Today was a day of personal victory. Many moons ago Trina and I had our first 'long' (a ridiculous term by our current measures) ride with the Ironmamas. It was a cool, gray NW day about six months ago. We met at our house in Eugene and rode 25 miles of hills. At the time the burning in my quads and chest were a signal that I either a) might die soon or b) was in for a journey like no other. The ride was the most difficult I had experienced to date at that time (this was prior to our fun ride to Mt St Helens). It was hard, inspiring and excellent foreshadowing. At the time the Tour deBlast was not on my radar and I had no concept of what training for Ironman was really about. There truly is bliss in naiveté.
Fast forward six months of hard cycling, learning how to swim further than 10 laps (seriously!) and many many miles of running....today Trina and I decided that for our last ride before shipping the bikes to Wisconsin, we should revisit the hills that caused us so much anguish so many months ago. And so we rode. We were both hesitant; initially feeling nervous and fearful that we would not detect any changes in our level of fitness or confidence in climbing. But two hills in we were both astonished and delighted that we were riding like what we call 'real' cyclists! And, as if that wasn't enough to whoop-it-up about, we were having...get this....wait for it....fun. Can you imagine? A challenging ride was finally FUN for us! We were THRILLED! We are still thrilled. In fact if you heard a distant whooping sound around 6:00 tonight, that was us celebrating our accomplishments this season. Ironman BRING IT ON!
Tomorrow I will take the bikes to Seattle for shipping to the race. We are excited and nervous, but we also feel ready. The ride today was exactly what we needed to boost our confidence and trust in the training. We did the work. Now, let's make this Ironman something to write home about!!!!!
2 wet suits, many open water swims, and 1000's of laps: unfathomable
two bikes, 100's of gel packs, four new tires and more hills than I knew was possible: breathtaking
four pairs of running shoes, two running skirts, several scary GI moments and 100's of miles on the Eugene running trails: indescribable
Completing the race and hearing them announce 'you are an ironman': PRICELESS.
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