FOUNDATION TIME

For the first time in a while I am starting to feel stronger again. The concrete in the foundation is starting to set. Far from fit…oh so very far, but things are beginning to look up again. When starting from almost scratch again, like I have, then the first 6 weeks are hell. Your body starts complaining during the shortest of workouts and then the next day you are scampering and shouting around looking for the physio’s telephone number! And that’s not where it ends! Pulling my hippo resembling physique up the hills and then trying to stop it again down the other side is by no means an easy task! Thank goodness for bed time. The time where you can click off the power switch and just…yes, just sleeee…oh NO! What was that? The little voice in you head wakes up at bed time constantly yelling at you: ‘you’ll never get back in the shape you were’, ‘you have waisted your life’, blah blah blah!

The great thing is that six weeks are only six weeks! And they pass rapidly. Suddenly you start to notice a normal stomach figure appearing from under your shirt. That idiot voice packs up and goes where ever the hell it wants to. Energy and power returns to training rides and running sessions. Hills aren’t so steep any more. And then one day, the best of it all returns: you suddenly remember why you have loved this sport so much in the first place!

What makes triathlons so different is the total exhaustion that one experience during preparation and execution. From when the program starts to where the tapering ends. A kaleidoscope of feelings. The one day feeling that no one can touch you now and then just the next day to stand staring at a solid brick wall. Not knowing what the heck is going on. Dead legs, dead head and dead will. Almost like depression getting in behind the wheel and turning one around as soon as the thought of training enters the mind. But those who pull through are the ones who will certainly taste the fruits of success. The podium is reserved for these steel minded people.

Lucky for us there are family and friends to motivate and pull us through these rivers which are trying to pull us sideways. My goal is far. April 2011. But I am as focussed as never before. I will not let go of what is right. I live with an 11 year old boy who is so motivated and in love with his sport. This sheer joy that I see in him is what is driving me to get off my own but and to pull him through his tough times. He impresses me daily and I have no bigger wish than for him to have the right people noticing him at the right times. For him to one day stand on the podium he is working so hard for. He, you and I – at times we pull one another and at times we get pulled. It is great having great friends.

My diet is going just dandy! Man I am chuffed about it and I have lost over 5kg! My total kilojoules intake for last week was 50,920 with an average of 7,274 per day. Only healthy foods and I have not cheated once this year! As my weight drops I will slowly up this until it reaches around 10,000 per day. Obviously when I get down to the low 70’s I will eat exactly what I burn every day.

Until we chat again, keep the rubber side down and BE STRONG AND LIVE HARD!

TriJackal