The Beauty Of It All

    I have been letting my mind race ahead to my racing and training schedules. I admit, I feel as if I'm not training hard enough right now, that I should be devoting more time and energy to base building. Then I remind myself that although it is important to train enough, it is also important to not burn myself out early in the game. I have been following the Number One Rule in Ironman Training: Train Every Day. Yes, I do take mellow days, and although I cycle almost every day, in all other aspects of my training I am careful to alternate days with my workouts. I am running three times a week, swimming three times a week, weight training upper body twice a week, leg strength training twice a week, core twice a week. Damn, that is a lot of workouts crammed into a week. Maybe I am training plenty right now. You may ask yourself just how I manage to do so many workouts. I use cycling as my warm up for strength training and core, usually cycling 60-75 minutes. I also cycle as a warm up for running. On swim days I usually cycle in the morning, since I swim in the evening. As I move into spring I plan on asking if I can get off work an hour early on fridays so I can swim 2 to 3  miles in The Cove, and follow the swim with bike or run, so that every friday will be a decent brick workout. Soon, I imagine I will be devoting at least half of my weekend hours doing intensive, long rides or runs, or both. I know I am insane, but I get giddy thinking about my pending training schedule. That is the beauty of it all, I love to train. As excited as I am to toe the line at my first ultra-endurance event, I am even more excited to train. For me it truly is not the destination, but the journey. That is the beauty of it all.