Home Stretch — The Abruzzo Half Ironman
Less than a week to race day. In fact this time next week I should have my first Half Ironman under my belt! Wow! These past few months have flown by. It feels like a blur. I have been planning a temporary move to London to launch a new business venture (more on this soon!) while training for my biggest race ever. Ambitious, right? But that’s how I roll. I live life in hard-mode and I don’t look back. The best way out is through, and as I make my way towards the home stretch to race day, I feel a lot of different emotions. I’m nervous, I’m excited, I’m proud, I am wondering if I am going to be able to pull it all off!
Now that I’ve sat down in my temporary London flat to write about race day, it’s clear I’ve been so intensely focus on the present moment, I really haven’t contemplated race day. When I take a step back and look at where I am, I realize that I am living my purpose. The butterflies in my stomach empower me. The compromises I have made in my personal life galvanize my resolve to succeed.
I’ve put in the miles and have built a strong base. The long training miles are behind me, a strain in my back last weekend ensured I would be on a forced taper until race day. With a week of taper down and one more to go, focusing on self care and mental fortitude is going to carry me the rest of the way. Injury prevention is the name of the game when embarking on 70.3 miles of pain. My foam roller has been my traveling sidekick! (don’t laugh, my team does, but my trigger point balls and traveling massage stick literally are MUSTS!! They go in my travel bag and often my day bag for work). When I’m home in New York, regular Cryo therapy, massage and acupuncture have been helping me stay in fighting shape.
The importance of diet and supplementation in my training regime can’t be overstated enough. Identifying my inflammation triggers and eliminating them has absolutely been a game changer for me… and a work in progress to continue testing and eliminating trigger foods. And unfortunately that absolutely has meant cutting gluten, soy and booze. Sticking to a rigid diet while on the go is not easy but it is so, so worth it! I have been living and breathing the fitness and travel lifestyle. Planning ahead makes this lifestyle possible. For example, I’ve shipped all of my healthy snacks, shakes, and supplements ahead of me in preparation for my three week London/Italy stint.
Meditation is another part of my routine that has netted positive gains. Making time to meditate while traveling has really taken my practice to the next level. Time zones, jet lag, lack of consistency, and all of the surprises that come with living life on the road challenge my positive and present mindset. As we continue to explore the performance mindset in this blog it would be easy for me to make excuses like “I don’t have time to meditate when I’m on a road” but they just no longer exist. It’s incredibly easy to get sucked into distractions that take my focus away from what really matters. Meditation doesn’t eliminate these distractions, but it does help me recognize them so that I can quickly refocus on the present moment and what is important.
As I close the gap between embarking on this Half Ironman journey and crossing the finish line, I am filled with a sense of gratitude. I am thankful for the support of the entire Perks team, my new venture business partner Brian, and my family and friends for putting up with my crazy dietary restrictions… my mom even got a paleo baker to make me a birthday cake over Memorial Day weekend (and she’s NEVER one to outsource baking!)
I am especially thankful for my training and blogging partner, Rachael Weiker. I couldn’t have done this without her business support and motivation. I am also thankful for the lessons that we have both learned together and separately through this process, which have been incredibly valuable. There are so many parallels to draw between the training it takes to build the endurance and tackle a big race, and the resilience that it takes to build and run a business. Although finding the time to train has been difficult at times, I don’t think I would be as successful in other areas of my life right now without this focus, discipline and challenge. I’ve learned and am continually reminded that if you want something, you need to go after it and give it a thousand percent. With a clear sense of direction and will to succeed, anything is possible. Now to knock out this 70.3 race!
