BE Focused | See Tom Tri: One man's mental & physical journey training to be a 2012 IronMan®

Swim Checklists

I need to bring the following items with me: goggles, wetsuit, trisuit, wetronome, and a towel (I’m guessing on the towel)

We all know or have an idea what goggles are. The wetsuit keeps my body warm and afloat. The water temperature is currently 61 degrees and I’m fairly confident it won’t get any warmer, so I’m very glad I opted for the full length wetsuit. No hypothermia for me please.

A trisuit is a one piece shorts and shirt that makes me look like a wrestler from the early days. I’m going to wear it under the wetsuit . . . → Read More: Swim Checklists

What am I supposed to do

with all this free time?! This ‘taper’ thing frees up hours a week.

oh yea, the box….

it’s destroyed. The contents of it, however, allow me to use my extra long legs to pedal my super fast bike extra efficiently. That’s just a fancy way of saying: I have longer (appropriately sized) crank arms! I’ve been talking about them (to anyone who would listen) for months. The first set arrived and they didn’t fit the bike, so back to CA they went. The second set arrived with the same (income and) outcome. The third and final set arrived and…..they had to modified to fit the bike.

If only we had switched to metric like they promised . . . → Read More: oh yea, the box….

t-2 weeks

As the countdown progresses quickly toward 11202011, my workout schedule is slowing down equally as much. My long ride this weekend was only 50 miles. How crazy did that sound?! Only 50 miles! I remember not too long ago, I did my first 50 mile ride and I thought was not going to make it through the night (I did though). Luckily I didn’t feel like that this weekend.

After my last long run (13 miles) on Wednesday, I got home and felt really good. I said to myself “Self, you are ready for this”. I really think I . . . → Read More: t-2 weeks

You can’t imagine!

At 4 pm the delivery came! I was expecting it about an hour before, and that last hour went so slowly. I began to prepare myself to forget about today and hope for the next day delivery, but that all changed when the big brown truck pulled up. From that point on, it was like slow motion. The delivery guy sleepily walked out of the truck with a box. A box that had crossed the country five times. The taped edges showing the wear of excited attempts to open it to reveal the contents. The only difference with this . . . → Read More: You can’t imagine!

taper

The next few weeks I have to lessen the amount of exercise (at least the number of miles). The amount I’ve done so far, is the most I’m going to do. If I’m not ready by now, pushing harder the next few weeks isn’t going to help. I know it’s going to be difficult to stop from going further (especially if I have the energy), but that’s just what I have to do. Fun!

Will it be enough?

I have a feeling, no matter how I end up doing next month, I’ll wonder if I should have done more or did things differently. Is that natural thinking? Would it ever be enough, or would the ’satisfactory’ amount make me even more anti-social? Does it really matter anyhow?

certain

I had a little trouble with energy earlier this past week, so getting past this weekend the way I did was wonderful. Having a lack of energy is enough to discourage you from thinking that it will ever get better. To date, the longest run I’ve had was nowhere near long enough. I had to run at least 20 miles to stay on track. The theory goes….if you can run 20 miles, you can complete a marathon. Sounds a little strange, but I’ll buy it. In my mind, leading up to this weekend, I resolved myself to accepting having . . . → Read More: certain

but as the wind changed direction

I was all geared up to take off a bit early today to take advantage of: 1) one of the last few beautiful days before it gets too cold and 2) one of the last few beautiful days before it gets too cold, but that didn’t turn out like planned. Just as I was about to take off for the day to 1 and 2 above, I had customers come in. One after another for another hour or so. The sun was slowly going down as I took off at the usual time to try to get a decent . . . → Read More: but as the wind changed direction

Funny how that is

One minute you’re tired, and the next you are up and doing. That makes me wonder if I was really tired at all in the first place. Is there a trick to get past this ‘tired’? Maybe just standing up and letting the blood drain from your brain is all that is needed. On Saturday hours after the swim (that people are still talking about), I was tired and laid down for a minute. I thought about taking a nap, then convinced myself that was not in my best interest. Not a minute later, my sneakers were tied and I . . . → Read More: Funny how that is