Ironman Training - Digging Deep

Ironman is getting close. I can hardly believe that it has been ten full months of training!! Ten! I have been training hard for *pretty much* six days out of the week, for ten months. I am not a mathematician  so I won't crunch the numbers, but I think that many days is close to a million. Or at least it feels like it. Honestly, though, I have loved almost every minute. The days that I did not want to train were few and far between. Luckily, these past ten months have flown by. I have worked hard, put in my time, and enjoyed the grueling schedule of endurance training.

In the past few weeks I have accomplished some things that were FAR beyond my comfort zone and WAY into my "impossible's".

Here are my milestones:

I ran 28 miles (with my Ironman training gals). It took us 5 hrs 40 min.

I biked 116 miles. It took us a million hours. Or 8 hrs. I'm not sure which one yet.

I swam 3 miles. It took us around 2 hrs 50 min, I think.

Here we are after running 28 miles

If you would have asked me a year ago if I would be running 28 miles, riding a bike for 8 hrs, or swimming for 3 miles....I would have called you crazy. Those things are NOT things that Crystal does!! At least not ten months ago Crystal.

I feel like a new person. Not because I ran, biked, or swam those distances. The physical was actually not that hard. I am different because I had the courage and determination to do it. I didn't give up. I finished what I started. I get to carry around in me the courage that it took to begin and not give up. I get to carry around my new found determination. I get to hold onto that power I found of digging for more of yourself when you just don't think you have any more left.  I did what I had always known was impossible. However, impossible is only impossible...until it's not. Right?

The whole reason I even began training for Ironman was to get to that point. I am so close now that I can taste it. I know that Ironman day won't be easy. I know I will still have to dig even deeper than I have yet. I am ready. I am ready for my impossible to be possible.