Lucky Number 5

It used to be Lucky Number 6. But due to unforeseen circumstances, its been moved to Lucky Number 5.

So whats the significance?

Back here, I stated that I was going to focus into improving as much as I could over the next few months, and take the idea of qualifying for Kona a bit more serious. I would say there was about 90% honesty to that - in reality, I knew that I would not be able to make the physical leaps required to hit that target, but still, it was a fun idea.

While I had some downtime, I thought I'd stalk scope out the competition for Lake Placid using Athlinks, just to get an idea of what kind of racers I was up against. Scanning the names, one of them looked familiar. When I pulled her up on Athlinks, I saw why:

Eagleman Ironman 70.3 Triathlon 2009

4:41:21

A quick check of the Qualifying Slots showed that she nabbed a Kona slot (with that rockin time) at Eagleman this year.

And then there were 5.

The remaining 4 girls I'll be competing against are either average, or good runners but pretty bad swimmers and average to below average cyclists. There's actually a chance that I could come in second in the age group (Miss 4:41 will be first, my guess) and take a slot. How freaking cool would that be?!

So, as I enter my taper into Lake Placid over the next 19 days (16 hours 51 minutes...), I will be concentrating heavily on not blowing off my workouts, and very conscious of every calorie that goes into my body. I had hit the proverbial wall two weeks ago with the epic 2 hour swim, 20 mile run, 130 mile ride weekend (By far the most mileage in one weekend for me)... and was just ready to be DONE with Ironman. Luckily I've only skipped one workout, when my mom came in town for the 4th of July, which I plan to make up this week.

Work has been beyond overwhelming as we transition into a new financial system (try telling multi-million dollar contracts that we aren't doing any new purchasing or subcontract agreements for 10 days... not fun). Luckily thats over, and things should be relatively calm over the next 19 days (16 hours and 49 minutes).

Happy Training, and good luck to Es - rocking out Ironman Switzerland this weekend!!!!