Suffer Today, Win Tomorrow: 20 Weeks to Ironman Lake Placid

Twenty weeks, five months, less than half of a year. That’s how much training time I have from now until my third go round with Ironman Lake Placid. (Previous IMLP race reports here: 2010, 2011.)

The Ironman Lake Placid Swim Start, a.k.a., total sh!t show
The Ironman Lake Placid Swim Start in 2010, a.k.a., total sh!t show

With some experience, my understanding of what “5 months of training” means has changed considerably.

For my first Ironman, 20 weeks to go was filled with questions such as:

Will I finish?
Will I hear Mike Reilly call my name as I cross the finish line?
How difficult will it be to pee during the race?
What goes on in the changing tent?
Is it really possible to be this freaking hungry all of the time?
Where is all of this laundry coming from?
How bad will it hurt…really?

Most of these questions were related to the uncertainty of the Ironman undertaking, and coming to grips with the new realities of the daily changes that come with training for an Ironman.

Now, I’m training for my fourth Ironman, returning to Lake Placid for the third time. Most of those uncertain unknowns have been demystified.

Mike Reilly, known to many as the "Voice of Ironman." Nothing beats the sound of his voice as you are coming 'round the bend in the Olympic Oval in Lake Placid, NY.
Mike Reilly, known to many as the “Voice of Ironman.” Nothing beats the sound of his voice as you are coming ’round the bend in the Olympic Oval in Lake Placid, NY.

I know that is is absolutely possible to be “this freaking hungry” and then some. Don’t leave your plate unattended around me. #justsayin’

The laundry is a daily chore, or if I were a better person it would be…

In the case of the changing tent, I only wish I could rip my eyes out of my head to make the visions go away.

It is SUPER COOL to hear Mike Reilly say your name.

And, I’ve learned three times over how bad it will hurt. Really.

So, with the mysteries of the inner sanctum of the Ironman core revealed to me, my questions have turned to other uncertainties, that are more specific to me. And, really there are only two questions:

How fast can I go?

Will my fastest be fast enough for the golden ticket to Kona? 

With 20 weeks to go, I’m focused on the work I have to do to be the athlete I need to be on July 28, 2013.

The first time around, I didn’t really understand how my training data would translate to race day. Now I have a much stronger sense of how day to day training connects with race day performance.

All of the fancy charts point to one conclusion: I’ve got work to do. And, 5 months seems about right for that work.

When you first start training for a new distance, the progress comes in daily increments. It’s so awesome! Every day you are better than the previous day.

But, both John and I have noticed that once you have a certain level of experience, the progress comes in smaller, less infrequent intervals. Breakthrough days still happen, but they don’t happen all of the time.

Boo.

I have to fight harder than ever for mere seconds, when just 5 years ago, I was measuring progress in multitudes of minutes.

But, the thing about seconds is that if you have enough of them, they add up to minutes. And, little by little, I’m whittling away at the seconds and the minutes that will bring me to the Lake Placid Olympic Oval, hearing Mike Reilly’s voice say my name one more time, and crossing the finish line as the fastest woman in my age group. (Hush up! Let a girl dream, okay?)

So, with 20 weeks to go, I am suffering pushing through some of the hardest workouts I’ve ever done in my life (thank you, Vince, may I have another, please sir?). While it I know how much these workouts hurt, really, I know that I have to suffer today in order win tomorrow.

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How do you chart your progress to race day? What race day uncertainties do you wonder about? What are your big races this year and how far off are they? Please share your experience and join the conversation!

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