Journey to IMAZ 2017

Can't believe its here....the trailer is loaded...my last run was done yesterday at 5am...my last swim was today at 5 am..the next time i'm in the water will be for the practice swim on saturday! its the real deal holyfield!!!! This year has been a long journey, fun at times, hard at times, frustrating a lot of times, but I have put the work in and now its time to GO BIG!!! I gave Donny his present today and told him how much his support and love for the last year has meant for me. I definitely am the luckiest :)

I got my butt up the last 2 mornings for early morning workouts! yesterday to run 5 with Caryn, Estella and Lana...and today for my last masters. I swam with Katie today and we had quite the crash when we forgot if we were circle swimming or not. oops! both were fine though. lol. she was encouraging about my race and told me to buy everything! hee hee. i plan to!! :) it was about 2300. Craig wished me good luck, which was cool and I saw Brad. Just one more week..9 days to be exact! can't believe how close we are getting. we had our get together meeting with Lisa Martone, Kris Story, Lana and caryn last night to talk about special needs bags and just ironman in general. It was really helpful. Plus really nice to see them all and have a couple of drinks. I have my moments of nerves, but so far so good. mostly i'm just stressed about leaving while Mom is so sick and not eating anything...which makes me feel so guilty and sad. I know she will be ok though. we will have "ey

this is the 1st week i've actually had some nervous feelings. i think talking about it so much and worrying about being gone from mom for so long....its starting to weigh on me a bit. but like carrie said we are going to will it all to be good. no negativity allowed! Its going to be a great trip...mom is going to be just fine and we're going to have a great time! 12 days to go and I need to keep my mental health as good as my physical health. just keep swimming...just keep swimming! tonight is am uch needed massage. looking forward to it!!!

14 days to go!! last night I watched Nick Potter and Kristi Johnson become Ironmen at Ironman Florida....I know i got this!! yesterday Eunice and I rode to Arlington. She was with me for about 2 hours 45 mins. It was cold, but not near as windy as it has been lately...still a wind of course. She will leave this coming thursday for her Ironman Los Cabos and she is totally ready! The last 2 hours I rode by myself and rode past 2 rivers and around 2 rivers and then back to Tahazouka and around Elkhorn til i got my 5 hours in. Ended up with 76.2 and averaged with wind and hills 15.2...not too shabby! need to take that up a bit for the race, but I know i can make this happen! Today was the last longer run...13 miles around Zorinsky! Estella and Caryn did 7 with me (and Maverick :) and then I did the big side on my own to finish it up in 2 hours and 3 mins. One week from Tuesday on the 14th, we start our trek across country to IMAZ! cannot believe it! This week is still taper, a couple o

ok this shit is really getting real! hah. I am now refusing to look at the IMAZ Facebook page as they are making me paranoid about flat tires and crashes and not making the time cut offs! I got this..and i refuse to let anyone take it away from me! i have worked my ass off all year and i will not let anything get in my way! DON"T STOP BELIEVING!! Estella and I rode our 2 hours last night, it was actually a pretty nice night for Nov 1st..it got cold and dark quickly though. One more really long ride this weekend, which I will do part of on my own and part of with Wayne and Emily and Eunice. Eunice leaves soon for her Ironman in Los Cabos and she is going to rock it! The Florida folks race this weekend. I am just ready to get to AZ and do this!!! let's do this! We got up and swam this morning at common ground, it was a good 2600. tomorrow is masters and then the long weekend begins. 13 mile run sat and 80 mile bike sunday! again...Let's do this!!

WOW! It feels like we are getting super close now! Yesterday was a cold and miserable bike ride, but we got it done! This time it was 65 miles in about 35-40 degrees! we had about every piece of clothing on from head to toe!! hand warmers, toe warmers and the works! It was at least not as windy as it has been lately, but there was a headwind on the way to ashland and a pretty nice tail wind coming back. I tried scratch for the 1st time and liked it. Also tried a belvita since i knew we would be getting off and running and i'm pretty sure i'll bring one on my real ride! we finished the last 15 around waterloo and then it was time for the 13 mile run! Estella and Eunice ran the 1st loop with me, then Eunice had to leave and then Estella left after 8 miles so I finished the last 5 by myself.  I turned on my music and did another loop, but the end of 11 miles i was feeling like crap but i still managed to average about 9:05 and get it done!! The day before I swam at common ground