Work, Eat, Sleep...x 4

Yep that was my weekend. Friday - Monday was work/eat/sleep, and even the eating part became optional.

I am a computer consultant for an IBM business partner in Ohio. I help customers migrate to newer hardware when they buy/lease new equipment. This equipment is pretty significant since it often supports very large companies, users and applications. I had to work at two customers this weekend, a hospital and a national distribution company. So this is how my weekend went, too bad I'm not giving you training details.

Friday:

• Work during the day with three different customers and a visit to Dr. Zak, ART.

Saturday:

• Wake up at 1:30AM, at hospital 2:30AM. Leave hospital 6:30AM. Work not injury.
• Sleep for two hours, get up at 10:00AM, shower, eat, arrive customer #2 12:00PM.
• Leave customer #2 at 11:30PM.

Sunday:

• Wake up at 7:00AM, eat, arrive back at customer #2 at 8:30AM.
• Leave customer #2 at 6:30PM
• Have dinner with Aimee, first real food all weekend, in fact almost only food on Sunday.

Monday:

• Back at customer #2 at 8:00AM for another 5 hours of work. Everything up and running things look great.
• I also got in another visit to Dr. Zak for my leg.
• Ran for the first time since my leg started to bother me, 4.2 miles.
• Decide not to run Shamrock Marathon on March 19.

Which is a good segue to answer my comment about my fitness last week. I've been struggling with a tight hipflexor, tfl, quad, hamstring...you name it, it's probably too tight. I wasn't sure if I was going to be ready by the 19th for the marathon. Dr. Zak was confident about getting me loosened up with enough sessions.

However, after my run this evening I didn't feel comfortable with my leg. I could still feel the tightness, not as bad as before, but it was still there. Aimee and I have talked about it often and she helped me decide the right thing to do. I also talked to Coach Angela and she supports my decision. She thinks it's the right thing to do and is glad I made this decision.

My primary focus this year is Ironman. Do I push through a marathon that may injure me more or bail and continue therapy on my leg? The answer is pretty obvious, rest and recover. The marathon was a distance I wanted under my belt before IM. It would have been nice to do a marathon by itself. I am sacrificing now for the greater good in July.

I have weird emotions about this.

A little bit of disappointment, I was looking forward to traveling to Virginia Beach and run my very first marathon.

A little bit of relief, no pressure to get better quick and worry about the consequences down the road.

A little bit humbled, my training was going good until the hip flared up. I have been sidelined. Not an easy pill to swallow for a competitive athlete.

I've also been reminded of the awesome support group I have around me. My wife was keeping me on an even keel showing her concern for my health, both physical and mental. Coach was trying her best to keep me in shape to run the marathon throughout the therapy and provided constant mental support. I couldn't ask for anything more from two of the most important women in my life right now.

So now I have to make the comparisons between my recent experiences and my Ironman journey. It's kind of expected with this blogging thing.

Like the kids from Southpark, I've learned something today (or over the weekend).

My marathon weekend of work has shown me that I have the mental toughness to handle Ironman. I hit alot of emotions during the weekend as I tried to make things work, regrouped, thought I was in over my head, persevered, tapped into some great support and triumphed in the end. A great sense of accomplishment when all was said and done.

The courage to do what is right by deciding to not run my marathon and save myself for IM. I hope to carry the right mental attitude into IM USA so that I may make the right decisions at crucial times during the day.

To continue to surround myself with a support system that will help me get through all of the training, work and life issues that will present themselves to me over the next 5 months.

Here's to beginning a new phase of my IM training.