It's Finally Here!!!

Its finally here! Has is really been a year since I took on my first Ironman? A lot has happened in the last year and I have learned a lot about myself as an athlete. Going into this race I am 100X more confidant than I was at this point last year and am ready to go out hard and crush this Coeur d’Alene course. Lets see how the last year went down and how my preparation went for this years Ironman.

After last years event I was very pleased with my efforts and was so stoked I could call my self an Ironman. As I had just turned 21 years old I took advantage of this and really just relaxed the remainder of the summer. I really needed the time off because I had totally burnt myself out on the bike training as I did 90% of it solo (which was a terrible idea). I finished up my season with a run PR at the Patriots Half (70.3) event.

Looking back at my season for 2010 so far I have been doing a lot of really long racing! Already taking on my first 50K, then following that up with two 70.3’s, and a Marathon I’d say I have had my fair share of long races for the season. This year in training I really focused on pushing my self harder and harder in each of my workouts, as opposed to last year when I seemingly gingerly took each long workout (probably because of a fear of doing too much in training). Knowing more about what my body could handle I made a point of getting fast fast fast! Luckily there were a bunch of really quick people that I got to train with while at school. In swim training there was never an easy workout in the B lane at the AFC. Mark, Rick, Sarah, Kate, Wes and occasionally a few others always gave me some feet to chase around the pool a few times a week. These swims really helped me with my swimming confidence and I’m thinking a swim PR should be in order on Sunday.

Once the sun decided to give us some afternoon daylight there was never a shortage of fast rides during the week. Each Tuesday and Thursday, Rudy and I made our way out to E-Ville for the hammer fest. These rides ended up being the highlights of my week and there was never a shortage of speed demons to get you to dig a little deeper each time we rolled out.

Running became more of a personal escape than a group workout for me, I would often load up on nutrition and go exploring on the many RTF trails in Charlottesville. Looking back these trails may have been my favorite part of Charlottesville as there was always something to discover or a new challenge around every curve. Seriously if your not running on the RTF trails you need to start!

This brings us to the end of my ranting. I really appreciate all the help I got from the Charlottesville triathlon community this past year be it from having someone to train with, someone to push me to that next level, or simply joke around with in the hot tub after a swim. I never really thanked everyone for their help so THANK YOU! Seriously, I would not be in as good of shape nor would I have been able to get though all the training if I had been flying solo all season, and I’m sure that come Sunday I will be drawing on old memories from training with everyone for motivation.

The gun goes off in only 3 Days, 18 Hrs, and 53 min and its going to be a wild ride. Be sure to follow Kate Lucas #2485, John Reed (my dad) #1824, Blaize Baehrens #331, James Jansen #368, and myself #139 on race day!

Best of luck to all racing this weekend!

Happy Training/Racing…..