's a feeling that you can't truly understand unless you have been there. I know it must be very difficult as a spouse that isn't a triathlete. The early mornings, the two-a-days, the early nights to sleep, the mood swings from exhaustion. I know that must be VERY difficult if you aren't along for the ride with that person. That's why I realize that I am blessed that we BOTH enjoy this sport. For example, last night I came home exhausted. We woke up at 4am to get a 2 hour trainer ride in. I drove to Meridian for work, had to give a nutrition presentation that night, then drive back late.We were supposed to run yesterday as well, but both decided to put it off until today. He bought dinner, folded and put away the clothes, AND washed the dishes. I am a blessed woman, I say ;)

We have 7 weeks until New Orleans 70.3. My goal is to have a more controlled swim (I tend to add distance on the swim, due to my horrible lack of sighting. MUST do better this year than last........don't even get me started ;), perform with a better bike time, and with stronger legs off the bike, perform a better run than last year (which won't be too difficult--the heat last year seemed to kill us all!!!)

Let's focus on the positive for a moment, shall we?!
1) I AM getting the workouts in. 2)I AM seeing improvement in my stamina in the pool, along with a timed 400m Matt and I did last week that showed improvement in times since last year (with less swimming.) 3)I am not having the delayed soreness from leg weights that I got in the beginning. 4) My runs are still exhausting, but that's to be expected with the increase in biking our coach has prescribed this season. 5. I have succeeded so far with restricting my "candy addiction" during the week. I have replaced it with more healthy snacks throughout the day and I am keeping myself full enough through extra protein/fiber so that I don't actually crave it as much!! This is HUGE success in my world ;)
6) I haven't weighed myself yet, but plan on doing that next week. I don't like to be a "slave to the scale", because I think it sets you up for disappoint if you don't hit a number you may be wishing for. The negative side of weighing when you are a triathlete is , in my opinion, the fact that the number on the scale can fluctuate tremendously on a daily basis, depending on your fluid intake, food intake, training sweat rate, etc. When you throw weight training into the picture, you might not see a budge in the scale at all, or even might see a gain, which women especially are not happy with ;) I DO know that my clothes fit more loosely and I feel like I have toned up a little. We shall see next week. I plan on weighing 1-2 times per week just to get a perspective on things.

MS Heat tri team planning is coming along well. Headsweats visors came in yesterday. They look SWEET!!!! ;) We are in the process of sponsorship for the 2010 year, as well as planning Soak Up the Sun tri 2010. Bill is doing an excellent job this year as our race director. Planning is coming along nicely, and we should have some very exciting sponsorship opportunities this year!!