Week one of Ironman Training: Misery enjoys company

Today is the conclusion of week 1 training for the Ironman.  I'm really in a building phase at this point as the official training plan that I have covers only 30 weeks and I wanted to get started early, I'm sure I'll regret this decision come July and August when I'll be wanting it to be all over.  Jess and I ran a marathon in November so naturally by the time that event comes around you're in pretty good shape, I didn't want to take so much time off that I lost those gains, thus getting started now.

Week one in the books, pretty light stuff each day, the main goal in this phase is to get your body accustomed to working out 6 days a week and the mental and physical endurance that requires.  Everyone losses it mentally at some point, hopefully the support of family and friends as well as a 'Suck it Up' attitude keeps me on track.  Staying on track physically I'm speculating takes some experience and luck.  The experience first, hopefully the luck comes later.

I decided to run my first marathon shortly before Jess and I got married in 2007 (right, 2007?).  It was a means to get in shape for the wedding.  I don't particularly care for running but I've realized that once you're over the age of around 25, it's the fastest way of dropping pounds.  Before 25 I'd be in basketball leagues, lifting weights, softball, football, etc and had the benefit on youth on my side to help keep me in shape.  So I ran one, and then another, and another and so on and got caught up in the benefits of running (and frankly any exercise).  I dropped some weight, slept better, felt less stressed, blah, blah, blah...I'm not here to sell anyone on the idea of exercise, 7 marathons later it's still working for me.  There's just something about the simplicity for me, e.g. on day one run X miles, on day two run X miles...it takes all the thinking out of it.

One of the greatest enjoyments I experience from running, is seeing others sign up and run the races with me.  First my very good friend Greg McMillan signed up for Grandma's marathon in Duluth.  We had a great time training together and ultimately running the race.  The next year we recruited Smeltzer and Mueller as well as Greg's mom Tina to run the race with us.  Grandma's has a great party afterward and we certainly got our money's worth out of the races and after parties.  I'm most proud of Jess for joining me recently, she started with a 1/2 marathon and has graduated to her first full marathon this past May and followed it up with the aforementioned kick-ass marathon in November of this year.  I had the best seat in the house running beside her and beaming when she pushed herself across those finish lines.  I believe this saying comes from the Navy Seals but one of my college football coaches would also scream it during difficult workouts..."Misery enjoys company!"