Sunday Sunday Sunday!

This weekend will be the pinnacle of my triathlon journey thus far.  On Sunday, I will attempt to complete Ironman Louisville. I thought, in the free time my taper has thrust upon me, to document my journey to this Sunday's race.  For me, completing triathlons is not about the actual race.  Rather, the race is a means to an end.  Having a race is motivation to get out there and train.  It encourages me to eat healthier and get more sleep.  The race itself is a celebration and enjoyment of the hours and miles put in during the previous months.  Therefore, I thought I would document the past few months of training and see what I've accomplished.  Whether or not I finish (in 12:00 hours?  fingers crossed!) IM Louisville, I've already achieved my goal.

So, one way of looking at my progress is to look at the actual training numbers.  I signed up for IM Louisville on 10/31/2010.  Since then, I've:

• Run 1,127 miles in 161 hours and 48 minutes (7 mph)
• Biked 1,963  miles in 143 hours and 19 minutes (14 mph) [This includes my bike commuting]
• Swam 92 miles in 52 hours (1.8 mph).

At least, that what I recorded in my Garmin account.  I'm sure I've missed workouts.

Another way of looking at my training, is to document the various events I've completed in training.  So, I:

• Ran the Cowtown Marathon
• Ran the Oklahoma City Marathon
• Completed a few Splash and Dashes with TriOKC
• Biked the Tour de Meers
• Biked the Tour de Pain
• Biked the Norman Conquest
• Biked the Spin Your Wheels Ride
• Raced the Route 66 Olympic Triathlon
• Raced Buffalo Springs 70.3
• Raced Arcadia Sprint Triathlon

But wait, there's more!  What do you do when you train all alone with no one to talk to?  You listen to Podcasts and free Audio books from the library. So, in the past few months, I've listened to:
Many many episodes of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Zen and the Art of Triathlon, This American Life, Left Right and Center, and Car Talk.  I also discovered Filmspotting. As for books, I listened to: Moby Dick, Thunderball, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a few Sherlock Holmes books, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Great Gatsby.  I also maxed out my free Pandora subscription listening to the Tool station.

Oh yeah, I also took the Oklahoma Bar Exam in July, but that doesn't really fit into things.

Well, if you've made it thus far, I think you have the stamina necessary to complete an Ironman yourself. I suppose the point of this post is to confirm that my personal triathlon experience is much more about the journey itself, and not the destination.  I'll try to remember that 10 hours into Ironman Louisville.