Training for Ironman Mont-Tremblant

Last summer, when I signed up for my second Ironman, Ironman Mont-Tremblant, it hardly seemed like the time would ever come. Now, amazingly, it is just 13 days away.

In the last two weeks, I did my longest workouts. My longest run was 21K, which I did in Lake Stevens, Washington, while I was there to visit my brother who lives there. My longest ride, 176 km in the pouring rain, was last Saturday, and yesterday I did my longest swim - 4000 m in Hubbles Lake. Although these were the longest distances for each discipline, I have been doing pretty long workouts all month.

This year has been entirely different in almost every way from last year when I trained for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I have to say, I won't be sorry to kick 2013 in the butt when it's on its way out. It has been a very challenging year in some big ways and I am, at this point, completely depleted, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken on an Ironman this year but when I signed up, I didn't really know what was ahead. In the thick of it all, I decided that I still wanted to carry on with my training because I saw Ironman as something I could do for me, something I could use to channel my energy into something productive.

Anyway, here I am, 13 days from race day. I have been trying to evaluate my readiness. This year, I had a PB in a 10K running race in April and in a 15K running race on July 1. I survived Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, which was a challenging race in difficult conditions! My swim times out at the lake have been good - even slightly faster than last year. But, there has been a lot of variation in how my workouts have felt, particularly on the bike. Some have been great, others really, really awful. The bad workouts mess with my mind and make me wonder if I have what it takes this year.

I have to work some sport psychology on myself! By the time I get on the plane to Quebec, I will have swum 150,000 metres, ridden my bike about 4000 km, and run over 600K. I did all of this training in the last 8 months, starting just six weeks after having very major surgery last fall. So that's not too shabby. I also must say that I have some amazing friends who have put in a lot of these miles with me and I feel very lucky to know them. My taper started today. I am going to stick to it perfectly! This morning, I went for a short run and then had a long massage. Now for a lot of rest, a bit of wine, and a lot of positive self talk! There are moments of excitement that sneak in now. I want to grab hold of those and make this race awesome.