There is nothing to fear, but fear itself...and your first half iron man!

So I saw that my friend did her first day of half iron man training today.  She had shared with me the 20 week training program that she and her friends had used in the past and I thought it was a little more detailed than the one I had.  So over the past couple of weeks, I had been thinking about it and counting the weeks until that training schedule would finally start.  Well, HERE IT IS!!  This is the week!  And I have to be honest with myself, I am SCARED AS HELL!!!  What the hell have I gotten myself into and why in the world would I ever think that I could do this?

I printed off the 20 page schedule and am now sitting here staring at it!  Like it's going to jump off the desk and smack me in the head or start yelling at me telling me I am an idiot for thinking I could ever complete the details on each page.  It's daunting to think about the next 4+ months of biking, running and swimming 5-6 times a week.  There are even days where there are more than just 1 workout scheduled!  How am I going to fit this in with everything else in my life?  Ok, so my life isn't all that incredibly exciting or busy, but I am a working mom!!  That and I like to sleep!  There's just no getting around the fact that I hate mornings and getting out of bed plain ol' sucks!

Ok, so the first day (tomorrow) is a 40 minute easy paced run.  That's cool!!  For me, that's about a 3.5 to 4 mile run.  Great!  I can do that!  Then, it's also a swim day!  Warm up with a 200 yard swim (8 lengths of the pool), 200 yard kick, 200 yard pull (not even sure what the heck that is), and a 200 yard swim.  Continue with a 1 x 1500 swim (60 lengths of the pool).  And of course, cool down with 4 x 50's, each slower than the last.  GREAT!!!  Not a problem!  I can do that!  WHAT????  Are you kidding me??  That is a total of 2500 yards!  On the FIRST day!!  That's more than 2 miles in the pool!

I can already hear Mike, "I love you, but you are crazy!  You can't possibly do all of this training program!  It's not possible.  OK, it's not impossible, but it is inhumane!  You're gonna die!"  All out of pure love, of course.  And he would be right!  I am crazy, it is inhumane and I am gonna die!  Yep, that's all there is to it, I am going to die!!

Alright, what is day 2 you ask?  Oh, here's an easy one!! Run for 30 minutes and then bike for 60!  Hey, that I might be able to do.  But, since I can't get outside and I don't have a trainer, I'll have to get on a bike at the gym.  Not quite the same as the real deal, but ok I'll just have to deal with that.  Wednesday we're swimming again, but this is apparently a short day.  Only 1,650 yards today!  Thursday is an easy 60 minute run.  Friday we're back in the pool and on the bike and Saturday is an OFF day!!!  Well, thank God for that!  And on Sunday, it's a 90 minute ride!

So now I'm doing some deep breathing trying to stare down the 20 page packet from hell!  Telling myself that if I really want to quit, I can!  I can quit before I even start.  No one's going to judge me for changing my mind and no one is going to think I'm a wimp for backing out gracefully.  Well, no one but myself, that is!  I can't quit now!!!  Jeez!  It's a guideline, an intimidating guideline, but a guideline.  I'm not going to do every workout.  I'm not going to succeed at every swim, bike and run.  But quitting now means that I have failed all of them and that's just not ok with me.  So, here's to Week 1!  And guess what, if I break it down, day by day and workout by workout, all I really have to do is put one foot in front of the other!  Hmmm...have I been here before?