Getting It Done Anyway

I'm very proud of myself today.  The last 24 hours have been very trying, and very appropriate for Friday the 13th.  I won't go into the details, but a major maintenance incident at my business yesterday required that I return to work every 4 hours (yes, including 1:00 am and 5:00 am) to empty leak-catching containers to prevent flooding. 

At 1:30 am, I got home and knew I had to set my alarm for 5:00.  I had a choice -- I could sleep the whole time, or get up a little earlier for a mini-workout (I had no clue how the rest of my day would pan out, or whether I would have time to train later).  As tempting as the extra sleep was, I opted to get up earlier for a little training time.

I'm not going to say it was the most productive training session; in fact, I spent most of it muttering curse words under my breath about the state of my building.  However, it set the tone for the rest of the day.  I ate better.  I could feel a little less frazzled.  I was able to look at business problems more objectively and handle things in an adult fashion (despite the internal tantrum I was having).

And, after returning home later today and pretty much crashing, I found that I had just enough time to finish my scheduled training -- something I definitely would not have bothered with if I hadn't gotten up just 30 minutes earlier for a short workout.

So despite other challenges in my life, I made training a priority and was able to stay on track today.  If I can get my training in after a day like today, I have no valid excuses for the next five months.

Pushing the Reset Button

Okay, so January was generally a crap-out month.  Between work, getting sick, property issues, and getting sick again, I have made very little progress in my Ironman training.

Rather than continue worrying about things I cannot change, I started February with fresh training and a fresh outlook.  I still have plenty of time (6 months) to train for the race. 

I am convinced I got sick so much due to a lack of sleep, coupled with irregular sleep patterns.  So I am going to prioritize getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night.  I've planned out the next month of training workouts, splitting them up into two sessions if needed on days when work is crazy.  I've put them in my calendar like appointments so that I have no excuses.

Today was my first day back into it and it went pretty well.  It was the first day when I felt well enough to exercise without going into 5-minute coughing spasms.  I still struggled near the end when my heart rate got higher, but I'm hoping each day leads to a better training experience.