It's a lovely morning here in Melby, or at least it was. The wind has been howling all night and blew over a few things at the back of my house, waking me in the process each time. Those who know me well are aware it is not a good idea to wake me up unnecessarily. I can be a bit of a tyrant when sleep deprived or my routine is disrupted. All patience goes out the window and I turn into a grumpy demon.
Speaking of Jedi mind tricks, I've been a lot more focussed this past week. I completed all my training sessions and bought my hard-earned replacement Sennheiser headphones yesterday. I was even more excited by the fact that they were $30 off. So, I went to Rebel Sport and bought a yoga mat bag, and new gym gloves. I'd just joined Rebel's Season Pass Programme, and had a $20 credit so the gloves ended up being free and the mat bag was only $25. I was still up by $5 so I met up with two friends at Highpoint and had a coffee.
I still haven't heard back from the Tri Coach I contacted, so I guess I'll be coaching myself for Ironman. I'm rather disappointed by this to be honest, it's bad enough I was stood up the day after I got back from Malaysia when I was jet-lagged and in no way in the mood to train, but Ii hauled butt down to the assigned meeting spot, bike and gear and all. So, this is just BS. Here I am wanting to give someone money and they can't even be bothered responding. Ah well - I guess that's life, and maybe I should get a coach who has actually done NZ AND will respond to queries.Or, I'll just pick the brains at the club and coach myself with the help of books and triathlete friends for advice. Better yet, the next coaching course the comes up through Tri Vic that doesn't clash with a race will be game on.
If Chrissie Wellington can train herself, why can't I? Just because I haven't done an Ironman YET doesn't mean I can't coach myself, right? Perhaps I should! At the very least, I'll give it a crack. I also remembered today that my skills coach from uni has a boyfriend who is a coach in NZ AND is at the event because he's the swim announcer. That could be handy.
I'm realistic, I know it is going to hurt almost as much as when the nerve block wore off after my last knee reconstruction. If I can get through that, I can get through Ironman. I know I have work out my nutrition, that's the story of my life, really. Then there are just rest periods and tapers and key races and build ups and time trials and a week off after every 12 weeks of hard yakka, and increasing anything (volume especially) by no more than 10% per week, and periodisations and intensities and distances and showing my body what it needs to do and my jedi mind tricks and progressions and etc. It feels a little overwhelming but it can be done.
I have done pretty much everything my whole life on my own, so surely I can do this on my own too? There are plenty of internet forums, magazines, books, internet articles, Ironmen at my tri club and triathletes that I know, so maybe I should just go for it and coach myself. I won't have to pay myself anything, I don't have to worry about my coach not showing up for meetings, and I'm sure I can do this with the support of the trainers at my gym, my swim coach and an accountability partner. At least the cat always supports me, no matter what I do (well, except for when her bowl is empty - but with an automatic pet food dispenser that hardly happens anymore).
So, let the experiment begin. I will enlist help as I need it, if and when I need it. I'm a very organised person by nature, so as long as I stay organised it should be sweet. I just need to plan, plan, and plan some more. I need to think and plan and organise and sort and prepare and plan some more. I did 7 triathlons in four months last season without a coach (and for three months, without a PT). I CAN DO THIS!
Let it rock.
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