With Ironman Wisconsin rapidly approaching, I suppose an update of where I’m at with my training is in order. I seem to have been posting about everything but lately…

So last week was a rather epic week of Ironman training. Well, epic for this season anyway. Despite having not one but two goose egg days, I still managed to get in 18 hours of training in last week. I normally give myself one day totally off from training, but my legs were just totally shelled midweek so I gave myself another full day before the weekend came so I’d be fresh for my long ride. Fresh, mind you, is a totally relative word at this stage of the game.

While Sara and Wil are off tapering, I am at summer school of sorts trying to make up for my miscalculation of how long I had left until the big day. So I still have a harder week this week - I’m going to do one last long run and one last long ride (or long brick) before I start decreasing the volume. And at anytime that I feel exceptionally tired, I’ll rest.

It’s a little strange that I’m four weeks out from the race and not really feeling stressed or nervous in the least. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I’ve had a busy summer so am not really expecting a PR at Wisconsin this year (although I do feel that I’m in decent shape?). Or maybe with this being my third go around at the distance, the idea of traveling 140.6 miles in a day doesn’t seem quite as daunting. Whatever the case, in 26 days I’ll be back in Madison. Back to swim out to the start line and tread water with a mass of 2200-some odd athletes all waiting to do this crazy thing called Ironman.

Sure it’s a race, but it’s also a celebration of sorts. Soon, it’ll be time to cash in all those hundreds of hours and thousands of miles that you travelled while training earlier in the summer. A time where you can look back and can really utilize those things that you learned during training and know that when the going gets tough, that you have the strength to keep pressing forward as you’ve done it many times before. It’s a time for camaraderie and realizing that although you may have struggled for the last few months balancing training with the “real world”, that you’re certainly not alone. It doesn’t take more than stopping for just a second and to look around you to see that you’re entirely surrounded by people who went through the many of the same things as you have - all the aches and pains and all the hours sacrificed training when “normal” people were out doing normal things.

The unity of athletes is one of the things that I think makes Ironman truly special. That simple fact that everyone making the 140.6 mile journey has experienced similar events, both good and bad, for the past several months. And for that one magical day, you have 2000+ of your brothers and sisters out there with you. It’s been a long, hard journey to just get there, but they all know first hand how truly difficult it has been as they’ve been beside you all this time. They haven’t walked just a mile in your shoes - they’ve walked thousands! Suddenly, you’re not flying solo anymore, but are instead travelling with a family of 2000+.

So, for everyone that I’ll hopefully see in 26 days, don’t forget to take time to “smell the roses.” Enjoy the atmosphere of the few days before the race and take a really good look at all the people around you because come September 10th, your family is going to get a whole lot bigger.