Hangin' Tough

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push.  A smile.  A world of optimism and hope.  A 'you can do it' when things are tough. -- Richard M. DeVos

QOTD:  Once you make the decision that you will not fail, the heart and body will follow.

Yeah, that topic of toughness is back.  Am I starting to sound like a broken record?  Maybe - but I am hoping that repetition leads to mastery.  Hey, if a bunch of teeny-bopper boys can hang tough, you know I can!

Anyway, there was a well-timed article sent out by Ironman this week about toughness - the article is here, but the three main points are these:

1. Breathe.
2. Positive self-talk.
3. Surround yourself with people who energize you.

Seems way too simple, right?  But then I realized that I encourage other people to do this ALL. THE. TIME.  Yeah, I'm one of those do-as-I-say,-not-as-I-do kind of people.  An example - a student came to my office absolutely freaking about a job interview she had the next day.  I had just finished reading an article on 4-7-8 breathing.  Don't ask, I read weird stuff sometimes.  So I told her to do it, before she had a panic attack on me (and certainly before she had a panic attack on her potential employer).  And then we talked about what she does well and how she can emphasize that in answering interview questions...which got her around to positive self-talk.  Finally, during exam season, I tell all of my students not to hang out with the kids that get all depressed and freaked out after every exam; instead, take the afternoon, go out and have some fun and get your energy back, and then get ready for the next exam.  Hanging out with the Negative Nancys will just drag you down and make it hard for you to be energized for the next test.  See?  I'm really really good at advising on how to be tough.  Just not so much on being tough.  Yet.

For right now, I'm just going to breathe...

Summer Time...and the livin' is easy...

Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented. -- G.K. Chesterton

August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil everything I've been listening to in the late spring and summer. -- Henry Rollins

This summer feels different than last summer - for about a hundred recognizable reasons, but still, it feels off.  Taking our vacation for most of June kind of set summer back a month - yeah, I know that vacation is part of summer, but it's different when you're not in the summer routine.  It doesn't feel like summer - and then you come back and get blasted in the face with the summer routine and it's like, bam - where is summer?

Also, last summer, as I was coming up on August, I was starting to think about the end of Ironman training...but now, August is just another big build month before the last push in early September.  It's hard to know how I feel because the timing feels off, and I haven't been unslothlike enough to go back and measure 10 weeks out from last year to compare it to this year's training.  Instead, it's more fun to just panic.  :)

QOTD:  You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

And work - summer is a love/hate time of year for professors.  On one hand, its great to be off schedule and working at your own pace.  On the other hand, the semester looms and you know if you're going to get anything at all done, it needs to happen in the summer.  This summer, since I did nothing in June and then did a little bit of travel and advocacy in July, I feel like I haven't gotten into my summer work mode, but damnit, there's only a few more weeks of summer left to get EVERYTHING done.  Yikes.

Anyway, August is coming.  And with it, some long rides and runs that will necessarily be followed by beer - 'cause that's why it was invented.  I just need to relax and work through the rest of summertime...while the livin's easy...

What the Hill?

It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top. -- Arnold Bennett

Quote of the day:  To truly enjoy the downhill, you must conquer the uphill.

For the next couple days, I am in Beaver Creek, Colorado.  Elevation - 8100 feet.  I drove through some higher cities on my way from Denver, but coming from low-land Virginia, these are some mighty big hills.  :)  Like mountain-sized hills.

Just because I'm traveling from work doesn't mean I get to skip training - it's a dropback week, but that is still a lot of work when we're just over 2 months out from the Ironman.  I didn't bring my bike, but I'm lucky enough to be staying at a resort that has a fantastic fitness center with a lap-pool and spin-type trainer bikes.  So I'll get my bike and swim on there.  But the run.  The run.   The run.

There is a beautiful path that goes through the resort and down to the town below.  (Below...3-4 miles down.  Which naturally means that there will be a 3-4 mile run back up to get back to the hotel.)  Last year, I ran down and kind of walked up, but this year I have the goal of running down and back up again, no matter how slow I have to go, between the climb and the elevation.  The view up here is lovely.  I will enjoy and conquer the climb.

Why Haven't You Been Blogging?

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -- Thomas Jefferson

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes.  It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. -- Wade Boggs

This weekend, on a very long and very hot bike ride, my husband (IronSherpa) asked me why I am not really blogging any more.  My answer was "There are only so many ways to say 'I suck'."  I don't want to write about my whining and I'm sure you don't want to read about it.  But that's the real problem - I need to stop whining and stop thinking I suck.  I was in a much better place mentally last year when I was 2.5 months out from IM Louisville.  That said, I have 2.5 months to get myself in a good space for IM MD.  Ideally, it will happen sooner than later, because I need to have a good attitude for the training that is coming.  This week is a rest week...thank goodness, because I'm tired and I'm travelling.  But next week is huge and it only gets huger.  (More huge?  I don't know.)

A couple of things I'm trying to do is focus on some motivational quotes.  A friend of mine put up a link to a list of quotes to get you through triathlon training.  I've decided to cycle through them, one a day, for the next 2.5 months. Today's quote (QOTD):

A good goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.

Well, IM MD certainly has the scare factor!  But I am also excited - not a lot right now, but I am excited and I will focus on that excitement, rather than the fear.

Another thing is that IronSherpa is doing his best to inspire me.  (Sometimes I feel like it is nagging, but I know he is doing this for me, and I do love him for it...but you know how sometimes the message is received based on the attitude you currently have?  Well, yeah.  That happens.)  He has sent me a couple of things to think about, and they are going to be part of my focus for the next 2.5 months also.  I'll put up the links now and talk about them later.

Gaining Mental Toughness by Michael Harlow
(He's the owner/head coach of the triathlon company that trains my younger daughter - and generally just an all-around awesome kind of guy.)

15 Habits of Mentally Tough People by Travis Bradberry
(from Entrepreneur Magazine)

I guess from these links you probably have figured out that I'm lacking a little in the mental toughness department (and probably in the physical toughness, too...but I need the mind to rule the matter).  This, I think, is the key to my success.

Anyway, the last thing I need to focus on is blogging.  I have been kind of sitting in a little black hole and ignoring that I am struggling with my training because of my pissy attitude.  It's time to snap out of it and get going...'cause when the going gets tough...

Food. Food. Food.

I think about food literally all day every day.  It's a thing. -- Taylor Swift

Food.  Food.  Food.  I have been sitting here this morning contemplating second breakfast.  I'm not a hobbit (although I may or may not have hairy toes).  But I am training for an Ironman and that training is getting serious.  However, I'm kind of stuck in a bit of a conundrum...(which by the way, is an excellent inexpensive white wine blend, but that's neither here nor there)...I want to always eat but I would also like to get a little bit of the cruise food weight off.  I know (and you know I know,  because I've whined about it before) that I would be a bit faster with a little less junk in the trunk.  But looking at tomorrow's forever long ride is making me hungry just thinking about it.

There is the benefit of summer that we've had a bunch of fresh fruit and veg around (although the veg I'm most likely to just pick up and eat are tomatoes, which are technically fruits, but neither here nor there).  I have a couple of thoughts on my eating and I have 84 days to experiment...so here's what I'm thinking:

1)  Keep up with the fresh fruits & veg.  And proteins are your friends.

2)  Don't shun carbs.  You need them to go 60+ miles on the bike or 10+ miles on the run.

3)  Figure out if you can partially dump the fake stuff on the long rides & runs.  To this end, I've gotten the Feed Zone & Feed Zone Portables books.  I'm going to try to make some real food snacks to see if they sit with me during training.  Now's the time to experiment after all.  I'll still stick with the Gatorade - need those electrolytes, especially in the heat & because I'll want to live at least mostly off the course.

4)  Beer tastes good in the summer, but stick with wine if at all possible.  Your waist will thank you.

5)  Don't deny treats...but don't feel like you have to compensate every hard workout, because you didn't earn THAT much junk!  Fast food after races only.  I mean it.

Let's see if these 5 guidelines (I don't like rules) will get me a little closer to the body I want to take to Maryland (and beyond).  I'm looking big picture here, folks...health, wellness, and being a good role model for the girls.  Feeding my family with healthy love, not junk.  And fueling my Ironman dream.

Tuesday - 7/7 - brick (1:30 ride, 2 mile run)
Wednesday - 7/8 - swim
Thursday - 7/9 - 11 mile run/walk

Welcome Back!

When the seasons shift, even the subtle beginning, the scent of a promised change, I feel something stir inside me.  Hopefulness?  Gratitude?  Openness?  Whatever it is, it's welcome.  -- Kristin Armstrong

Welcome back!  Yes, it's been a month since I posted...but it wasn't entirely due to my slackiness at blogging.  Summer started with a bang and a two-week Norwegian vacation...so it's only now that "summer" is really starting for me.  Which sucks, because I have a lot of training to do and less than 3 months to do it in!  Yikes!  Getting a wee-bit nervous about IM MD - but it's too early for that sort of break down.  But it's easy to get nervous when you take 2 weeks off training...sure, I walked and hiked, but I also ate like a madwoman.  And when we got back, there was a mountain of mail and laundry and other vacation fallout to deal with.  So today is really the start of "summer" - I feel hopeful and open and grateful that I have 3 months to get my pathetic self into Maryland shape.

Let's do this!

Monday - 7/6 - run 3 miles, swim