I've been wanting to start a weekly blog series in my prep to Kona for weeks now. But when I actually sat down to write, my mind wasn't present. I didn't feel "inspired" to put anything down on paper, and some small part of me thought, "No one really cares about this kind of stuff...who even knows what an Ironman is anyway!?" But when I sat back to ponder those feelings, I started to reflect on the kinds of stories I enjoy reading about others. I admire those who so bravely have shared their story (Um, have you read about Gabe Grunewald? If you haven't, google her and thank me later), regardless of whether or not they knew their eventual outcome. I got caught up in the idea that only stories that end in amazing triumph should be documented, when in reality, who even knows where life will lead us? A story is beautiful in the way that it unfolds with its twists and turns, and unexpected endings! 

So this leads me to now. One hundred and some odd days till Kona. The Ironman World Championships. It's kind of serendipitous this is happening because when my boyfriend Sean competed back in 2016, I remember sweating my face off in the sweltering heat watching him trot along on the run and thinking, "no way I will ever do this." Three years later, here I am. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, while Kona is (1000%) a huge focus for the year, it's not my only focus. I have a smattering of races over the next couple of months that give me checkpoints on my way to Kona. 

First up was the Buffalo Olympic Triathlon just a handful of weeks ago. To put this in perspective, it's literally 1/4 the distance I will be completing in Hawaii. Going into the race, my coach gave me numbers I thought were unreachable. And as it turns out, they ended up being that way: Unreachable! I went slower than we both anticipated but I came away with some lessons that give me hope as the season progresses. 

A few takeaways:

• Transitions. Wow. These were incredibly sloppy and unorganized. A little background on tri's: There are two transitions in every triathlon: T1 and T2. T1 is the transition from the swim to the bike, whereas T2 is the transition from bike to run. The goal is to minimize extra time here because it's basically free seconds. The slower you are in transition, the more time you allow your competitors to catch up in time you have already put on them. At Buffalo, I wasn't calm, and you know what's funny when we try to rush things? They end up taking more time. Fluid and efficient is always the goal, rather than anxious and stressed.  
• Mechanicals. I dropped a chain on the bike. Thank the lord I had a day where it slid back on fairly easily after I hopped off to fix it. Looking back, I remember climbing a hill, shifting and then all of a sudden...clunk. In that moment, my stomach dropped further than my chain did, but I quickly got back into business mode and tried to quickly forget that mishap. This leads me to my next point. 
• Positivity. This will ALWAYS be a focus. This will ALWAYS be something I have to work on. I remember thinking on the run..."this is horrible. I hate everything...." but the thought of explaining why I had to stop seemed a heck of a lot harder than just finishing the dang thing. So I put one foot in front of the other and then eventually finished. The thing about stopping anything you are in the middle of is that it becomes easier to do the more you do it. You quit one thing, you are likely to quit the next thing you start, until it becomes your habit. That is NOT a habit I want to create for myself. 

These lessons have helped shape the last few weeks of training and overall, have catapulted me into the next phase of seeing where my potential will ultimately fall. To give a little summary, here is where I am at with training/sleeping/eating, as I slip into the next block of training. 

• Average training hours per week: 14
• Average hours of sleep per night: 7.5
• Average amount of meals/snacks per day: 6-7-8(!!!!!) 
• Average amount of thank-you's given to my body each day for allowing me to do this: 27

I will see you back here next week with more thoughts on how training and life are going. And as always, thank you to Fitspace and the Fitspace community for believing in a little ginger who just wants to race fast. 

-Hanna Beast