Happy Birthday

If there is one lesson I will continue to learn though Ironman training, it is the lesson of patience. The Ironman has no room for ego, no room for doubt, and it has no room for impatience. If you can learn to be patient, the best will come. Try and rush through, try to race on ego, and your day will be long and miserable.

It's been a while since I have been at the starting line of the Ironman, and it has been a while since I was walked through the training. Through the training there will be really great days, and during the training there will be really hard days. There will be days of enlightenment, and sometimes those days of enlightenment come via moments of defeat.

Today I had an epiphany, and it came during a difficult moment on my thirty third birthday. I feel excellent about this and I feel very positive as I move forward.

I didn't feel too good this morning as I awoke to teach my 6am Yoga class, but the GI distress I was feeling was no match for my spirit today. Upon returning home I sent the boys off and took a 60 minute nap to refresh. There were some hours I felt very excited about logging today and this was my day!

The temperature was not even reaching zero, so I decided to bring the old Computrainer inside and set up in the living room. Heck, it isn't like I am doing a COLD race this year!!!!! Before I hopped on the bike one of my darling athletes Sharon stopped by to wish a Happy Birthday and bring me some hot cocoa. MMMMMM.

So on the bike I got and I dutifullly listened to Coach Troy call out the sets. As I completed the sets I dreamt of the new computrainer that is arriving any day now and how excited I am to be truly working with wattage and on courses, etc.

I experienced nausea from the start of the ride. I giggled to myself as this is my pattern in races...... but 2 hrs and 30 minutes into my ride I was off the bike and hugging the porcelain, hurling my guts up. The room was spinning, I was feeling absolutely horrible. Turns out my morning GI distress moved into full fledged gastroenteritis. I tried to hold off, I even got on the bike for a moment..... but once again I had to concede. Another long ride fallen short, another training day that has fallen so short of expectations.

As I laid on the couch, feeling defeated from my efforts, I spoke with my husband on the phone. We began to talk about training and my plan, and he began to point out how high my volume is right now, and is it too high? What's the plan as I move forward? How am I getting to the starting line of Lake Placid in one mental and physical piece?

For the second week in a row I fell apart trying to ride a pretty high volume ride indoors. Is this too much? Is it a coincidence that I am now sick? Or was this coming all along? Is this my edge? Physically I am feeling great, emotionally I am struggling with longer trainer rides. Likely this is temporary, and I have been through it before. Times like this however signal that something isn't working just right. I just feel like right now I should not be getting sick.

I laid on the couch in the afternoon feasting on Saltines and drinking flat soda, only vomiting about every 30 minutes now, my afternoon of sledding had turned into an afternoon of my 6 year old rubbing my tummy and us watching movies. At 5 below zero it was just as well, no one belongs on the slopes when it is this cold!!!!! I thought long and hard about my program, scrolled through the training I have done and gotten through, and realized that I needed to take hold of the reigns again.

I need to have a sense of the macrocycle, I need to know myself as an athlete again. I have learned the art of reading my athlete's voices and faces, but have I lost the ability to read my own? It seems I need to get to know me again, and through this Ironman I shall do just that.

Coach Doug Bush has been amazing for me, and I will keep him there as an advisor. This seems to be a journey I am meant to guide myself on, just like last time. I believe I can be my own coach, as I have the spectacular ability to know each and every day how I am feeling.

So as the vomiting began to subside....... I pulled out the old binder and began to map. And I smiled as I mapped out the mesocycles and thought about how to fit them in with my B priority races (Gulf Coast and Eagleman 1/2 Ironmans), how to get the most out of Epic weekend in Lake Placid, and how to get myself to the starting line of Lake Placid Ironman, ready to be the best I can be.

I mapped out the workouts I will do on the new computrainer, the testing sessions, and most importantly the recovery time :-) Now I know where I am going and I feel really, really good about that.

By the evening I was feeling better, knowing the course of this 24 hour bug that I had seen in my Pediatric Emergency Dept this past week. as volume increases illness will come, so having roll time in the schedule was also a must. Curt brought home the meal I had been dreaming of:

Cheese and Pepperoni pizza from Pontillos
One Guinness Beer
and a Birthday Cake.

It was the only "real" food I was able to eat all day long, and I wasn't able to eat much. But it tasted carefully good. And I smiled.

So it was not the birthday I was hoping for. But it was much better than I could have ever imagined. What I lacked in training time that I dreamt of, I made up for in personal growth. In a way I feel like I have come back home.

And my tummy doesn't hurt, and the runny butt has ceased, and tomorrow is another day. While I might forget about the previous training debacle day, I know that I will not forget this one. It is the pinnacle of my training, and the day I stepped onto the right track.

That's a feeling that I won't trade!

Thank you for reading, and for all of the incredibly kind emails and phone calls with Happy Birthday wishes!

:-) mary eggers