Every month I track my training pretty closely, sometimes it's motivating other times, it's not. April was one of those months where it didn't seem to matter what I did- I was going no where fast. I think every athlete at some point has certain times in their lives where they feel like they are trying to do everything they can to make forward progress but nothing seems to be working. After having a really good solid month of training in March, being injury free and feeling good, April set me back big time. I was sick for a total of 10 of the 30 days and the remaining time I was just trying to get in training here and there whenever I could. Not a great confidence builder as I prepare for IM CdA but I'm still trying to be positive, realizing that I have a great base built as I move into May. The weather is finally looking like it will be great, I didn't have one outdoor ride in April because of weather or sickness.
I'm also getting a broader perspective of what it means to be able to do Ironman, it is a tremendous sacrifice for a new father to leave the family and train for hours on end. I'm not sure how a lot of families manage because when I'm not training, I'm helping Amber with laundry, meals, cleaning, or just holding Ryder. I love to do those things but it's quite a change from both of us finishing a 6hr ride and crashing on the couch for the next 8hrs. I'm sure it gets a lot easier as Ryder becomes older but after this race I need to take some time off for a couple years, do some fun family things and perhaps when he's older look at a destination race again- with the family. Don't get me wrong I'm really happy I can do Ironman in June but this year more than ever I'm going to enjoy a break from the long training and focus more on fun activities. Based on how my body is reacting to the training load in April, I think it will enjoy the break too.
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