The 7-Hour Brick

Six hours on the trainer.

45 minutes run afterwards.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the brick except that it’s over, the last big one of the Peak. The only big thing left this week is the 3.25 hour run, and then it’s into taper. I was thinking about doing it Friday, but I am going to see how my body feels.

And although I was pretty solid in my performance today, I was most proud of the fact that this brick came only two days after my last long brick this past weekend, not to mention the two back-to-back weekends of 6-hour bricks before that.

I had to make some adjustments in my schedule because I am going to Kansas this weekend to cheer Cheese on in his second ½ marathon. I know I took a risk putting such long workouts so close together, especially given my vulnerability to injury and being so close to the race now. But I really wanted to go to Kansas, so I felt this was the best way to handle it.

The plan was to do the three-hour run on Sunday in Kansas, but I am not sure of the roads out there, and don’t know how to get it in. The alternative to Friday or Kansas is to do it Monday night, after work.

I will say this though: You will not see any more posts about my insecurities regarding my fitness or my ability to do this race. I felt almost euphoric today running on that lakefront (in shorts no less!), and with each runner I passed, I thought, “I already have six hours under my belt today.”

In my whole life, NOTHING has eve felt as good as my performance today. I got off that bike, looked at my legs, and thought, “I can’t believe you little guys just did that!”

I actually felt proud today. Proud that I finished, proud that I made it this far, proud that I will do this race in two weeks, and proud that I am now at the end of TWO YEARS of having this goal. Two years I have been working towards this!

I look at my life two years ago, and my, how different it was. I look at my relationship with food, my ability to commit to this, the people in my life then and now – wow, are things different. I look at my life and fitness today, and have never felt more proud. Not even as I walked across that stage and got my diploma for my doctorate – mostly because I think I always had faith I would finish that damn dissertation, but this IM stuff – so many times my faith wavered, so many times I doubted.

On a separate note, training aside, another amazing thing that happened today was that I was able to book a flight so that my brother (the newly married one, not the kidney one) can come to Arizona to see this. I really wanted my whole family to be there, because my family has never faltered in their support of me, and I wanted them to see this and feel as proud as I do. And now they will all be there. This almost made me cry today because I was so happy.

There will never be another “first” Ironman, and there will never be another time in my life when I can be this selfish. And while life-as-usual resumes April 14th, there will never be another time when my life revolves around something as much as this. This has been the biggest undertaking of anything I have done, and I am steps from completing this goal.

Oh, and Andra?

I FUCKING WIN.