Happy New Year!

Real quick, I'm excited to have finished my 21 miles/36,900 yards in swimming this month that was a USAT club challenge for December. That's the distance of the English Channel. I didn't finish it all up last week so had to put a couple swim days in this week. Well long story short, our pool here has been out of commission for this week only so I had to pay $6 to swim at a local pool. That's an expensive rate and I'm cheap so I decided to pack it all into one day and only pay once :)
So yesterday, 5,000 yard later I came ashore. I haven't swam that far in one workout probably since high school and I'm pleased with how well it went. I'll be careful not to curse myself here, but I'm so glad my body is staying healthy and strong. Last time I said that I broke my foot at BAM the following week. I have control, I have control, I have control....... :)

Now onto today. What a day. Thanks to Sarah and Chuck for your well wishes for today. 2 loops of the IMSG bike course were scheduled for today and I'm happy to say they're done! 93 miles later, I feel great! Well not physically so much, my legs are a little sore (not as bad as they could be thanks to my trusty and crazy ice baths), and my back and neck are a bit sore as well, ok, and I'm tired.......but I really am happy with today. Felt good mentally almost the whole ride, much better than monday. Some actual sunshine today made a huge difference I think. My toes were still cold, but manageable. Equal splits on both loops. I'm getting to know and even like the course now and am so happy I've had these chances to train on it. My nutrition went well and while it's hard to imagine a swim before and a marathon after, I am excited for race day only 4 months away!

One neat experience from today was on mile 90 on the way back to the condo (I miscalculated my ride today just a little, it was only supposed to be 85. Whoops! Don't anyone ask why I didn't go the extra 7, don't even think about it!). I'd been listening to music the last couple hours to keep me going. I don't usually, but I rode alone again today, and 6 hours is a long time to be alone and working hard. Had my music on shuffle, had already heard several songs twice, when at mile 90 while feeling pretty proud of myself for staying strong today, my favorite race song (which won't be named right now as I reserve it for race days only and visualization days right before a race) came on and I let myself listen to it. I got so emotional and excited for IRONMAN. I'm putting in the time and training as best I can and am excited to see what my body and I can do together come May 1.