Journey to Kona Day 201: Never Any Doubt

Well, maybe a little.  Today was another 20 mile run, as I noted yesterday, at the end of a pretty stout week of training.  Instead of running an easy 20 miler, however, I made today's run quite challenging.  I ran my 12 mile loop that has 850 feet of climbing as the base portion of the run, and added 8 miles into Sycamore Canyon, which includes a steep mile descent and then climb.  The latter half of my run was done in 80 degree temperatures, and I was definitely sweating a ton.  When I came out of the canyon, with about four miles left to go, I thought of today's title, "Never Any Doubt," as I had no doubt that I was going to finish todays 20 miler.  Truth be told, those last few miles were tough. At the end of a very challenging week, my legs were tired, I was tired, the hills today took their toll.  But, I knew that I was going to get it done.  In fact, it meant a lot, knowing that while Kona will be hot and humid, and the run course does have climbing, there really isn't anything like what I did today.

Kona has 1009 feet of climbing on the run course, and today my run had 1588 feet of climbing in just 20 miles. My average pace of 10:54 with this amount of climbing would actually be an acceptable pace at Kona.  Not ideal, but acceptable.  The idea for todays run was always to just get it done and to do it without any doubts.  I made sure to start the run off comfortably, and to maintain a mellow pace from the start, which always includes a steep one mile climb.  My legs never felt good today, but they didn't feel bad.  Even over the last few miles, my legs felt ok, although I was definitely fatigued.  Once I got home, I could definitely feel the fatigue of the week catching up with me.  Nevertheless, I never doubts my ability to get the job done today.

I have seven weeks left before Kona.  I've felt all week like I'm ready. If the race were four weeks from today, I'd be absolutely fine with that.  I actually feel like I'm fully prepared and ready to race my next ironman.  The key now is not to screw things up.  No injuries, no getting sick, no need to stretch my limits.  I know that I can continue to work on my swim strength, but honestly, I'm not sure how much, or what, I need to do when t comes to my run and bike.  Sounds like a discussion with my coach on Tuesday.  The most important thing is that I don't have any doubt about what I am capable of achieving in Kona in seven weeks!