Thoughts...

I received an email from a lady who I met through a friend on Daily Mile (like Facebook for athletes, it's awesome!). She is a relatively new triathlete and really wants to train for her first Olympic distance triathlon, and possibly a Half-Ironman down the road. She said she was impressed with my consistency with my workouts and was wondering how I find the time to work full-time and train for an Ironman (and be the best dog mom ever - okay, she didn't say that part).

When people ask me that, my answer is always this: "You find time for what is important to you." I believe that if you work really hard, you can always fit more things into your life. It involves getting up before 5 am every day during the work week, and not sleeping past 6:30 am on the weekends. It involves using your lunch hour to work out. It involves motivating yourself to fit in another workout after work. It involves skipping fun social activities in lieu of training. But, I visualize crossing the finish line every day and that makes it worth it - because it is important to me.

On another note, I was on a triathlon forum yesterday and came across a line in a discussion that someone had posted.

It read this: #1 characteristic in being successful at triathlon? Selfishness.

This made me think, and really, it's true. I know I do not thank Dan enough. I have the most amazing and supportive husband. It takes a lot of personal sacrifice and commitment to train for an Ironman, but even more than that, it takes a lot of family sacrifice and commitment, especially as the hours ramp up. I work full time and my training hours are like having a part time job on top of that. He (rarely) complains about all of the money I spend on gear, bike repair and race entry fees. Not even a peep about the $100 bike shorts I purchased so that I could be comfortable on my long rides. Come June 27, I can say without hesitation that while I might be doing the 140.6 miles that make up an Ironman, when I cross that finish line, I will not have done it alone. Thank you Ironsherpa!