Ironman Training

Ironman training has begun, and the first item of business was to hire a coach! I went back and forth with whether or not I should get one, but after stressing about creating a schedule and talking to a few friends who did their first ironmans with and without coaches, I decided I needed to get one. And she lives in Texas which made my decision that much easier! She knows that I am sort of a problem child with all the travel I do for work and the fact that 90% of my rides are on a trainer, but she agreed to take me on anyway. I have been ramping up the swim/bike over the past few weeks, but this week is our fist official week together and let's just say I hope this week isnt an omen for things to come. I woke up sunday with an awful stomach virus that has left little in my stomach but the three bottles of gatorade I have had since saturday. I am going to attempt to eat dinner tonight and hope I am ok tomorrow. Good news is I am 5 lbs closer to racing weight than I was on saturday! Also, the dog woke up really sick on sunday too - odd. I am beginning to wonder if dogs can pass stuff on to people or vice versa because this is the 3rd time this has happened to me. I assume I will be better tomorrow to get back to training, and I hope I am 100% by Saturday because I am heading to Rio! I have three ocean swims on the schedule next week that will all be done here:

I am very excited to be back in a beach city! Even more exciting is that my visa actually arrived on time so I am legal to go to Brazil.

Oh and has anyone done one of these? Last week when I was at the pool I had someone ask me to join their team for a 4 hour swim. I said sure not really knowing what i was getting in to, but it turns out the 4 hour swim is really a 16 hour race where each person swims an hour and rests 3 until the 16 hours are up. The winning team is the team that goes the farthest. I have no idea who counts lengths of the pool (we are in trouble if I have to count my own laps), but I do know that swimming 4 hours in a pool has got to get a little boring. I am praying that this event is ipod legal so I can wear mine in the water to distract myself. I wonder if the real idea here is to find a team that can actually continue the event without bailing from sheer boredom before the 16 hours are up and they are declared the winner.