Brain Surgery to Ironman

Here we are, 3 weeks working from home, 2 weeks of my son being home schooled and I don’t know when I’ve been busier.  At first I thought, working from home would make it easier to get workouts done, less travel time to the pool, the gym, my bike trainer.......boy was I wrong!  Instead I actually find myself working harder than usual to get it all in.  However, it is getting done, except the pool of course.  Gyms have been closed for 2 weeks, my last swim was March 13th and I can honestly say I miss it! The other thing that has been happening on an almost daily basis is race cancellations.  Now, I can’t speak for all endurance athletes, but for me the race is the celebration of all the training.  When you think about it, the race distance and time it takes to complete it pales in comparison to the miles and hours of training.  Last weekend I was supposed to run the Fallen Comrades Half Marathon at West Point and like all other races it was canceled. ...

Worry about what you CAN control and not what you can’t!  This is a mantra that I lived by from 2015 when I found out that I “might” need a second surgery until early 2017 when I found out I would in fact have a second surgery.  I truly believe that I had I waited for the other shoe to drop and not lived my life to the fullest, I would have wound up losing my mind! Here we are in March of 2020 and the country, actually the world is in the grips of a pandemic unlike anything most people have experienced in their lifetime.  The last time I remember witnessing something even remotely like this were the days following 9/11.  Long lines at the grocery stores, desolate parking lots at usually peak hours in town, even the gym parking lot was noticeably less crowded on this gorgeous Sunday morning.  Schools being closed, cities shutting down and what may seem minor to most in the grand scheme of things........races being cancelled. People, myself included, spend a tre...

So, it’s been an interesting week full of highs and lows.  Since I started running 7 years ago I have been keenly aware that the path to race day isn’t linear.  There are ups and downs like any other journey, it’s just a matter of making sure to remain as even keeled as possible.  This was one of those weeks.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will test in all 3 disciplines regularly so that my coach can monitor my progress.  This week was my swim test.  Each coach has a different method for conducting these tests, mine prefers a 1000 yard test.  The last time I performed this I swam my 1000 yards in 18:53.  Of all the disciplines, swimming has been the one that I’ve been seeing the biggest gains in lately so I was looking forward to this.  After completing my warm up I began the test.  I was cruising along and felt really good, but I also felt like I was swimming slowly, more on that in a minute.  As I got to the last 50 yards I...