Let the countdown begin...

If you ask me today how I'm feeling my response would be, somewhere between Oscar the Grouch and Sam the Eagle. My mind is tired. My body is tired. Not to mention that I am perpetually hungry and extremely cranky.

I have 30 days to go and right now everything is annoying to me. I don't want to talk on the phone, I don't want to talk about my training, I just want to sleep. I've asked some of my Ironman friends about it and they say that this is completely normal and temporary. Phew, what a relief! I was beginning to worry that this state of mind was going to carry me to race day.

Last week was a bad one for me in terms of training. I was not able to complete everything that coach prescribed and my sleep pattern was way off. Looking back, it was probably due to a combination of two things: the extreme heat (I ran 10 miles in 102 degrees and pretty much gave myself a heat stroke), and not being fully recovered from my Triple-T training weekend. Being the type A that I am, not being able to finish a workout really bothers me and I still feel guilty about it. So I decided that this week would be a better one.

Then I got the email from Coach with my schedule and my heart sank a little. Holy crap! I cannot have another bad week. I read the schedule a couple of times to let all the workouts sink in and allowed myself a few minutes to pout over it. Ok, I'm done. Yeah it's a lot, but I can do it and I will do it. All I have to do is approach it one workout at a time and slowly I will check each workout off the list. I got this.

I have a lot of mixed emotions heading into the last weeks of training. I'm excited that the countdown has begun and a part of me will be glad when it is all over. I've loved having a GIANT goal to work towards and at the same time I worry that I will feel lost once the race is done. I am also very excited to go to Hawaii, which is a place I have never been to, to relax and spend some time with my family. But most of all I am looking forward to sleeping in on the weekends again!

So Linda, it's time to embrace the "suck" and toughen up. I only have a couple more weeks of hard training before the "taper" and these workouts right now are key to crossing the finish line under 17 hours.