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| Swimming in the uber cold green monster is a lonely activity but not one I had to do alone often thankfully. |
Another week is gone- the last week. At this time next
weekend I will be done with my second Ironman effort one way or another. As
race day rockets towards me I find it harder to fight off the mental demons
that accompany my personal history and the enormity of the task at hand. So for
this week’s blog I will break it into two portions- the “bad” and the
“good”. For those of you wondering what
I mean, here is a small snippet of what I will be dealing with this week.
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| Winter spinning meant lots of company much of the time. |
Friday I went to Sioux Falls for one last attempt at
swimming and getting some instruction. I have not attempted to swim for the
last two weeks due to issues with my shoulder so this was to be a bit of a “test”
if you will. The swim turned into mostly
kicking drills with a few hundred freestyle laps to see what I was working
with. After a cortisone shot and taking
some prescription anti-inflammatory meds I had hoped for the best but it was
not to be. The pain might be a bit better, but I could feel it pretty much as
soon as I started using the arms. After
last year’s IM Chattanooga I knew I needed to work quite a bit on the swim this
season so I did. I was actually looking forward to the swim to see what my new
and improved skills could do but alas I am afraid I will have to wait to have a
swim that I believe is up to my expectations. I believe I will be able to just
tough it out for the swim portion of the race next weekend but have to admit I
am a bit worried about it.
The other thing that is bringing me some worries this week
are the forecasted temps for race day. As we all know, the weathermen are not
always exactly correct so when I first started looking at the extended forecast
last week I was a bit skeptical. As a week has passed now and the forecasted
temps have stayed the same, I begin to fret a bit. Saturday brought an email
directly from Ironman- a “heat advisory” all about the much higher than usual
temps this race will be experiencing. At
the current moment they are saying 102 degrees on race day. Ouch. I don’t sweat
as much as I should and have always struggled with keeping my core temp down in
heat. That combined with the only one or two days of “heat” I had to train in this
year- one of which ended with Nik coming out to get me- have me a bit anxious.
I have many experienced Triathletes in my “circle” and many
that are WAY wiser than me. They tell me things like “You should not worry
about the things I can’t control” and that “You can control your mental
strength and focus on the positive”. I am doing my best but it is a struggle at
times! I do know that I am excited for the opportunity to race and am looking
forward to having a new “story” to add to the triathlon chapter of this crazy
ride. With that I go forward into these last few days, a mix of excited and
anxious. Now enough of that and onto the good stuff.
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| The room of pain and I became one, and yet curiously often during the longest rides, people showed up in shifts to join me. |
As we realized long ago, one does not undertake something of
this magnitude by oneself. The time has come to pay homage to those in my
support crew that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt are one of the biggest
reasons I can accomplish the things I do. Here they are- my Ironman Support
Crew!
-The WHOLE enchilada: My wife and children- Without their
support, constant encouragement, and sacrifice none of this would happen.
Period. I am truly blessed by having the most awesome wife and children ever.
Triathlon is a family activity for us between racing, training, “playing”
triathlon, and the work we do for SDTriNews- I am a lucky guy!
-The SWIM: Kathy Grady- Triathlete and swimmer
extraordinaire. Last fall I emailed Kathy and asked if she would help me with
my swim. After months of sessions with her this past fall/winter/spring, I
actually started to enjoy swimming and made some huge gains (for me) in my
times. I have no doubt that once the shoulder heals fully I will be a
significantly quicker and more efficient swimmer than I was last year.
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| This year marked an important one: when our kids began their own athletic pursuits. |
-The BIKE: Many who helped- a couple stand out. Tom Brown
and Matt Hanson hardly missed a spin session all winter/spring. Many a time I
would be lacking motivation to put in the time needed and one or both of those
two would show up to spin and ruin my plans for slacking off. Kurt Pickard, Trevor Schubert, Mike Waldner,
Lori Waldner, Amanda Hanson all logged some hours with me and Coach Troy over
the winter….so in 3…2…1 ;-)
-The RUN: I did a lot more solo running this year than in
years past but still need to thank Kurt Pickard and Matt Hanson for dragging me
out or keeping me going on days when it might not have happened on my own.
-The GLUE: There are a LOT of people that I found
inspiration in, received texts from, had conversations with, and received
encouragement from. These constant influences and reinforcements helped hold
the whole thing together and kept me moving throughout the last 24 weeks. I
would attempt to list them here, but there is no way I could do it without
forgetting someone.
There we have it. Another journey nearing its end. If you
are interested we will post links for tracking and such later this week. Thank
you to everyone who has helped along the way, you will all be crossing my mind
at some point during the race next Sunday. Bring on IM CD’A!!
Nikki's Note:
I have so much pride and love for Mr. T. right now, I have a hard time explaining it--and maybe a bit of anxiety as well for all of the reasons stated above. The heat forecast alone makes me cringe. Watching someone train for an Ironman is way easier than training for it myself. But watching someone DO an Ironman, well, I'd rather do it myself than sit and stress all day for my favorite person in the whole world. When we did Choo, I remember just thinking that I didn't have the time or energy to worry about how Jason was doing because I needed to just focus on my own race, on doing the next thing. So I did. I know I'll need to focus on something new on Sunday since stewing all day about Jason won't do me any good. I'll get to mark up some buff arms and legs from 4am-7am as a volunteer, and then if Troxell Quatro allows, I'll see where else I can volunteer for the day or if I can find a nice, air conditioned coffee shop to chill out in since I also have not had any favorable encounters with heat lately.
I love you, Jason Troxell, and without a doubt, you'll do great come Sunday.
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