Life Changes

You never know when things in life are going to change. So often you have your whole year planned out to the week (especially as triathletes) and then something happens and you have to make adjustments. In my case, it's going to be major adjustments as I just received a big job promotion. I purposely don't discuss work much on this blog but with my position before I was able to work from home 2-3 days a week and get the job done. Well now my responsibilities have doubled and I manage a team now which requires me to be in the office every day and make the 100 mile commute each day. Needless to say, this has put a damper on my Ironman build and even more so on my family time.

My situation before allowed me the time, sleep and energy I needed to train properly for my best race at IMCDA and ultimately fulfill my dream of qualifying and racing at Kona. I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago that I am devastated about not fulfilling my dreams in triathlon (which are qualifying for Kona and winning a major AG race) but beyond excited about my "real life" dreams which comes along with this promotion that is going to allow me to support my family, travel and live more comfortably. It's also going to mean that we will most likely be moving back to San Diego this summer which is also something we are really excited about. My Facebook post was misinterpreted and a lot of my friends thought I was giving up on the sport completely. That may or may not be the case, I don't know yet and the good news is I don't have to decide it right now. After IMCDA, I will definitely take a break to get my house sold, buy a new one, get settled in aT work and actually spend some time with my family!

Right now I am spending about 1.5 hrs a day M-F with my wife and kids and I HATE it. However, I know it's just a short term run so I am giving it my best in my build towards IMCDA and my family is on board. I've worked way to hard to this point to just put up the white flag and race half-assed. It's taken awhile to make the adjustments to the new work schedule while still getting in some quality hours of training. My targeted 20 hrs/week with adequate sleep and rest has been replaced with 12-16 hr/weeks with little sleep and 100+ miles of commuting each day. Not ideal, but I have to make it work for just another month.

As far as training goes, I feel a little bit like I did in my Ironman 70.3 Worlds build from last year. Just really tired legs, digging deep constantly and mentally challenging. The biggest thing that has suffered is my swim. I'm only able to get in the water two MAYBE three times a week and usually it's swimming alone which is not ideal for me but I'm just trying to limit my loses there. I've been getting in my long rides consistently each week and mileage seems to stay consistent around the 150 mile range. Ideally, that would be 200, but again - making it work. As far as running goes, this is the only sport I feel really good about right now. We've been incorporating a lot of long runs, tempo sessions and brick runs. I actually ran 40 miles last week which is the most I've done in about five years.

So my outlook on my chances at qualifying are now pretty slim. I already knew I had to execute perfectly in order to put myself in position to qualify and everything was on track until my time available to train/sleep changed. The good news now though is there is no pressure to perform. I'll just go to battle and give it everything I have and be content with the result either way. I may surprise myself and pull it off, who knows. I'm starting to learn over my 35 years of being alive to finally take each day by day and minute to minute. I've always been so future focused and failing to live in the moment - to train in the moment and I believe that's helped me.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate all of the support!