68 Days to Ironman

John really got around

Where has the time gone? It is August already. It has been a while since I have written about training and racing triathlon which is the main focus of my blog these days. If you have been keeping up with my posts, you know that my family experienced a great tragedy with the death of my younger brother John. Since John's passing, there are some things that have changed in my life. Overall, I am still healthy but I have picked up a few less-than-healthy habits. I am not overly worried about it. I am confident that I can dial things in over the next couple of weeks.

I think of John constantly. Every night before bed, I watch the remastered versions of the original Star Trek. John and I watched it together when we were young. Typically at the end of almost every episode, there is a little witty banter back and forth between Kirk, Spock, and Bones. These moments always evoked a laugh from John who would throw is head back while he laughed out loud. Somehow I have adopted watching every episode from start to finish as a sort of tribute to John. I watch on John's iPad that I inherited after John left us. It has become a habit and I don't feel like my day is complete without watching the next episode. Soon, I will be done with the whole series.

To be honest, watching TV in bed is not something I ever did until now. Except for the occasional hotel stay, Melissa and I have never had a TV in our bedroom. And we still don't. But now we have streaming video on our iPads and ear buds so we can watch different shows if we want to. We can pause the programming whenever we want and watch a great variety of shows. I am not sure it is all that healthy though. It ends up keeping me up late and I don't get as much sleep. Training for Ironman is an intensive lifestyle and sleep is critical to health and success. With 68 days to go until Ironman Louisville, my training is going to be notching up and rest will become even more important. If I was to analyze it from a psychologist's perspective, I would probably conclude that watching TV in bed before sleep is a coping mechanism. Not only does it remind me of fond times with my brother, it is also a form of escapism. I feel like if I did not watch TV or read a book I would likely just burst out in tears. I guess I don't really want to do that.

Lately, I have been relying on caffeinated sugary beverages to help offset my afternoon sleepiness. That is also something new in my life. I used to drink lots of soda and Red Bull but in January of 2010, I quit. Typically I don't consume any caffeinated foods or drinks until I get to the marathon during Ironman. I do want to put a stop to it. I gave myself a preliminary deadline of August 1st. That deadline has passed and I am still having an afternoon Red Bull. My next deadline is in 8 days. I will be 60 days out from the race at that point. My goal is better health and also to set myself up for success during my race. Tolerance to caffeine is something that is easily built up in the human body. I want the caffeine kick from coke to work its magic while I am running the marathon portion of my Ironman. In order for that to work, I have to cut back on it before the race. And now since it is written, it shall be done. Well, maybe tomorrow.