Are we there yet?

Okay, so it turns out Jon’s training gave me little to blog about. He swan, rode, ran, ate and slept. That sums up the last few months of our life. He had a small injury after running Hood to Coast. The injury resulted in a massage every week for 10 weeks straight. That made it a little hard to feel super bad for him. Actually to be fair, he said the massages are usually painful and he’s pretty sore after them. In hindsight I realize I should have tagged along and got weekly massages too… ya know, just to be supportive. The good ideas always come to late.

I’m sitting on our bed looking at the mountain of triathlon stuff scattered all of our room. We leave at 5am tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to watch him race and to be honest I can’t wait for this to be over. It has consumed our life since June. Well even before that… probably since we volunteered last November. Even with so much of the rest of our life getting neglected, I know it will all be worth it to see him racing that day. Nothing compares to this for him. Watching him work so hard to achieve such a monumental thing… It’s really amazing and I can’t imagine what it will be like to see him out on the course making it happen. I am so proud of him. He has trained well, he feels very strong, confident and excited! He’s a bit in a daze right now, I think he just can’t believe the time is finally here. We are leaving tomorrow so he can do something he’s wanted to do since he was a child. It’s a dream come true for him.

87 days to go

I haven’t updated in awhile. I guess uneventful training is a good thing. Even though training didn’t start until a few months ago, Jon has known for two years that he would be doing this particular race. We had a million conversations about it. We anticipated our struggles would be training getting in the way of life and me missing him while he was consumed with training. As it turns out it’s more like life getting in the way of training and him missing me (and his life). He had a rough time for a few weeks but fortunately he was able to re-group and is back to being super exited about the race. He has 87 days that are going to fly by and the race will be here before we know it. I just looked at our pictures from all the races he did in the last year and of our time volunteering at IMAZ. FUN! I even looked at my race pictures… not so inspiring it but any race pics add to the excitement. It will be here so quick!

Hood to Coast is in two days. Yah!!

Let the fun begin

Jon, Sophia and I had the most wonderful day on Saturday. We went to Vancouver Market, spent a few hours in Hood River then drove around the backside of Mt. Hood to check out a ride Jon has planned later this month.  It was a great way to spend the last day before official Ironman training began. Sunday was the big (and uneventful) first day of training for IMAZ. There was no drum role to kick off the occasion, just a morning swim at the club.

He has week one planned.  I was hoping for more then that but he can only plan so much do to his flying schedule. When he’s working he can only run so he has to plan all his swimming and riding into 3 ½ days off each week. He’s worried about his work schedule making it hard to stick to the plan he chose to follow. He’ll do great. I’m more worried about me. Will I be supportive, patient and understanding? Will I feel neglected and whine (who me?)? Will he be able to balance everything? Will I? Yes, no, maybe so… all of the above.  What I do know is he’s awesome and I love him. This whole experience will be amazing. 

Boy oh Boise

Where do I begin? When Jon and I arrived Thursday, the weather was beautiful and predicted to be the same for Saturday. It was gorgeous, the water was like glass, the sun was shining and all signs showed the race was going to be great.

Since the race didn’t start until 2pm we got to sleep in and go to our favorite coffee shop for super yummy muffins! We got to the race start with plenty of time and were really able to enjoy the excitement in the air, take pictures and chat with friends. I was nervous for Jon… if he was, he didn’t show it. I stayed with him as long as I could, helped him zip up his wetsuit and kissed him good luck. With a little elbowing and persistence I got a great spot and watched as Jon’s wave started their race.

I was so exited watching him set off on his 1.2-mile swim. The course looked so looonnnngggg! A soon as they got into the water I lost track of Jon. About 5 minutes into the race I noticed a lot of  swimmers slowing down or stopping.  At about the same time I was getting the crap beat out of me by an Ironman flag blowing in the ever-increasing wind. If the wind was wreaking havoc on me, I can only imagine how awful it was swimming in the water. There were white caps, big swells and the racers were really struggling. As Jon’s expected exit time came and went I started to worry. Did I miss him? Where the hell is he? Did he run past me? Time kept passing and I didn’t realize I was really worried until I caught myself looking at each medic boat that came in. He was really late by this point. Maybe he flew past me while I was looking out at the water. Just when I was about to go check, he appeared in the swim exit. He looked terrible. He was so angry, his body language said everything I needed to know. My heart sank to see him look so mentally done with so much left to go.

I ran to T1 and watched his transition. As he was running out with his bike he spotted me. All I could hear was “blah blah blah, something about a buoy… I love you!” (appearently a buoy got loose and he and another group were following a drifting buoy and lost a lot of time). I was so relieved to see he was okay and not one of the zillion racers plucked up out of the water. He headed off on his 56-mile ride and I headed to downtown to watch T2 and see him on the run. As soon as I got to town it started to pour down rain! I watched a lot of the pros come in and had my first experience of drooling over a bike! Jon came into T2 in good time and looked great. He was soaked (he even had hail on the bike), had a good transition, yelled more “blah blah, I love you, blahs” that I couldn’t understand and off he went. He headed out on the run and looked great. And yes, it was still raining!

I found a great spot to watch the run and got to see many of our friends. It was a long day. I’d been standing in the pouring rain all day, I was freezing, my back was soaked because the rain was dripping down my umbrella, pooling on the top of my backpack then rolling down my back (and pants). My feet were tired, my shoulders hurt, I hadn’t eaten all day and I was tired of holding my video camera, SLR camera and umbrella. I wouldn't dare complain, I was just standing there doing nothing and Jon was running 13.1 miles to complete his 70.3. I love watching him run. He makes it look so easy. I was standing in a great spot and got to see him run by 2 times and when he came around the turn he slowed down toward me and gave me a big rainy sweaty kiss. It was great. It was nice to connect with him for a split second when I knew he was mentally frazzled. 

After seeing him finish his first lap I went and jockeyed a good spot at the finish line. I was there for a while and got to enjoy watching lots of racers cross and even a few of our friends. It was obvious it was a very difficult race. So many athletes collapsed as soon as they crossed the finish line. Racers were crying, dropping F-Bombs and throwing up. But more often then not they had big smiles and you could see the tremendous sense of accomplishment in their tear filled eyes. I was so exited to watch Jon cross and when he did it was great!!! He looked wiped out and glad it was over. The finish line was very crowded and loud so he didn’t hear or see me for a few minutes. When he did, he smiled, walked up to me, put his medal around my neck and told me how much he loved me and he thought about me the entire race and that he could never have done this without me. I have never been so proud of him. The strength and commitment he showed during this race was amazing. We found a quiet spot to sit and spend a few minutes together before he hit the food tent.

Despite having an upset stomach after the race, he ate 2 steak tacos, a plate of PF Changs and half of a pizza. Some of the group went out for drinks but we decided to stay in, lie in bed and relax. In the middle of the night I woke up and heard him on the other side of the room, he of course was eating. He just laughed and said there was only 2 pieces of pizza left. He woke up thirsty and wanted a Diet Coke!? Then saw the pizza and had that too!! I guess there’s nothing like post race pizza in the middle of the night.

The post race stories from all of our friends were priceless. Everyone struggled and everyone could laugh about it. The swim was so bad for everyone. A lot of people had panic attacks, got disoriented or simply had to stop and rest.  It was Jons slowest time ever but also by far the hardest race he has ever done. His time was good considering the conditions. I’m so proud of him. He showed strength, dedication and determination and defeated the biggest challenge triathlon has ever thrown at him. He’s awesome!!

So Jon says he’s going to post his version of the post race report. Cant wait to read it! 

Boise here he comes

Jon was in the doghouse for a couple days this week. Luckily this weeks training is was so light he had lots of time to make it up to me. J Besides neither one of us could stay angry for long since we’re both so exited to leave for Boise tomorrow. Jon’s feeling great about his race. He feels ready, the weather should cooperate and he loves Boise. Today he’s getting together with some friends who are also racing. They’re going to get their bikes ready, BBQ and have a little fun before we all leave for Boise.

I'm so exited. He's going to have a great race! You can follow him during the race at http://ironman.com/ironmanlive  His race is the Boise 70.3 Half Ironman.  I will post his bib number to Facebook sometime on Friday or Saturday. He’ll be racing Saturday and his race will take about 5 hours starting at 2:45. Hopefully not longer and maybe a little less!!  Oh… and remember Boise is an hour ahead of you West Coasters. Wish him luck! 

What's mine is yours

This weekend has been a pretty low hour weekend for training. Yay tapering!!  He actually says that tapering is mentally hard. WHAT?! You’d think he would be exited to wind down, but I guess the mental training can be just as challenging as the physical. We leave for Boise in just over a week and it can’t be soon enough. I’m exited to get away for a few days and I’m very exited to see Jon race.

 

Soooo, this blog is supposed to be about how Ironman (and half ironman) training affects our family and us. The last couple weeks have been hard. Usually if he’s training a lot I’m sad to see him leave for the day. Lately when he’s home, he’s so tired and wiped out I haven’t minded him leaving so much. I miss him and lately I’ve missed him even when he’s home and he feels the same. Ugh, that’s not good. So today we had a little Jon and Jessica day. It was great! There’s been a lot of training lately and a few other big things going on that have required lots of mental time and effort from us. Today Jon and I talked about how it’s impossible to be everything for everyone all the time and we should never expect that of ourselves and more importantly of each other. What’s yours is mine doesn’t just apply to the furniture but also to our goals, our stress and just about everything life brings us.  We’re in it all together… the good, bad, wonderful! It makes the bad days easier and the good days spectacular. 

2 1/2 weeks to Boise 70.3

Jon's tired everyday right now. He's ready to race, I'm ready for him to race. I'm tired of him being tired. He had a really long day at work yesterday and today, and I can hear the exhaustion in his voice on the phone. I feel bad for him. He doesn't get a day off. He's either spending all day flying or all day training. Recently he told me I was the most patient person he's ever known and today he thanked me for being understanding. Even when he's giving 110% to Triathlon, I'm always his priority and I never forget that. He feels really guilty about the time he spends training and also how tired he is after training. Even though he may only spend 6 hours of the day training, his whole day is devoted to getting ready for training, training, then recovering from training. We make the most of the time we can find together. When he does open water swims the kids and I play at the beach, I get house and yard work done so when he's home we can spend our time together and not on chores. I workout during his training times so we're home together and we always have dinner as a family at the dinner table... no matter what time we have to do it. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I think it takes a family to create an Ironman.