After an Ironman

It feels a little strange to be in the post-Ironman phase. For a year, I anticipated and worked toward this race and now I have these moments when I realize that it's over; it was already two and a half weeks ago! I am very goal oriented and I have felt a little bit aimless. It's hard to do all that training and then just stop. I do have an urge to keep going but every time I do a workout, my legs remind me that they are still not totally happy with me. Since the race, I've done a couple of 60K rides with the group in addition to a couple of shorter rides on my own, done a bike hill climbing workout, swum about 5 times (before I got the tattoo) and run once. The workouts feel OK (not awesome but fine) but it takes longer than usual to recover. In the weeks before the race, I felt so strong and invincible. Now I feel tired and slow. But I think the best cure for that is to keep on training, keep the legs moving, and try to maintain my fitness.

My brother, who lives in Seattle, called me last night to suggest that I do a couple of races with him in his neck of the woods during the first week of September. The idea just sounded perfect to me. That will give me time to build up my training again and will give me a goal that will give my training purpose (beyond the fact that training and being fit just feel good).

This is a shift in gears but the summer is shaping up nicely and I am looking forward to it.

Ironman Tattoo

It was always my plan to get an Ironman tattoo if I finished the race so a few days after I got home from Coeur d'Alene, I went off and did it. I wanted to get the classic M-dot because it's a recognizable symbol of Ironman but I wanted it to be original as well. So, I embellished the M-dot with the tree that the Coeur d'Alene race uses as its symbol and added the mountains to represent the terrain in CdA. I'm happy with it.