Flashback: What a Difference a Year Makes

I’m getting so many great pictures and quotes from people who have dug through their files and sent me little glimpses into their greatness for the “Motivation in a Jar” Project. (Have you sent me yours yet? Please do!)

In fact, I have cried multiple times already whilst putting the pictures with the quotes.

Just as I suspected, you people are amazing.

It’s one thing to be all professional and Lance Armstrong-y with sponsors and Olympic-bound and whatnots, but my favorite kind of hero are the ones from every day. The ones who whose great moments are shared by few but should be shared by many. That’s what we’re doing here anyway, right? And I can tell you already that it has fueled me for the 50-mile bike ride that I am on today, very likely as you’re reading this.

50 miles of bike riding isn’t something that even entered my consciousness one year ago.

50 miles of bike riding was crazytalk to me and in fact, this time last year I was poo-ing myself over a training plan I was about to embark on for my first half-ironman and my first marathon, both of which I was pretty sure I would never in a million years complete.

But dozens (hundreds?) of training hours later (and a couple of pukes), well, I did cross those finish lines. In Miami and in Disney (neither of which were very pretty but they were battles hard-fought and WON).

So, this is what I wrote last year right around this time (before Average Moms Wear Capes was born).

When I was scrolling through the internet, the official provider of free  training plans, looking for a 1/2 Iron plan, I was intimidated by what I found.

The workouts were crazy!

What on earth was I doing? These workouts aren’t something I could do. I’m not ready for that. There is no
way.

But I’ve already paid for my entry into the Miami-Man half-iron race in November and the full Disney Marathon in January.

That’s a lot of money to just eat.

I knew I had to combine my marathon training with the half-iron training but I didn’t want to overtrain and I didn’t know how to  combine the two. I was able to wing it and do it with a half-marathon and an olympic distance triathlon earlier this year, but this was different. This was double all of that and it is just way beyond my level of expertise. I pretend to know what I’m doing and I can be a pretty good faker, but even I can’t fake my way through this one.

So then I was flapping in the breeze for weeks after the half-marathon without any plan at all. I was sporatically getting random workouts in, the kinds with no rhyme or reason, not  building anything just sort of going through the motions. And I was eating, well, terribly, and I started gaining (already! I told you my metabolism hates me!) and I started getting panicky.

And then my dear sister from the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans, Kirsten, mentioned she was going to solicit help from Coach  Joe, our coach from Team In Training.

So I did that too.

We went back and forth, Kirsten and I joined forces, and last week, he sent us our plans.

And I promptly pooed myself.

Then I cleaned up, and took a second look at it. And decided that I am actually really scared looking at it. I mean really scared. No wonder I was scared at all the plans I saw online, because they really ARE ALL ASSKICKERS! It wasn’t just my  imagination, it wasn’t just those plans, it’s ALL of them.

I will admit this out loud. I feel over my head here.

And on the flipside, I feel myself thinking wow, if I really did do this, well, that would be something. And that prospect really, really excites me.

I mean, what if???!!

So I am both excited and freakin’ scared of what lies ahead. On November 14th, I’ll be standing at the water’s edge, ready or not. And I will have gone through some pretty vigorous training to get there. I will have done things that I’ve never done before. I will have gone distances I’ve never gone before. And it will all have culminated into that moment.

(As long as I don’t have any injuries between now and then.)

For now, as I look at my 2nd long workout of the plan which is this weekend, I think it’s already starting. The tests are  already beginning. 20 mile ride followed by a 5 mile run. Never done that before. So I will just plug away at my plan and take each day, each workout, as it comes, rinse and repeat.

I’m gonna trust in the Coach Joe. And I’m going to take this opportunity to take a deep breath and start believing and trusting in myself. Because yes, I can do this.

Yes I can.

Ah, me of little faith. And yes, I’m going for round two in both.

How far have you come this year?

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