Monday, January 2, 2012

The rules of training for an IronMan

My husband Justin will be competing in his first IronMan this year in Louisville.  He will be competing with his two younger brothers, Paul and Josh.  I am beyond proud of this journey he will be taking.  However, I am also a little worried about what this means for me.  Some of you may say I am being selfish, and that's ok.  In fact, I can guarantee that in the process of writing this blog and doucumenting my experience as an IronMan widow that I will come across selfish several times in the next 9 months.
In order to prepare for the IronMan in August, my husband had started taking a Masters Swim Class.  This class starts at 5 am- which means the alarm clock goes off at 4 am 3 days a week.  Keep in mind, that we sleep in the same bed, so when the alarm goes off, I hear it too.  He has also purchased a beautiful Tri Bike which is now in my living room (hopefully not a permanent fixture), and spends his evenings at the gym.  They say that training for an IM is like a part time job- so I am looking at 15-20 hours a week of not having my husband around.
Today Justin discovered a new Tri store in Plano, and of course he was there.  I don't blame him, if there was an opening for a new Nordstroms, I'd be there the first day too.  At the store, one of the sales associates told him that there are 4 things to keep in mind while training for an IronMan.
1) Family
2) Work
3) Sleep
4) Training
And, he could only pick 3.

I have a feeling that sometimes one of the three items isn't going to be family, and I am going to have to learn to be ok with that.

2 comments:

  1. I can see that I am going to enjoy this blog!

    I have to comment though, that SLEEP is the one thing your man will be very deprived of. Every time I have finished an Ironman, the circles have become more etched under my eyes.

    Best of luck -
    Linnea
    www.truegrittraining.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2 comments: #1 to the previous comment from Linnea. I have a friend named Linnea & have never met anyone else with that name. I assume you don't know too many people with your same name, so just thought I would share that bit of trivia.

    #2 I also am going to enjoy this blog because although I have never & will never compete in an Ironman, I have competed in numerous shorter distance tri's, swims, bikes & runs. I have several friends who are Ironmen so I kind of understand both sides of this--the obsessed athlete and the innocent bystander.

    Suellen

    ReplyDelete