This will be a summer of training.  Initially, I was only planning on doing the Hawk I which is a sprint tri on June 5th down in Lansing, MI.  But then, thanks to my ambitious friends, Tennille and Kimmy, we will be racing as a relay team in the half-ironman distance triathlon, the Kuparisaari or the “Koop” as they call it, on August 14th.  Tennille will be swimming the 1.2 miles, Kimmy will be running the 13.1 miles, and I am responsible for riding the 56 miles on bike.  At this point, I’m not too worried about the sprint tri.  I’m just working on paring down my time so I can raise as much money as possible from my sponsors for Love 146.  The Koop bike ride is what worries me.

Today was my longest bike ride to date and it was tough.  The workout was entitled, “Long Ride – Hills!”.  I didn’t understand what that exclamation point was doing there until about 30 minutes into the ride when I turned right up Broemer.  It was then, as I was pumping up this road, rain-drenched and fighting to see through all of the droplets on my sunglasses, that I understood what Christopher Schwartz meant by that punctuation mark.  Unfortunately, there were plenty more “hills!” during that 1:45 ride.  Now, after 25.41 miles and some time for my body to respond to the abuse that happened a few hours ago, I’m super-fatigued and my legs feel like bricks.  If I take a nap, I’m afraid I won’t be able to get back up.  But it was one of those rare workouts that meant more to me than just exercise.

There have only been two times since I began training 10 weeks ago, where after I completed a workout, I surprised myself. I’m beginning to see how these moments are becoming benchmarks in my triathlon journey. Moments where I can look back to for encouragement when I can’t seem to get into the daily grind. The first time was just last week when I swam a 1000yd time trial.  I had never swam that distance non-stop before. I couldn’t believe I finished it in 18:50.  For me, that was such an amazing time.  Today was the second.  This ride today signified something special to me, not so much because I was pleased with my overall speed or cadence.  (I wasn’t at all!)  But because I couldn’t believe I had pushed and endured the entire ride.  I went to the top of every hill (-even Painesdale) and didn’t give myself any shortcuts or breaks.  I had won a mental battle against myself. 

Sometimes, it’s the workouts that kick your butt that make you realize you can do more. Sometimes, it’s the greatest challenges overcome that give you the unexpected encouragement to try even harder. So funny how that works. Well, today I raised up an ebenezer. I do hope there are many more to come.