T minus 4 days

 

Okay. As promised I’m freaking out a little bit. Okay a lot. The tough mudder is on Saturday. My training the last 2 weeks has been spotty at best, but even if that training had been picture perfect, I would probably still feel exactly how I feel. This is the most intense physical feat I have attempted to accomplish to date. The triathlon and the half marathon seem like jokes in comparison to this. But I think that’s only because those are accomplished feats, and this feat is staring me right in the face. But I know I can do this, and I’m also really excited to get physical and push my limit. That’s how I know how strong I really am!

I always find with these events, it’s the tiny details that I fixate on. Where will we park? Will we get there in enough time to not be rushed? Where are we going to put our bags? Can we change after the event before the party? There’s some amount of irony in this, as the event itself is so challenging. Who cares where you park, you’re about to have to scale three twelve foot plywood walls, covered in mud, while you’re sopping wet from an ice bath. I think maybe this is some sort of coping mechanism. I can’t deal with how I’m going to run 12 miles and complete 24 obstacles along the way. So instead I focus on where we will park the car and put our things. Those are the sort of problem scenarios I can deal with.

I dealt with all of these exact same feelings in the weeks leading up to the triathlon. For my first triathlon, where I swam 800 meters, biked 13 miles, and then ran a 5k, I was the most concerned about transition points. What I would wear to swim, how I would transition from the swim gear to the biking gear. In hindsight, those were silly details that were easily solved by a good synthetic sports bra and a wetsuit shirt. The transitions were the easiest part of the whole thing.

I also find that I focus a lot more on events after the race, then the race itself. In the last week before the tri, I was mostly thinking about the vacation in Chelan I was going to have after the race. Right now, I’m thinking a lot more about a weekend in Leavenworth for Oktoberfest, than the race in 4 days.

The other problem that I have the week before an event, is that I can’t work out. For me, no gym time means I’m antsy and have extra energy and am anxious. Working out is how I deal with everything that’s happening in my life. On my runs is when I get my head straight and prioritize. The problem is compounded, because not only do I have the regular amount of anxiety that comes with life, I have additional anxiety about an event happening.

I guess maybe that’s the point. All this extra stuff happening in my head and my muscles will propel me on Saturday to do things I wasn’t sure I was capable of.  I’m also already finding myself looking for the next big thing that I want to do.

I’ve been plateaued with my weight loss all summer, and now that’s fall, I think I need to switch up my eating and my training, to get back into the losing cycle. I’ve found that for me personally, I start up something new, drop 10lbs very quickly, then plateau for increasing long periods. Until I get fed up and start up something completely different.

So I’m excited about the tough mudder, and even more excited about getting started on a new to be determined training plan after the mudder and getting off this plateau

 I’m also sooo excited about a really cool project I’m working on for roommate’s birthday. But since roommate knows about the blog I can’t talk about. But it’s SO awesome. I hope. I’m sorry for being so vague, and I promised to post about it, after she knows about it.

Here's a picture of the awesomeness I can expect on on Sat

 

 

 

Here's a picture of all my potential new boyfriends..... 

You thought I would put myself through this for "fun"? Psssshhh!