Enjoy the journey

So I was pretty down because my workouts fell apart the last two weeks. I just couldn't balance Back to School night, coaches meetings, and all my responsibilites at school with my training. But I'm back on the up and up. I got in 11 hours of working out over the weekend, and for that, I feel good.With that much time on my feet and pedals, I had some time to think... A lot of time actually.

Some random thoughts:

- I can't get down on myself for putting school in front of my triathlon. I believe that if you're gonna do something, you should do it 100%. In the case of my teaching career, I strive to be the best teacher I can be. I'm not perfect, nobody is. But if I let myself get behind in my lessons and school work, I'm not just letting myself down. I'm letting my students down. And they don't deserve that. I owe them and society my best. From here on out, I do the best I can to fit my training in, but I can't feel bad when I put my students and classroom first. That's just the way it has to be. No more guilt trips.

- Friday night I turned down Happy Hour with some coworkers. I also turned down a birthday gathering for one of my favorite gal pals. I didn't have the heart to give a reply to her evite, "Wish I could make it, but I have to ride my bike." On a Saturday or Sunday would be one thing, but on a Friday night????? Gosh, am I lame or what?

- I turned down the social events Friday night. I also turned down a baby's 1st birthday party Saturday morning. I did get to go out with some dear friends Saturday night, which was really nice. Because some of those friends were out-of-towners, everybody was going to get up Sunday morning to go out to breakfast. Once again, I had to turn that down so I could ride my bike. I'm now occasionally having those moments where you're actually looking forward to the "big" triathlon being over so you can have your social life back.

- So one moment I want to quit spending so much time swimming, biking, running--but at the same time, I am seriously the most fit I've ever been in my entire life. Other times I tell myself, "When this journey is over, I want to continue all this working out so I can maintain this figure!"

- And then there were my long runs and long bikes this past weekend. Do you know I really enjoyed both of them? I really did! I had so much stress last week, that run was a wonderful stress reliever. And my bike on Sunday??? Wow. Initially I thought I would be blogging about the downpour I suffered through, but I skirted the storm north while the storm moved southeast, so I just got sprinkled on. The sun came back out about three hours into my ride. I crested Dinosaur Ridge to look over on Red Rocks. It was absolutely beautiful. I talked myself out of riding over to Red Rocks (1. because those are some steep hills, and 2. It was time for me to turn around.) I told myself, "Next long ride..." And then I smiled. Because at that moment, I couldn't wait until my next long ride.

They say the training is the hardest part of doing an Ironman. I have no doubt they are right. But it's so awesome when you have those moments where you truly enjoy the training.

Here's to a week where I hit all my workouts! As a fellow IMFL 07 blogger says, Enjoy the adventure! It's going to be a good week.