Ready (from late May)

It’s the fort night before our spring board Triathlon that will begin to raise awareness for Carcinoid. I had doubts about whether or not I was going to be ready for this event about a month ago (see my “Calibrated by the Ocean” blog….) I’ve sense had an epiphany and I now know that I am ready.

It’s literally 4 days before the Tri and I’m in my “taper” phase. Not like Dr. Rob’s taper phase, ala training around tapering, I’m really doing a taper. I never understood why athletes tapered until now. It’s sort of a pseudo physical and mental recharge. Physically to let your body recover from a long training regimen as well as fuel up for “the race.” I now appreciate a carb load as much as the next person. Mentally to reflect on why you’re doing the race, reflecting on your long training routine, and contemplating how race day might play out. It’s been a long winding road of soul searching, both physically and mentally. I used my taper period to do some rough calculations as well. I figured I’ve trained for roughly 68+hours. In those 68 hours I’ve accomplished 40 brick workouts consisting of back to back swim/bike or bike/run sessions to prepare for race day. I’ve woken as early as 4:30am to train by 5am so I could make it to work on time. I’ve trained as late as 10pm biking or running around my dark neighborhood. Surprisingly I never ran into traffic or had any close calls with 2000+lb vehicles that couldn’t’ see me. Dumb luck I guess. I figure I’ve swam over 48,000 meters, biked over 900 miles, and ran over 160miles. I’ve purchased everything from anti chaffing cream to a time trial bike and everything in between. I’ve meet new friends along the way, reacquainted with some old ones, and realized what I always knew but was too busy to stop and look around. There are some really great people in this world. The Blackwoods are the model of greatness we should all strive to become.

One can really find themselves while staring at the bottom of a pool or riding solo down a windy country road. I’ve ran the gamut of emotions throughout this cycle. I’ve laughed and I’ve cried during training sessions. I’ve felt pain, joy, sadness, disbelief, release, refreshed, and refocused. I’ve consulted swim coaches, bike aficianados, and marathon runners, made countless trips to my massage therapists and read more training and nutrition articles than you can shake a stick at. I’ve studied the training course add nauseaum and read every USAT rule that could possible disqualify me. I packed my gear 2 days in advance, lubed the @#$% out of my bike chain, and obsessed over every fine detail you could imagine (just ask my wife).

I’m ready for this race. This race doesn’t do this journey justice because this is only the beginning. This race isn’t the culmination of a build up of 5 months of training for 1 day. This race is the beginning of a journey that we’re on together. We’ve committed to “Tri for Life” and I don’t think anyone’s taking that lightly. We’ve committed to not stopping on June 1st. We’re going to keep charging, trying to find more avenues to raise awareness for Carcinoid, unique ways to raise more funds for a cure. We’ve committed to journey down an aggressive path to save Cathy and others that may be suffering from this silent disease. Hard times and curves in the road sometimes deter people’s hopes and dreams. One thing that cannot be deterred in this journey is determination. We’re determined to help raise awareness and hopefully raise enough funds to find a cure.

We’re ready. I can’t wait to see what’s next…..